Warning Against Worldliness

Introduction:

What did the first 3 chapters of James deal with? Let them answer…
The first 3 chapters of James deals with how a Mature Christian can be recognized.

a. Chap. 1 “You can recognize them by their attitude toward suffering.”

i. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.” James 1.2-3

b. Chap. 2 “You can recognize them by their obedience (Works) for God.”

i. “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is NOT accompanied by action, is dead.” James 2.17

1. “CAN SUCH FAITH SAVE YOU???”

c. Chap. 3 “You can recognize them by their Speech.”

i. “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be”James 3.9-10

1. “CAN GRAPEVINES BEAR FIGS???”

Now in the 4th chapter we are going to look at warnings against WORLDLINESS

Read James 4:1-17

In this passage I see three “D’s”: We have…

Deadly enemies, Desire to usurp God, Distortion of reality.

Outline:

I Our Deadly Enemies (Vs. 1-10) There are three Deadly Enemies!!!

· (The Flesh, The World, And The Devil)

A The Flesh (Vs. 1-3)

1 Lets turn to Romans 7:21-25

a In these verses Paul is telling us about a battle that he faces with his own flesh and how it makes him feel inferior.

b But this battle is very real and prevalent in our daily lives.

c Our old man (sin nature) is still there and pops it head out now and again.

d Paul is a slave to God in his mind but…

i In his sinful nature he is a slave to sin.

2 Some of your translation may say lusts. (Vs. 1)

a This does not mean Sensual Passion it simply means “desires.”

3 The Greek word used here for Desires is (Hedonon), which means (Pleasures)

a This gives us the image of the flesh demanding satisfaction.

4 The flesh will do whatever it can to get that satisfaction (Vs. 2)

a Including waging war.

b This would be the “…fights and quarrels among you…”

i Galatians 5.14-15 “The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.”

c Let’s just say that you actually ask God to fulfill your “desires”

i It won’t work because you are asking with the wrong intentions.

a) You are Not trying to please God but trying to gain your own desires.

b) What is the chief purpose of Man???

1) To get all you can out of this life, after all we are only here but a short time, so Live it up!!!

2) Of course not. The Chief purpose of man is to “Glorify God and enjoy him forever.”

c) Even the flesh can encourage someone to pray but those prayers are answered with a strong no because their intentions are Selfish.

5 That is the flesh (our sinful nature)

B The World (Vs. 4-5)

1 Are you guilty of Spiritual adultery???

a You may ask what does that mean?

b It means being married to CHRIST and Loving The WORLD…

i 1 Corinthians 11:2-3 “I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”

ii Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”

a) This is talking about God and money but you can make the relation to God and the world.

b) If you love sin you are trying to serve two masters and it says right here that you cannot serve two masters

c “Simple People’s Idols” Dr. F. B. Meyer tells of going to a meeting of the Salvation Army where it was announced an exhibition of idols was to be displayed. He said, “I expected to see idols from India, Africa, and the South Seas. But instead of that eight young men stepped to the rear of the platform and returned, each bearing a large sheet of cardboard. One card was covered with pipes, cigars, and tobacco; another with sham jewelry, feathers, ribbons and things of that sort. There were eight cards, each covered with things that had been idols to some. “A man behind me pointed and said, “That was my pipe.” A woman said, “See my bow of ribbon?” These simple people felt that these things had become idols to them and they had given them up.”—Sunday Companion

d What has become an idol in your life?

e Is there something that this world offers that you are holding on to that you need to give up?

2 Lot was an example of this worldly thinking…

a He loved the world so that he didn’t want to leave his home. He was comfortable.

b His wife actually looked back, Longingly, and was turned to a pillar of salt

c We need to be willing to give up the world for Christ and follow him wholeheartedly.

d The world will drag us down but Christ will lift us up.

C The Devil (Vs. 6-10)

1 Christians who live for the flesh and the world become proud, and the devil will take advantage of this situation.

2 Pride is what causes us to hold onto the things of this world.

a We think that they are good and maybe even better than the things of God.

3 We don’t want to give them up…

4 Lets look at verse 6…

a He loves the humble, and hates the proud.

b Which side do you want to be on???

c This verse is a good summary of the whole book of James up to this point.

i LIVING YOUR LIFE HUMBLY BEFORE GOD!!!

5 Verse 7 goes on to say… “Submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you…”

a The Christian must use the Word of God to resist the devil.

i Just take Christ’s example… how did he resist the Devil during his temptation in the wilderness?

a) He quoted Scripture and the devil left him.

6 Verses 7-10 give us 10 commands to help us to be humble before God.

o Read Verses 7-10

a Submit, Resist (Vs. 7)

b Come Near, Wash, Purify (Vs. 8)

c Grieve, Mourn, Wail, Change (Vs. 9)

d Humble Yourself (Vs. 10)

7 These are 10 things that we need to do so that we will be able to resist the devil. Because we will be humble before God.

II Our Desire to usurp God as Judge (Vs. 11-12)

A These verses tell us that people do try to set themselves up as judges.

1 Whenever you speak evil against someone you are breaking the law

2 Which states, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

3 Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

4 Therefore setting yourself up as judge over someone, by Slandering them, is breaking the law and when you break one point of the law you are guilty of the whole law.

5 When you break the law you are in essence saying that you are greater than the law.

6 Saying that you are greater than the law is a sin because ONLY God is greater than the law.

7 In setting yourself up above the law you are trying to Usurp God’s rightful place as judge over the law and all people.

8 Read Verse 12—“…But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?”

9 Nobody has the right to set themselves up to judge our neighbor.

a We are inadequate judges.

b 1 Samuel 16:7 “But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

c God Looks at the heart and can judge adequately!!!

d Don’t even try.

B We have seen our DEADLY ENEMIES, Our DESIRE to USURP GOD as JUDGE, lets look at the last one this morning…

III Our Distortion of reality (Vs. 13-17) READ

A Business travel was very common during that time as it is today.

1 It was natural that a “good” businessman will make careful plans for his estate while away, including selling and buying…

2 James is not against planning ahead.

3 What he objects to is the attitude towards the future that takes no account of God.

4 We must live each day aware of our mortality,

a And being aware of our total dependence on God.

B Verse 17 sums up the whole chapter and points out that we can sin by neglect as well as by deliberate action.

1 It is not only what we do but also what we don’t do that is sinful, worldly.

2 Life is so short that we cannot afford to waste it.

3 We must make our lives count for Christ before he comes back.

Conclusion:

1. There we have looked at our Three Deadly Enemies

a. The Flesh (sinful nature), the World, The Devil.

b. Each of these will try to drag you down and mar your life

c. Making you an ineffective witness for the cause of Christ.

d. Lets each one of us strive to stay pure before our Lord and God

2. Because of these three Deadly Enemies we all desire to be lifted up higher than we should be.

a. You may not come out and say that you want to be exalted.

b. But when you judge other people motives or lives you are saying that you are better than they are

c. You are not loving your neighbor as yourself

d. We should be out to make their lives BETTER not WORSE

3. Keep your view of the future in perspective

a. God gives and takes breath away in his time.

b. We have NO control over our next breath

c. When you plan ahead remember to keep God in mind so as not be arrogant about what you will do or won’t do

4. Submit yourselves to God completely and you will not have to struggle with these problems in your life.

a. It will not be perfect but at least you will have the right perspective.