Idols of The Heart

James 4:1–10 ESV

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.

Today we want to take a look at what scripture says about our hearts.

You don’t see this much anymore, but it used to be that photographs were taken on film and could only be developed or exposed in a “dark room”. You would take the picture with your camera, but the film would remain black or dark brown until it was taken to the dark room and dunked in some chemicals that slowly revealed the picture. The picture didn’t happen as a result of the dark room; the picture was already there, but it was hidden. The dark room and the chemical just exposed what was there all along.

In the same way, this text in is telling us that conflict exposes what is already a reality of our hearts. (Bigney Illust)

“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.”

In other words, conflict (anger, frustration, impatience, self-pity, bitterness) are symptoms of a heart problem.

The simplicity of sin

You’ve heard that all roads in Italy lead to Rome, well all roads from conflict lead to the heart (making simple sense of sin)

All roads from conflict lead to the heart (making simple sense of sin)

All of our conflicts are a result of sin issues (missing the mark - counter to God’s holiness) and all sin issues are heart issues. (we’ll flesh this out)

The Bible calls these heart issues Idols. Our passions set up their throne in our hearts and they are little dictators.

Our passions set up their throne in our hearts and they are little dictators

Here are some ways the bible connects idols and the heart:

As in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects the man. - (Heart is who you truly are)

  ““What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols!” (, ESV)  

Illustration of an irrigation system. You can’t see the sprinkler heads buried in the yard until the pressure is applied.

  ““Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts, and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them?” (, ESV)  

  “because they rejected my rules and did not walk in my statutes, and profaned my Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols.” (, ESV)  

Idols big and “small” - obvious and hidden

Seemingly Big: Money, lust, pride, greed, power

Seemingly Small: Self-pity, an easy life, a good marriage, reputation, comfort, downtime

Dark room

Remember, we said that conflict doesn’t produce the realities of our heart, it exposes them.

Another great way to picture it is to imagine a sprinkler system that is buried in the yard. Most of the time you never notice the little sprinkler heads that are under the grass, but when pressure is applied to the lines they poke their heads up and cover the whole yard with what’s underneath.

Irrigation heads in yard (maybe pair with v.1)

[Illustrations from Brad Bigney’s ‘Gospel Treason’]

Walk Through The Text:

“What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?” (, ESV)  

Passions rule our lives.

Since passions rule our lives, we fight and quarrel if we don’t get what we want.

The fruit of fighting and war is caused by the root of inordinate affections. In other words, we are willing to sin in order to get what we want.

If we’re willing to sin to get what we want our passions are misdirected. That is an idol.

Simple examples: Marriage, road rage, anger, bitterness

 “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.” (, ESV)  

We want what we don’t (or can’t) have.

Our inability to obtain or satisfy our desires makes us sin.

We are willing to sin in order to get what we want - Sin exposes our motives. We aren’t satisfied because we don’t ask for our satisfaction to be in God.

We are wanting - dissatisfied

We do not ask — our passions are good, just misplaced (see v. 3 below)

If he is the most valuable in all the universe then only he can satisfy us - to give us anything that isn’t himself would be to sell us short.

To love us, he must give us himself

He does love us, so he gave himself up for us ( )

“You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” (, ESV)

God will not bless your pursuit of idols.

God does not approve of religious works done in order to serve other idols.

God hates the lies of false idols. God hates the joy-killing, life-taking, soul-disappointing mirage of false idols. (see v. 5)

“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.” (, ESV)  

Adulterers! -- We are in love with another (we ask to spend on our passions)

Friendship (love) with the world is enmity (hostility) towards God.

Whoever loves the world (searches for satisfaction in the world) is pursuing and worshiping the creation and not the Creator. He is an enemy of God. Fleeing from God.

He is an enemy of God. Fleeing from 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”?” (, ESV)  

God is jealous for those he loves.

He pursues our greatest good by denying us an affair with idols

Oxygen Tank Illustration:

Idols are like trying to survive underwater. They act like oxygen tanks that keep you from coming up to the pure and open air of God’s grace. One by one the air tanks of idols give out and you find that your breathing through a pinched tube. You should realize that you aren’t supposed to be down there to begin with, but we just look around for more air and are jealous of others who have more tanks than us.

[modified Bigney Illustration]

Spirit dwelling in us - Think (Or ) - God made us one with him - adopted us.  

“[Idols] 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,” (, ESV)  

  “But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”” (, ESV)  

It is grace to oppose the proud.

He rewards the humble -- those who kill the adulterous affair find that they get what they had been longing for all along.

  “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (, ESV)  

Submit yourself -- let go of your idols. Kill the love affair and adulterous relationship with idols. Look at the fruit of quarrels and fighting in your life and notice that your passions are yanking your soul around. You aren’t satisfied and so you keep on warring until you find it. But you need to stop and submit yourself to God. Surrender and be humbled and you will receive his grace.

  “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” (, ESV)  

Repent. Turn and draw near to God.

Cleanse your hands -- get rid of the idols, but also cleanse your heart and mind.

How? Look below

  “Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.” (, ESV)  

Acknowledge what you are doing and turn.

Repent from the heart (mourn & weep). You can’t just stop worshipping, you must turn and worship rightly.

  “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” (, ESV)  

Humility (repentance) brings exaltation.

Letting go means getting

Be done with lesser things

Use this practical example - one like it - somewhere

There are heart issues behind all that anger. When someone is in a rage at home or in public, you can be sure that someone else has threatened one of his or her idols—and war is about to break out! Anger, irritability, and verbal outbursts are indicative of heart issues gone awry. When you react to someone else, what is it that you are protecting? What is it that you must have? Husbands, doesn’t the Bible say that our wives should respect us? Yes. But if you go around with the old “respect me” chip on your shoulder, constantly telling yourself, “My wife must respect me,” you will inevitably be hypervigilant and hypersensitive; you will be perpetually angry, doggedly policing your wife’s behavior, because for you, respect is not just something that God commands your wife to do, but something that you think you must have in order to be happy.

Closing Applications:

Worship - Not just behavior modification. — Don’t just keep putting stop-leak in your car, you need to fix the engine.

Another car metaphor: Once you leave the shop, the car gets used again - hits new pot holes, faces new challenges, and get’s beat up. We live in this world and we live with fragile hearts - they are redeemed but need constant tune ups.

“It is worship that is the final way to replace the idols of your heart. You can’t just get relief by figuring out your idols intellectually. You have to actually get the peace that Jesus gives…and that only comes when you worship. analysis can help you discover truths, but then you have to pray them into your heart. That takes time.” Keller, ‘Counterfeit Gods’

Another car metaphor: Once you leave the shop, the car gets used again - hits new pot holes, faces new challenges, and get’s beat up. We live in this world and we live with fragile hearts - they are redeemed but need constant tune ups.

Repentance - Another car metaphor: Once you leave the shop, the car gets used again - hits new pot holes, faces new challenges, and get’s beat up. We live in this world and we live with fragile hearts - they are redeemed but need constant tune ups.

God doesn’t give peace to people who are frantically clinging to, protecting, and perfecting their idols. He gives peace to those who reject them, then lift open hands to him and say, “God, rescue me, help me, deliver me! I’m done trying to make it happen. I’m done pursuing things that I think make up the ‘good life.’ I’m tearing up my list and laying it all down. God, come in and evict every usurper to the throne of my heart. Throw down every squirming, swarming idol that’s smothering me so that I can’t breathe, and come reign and rule in my life.” Bigney ‘Gospel Treason’

God doesn’t give peace to people who are frantically clinging to, protecting, and perfecting their idols. He gives peace to those who reject them, then lift open hands to him and say, “God, rescue me, help me, deliver me! I’m done trying to make it happen. I’m done pursuing things that I think make up the ‘good life.’ I’m tearing up my list and laying it all down. God, come in and evict every usurper to the throne of my heart. Throw down every squirming, swarming idol that’s smothering me so that I can’t breathe, and come reign and rule in my life.” Bigney ‘Gospel Treason’

Planning

I find that most people fail to change because they fail to make specific plans to change. Change doesn’t just happen in “fuzzy land.” You specifically sinned your way into where you are, and you’re going to have to specifically repent your way out. Prayerfully think it through, and write some things down. - Bigney, Brad. ‘Gospel Treason’

I find that most people fail to change because they fail to make specific plans to change. Change doesn’t just happen in “fuzzy land.” You specifically sinned your way into where you are, and you’re going to have to specifically repent your way out. Prayerfully think it through, and write some things down. - Bigney, Brad. ‘Gospel Treason’

Bigney, Brad. Gospel Treason: Betraying the Gospel with Hidden Idols (p. 54). P&R Publishing. Kindle Edition. 

Also a great way to end:

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, . . . and see if there is any wicked way in me.”

? “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, . . . and see if there is any wicked way in me.”

Scriptural application:

Psalm 139:22–24 ESV

I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

  “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah” (, ESV)  

Psalm 139:23–24 ESV

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!