Grace for War
Notes
Transcript
Please turn in your Bibles to James 4. We’re going to be looking at James 4:1-12 tonight.
Importance of this text to everyone, but college and young adults especially
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?
Prayer
Prayer
Father, thank you for your word and for the wisdom that comes only from you. Would you help us to rightly understand and apply your word to our lives tonight? Amen.
Have you ever thought much about what the word “grace” really means? We often say it’s “unmerited or undeserved favor from God.” That’s true and right.
But what does grace do exactly?
A more full definition can help us as we consider James 4:1-12
It’s been said that grace is:
“God’s power that He personally works in us to change our capacities for godly living and obedience.” (John Piper) Repeat
Keep this definition on the front of your mind as we talk about grace
What we want to focus on tonight is James’ emphasis on grace in the Christian life
Main Idea: God gives us grace so that we can fight sin and have friendship with him.
Main Idea: God gives us grace so that we can fight sin and have friendship with him.
Let’s break that down into two points.
Point 1: God gives us grace so that we can fight sin.
Point 1: God gives us grace so that we can fight sin.
Take a look again at vv. 1-3.
In ch. 3 James was talking about the two types of wisdom, and now he comes to point out how they are not operating in godly wisdom, but in worldly wisdom, which is leading to all of this sin in their lives.
Quarrels, fights, murderous desires, covetousness…
Notice how he makes clear that this external sin — “quarrels and fights” — are a result of the internal battle with sin within them - he says “is this not that your passions are at war within you?”
Then in v. 4 he calls them “adulterous people”
Just like Israel in the OT prostituted themselves out to the gods of the world, the Christians getting caught up in sin were guilty of spiritual adultery.
The church is the bride of Christ - God expects us to be faithful, as a wife should be faithful to her husband.
Look at vv. 4-5
4 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”?
God is rightfully jealous of our attention and loyalty. He wants our complete allegiance. He wants our friendship.
The reality though is that because of indwelling sin within us and the presence of the devil around us, we are in a spiritual war against sin.
Just because we’re trusting in Christ for salvation does not mean we can let our guard down against sin and Satan.
But God gives us more grace.
He gives us what we need to fight the war against our flesh and the devil.
In the second part of v. 7 he says
7 …Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
God is giving us assurance that if we will resist the devil in God’s power, he won’t be able to stick around. He will flee.
Paul gives us this promise in 1 Corinthians 10:13:
13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
You’ve probably heard “God won’t give you more than you can handle” … that’s not in the Bible… but this is: “…he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”
This is not something we do on our own. This is God’s grace at work within us.
But it does require something of us.
It requires that we be ready and prepare ourselves for the battle.
If we are passive when it comes to sin, if we take sin lightly, we’ll succumb to it every time.
So I want to exhort you…prepare for the battle against temptation.
Be aware of your weaknesses and make a plan to avoid them.
And if you can’t avoid them, have a prayer already in your head for when the time comes.
Be prepared to call out to the Lord, “Lord, I know you died on the cross to defeat sin and Satan, and I know that you have given me your Spirit to live a godly life for you. I know that you are faithful and will provide a way out of this temptation. Help me now in this moment!”
God is faithful to show up in those moments.
But if you aren’t prepared to cry out to God and fight sin, you won’t.
An old Puritan said, “Be killing sin, or it will be killing you.” Those are sober and true words.
So the first point is that God gives us grace to fight sin.
Point 2: God gives us grace so that we can have friendship with him.
Point 2: God gives us grace so that we can have friendship with him.
Remember what v. 4 says:
4 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.
Question: Who all here has worldly friends who just seem to be living it up all the time? Just doing whatever they want with their lives and seem to be having a great time doing it?
Another question (maybe don’t raise your hand, just think about this one): How many of you have ever felt like you’re missing out on some of life because of your Christian faith?
I know what that’s like…
I lived as a Christian in a fraternity house for 2 years - I know what it’s like to see people around you living it up and feeling like you’re missing out.
But James is clear here… being a friend of the world is being an enemy of God. Loving and enjoying wickedness puts you against God.
There is nothing worse in the world than being against God.
The first Psalm is all about this contrast between the friends of God and friends of the world, or the righteous and the wicked. The end of the psalm goes like this:
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
v. 6 of James 4 tells us that
6 … “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
God stands against those who stand against him.
But God gives us more grace.
We don’t have to be enemies of God. We can be his friends.
That brings me to my question for you tonight:
So What? Are you drawing near to God in his grace?
So What? Are you drawing near to God in his grace?
In vv. 7-10 James gives a barrage of commands related to drawing near to God.
He says:
Submit to God
Draw near to God
Humble yourselves before the Lord
Just to name a few
All of these are related to humbly submitting to God in faith and repentance.
God knows our sin and temptations and yet he gives us grace to be able to know him, through his Son Jesus.
Hear Heb. 4:15
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Christ was tempted in all the ways we are: physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally
And yet he never gave into those temptations
Then v. 16 says
16 Let us then…
Because Christ was tempted and did not sin … let us then
with confidence draw near to the throne of grace…
Christ drew near to us in sinless perfection so that we can draw near to him in confidence.
that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
This is a promise for people coming to Christ for the first time asking for salvation and for people coming to Christ for the thousandth time asking for help to fight sin.
The answer is always the same: “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.”
God gives us grace so that we can fight sin and have friendship with him.
God gives us grace so that we can fight sin and have friendship with him.
Prayer: Father, it seems strange that we can call you friend. Yet in your mercy, through the life and sacrifice of your son, you have made a way for us to be in perfect communion with you. We long for the day when we are entirely sinless, but until that day would you continue to help us fight sin and stay close to you. In Jesus name, Amen.
