James 4

and a good work in you and a good work in you

we'll be faithful to complete it we'll be faithful to complete it you started the work we'll be faithful to complete it in you you started the work we'll be faithful to complete it and you began a good work in me

you started the work we'll be faithful to complete it in me who started the work

Take your Bibles and turn with me to James chapter 4. James chapter 4. James says in chapter 4 verse 1, What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but you don't get it. You kill and covet. You cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.

When you ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives. You may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people. Don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think that scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely,

but he gives us more grace? That's why scripture says God opposes the proud but he gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves then to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Greed. Mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.

Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up. I don't know about you, but I know the series in James has really been hitting me hard. And the areas of my mouth and the ideas of following worldly wisdom. I've had several people comment to that extent. I had somebody call me this past week and we had a discussion on the phone. It was fine. But they called back a couple days later and they said,

You know... First thing I need to do is apologize to you. And I said, Oh, really? And they said, Yeah, because of the way I said what I said was wrong. And I just really wanted to apologize to you. They said that studying James is just really convicting. And it got to me after we talked. And I said, Well, praise God. That's what the intent is as we study God's word, that it changes us.

That he, by his spirit, takes his word and sets it in our hearts and changes us. As you see that happening, you know that the workings of faith are evident in your life. And as we've seen in Chapter 1, review real quickly. Chapter 1, the fact that we are saved is evidenced in our lives, primarily when we're choked, primarily when the squeeze is on. It's revealed through trials.

Whether we're going to trust God or trust in ourselves, whether we're going to follow his wisdom or follow worldly wisdom, it's revealed through trials. Secondly, in Chapter 2, we've seen that the workings of faith reflect themselves in our relationship with others. Whether or not we are impartial and seeking to minister to everyone that God brings across our path. Regardless of who they are.

If there's that impartiality, if there's that desire to minister, then the workings of faith are evident. If we're just patronizing those who are like us, if we're just seeking to cater to the rich so that we can benefit, if we ostracize the poor, if we ostracize brothers and sisters of different nationality, different cultural background, different living conditions, then our faith has been dead. It's a dead faith. It's not genuine.

That'll happen. It's not true. It's not true. It's not true. It's not true. It's not true. It's not true. It's not true. Thirdly, in Chapter 3, we've seen that the workings of faith will reverberate through our speech. Our mouths will tell the truth. Our mouths will tell the story as far as whether or not, really, there's a work of God going on in our hearts.

We saw the six different types of objects that reflect the tongue and its power to control, its power to destroy, its power to dispense. And it will do that one of two ways, either with the wisdom that comes from the world or the wisdom that comes from God. And you and I choose. Which one that is. And one will destroy, and the other gives life. And every day, in every situation, you are giving one or the other.

You are dispensing one or the other. You're either encouraging or being an implement that's used to destroy, to tear down. So James isn't pulling any punches. He's hitting a square where we need to be hit. And he's telling us the times are tight. The Lord's coming soon. Make sure you're traveling down the right path, down the right road. As we come into Chapter 4, he's not changing gears.

If you just read James and don't realize that God's using him to bring across a certain idea, a certain focus, then it seems like he's kind of hodgepodge with what he writes. It doesn't seem like it fits together in story form like Paul, when Paul writes his epistles. But the same thought is carrying throughout James. The workings of faith will be evident in the life of a believer.

They will manifest themselves in certain ways. And it's no different as we come to Chapter 4. Chapter 4, we see that the workings of faith will cause us to release our hold on the world. If God is... If God is working in us, if we have received Jesus, if we've asked him into our hearts, if we've been saved, if we've been born again, again, whatever vernacular you want to hang on to there,

there will be changes that are evident to you in your life. And one of them, according to James in Chapter 4, is that you release your hold on the world. You begin letting go of the things of this world. And we'll talk about that, what that means, what that consists of, because that is a battle. It's a war that goes on, seeking to let go of those things in the world.

Have you ever heard or seen how you, like you can trap a raccoon, and I understand monkeys can be trapped this way too, is you simply get a small cage-like deal with some food inside, food that's larger than the width of the bars on the cage, and let them come up and they'll reach through, because their hand can get through the bar, and they'll grab the food, but then it's larger than the bar width, so they can't get the food back out. And rather than drop the food so they can get away, they'll hang on to the food, because they want it, but they're trapped. And then you can just move up on them, and get them, and that's the same way with us. The world looks appealing, and it's real easy to want to grab onto the things of this world,

and hang on to it, but if we do, we're trapped. The enemy's got us nailed, because those things are too alluring, and our flesh doesn't want to let them go, and we're nailed if that happens. So this is a warning. James has given us a warning where this is concerned. He's already talked about the wisdoms. Now whichever one you heed will either be an encouragement for you,

and a blessing or a curse. It will actually nail you to the wall. So he's saying, he's encouraging us, he's warning us, to let go of the world, and draw near to God. Let go of the world, and draw near to God. Now he starts off talking about war, about conflict, and actually James is going to show us that there are three wars that go on, and he's writing to believers.

So look at this as being written to us. I don't know about you, but it's easy at times for me to read different sections of scripture, and feel like they don't pertain. Because obviously this was written to non-believers or something, or to women, if I'm a guy, or if you're a girl, when he talks about the things to men, you kind of blow those things off. But everything's pertinent and important to us.

And as we come into chapter 4, he's talking about wars and conflicts. This is not among unbelievers, brothers and sisters. This is the wars and the conflicts that go on among believers. What causes fights and quarrels among you? Now the first thing he's going to talk about is the fact that there are wars that we have with each other. First war that goes on all the time.

Wars and conflicts with each other. If you're reading NIV, it says, what causes fights and quarrels? If you're reading King James, or I think NAS, both of them start off with wars and conflicts, or wars and struggles. And there's two extremes meant there, because it's taken in the whole scope of conflict, of struggle. The wars, or the fights here in NIV, mean big disputes, big wars that happen ultimately between nations,

when one nation goes against another nation. The word quarrels, or struggles, or conflicts, is a word that means individual kind of conflicts. Individual kind of arguments and fights that go on between individuals. So what causes the national wars and the little struggles that happen between us? He's taking it in the whole gamut. We war with each other. And it's inevitable, because we're human.

Because we're flesh. We have conflicts with one another. The sad thing about the church is that often people come in thinking, i hope here they don't have any conflicts and then when we see them we think well i just like any other church you know and the church is filled with a bunch of hypocrites and i don't want to be a part of church fellowship wrong way of thinking because we're human we're going to have conflicts no matter where we are no matter what church you're in or not and you're going to have conflicts because we're human the problem with the church is when we deal with the conflicts the way the world deals with conflicts that's when it becomes a problem the way the world deals with conflicts

is number one either to ignore them or just ignore it and maybe it'll go away and ignoring it though with the idea of i'm separating myself from that individual and that conflict and i'll sit over here and they're going to sit over here and never the two shall meet or we gather up sides we go around telling other people in the fellowship you know well did you know that this is what they did to me and this is wrong i don't and i go yeah and we begin picking up each other's offenses so we got the hatfields and the mccoy we got group a that thinks group b is really off balance group a that thinks group b is really off balance group a that thinks group b is really off balance group a that thinks group b is really off balance

base. And they just are at war. There's a conflict that goes on and it's almost, you know, polarizes congregations. That's the way the world handles situations. The world seeks to choose upsides and prove that it was right, no matter who has to die in the process. And the problem in the church happens when conflicts happen and we try and solve them the way the world solves them. Conflicts are

inevitable because we are people. But God has given us his grace and the power of the Holy Spirit through the blood of his son to handle those conflicts and to resolve them in his name, in his way. And that's what he calls us to do. What causes fights and quarrels among you? He says, don't they come from your desires that battle within you? There were conflicts in all of the

early churches. If you look at Paul's epistles, Paul wrote two letters that we have, at least in scripture, to the church at Corinth because of conflict that was happening in the church. He wrote his epistle to the Galatians, to the church at Galatia in chapter five. He just comes out and says, stop fighting amongst yourselves. To the Ephesians and even to the Philippians, the beloved Philippians, the church of Philippi was the church that Paul,

when Paul wrote about the church of Philippi or when he talked to others about the Philippians, it was their love for him and how they ministered to him out of their need, out of their want, their necessity. Yet his epistle to the church of Philippi was to Euodia and Syntyche, stop fighting, stop the quarreling. Throughout scripture, we see that in the church, there is the quarreling, there is the fighting that goes on. And Paul admonishes, the different writers admonish that it's necessary to put those aside and to deal with it according to the ways that God's laid out in his word in the Sermon on the Mount. Again,

it comes back to just the basic loving your enemies, blessing those who curse you, doing good unto those who hate you, praying for those who despitefully use you and persecute you. It's amazing what will happen in church if we do that. James dealt with the idea of, you know, of class in chapter two, back in chapter two, he talked about our catering to the rich and to the poor. There's a conflict that goes on there. When somebody walks into this room, when you're here

and somebody new is here, catch yourself this next time that happens. You see somebody new, catch yourself because you're going to look at them like this because we all do. You're going to look at them and you're going to kind of look up and down and you're making mental assessments about their age, about their hairstyle, about their clothing style, about their grooming, about their cultural background. And then if they speak, you're making other judgments on their educational skills. I mean, it's amazing. We see somebody in about 15 seconds, we have

formed an opinion about who they are just based on those basic observations and we'll treat them accordingly. They're old person and I'm young person, you know, their history, I'm over here. Same way in reverse. If we're older and they're teenagers, you know, it's sad the way congregations will alienate one another. Maybe they're a different color. Maybe they,

come from a different side of town, different socioeconomic background. And James warned us about that in chapter two, but we war with each other where that's concerned. We, we will not like someone without even knowing them because of that, because of their class, their background, their appearance. James says, if that's true, then the workings of faith are not in you. Then

the working of God in your heart has not happened. And you better be aware of that. He gives specifics down in verses 11 and 12 that we'll get to in a couple of weeks. As far as, uh, how this manifests itself. Verse 11, uh, he says for this, uh, I'm in chapter one down in verse 11, he says, brothers do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother

or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you're not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There's only one law giver and judge the one who's able to save and destroy. But you, who are you to judge your neighbor? James is saying you're getting after one another. You're speaking evil against each. Is that going on? Is that going on in your life right now? Is there somebody that,

that you are doing that towards that you delight in telling others about the bad things about this individual? Stop it. Stop it. Now, James here warns about judging one another. And specifically when we're warned about not judging in scripture, it's, it's dealing with motives. You and I don't know why somebody is doing what they're doing. We can judge it to be wrong. If it's sin, if

somebody's in sin, we're to judge and call sin, sin. We're to judge and call sin, sin. But we don't, we don't judge motives. We don't sit in judgment of the person. And if someone is in sin, if someone is like an unbeliever, how are we supposed to act as Christians? Do we ostracize them? Do we condemn them? What are we supposed to do with unbelievers? Share Jesus with them.

We call sin, sin, hoping for repentance so that there's a restoration of fellowship. He's talking about judgment here that causes isolation, that causes separation. That shouldn't be. That kind of thing shouldn't be. That's not right. And we'll get to that when we get to verses 11 and 12. But there's conflicts. There are conflicts in the fellowship, conflicts in the church, conflicts with each other that we have to be

aware of. Wars that are going on with one another. And these conflicts separate. They separate each other. They separate brother from brother. Secondly, he tells us that we're at war within ourselves. Not only are we in conflict with others, but we're really at war within ourselves. And really it's the war within ourselves that causes the conflict. And we're

in conflict with each other. Look at the second half of verse one. He says, what causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something, but you don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. Does that speak to anybody's heart here? Is there something you want and you just, you

just can't seem to get it and it just consumes you to have it and you kill? There are those who are doing that today. I mean, blatantly killing. But this is talking specifically takes to the extremes of that. But assassinating, he's talking about assassinating the character of other people. You speak evil, verse 11, against others. You kill and you covet, but you

cannot have what you want. You quarrel and you fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. How many, how many of you husbands have had times with your family where you, you just really wanted to either go somewhere, and do something, or be home in time to watch a certain game on TV, certain something on

TV, and you're with the family, and something comes up, and they're just seemingly taking too long, and it upsets you, and you begin to act out your frustration, and your wife says, what's wrong? You go, nothing. That's this. You see, we have a tendency to read this to the extreme. Well, I haven't killed anybody, and you know, I'm, that's not me. Yes, it is. You desire to have something, and you can't have it, and you get frustrated,

and you take it out on others. You covet, I want that, whatever, and let's go for anything. I want that job. I want that mate. I want that companionship. I want that salary. I want that home. I want that whatever. It's something that you want, and it just takes over, and you covet that. You see somebody else with it, and you want that family relationship that way. You want that

extra car. You want that extra salary. You want that retirement a certain way. You want that way, and it just takes over, and you're at war within yourself. The word desires there, do they not come from your desires that battle within you? The word desires in the Greek is hedone, where we get our word hedonistic, hedonistic. It means lust, literally. It comes

from the desires, the uncontrollable lusts within us, which James has already talked about back in chapter three, the bitter envies that go to selfish ambition, that go to boastings to gain what we want, to gain the support that we want, that go to lying against the truth. James has already talked about that. You and I war regularly over different things like that, as something as seemingly insignificant as getting home to watch a football game. We war within ourselves, and it causes conflict without, with each other, and not only that, but it causes wrong prayer. It causes wrong prayer. That's what he talks about in verse three.

He says, you have not because you don't ask God. A lot of people say, quote that verse, and they quote it incompletely. They quote, you have not because you ask not. No, that's not it. We ask everybody. Is that? You have not because you don't ask God. Then when you do ask him, you don't receive it because you ask amiss, it says, because you want to consume it upon your own pleasures or upon your own

lusts. Example, have you ever wanted anything so bad? I don't know what it is. Maybe it's a healing. Maybe you just need that extra, you know, if I only had that extra couple grand, Lord, I'd be, I'd be out of debt. And, and so I went and I bought this lottery ticket, God, and, and I just, if I just hit, you know, it just hits on this, Lord, you know, it'll bring it in and I'll be fine,

God, would you give that to me, Lord? You know, or, or, and we end up pleading with God, God, would you, would you, would you just heal this, Lord? Would you just heal this situation? Why do we pray? We don't pray to change God's mind and we don't pray to get God to do what we want him to do. But sometimes our prayer can reflect that. Mine can. It's like, if I pray with the

right intensity, Lord, if I beg him long enough, he'll flip me what I want, like a bone, you know? Oh, thanks God. You know? That's not why we pray to get his mind on the situation. Just like Habakkuk in chapter three, God, show me what you're doing. And then, then he sees what God's doing and he goes, oh God, don't do that. You know, like he's going to change God's mind. And then he finally gets

to the point where, Lord, you know, you're in control. You're sovereign over the situation. I'll just sit. I know your compassion. And I know just like you get the deer over the high places, you're going to get me through this too. So that's what prayer ultimately does. It seeks to, to bring God's mind to ours. So that we can understand as much as he lets us understand what he's doing. And so that we are

then able to just set it before him and let him do it. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Do you pray for things that way? Lord, if you want me to have this car, person, house, job, whatever, your kingdom come, your will be done. Or do you, do you, do you ask a miss because you want to consume it upon your own lust? I got to have that. I got to have that God.

I got to have it. And if you don't give it to me, you don't know. It's a conflict. That's a war within. And it, and it causes wrong prayer. It causes a, a distorted communion with God. You're not wanting to commune with him. You're wanting to direct him. And when, when our communion with God is distorted or broken, the rest of our lives are out of whack. You want to have a real crummy week. Either don't have communion with him in

prayer regularly, or when you do make it one-sided, a checklist, God, uh, heal Aunt Bertha, bring the money in for the car, uh, make the job go good today. And all of that stuff. And, and, and, and, all of this make it just a checklist of gimme's. There's no communion there. There's no, what's your heart, God? What do you want me to be aware of in this situation, Lord? There's no communion. And if

that's the way it is, you're going to hit walls all week. And you're going to go, why wasn't God there? I prayed. Did you really? We have not because we don't ask God. And when we ask, we, we don't get because we ask a miss because we want it our way. And we're at war within ourselves where that's concerned. And people who are at war within themselves, who are, who are operating

under selfish desires, listen, are not happy. People, they're not fun to be around. They're nothing goes right ever. They're not thankful for it. If you realize how much God blessed you this week, have you actually stopped today's Sunday? And I don't know if any of us do very much resting before God on Sunday, but just, if you have some time today, kind of think back over the week and just kind of realize the

blessings of God in your week. He's blessed you in so many ways that you and I take for granted that we don't acknowledge. It's like we expect it. And it's, it's when we don't, see it that we get ticked off at God and we're failing to be thankful for how he's blessed us. We're not happy. We're always complaining. If we're restless within, if we're, if we're

giving into this, these desires at war within, we're kind of like Jonah. You remember Jonah, the story of Jonah, God called Jonah, wanted him to go to Nineveh. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria and the Ninevites didn't like the Jews, didn't like the Israelites. And so Jonah didn't want to go. Now, I don't know if you take time to watch the story of Jonah, but I don't know if you

wonder, you know, it doesn't tell us for sure what Jonah was doing when God called him. It doesn't tell us what Noah was doing when God called him to build the ark. But at times just kind of stop and ponder those things. I mean, it's, it's at times I think we can get the idea that, you know, God went to a prophet closet and said, well, let's see, here's prophet Noah. Let's take Noah out and

put him on the board and let him start playing and being a prophet like that. He was born to be a prophet. No. See, I see Jonah as probably being, being a political activist, the down with a crusade. I see Jonah as being one who hated Ninevites. It just be better if God would make Nineveh a crater, you know, and God says, Jonah, I want you to go to Nineveh and tell them that I

love them and they need to repent or they're going to get destroyed. How many of you have been told by people, you know, well, if you pray, God send me anywhere, but don't send me to Africa or if you pray, don't ask God for patience because boy, what he takes you through to give, give it. You know, I've heard people say that. Please disregard that. Again, come back to your will,

Lord. Whatever you want me to do, wherever you want me to go, doesn't make any difference because God's going to go with you. Wherever he sends you, whatever he does, he's with you. I see God telling Jonah, go to Nineveh and tell him about my grace. Tell him that they need to repent or I'm going to destroy him. And Jonah doesn't want to go because selfishly inside, he wants God to

destroy him. And he tries to run away from God. And you know the story. God gets him to Nineveh anyhow in a way that Jonah never would have taken on his own. And Jonah goes in and I can see him stomping through the city. I mean, I don't see a joyful evangelist here. I don't see him going, you need to repent because God's destruction is coming. I mean, here's a guy who's ticked off. Remember, doesn't want to be there. I can see him going down

and saying, you better repent because God's bringing destruction in 40 days. And if you don't repent, you're ashes in the street. And people drop into their knees and repenting. You know, there's no hard in Jonah to do this. Just God got him there. And okay, I'll do it. This is a town of a million plus. Big city. Took him several days to walk through it. Jonah gets through it and he goes and he sits on the side of the hill and he's sitting there and

he's watching to see what God's going to do. The people are repenting. And Jonah is disgusted. They're repenting. From the king on down, they're sitting in sackcloth and ashes. Even the animals, they put ashes on the animals, repenting before God. And Jonah's sitting there and all of a sudden he's so disgusted. He doesn't see the blessing of God's grace. And he's baking in the sun and God

causes a vine to grow up and a great big gourd to grow on the vine and it protects him from the sun, shades him. And then God causes a worm to come and eat the base of the vine and the gourd shrivels and withers and dies. And Jonah's sitting there more disgusted. And God finally speaks to Jonah. I mean, he's letting him sit there and simmer all this time. He says, Jonah, what's the matter?

And Jonah says, I knew you. I know you're a God of mercy and kindness. I knew you wouldn't smite these people. That they'd repent and you'd withhold your judgment on them. I knew that. He didn't see God's grace. He didn't see God's mercy. He wasn't even thankful for the gourd. He was complaining because the gourd shriveled. Not thankful for even a little bit

of time that God gave him free from the baking down of the sun. You see, we get those blessings of God all the time, every day in the midst of the circumstances of our life. But we're so consumed with our own desires, squash the Nineveh campaign, that we've missed the blessings of God. And we're not thankful. We're not happy people. We're not realizing the goodness of God's blessing because of the war that's going on

within. Not only Jonah, but kind of see James that way too, okay? Remember, James was the half-brother of Jesus. Jesus grew up with him. You know, I can see James with his, you know, little bird or something, you know, that little friendly bird that he's got that died, a little bad hamster or whatever. And Jesus goes, oh, you know, and the thing comes back to life or whatever. James isn't

happy. He's just disgusted with his brother. Envies him, just constantly in turmoil with him, missing the blessings of God because of that jealousy and that envy that's inside. We're at war with each other because we're at war within ourselves. We desire to have and we don't get, and it's a conflict. And we're at war within ourselves for only one reason, because we're at war with God, because we're at war with God. Every,

every conflict, every war, be it a nation against nation or an individual conflict among ourselves is a result of rebellion against God. It's a result of war with God. It's the reason our nation is so chaotic. They have rebellion against God. It's the result of war with God. It's the reason for the breakup in the family unit in our nation. It's because they've rebelled against the

Lord. They've turned their back on God. And you go, now, wait a minute. I'm a believer. I mean, I believe Romans 5 where it says there used to be enmity between God and me, but God dealt with that with Christ on the cross. Absolutely, absolutely dealt with that. Well, what do you mean then? Well, let's look at the text. You adulterous people, verse 4. Who's he writing to?

The church. You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes what? An enemy of God. How in the world as a believer do I get to be an enemy of God? How can I come into, how as a believer do I war with God? Well, according to the text and according to other texts, it happens through fraternization with the enemy. Fraternizing with the enemy,

a word some may not understand or know. What is fraternization with the enemy? It's when you're in the midst of a battle, World War II. Or Vietnam, or whatever war. To fraternize with the enemy is to give place to the enemy. It's to treat the enemy as a friend. It's to go against your own countrymen. It's to put your own countrymen in jeopardy. It's to deny the sovereignty of the nation whom you represent. Fraternization

was a treasonable offense, punishable by death. You fraternize with the enemy. You were a source of giving the enemy information. You were a source of conflict in your own troops, and it was punishable by death, fraternization with the enemy. Well, James tells us there's three enemies that as believers we fraternize with, that we become friendly with, and it causes us to war with God, causes us to be an enemy with God. In verse 4,

he just showed us the first one. It's friendship with the world. Friendship with the world. Don't you realize that to be a friend with the world is to be hatred towards God? He who is a friend of the world is an enemy of God. Now, how are we friendly with the world? How do we fraternize with the world? Listen, listen, listen. It's somehow believing that it's something in this world that's going to satisfy you, and you pursue it with all

your heart. It's believing that somehow my satisfaction is going to be gained by fill in the blank. That job, that promotion, that schooling. Not that we shouldn't do those things. God's given us the ability to work and to use the resources available, but at times they become the goal, you see? And until I have that person, that spouse, that spouse, until I have that six-figure income, until I have that house in the country, or

that house in the city, or move to the bigger town, or move to the smaller town, or get a bigger car, or get a Jeep, or get whatever, I won't be satisfied. And the idea is that something in this world will satisfy you. That makes it an enemy of God. Why? God the Father. Because God the Father, in the Word, says He's the only one that can satisfy. It's only when you and I come to the Lord that we find satisfaction.

It's only when we give our hearts to Him that there is joy, that there is peace, that there is contentment. He alone satisfies. In His presence only is there fullness of joy. So if I'm seeking it anywhere else, God has become my enemy. I am an enemy of God. I am warring with Him because friendship with the world is hatred toward God the Father, okay? And friendship with the world quickly leads to three things according to Scripture. 1 John

2 tells us it causes us to love God. 1 John 2 tells us it causes us to love God. 1 John 2 tells us it causes us to love the world. We enter into a love relationship with the world. That's why here James calls us adulterers. Really, it's in the feminine tense in the Greek. It's adulteresses. Why? Because as the church, we are the bride of Christ. We are espoused to Him. We are looking to Him just as a prospective bride looks towards

her bridegroom, anticipates that wedding day, keeps herself chaste and pure, doesn't enter into any other relationship with anybody else because she's waiting for her groom. That's where we are as the church. We're waiting for our bridegroom. We are espoused to Him, and when we go off seeking satisfaction from something in the world, we in essence have said He can't satisfy, and we've committed spiritual adultery. And it's a heavy-duty thing with God. It's not just some word He's

stuck in a verse in the Scripture. It's a heavy-duty thing with the Lord. We become an enemy of God as we do that. We love the world. Secondly, we begin to be conformed to the world. Romans chapter 12. Paul warns us, don't be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the world. We're waiting for our bridegroom. We are espoused to Him. We are in the process of renewing of your mind, implying that if you and I aren't in the process

of transforming by spending time with the Lord, then we are in the process of conforming to the world. And if you seek anything in the world that's going to satisfy apart from the Lord, you are being conformed to the image of the world rather than transformed into the image and likeness of God's Son. And thirdly, 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 32, we're not only loving the world, being conformed to the world, but we will be condemned with the world, disciplined by God, a chastening chastening. There's a believer in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 when Paul is talking about the judgment seat of Christ. He talks about some who will get there, who will be saved, who will stand

before the judgment seat of Christ, yet with the smell of smoke, like they just barely made it. You know, they just barely made it from the fires of hell. Well, this is the indication here. Those who seek to love the world, who seek to befriend the world, who are Christians, are an enemy with God, and God's going to bring His disciplining hand. We'll see that later on as we go through.

James, the rest of James. And it's intense. Verse 6, God opposes the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. I don't know if you've thought about that before, but meditate on that this week. God opposes the proud. You don't want God opposing you. I don't care what kind of conflict you've had with anybody or any organization in the world. You do not want God opposing you. That's a heavy, in my NIV, it's set aside from the other verses.

I just thought that was some little poetic thing that they did. You know, that's kind of neat, kind of poetic, neat thing that they do when they write. You write a text like, no, it's a heavy verse. Fraternizing with the world, friendship with the world. The second enemy that we can fraternize with is the flesh, is the flesh. What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within

you? And look down at verse 5. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit He caused to live in us envies intensely, is jealous over us where our flesh is concerned? Our fleshly desires come from our desires. Our fleshly desires come from our desires. Our Adamic nature, from Adam, from the nature that we inherited after the fall from Adam and Eve. And it's, in essence, friendship with the flesh. You and I have basic desires

of our flesh, sensual desires, the desires of our senses. And often those desires guide us. Often those desires guide our decisions. Now, case in point, when you get through here, it's lunchtime, but you have things planned at home. So, do you want to go home and finish the plans that you'd already started? But it's lunchtime. Can't we just grab something at McDonald's or Wendy's, you know, something? Now, why? Because I'm hungry. But you had

plans, but I'm hungry. How often do we alter our plans because of our senses, because of our sensual desires? I'm hungry. I'm going to eat. Well, I'm supposed to be there at 7. I'm hungry. I'm going to stop and eat. I'm not supposed to take another man's wife. I'm sorry I've got this desire. I just want her. I want him. See? And we're often guided by the senses. That's the flesh.

And we're guided by senses rather than by the Lord. The flesh is the enemy of God the Holy Spirit. Notice this. The world is the enemy of God the Father. Why? Because only God satisfies, and yet the world wants to seek to satisfy. The flesh is the enemy of God the Holy Spirit. Why? Because the flesh seeks to guide you to fulfill its desires when God's Spirit is the one that's been given to guide us into all truth, into all things,

into what's necessary. Verse 5 is a difficult verse. James says, or do you think Scripture is without reason that the Spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? Now, in case you go to your concordance and you try and find verses that relate to that, and you may have a little footnote if you're in NIV, it says, or that God jealously longs for the Spirit that he made to live in us, or that the Spirit he caused to live in us longs jealously.

There is no other, there's no Scripture that's even close to this. And most scholars think that James is just kind of summing up the Old Testament. He's a jealous God. He's jealous over us. And whether or not he's jealous for our Spirit, that our Spirit would yield itself to his Spirit, or whether or not he's jealous because his Holy Spirit lives in us as believers, and he wants us to yield our flesh to that

Spirit, really makes no difference. Either way is right. The emphasis is on the fact that God's a jealous God, and he's jealous for our benefit. He's jealous over us. He doesn't want us running off after the world or the flesh because he knows how destructive that is. He doesn't want us running off after the world or the flesh because he knows how destructive that is. It will devastate you. And he knows that. And he wants only the best

for you. He wants only his blessing, his grace, his mercy for you. And so he's jealous when we give heed to those other lovers of the world and the flesh. That's why James is so heavy by calling us adulteresses. The third thing is, and you probably guessed it already, is the devil, the world, the flesh, and the devil. Throughout Scripture, those three are the enemies of the believer. Verses 6 and 7. And we're going to look at this more next

week. Verse 6, because it's so heavy, and verse 7. But he gives us more grace. He gives us more grace. That's why Scripture said, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves then to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. The world is the enemy of God the Father because only God satisfies. The flesh is the enemy of God the Holy Spirit because only the Holy Spirit can guide us into what's true. The devil is

the direct enemy of God the Son. He opposes the workings of God the Son. He opposes everything that Jesus is. Satan does because that's the redeeming work. And he wants to keep as many people from the redeeming work of Christ as possible and from understanding the power of redemption that comes with the redeeming work that has been done through Christ on the cross. Satan wants

to rob Jesus of his glory. And so he sets up other things for us to glory in. Athletes, movie stars, rock stars, other things that we set our hearts on that we seek to emulate and be like that robs glory from the Son. He seeks to minimize the cross and the work of the cross. Case in point, how many of you are just longing to tell people about Jesus? I mean, you

just, you can't wait because whoever you want to meet, you want to just tell them about Jesus and what he's done for you. If you had a cure for cancer and you knew it was the cure and you met someone who had cancer, wouldn't you want them to take the cure? You have it. You'd be quick to tell them about it. Well, the world has cancer and it's called sin. You can't tell them about it. You can't

tell them about sin. And it's devastating the world and it's sending people to hell every second. And you have the cure. But when it comes time to talk to somebody about it, you freeze up. And you know what your answer is? The same as mine. I don't know everything that I should and I'm not a speaker. Hogwash. It's Satan minimizing the cross. He's minimizing the cross in a way that

he's making you think, I don't want to be, I don't want to be foolish. I don't want to appear stupid and all to somebody. I don't want to be uncool. You know, so I'll just shut up and keep quiet. He's opposing God the Son and the redemptive work of God the Son and the power of the cross. Satan wants to take your focus away from Jesus and put it on yourself. Oh, it's okay to acknowledge

Jesus. It's okay to acknowledge it where Satan's concerned. It's okay to acknowledge him. Just keep him in his place, locked up in a church building somewhere. Don't bring him into the schools. Don't bring him into the public settings. Don't bring him into the courts of law. It's okay to acknowledge him. Just keep him to yourself. It's a personal problem. Private kind of thing. And that's an enemy that you and I war against, but we fraternize with more

than we war against him. And he compromises us. And as he does that, he causes us to depend upon ourselves rather than depending upon God's grace. Something I want you to notice here is a verse that you probably read over and don't really think about. Verse six, he gives us more grace or grace more abundantly in whatever version you're in. Please underline that or circle it or mark it or

highlight it or something. Because it's often too easy to think just Ephesians 2.8, for by grace are you saved through faith. Okay. I've been saved by God's grace, but it's a tough life out there. People don't like you. It's tough to live for Jesus. Amen. That's why he gives you more grace, abounding grace, abundant grace. Grace is sufficient, he told Paul, for whatever he was

facing. He gives it to you. It's just whether or not you're going to receive it. And whether you receive it or not depends on how friendly you are with the world, how friendly you are in letting your flesh guide you, how friendly you are with the devil who opposes the redeeming work of Christ. And doesn't want you to feel that way. Don't want you to feel foolish in sharing your faith with somebody else to keep from going to

hell. Satan wants you to depend upon you and your abilities. God wants you to depend upon him and his grace. Now, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Think about that between now and next week, would you? Please, please, let's stand together. Next week, James is going to show us four ways to resist these three enemies. Four ways to resist the world and the flesh and the

devil. Right now, as we close, I want you to take a moment. I want you to be honest with yourself before the Lord. Are you having a conflict with somebody? Are you at war with some individual, be it in your own family or be it on your job or be it in school or be it here in the church? Are you at war? Is there a conflict going on? Why? Because the Bible tells us to be at peace with all men. Be honest with yourself before the Lord. Are you warring

within? Is there some desire that you have and you're going to get it no matter what? Doesn't make any difference what's in your way, who's in your way. You're going to get it. You want that more than anything else. It's what you're living for right now. Let me tell you, and I want to be as honest with this and not trite and not spiritually sounding. If your reason for living

is not Christ, then it's worthless. Let me say that again. If your reason for living right now is not Christ, then whatever reason it is, it's worthless. Because whatever other reason you have, you'll be ineffective in it. And you're seeking it to satisfy you and you've made yourself an enemy with God the Father. You're letting your flesh guide you where that's concerned and you've

made yourself an enemy of God the Holy Spirit. You're believing the lie that God the Father has told you and you are an enemy of God the Son. You're at war with God and that's a dangerous place to be. God is stirring up his church. He's setting it aside unto himself, I believe, because he's ready to remove it from this earthly scene. Now is the time to set aside those things

that beset you, that area of sin that so easily binds you and encumbers you and run the race set before you. Now is the time. Father, help us. James gives us strong warnings. They're not easy, they are painful, sometimes too painfully close for comfort. It's easy to see in my own life where I've befriended the world and allowed my own flesh to guide me and even heeded the enemy over sharing

my faith in your Son, Lord, and his redeeming Word. And I confess that. I want to be freed from that, from the bondage of that. And Father, just to be a vessel fit for your use, not to be at war with you, not to be any conflict within, that we might say with Paul, for me to live as Christ. That's my reason for living. Everything else is gravy. Everything else is just added gravy. And if you decide to take it away, that's fine. You

are God. The Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And if I die, that's great. For me to die is gain. I'm in your presence. May each of us come to the point where we have that, where we are at that place of life. Help us for the days are short. Father, if there are any here that are struggling in their personal lives, God, may you just let them

take heed to what you're speaking to our hearts. May we just stop right now where we are and drop to our knees. And roll those burdens onto you, the stop, drop, and roll. And we just stop and drop before you and roll these things to you, Lord. Please, please strengthen your church. For it's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.