James 4:1-7 "The War Within"

Welcome

Read James 4:1-7.

Pray—God you are good, may we wage a war with the passions in our flesh, may we have our desires be in line with God’s will, and may we be humble

Dismiss Children if needed.

Introduction

I am very excited to be in this text today, as I believe it put forth a compelling reason to be faithful to our God who has always been faithful to us. I have titled today’s message “The War Within” because inside those who believe, there should be seen a war taking place. A war set against the desires of our flesh and the desires of the Spirit.

(Context) This book is written by James, it is a book full of application that is focused on our sanctification—How the believer of Jesus is to become more like Jesus— And last week we saw the differences between two types of wisdom: heavenly and earthly wisdom. We as a people who have been saved by the blood of Christ, we as a people who have been born again, we a people who are the bride of Christ are called to keep bearing fruit that demonstrate a wisdom that is from above. James last week called us to a wisdom that bears peace, meekness, humility, gentleness, reasonableness, merciful, impartial, and sincere.

(Transition) But on the flip side, James lays out the fruits of earthy wisdom, which are: bitter jealously, selfish ambitions, falsehoods, prideful boasting, demonic disorder, and every vile practice. But as we made mention of last week, unfortunately we often still struggle with these sins and sinful tendencies. So then the natural question we must ask, and the questions that James answers for us—What causes us to listen to earthly wisdom, what causes us to be unwise, and what causes us to be lead away into sin?—But why is this questions of causality of remaining sin in the life of a believer? Because as believers we are called to a life of friendship and faithfulness to the God who has saved us rather than to a friendship to the world.

(Proposition) And that is what our proposition will be based on today: If you are a member of the bride of Christ, having been saved by His finished work, then you are called to continual submission to God, who is faithful, gracious, and mighty to forgive.

The Origin of Vile Practices

(Read) James 4:1.

“What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you”—James tells us of two sins; “quarrels” and “fights, but” believe that this is just two specific example of sins that in principle could bring about a dirty laundry list of all our sins. We could then ask the question, similar to James: What causes quarrels, what causes fights, what causes thievery, what causes disorder, what causes coveting, what causes lies, what causes slander, what causes gossip, what causes cursing, what causes murder, what causes fornications, what causes greed, what causes hate, what causes idolatry, and the list could go on and on and on. But in summation James is asking what is the origin of every vile practice? What is the root cause of sin our our lives, yes even in the lies of believers?—(Read) James 4:1b.

our passions, because of the new birth, are now waging war within us. meaning that the things that we use to love in life, are now the very things that cause us to grief and mourn over because they are the things that Jesus died to save us from. Assuredly, if you are true believer here today, you know the war that James and I speak of. You know what it means to a wounded man in the battlefield of your soul. You know what it is like to groan and mourn over the sins of your past and the corrupt nature that still exists in you. This humble, heartbroken realization of sin and the continual cosmic betrayal against our loving God, is a sure fruit of God’s regenerative work in you. If this is you today, broken and weeping over your sin, you are not alone as this is the posture of all the saints that have ever been saved by Jesus. (Read) Galatians 5:16-26.

(Turn back to James 4)—(Transitional comment) How many of us can recall days in our youth when we would play war with our friends on the playground? Church, we can not treat the sins in our lives like playground games of our youth. We must not treat occasional, continual, or habitual sin as a friend that we pretend to kill, to then go and eat lunch with. But instead this is the enemy for which Christ suffer and died for. This is the enemy that is at enmity with God and may it never be that we call it our friend.

—The origin of our sinful actions are because of our fallen nature and sinful desires, still exist after our conversion. But if conversion and trusting in the Lord has taken place, we must wage war against such practices.

(Read) James 4:2-3 (Expound) (Remember to mention prayer in relation to verse 2 and 3)

Adulterous People

(Read) James 4:4-5.

(VERSE 5 objections)—I first want to begin by addressing verse 5 and then going back to verse 4, because depending on your translation that you are reading from today, it might have sounded different than what I read from. Verse 5 is a very challenging verse in several ways, in fact one commentary says that verse 5 is the most challenging verse in the whole book, and may I remind us of the often attacked and taken out of context chapter two “faith without works” text. So why is this verse challenging? GK Beale points out 3 exegetical difficulties here, which are dealings with: 1stly) The word “spirit,” 2ndly) the word “jealous” in relation to who is jealous, and 3rdly) where is James quoting from?

If you are reading from a NKJV it will say “The Spirit (Holy) who dwells in us yearns jealously” or if you are reading from a ESV or a NASB it will say “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us.” Or if you are reading from the KJV it says “The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?”

(Translation issue) Now I am not a Greek scholar nor am i the son of a Greek scholar. But from my estimation and examining of several commentaries on this subject, the translation of this verse both in the sentence structure and in relation to both the word “spirit” (πνεῦμα) and the words “yearns jealously” (Πρὸς φθόνον ἐπιποθεῖ) is based off of context surrounding this verse. Scholars are split on this subject and rage over its meaning. I think firstly, it would be wise to address the 3rd concern which is “where is James quoting from?”—Which, you would think would be a relatively easy answer. Just pick one of those translation and scour the Old Testament for its reference. Now this is the hard part, because whether you like the NKJV translation, the ESV, NASB, or the KJV, none of those translations are found word for word or even closes to word for word, in the Old Testament. Now some people say that this is a major issue, but it isn’t.... when understood like this: If i was to say; “The scripture says that God glorifies Himself in the redemption of man through the work of Christ” is that a true statement? Yes it is. But where did I quote directly from? Nowhere, but instead I was given general summation of scripture and its message. So There is no issue with James saying scripture says X, if X is found in principle within. —So you would then think to find the correct translation of this verse we should just ask “which principle of translation is provable in the Old testament?” And that is the challenge of James 4:5, because each translation offers a credible principle that could be found in Scripture.

(Yearns Jealous and Spirit)—So then it seems that in both cases of the differing of the interpretation of the word “Spirit” and “Yearns Jealous,“ Context is the ruling King to determine the correct translation. I prefer the NASB and the ESV, because of the context, but there is room for disagreement with this—. James is arguing that our sinful action arise from our sinful nature and fallen spirit. Therefore, the word “Spirit” is not to be understood as the Holy Spirit that dwells in the believer after conversion, but rather as the spirit that God breathed into man constituting the image of God, which at the fall of Adam became distorted and twist with evil. Our “spirit” that dwells in us, is indeed what needs to be submitting to God rather than sinful passions.

(Read Verse 5) It makes sense that God yearns over the spirits that He has saved and have made to be His bride. With this in mind it then makes sense why in the previous verse that James says that the Christians in the first century who thinks it is okay to be friends with the world, are actually commuting spiritual adultery. Therefore in verse 5, it is said that God wants our full devotion.

(Read) James 4:4. Turn with me to Acts 4:32. (Read)

—James is written very early on after the resurrection of Jesus. Very close in time to Acts 4:32. The Church, who was united and were of one heart and soul, James is now saying “You adulterous people.” Is James saying that this people are committing adultery in flesh in this text? No, He is saying that these churches have been letting their passions lead them into sin and therefore the type of adultery that they are committing is more heinous than that of cheating on your spouse. —All over the Old Testament, God is called the Husband to Israel, and when Israel commited sin against God, it was said that they were committing spiritual adultery on Him.

Church, this verse is telling us, that if you are of God’s people, you are not then called to be friends with the world. There is no such a thing as person who is both the friend of God and the friend of the world, because a slave can not serve two masters, for He will either hate the one and love the other, or love the one and hate the other. In all of our sinful tendencies, we must not make friends with those passions, but instead we should be should be waging war against them. Our God is a jealous God, so if He is our husband in the means of our salvation, when we turn our face against him and run to the vices and dung hills of this world, it is as if we are committing spiritual adultery against him. Our God is a jealous God who wants us, including our passions, including our actions, including all we have, to be fully devoted to Him alone, because He alone has saved us. He yearns jealously over His bride, in whom He has laid His life down for. So if He is our Husband in covenant, then we must not give our affections to His enemies. Our loyalty, our passion, and our submission must belong to Him alone.

What ever sin it is that comes to your mind today, look at Christ, see your sin payed for, but also see what your sin has done to the one who has loved you. Do you wish to be Christ’s friend, or do you wish to be friends with the sin of this world that reject Christ? Kill your sin, do not make friends with it.

Grace and Submit

But if you are like me, you know now that the corruption of our flesh will remain until the day our Lord comes again. how then will be able to live in this light of dreadful weight?

(read) James 4:6.

God gives grace. God’s grace has bought us, God’s grace has brought us thus far, and by God’s grace He will lead us to victory. We need continually God’s grace, and this text tells us “He gives more grace”—I can’t think of a sweet verse rather than this. In my warring with my passions and desire, in my daily failures, in my sinful actions, in my spiritual adultery practices, and in all the corruption of my flesh—God’s grace is more! In all your wretched sin! in all your full wrath! in all your blue on black! in all your filthy rags—God gives more grace!

(Read James 4:6.

“God opposes the proud by gives grace to the humble”—How are you to receive this abundantly and ever new grace? humbly! If you have come here as a weary pilgrim who has been lost in the mire of this world, being tossed to and from by your sin, your sin that maybe you have been calling your friend—bend your knee humbly to the one who is worthy, and He will give you more grace. Our cups run over because of His goodness, because he empty out the bitter cup of wrath on His son.

(Read)James 4:7.

This language of submission is the langue of marriage. In fact this Greek word for submit is used in several places talking about how the wive is to submit to the Husband and in the case of Eph 5:24 is how the church is to submit to Christ. —So what I love about this text, is that you can not ignore this verse in its context to verse 4 . Verse 4 calls those who are trying to be friends with God and the world: “adulterous people.”—Just as a husband would not want his wife commit the unthinkable against him, God wants us to be fully devoted to Him and none else. We must submit ourselves to Jesus, God in flesh, as our husband and we as His bride. What does this submission look like? It means to align our will with God’s will, it means to be obedient to His commands and precepts, It means to honor and respect Him in His character, and it means to trust His plans and promises.

“Resist the Devil”—James here is continually placing before the Christian dichotomous language. In chapter three we had the opposing wisdom;Heavenly and early. In verse 4 we have either friendship with God or the world but not both. but now James tells us that to submit to God means that we will be resisting the devil which will make him flee from you. So therefore we can conclude that the wisdom from the earth, and friendship with the world is essential making your bed with the Devil himself. But here we are promised that if we resit him, which would be the previous clause of submitting to God, that the Devil will flee from you.

Uses

So Church what must we make of all this? —I think we must conclude from this text that we are called to pick sides in this war of holiness or sin. If you follow Christ, we must seek our to kill our passions, because our passions are continually trying to kill you. Therefore we are not called to be an adulterous wife, who finds friendship with the world while claiming to know God. We are called to be a faithful wife, who submits herself to will and word of the Lord. If you have been covered by the holy garment of the perfect sacrifice of Christ, who is your husband, do not seek to remove it so that you can be naked with the with the world. Maybe today you have come here having a friendship with God, being covered with the righteousness of Christ, but yet your passions are burning inside of you, maybe even to the point that you have been calling those sins your friends. —Submit to God today! His grace is more. He will grant more and more grace to those who are His. So if you are His, be humble, be submissive, and resit that ancient foe. Be our hearts and soul be one in devotion to u mighty God, who is eternally faithful.

Church, the war is real. But so is His grace. Submit. Resist. Stand firm. And you will find not just struggle—but victory, by the power of His Spirit.”

(Pray)God’s goodness, God’s jealously, God saving a wretches, God seeking after the lost sheep.