Friend of the World, Enemy of God

Transcript

GR 1653
10/07/2012
Friend of the World, Enemy of God
James 4:4-6
Gil Rugh


We are in the book of James so if you want to turn there in your Bible: James was a key figure in the early church as noted in the early part of the book of Acts. Stop in (James 1:1). A reminder to keep in view the context of who James is and those to whom he is writing. He is, “James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, (and he is writing) to the twelve tribes,” of the Diaspora—Jews scattered outside the land of Palestine. Now James was a leader in the church at Jerusalem. In the early part of the book of Acts, Peter is the dominant figure but when it comes to the focal point of the leadership, as we see in (Acts 15) James has the key role in the early church in Jerusalem. Of course, the church in Jerusalem was primarily comprised of Jews so he is writing to Jewish believers who have been scattered outside the land of Israel and he still has a burden for them as Jewish believers.

This letter is probably the first of the letters written in our New Testament and it has a Jewish flavor. James doesn’t develop some of the doctrines that Paul will develop in his later letters; for example, he does not develop any doctrine of the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t mean he is not familiar with the Holy Spirit since he would be from his Old Testament background. He is aware of what has taken place on the day of Pentecost and so on, giving it a strong Jewish flavor. He approaches things from his Jewish background and he draws much from the teaching of Christ who was his half-brother. Remember, James was not a believer during Christ’s earthly ministry. Following his conversion, which happened as a result of the resurrection and subsequent appearance of Christ after His resurrection to James and others, he obviously immersed himself in the teachings of Christ as reflected in this letter.

The writers of the New Testament are serious about our relationship with Christ. I think sometimes, in the church today, we become somewhat lax and think of the church more as a place of semi-entertainment and sometimes not-so-semi in the entertainment emphasis. You do not find that in the New Testament so we might view James as somewhat severe. I think if we were going to say, “James is coming to do a series in our church in coming weeks”; we could expect that he would address some things very firmly.

When he writes to these Jews scattered outside the land of Palestine he started out by reminding them it was good that they were having their faith tested and they could turn to God to find wisdom for handling their trials and there was blessing for those who would endure under the trials. At the end of (James 3), he contrasted the wisdom of the world and the wisdom from God—what characterized worldly wisdom and godly wisdom.

James is concerned that the faith we claim in God manifest itself in lives that are lived in obedience to God; if your faith has not transformed your life, it is a dead faith. You say that you believe in God, that you believe in Christ. That’s nice! (James 2:19c) “…the demons also believe and tremble. (v. 26b) ...faith without works is dead.” It becomes an overarching theme, if you will, of James’s letter. He is concerned that the Jews who profess faith in Christ not slide into the same kind of situation that Israel did in the Old Testament, which was what? Claim that the God of Israel was their God but it made no difference in the way they lived. They lived ungodly and unfaithful lives so after warning them about the contrast between heavenly wisdom and earthly wisdom he came into (James 4:1) and said, “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you?” Let’s get right to the heart of the matter. There are quarrels and conflicts among you, where do you think it comes from? This kind of wisdom does not come from God—coming out of (James 3). The source of these quarrels and conflicts is your own selfish (James 4:1b) “pleasures that wage war in your members. (V. 2)…You lust…you are envious…you fight and quarrel.” What is going on? He is writing to them who profess belief but you sometimes wonder; is he writing to believers or not? He is writing to those who profess belief but something is wrong in their conduct. (V. 3) “You ask” God and seek things from God but you do not get them. Do you know why? You’re driven by your own selfish pleasure and you think God is there to serve you, give you what you want and give you what you would like to have to fulfill your selfish desires. (V. 3) “You ask and do not receive, (why?) …because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.”

How deceptive sin is and how we deceive ourselves to think that God could become just a source of fulfilling what we want! We all recognize how easy it is to slide into that kind of mentality and we sometimes cover it over, as we talked about, with good things. Of course, we want this because we are going to use it for good things. If I had a bigger house, I could have bigger Bible studies in my home and that would be good. We can cover over even our selfish desires with a veneer of godliness. James cuts right through that and so he is going to pick up with (v. 4). This section really runs down through (v. 10) and it’s harsh.

He is going to start out by calling them adulteresses. Just describing it in the third person, he addresses them, (v. 4) “You adulteresses.” This is not a good church growth plan—you write them a letter and now you call them adulteresses and you don’t cover it over. People who conduct themselves like this would be adulteresses. No! “You adulteresses” who are practicing such things, who are driven by your own selfish pleasures, who are involved in quarrels and conflicts among yourselves because you are trying to get your own way. We will address them as adulterers and adulteresses, then he will give them ten sharp commands saying what they have to do. James just cuts through where you are and what needs to be done to correct the situation. He picks up in (v. 4): “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

There are no gray areas in James’ writing. This is where we are and I am writing to you as spiritual adulteresses. They would understand and grasp the significance of that immediately because the Old Testament pictured Israel as the wife of Jehovah. When Israel was unfaithful to Jehovah God said, “They were functioning as spiritual harlots, spiritual whores—adulteresses.”

Come back to Isaiah, a little bit of the prophets. (Isaiah 54:5): God is speaking about Israel. “For your husband is your Maker, whose name is the lord of hosts; and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, who is called the God of all the earth.” What a privilege for Israel to be called the wife of Jehovah! He is the lord of hosts, the Redeemer of Israel. He is the God of all the earth and you have this relationship with Him. “Your husband is your Maker,” God says to Israel.

Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel--come over to (Ezekiel 16:1-3). We won’t have time to read all that Ezekiel has to say on this subject, but the Jews would be well familiar with these messages of what we call the Major Prophets, these large prophetic books. (V. 1) “Then the word of the lord came to me, saying, (v. 2) 'Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations (v. 3) and say, “Thus says the lord God to Jerusalem...”'” It goes on with the background of Israel. God took them when they were nothing out of their pagan situation and made them a people that would belong to Him. He gave them their life, if you will. (V. 8) He put His skirt over them to cover their nakedness (v. 8c) “…and entered into a covenant with you so that you became Mine, declares the lord.”

That is the picture and God showered His blessings on Israel so that they prospered. (Ezekiel 16:15) “But you trusted in your beauty and played the harlot because of your fame, and you poured out your harlotries on every passer-by…” So graphic a picture here of the way a prostitute or harlot functions, and He is picturing the spiritual condition of Israel as Israel was unfaithful to Him. When He took them, they were nothing and because of His blessings given to them, they prospered but their prosperity became an occasion for them to be unfaithful to the lord. We don’t have time to read the rest of the description.

(V. 22) “Besides all your abominations and harlotries you did not remember” when you were nothing and I took you for Myself. They were spiritually unfaithful to Him. They went after other gods; they went after the things of this world, and they joined themselves to other nations instead of depending on God to continue to provide and care for them: the God who had taken them from nothing and so blessed and honored them.

(V. 28) “Moreover, you played the harlot with the Assyrians…you were not satisfied; you played the harlot with them and still were not satisfied.” (V. 29) “You multiplied your harlotry”—it included Chaldea, the Babylonians and on it goes. He keeps talking (v. 30b) “…the actions of a bold-faced harlot.” I mean it is just relentless driving home a bold-faced whore, no shame, nothing, just aggressively and openly promoting your unfaithfulness to God. (V. 32) “You adulteress wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband!” (V. 33) “Men give gifts to all harlots, but you give your gifts to all your lovers…” I mean you are worse than the average whore is. The average whore is paid for her services. You pay to have them as your lovers. A devastating picture! (V. 35) “Therefore, O harlot, hear the word of the lord.” That relentless emphasis.

Come over to (Ezekiel 23). These Jews reading this letter of James would be people well familiar with these passages and when He says, “You adulteresses” the strength of that rebuke would hit them hard. Ezekiel 23 has forty-nine verses and we just don’t have time to read it all. He is talking about the adultery of Israel. He starts out with a picture of two women and they picture Israel, the Northern Kingdom and Israel, the Southern Kingdom. These two women are sisters, they have one mother because they had one kingdom and then it divided. The older sister, if we can call her that, played the harlot and there was punishment for that. The younger sister didn’t learn anything and followed her into harlotry: both the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom. Ezekiel, remember, is writing in the context of the Babylonian captivity. The Assyrians carried the Northern Kingdom away into captivity in 722 B.C. The Southern Kingdom ultimately by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.

The last sentence of (Ezekiel 23:4) tells you, “Samaria is Oholah and Jerusalem is Oholibah.” Those are the two sisters and their harlotry. Samaria was the capital for the Northern Kingdom and Jerusalem for the Southern Kingdom. (V. 5) “Oholah played the harlot while she was Mine; she lusted after her lovers, the Assyrians.” (V. 7) “She bestowed her harlotries on them.” (V. 8) “She did not forsake her harlotries.” (V. 11) “Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet she was more corrupt in her lust than she, her harlotries were more than the harlotries of her sister.” You see the picture of Israel, the Northern and Southern Kingdoms, defiled spiritually in harlotry. Go through that long chapter of forty-nine verses and that is what it is about: God’s judgment on Israel for such harlotries.

You have to go to one other book. You are in Ezekiel and after Ezekiel, you will go to Daniel and then after Daniel, you come to Hosea.

What is Hosea about? Harlotry. Hosea the prophet, “Go love a woman loved of her lovers” as it is put in (Hosea 1:2a) “Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry; for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the lord.” Hosea, your wife and children are going to be a picture of Israel’s unfaithfulness to Me. (Hosea 9:1) “Do not rejoice, O Israel with exultation like the nations! For you have played the harlot, forsaking your God. You have loved harlots’ earnings on every threshing floor.” In other words, indiscriminate like a whore. Wherever I am paid, that is where I sell myself. That’s how God views Israel…graphic picture…the seriousness of this.

So when you come to James, remember he is writing to Jews in the Diaspora, Jews who have been scattered outside of Palestine. These are Jews who profess a relationship with God through faith In Christ and in (James 4:4) he says, “You adulteresses”—knowing this background ,what a way to speak to them! There is no middle ground here. The ugliness of Israel’s unfaithfulness to God is being perpetuated in their own life as they profess a relationship with God and faith in Christ. “You adulteresses, do you not know?” Of course, they know this! That expression, “Don’t you know?”—it’s like when we talk to our kids—“Don’t you know better?” We are not asking them whether they do or don’t. A question tells them they know better but they are not functioning in light of the knowledge they have. “…do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?” We just read a little sampling of the prophets’ message to Israel. Of course, these Jews know that! Friendship with the world is hostility toward God.

Friendship—that word comes when we talk about Greek words for love: philia or phileo, agape or agapao. Those are the verbs. This is that word philos, basically the word for love. It means “love, beloved, dear, loving, devoted” and is a word used for friends because friends are those we are devoted to; we love them, and they are special to us. Friendship is a relationship of love and devotion. Friendship with the world is hostility toward God. The world is this world system and all that is in it, all that it stands for. What was reflected at the end of (James 3:15) when he talks about the wisdom that is earthly, natural, demonic, part of this world. This world system in (1 John 5:19c) we’re told “the whole world lies in the evil one”—in the power and under the authority of the devil himself.

(James 4:4c) “Friendship with the world is hostility toward God.” That makes you the enemy of God as he is going to put it. There is no middle ground. You belong to God. We did not look at the passages that talk about the church and their relationship to Christ. (Ephesians 5) Paul talks about the church, as the bride of Christ and the sacrifice of Christ for the church. In writing to the Corinthians, he says (2 Corinthians 11:2) “I have espoused you to one husband” and I am concerned that you maintain your purity of devotion to Him.

You cannot have it both ways. You cannot be in this marriage relationship to God and have this devotion to the world. They are opposed; they are enemies of one another. God is the enemy of the devil and the world. The world is the enemy of God. (James 4:4) “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?” We are talking about friendship. This has appeared earlier in James in a good sense. Back up to (James 2:17) and he used Abraham as an example of faithfulness to God, one whose faith manifested itself in his works. This is in the context where he said in (v. 17) “Faith, if it has no works, is dead” and then he went on to say, you talk about your faith but if you don’t demonstrate it in your works, how do you know it’s there? Saving faith changes you. Then he used Abraham as an example when he offered up his son Isaac. His works demonstrated he truly trusted God. (V. 22) “You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; (brought to completion) (v. 23) and the Scripture was fulfilled which says,
(cf. Genesis 15:16) and abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, (now note) and he was called the friend of God.” That word philos we have for friend or friendship.

(James 4:4) when he says, “friendship with the world”…well, wait a minute. Abraham was the friend of God. If you are the friend of the world you are in a relationship of enmity toward God; you are not in the line of Abraham that we claim as our father. He was the friend of God but if you are a friend of the world, you are in a relationship of being God’s enemy in a situation of hostility toward God. That is why I mention (1 John chapter 2). I often quote these verses. (1 John) is just after James, then come through 1 and 2 Peter and you’re into (1 John 2:15-18a). (V. 15) “Do not love (agapao) the world (We talked about phileo love and agapao love. Here he uses the word agapao when he says, “Do not love the world.” Same point though.) …nor the things in the world. If anyone loves (agapao) the world, the love (agape) of the Father is not in him. (V. 16) For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.” (V. 17) “The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.” Then he reminds them, (v. 18) “Children, it is the last hour.” These are serious times. You see , you can’t love the world and if you love the world, you don’t love God. It cuts right through. So John says the same thing as James.

Come back to (James 4:4) “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?” It is a crucial time because we have so much emphasis in our day on the world. It is everywhere. The church receives instruction on how it can grow and make itself more inviting to the world so that the world can come into the church and feel comfortable. What we are really talking about is how the church can be the friend of the world. I’m not saying our intention is to be offensive but the message of the cross is an offense to those who are perishing. We are not going out of our way to be offensive by our manners or by telling people they are not welcome. Now note, we want people to come hear the truth. So much of what the church offers today sacrifices the truth so that it can have a relationship with the world. We can have no true relationship with the world; and we cannot have a friendship with the world in that sense. It does not mean we do not have unbelievers who are friends in the general sense. We ought to be kind to them, understanding in our dealings with them and not dealing with them arrogantly as that would be contrary to what James is writing. We understand we were once like them. We understand that there can be no compromise of the truth. We do not become like the world; this is to be a center where God’s truth is given out. The church is the pillar and support of the truth. The world finds that offensive and so we think, well we should not be so direct with the truth.

I shared with you one church claiming to be evangelical but when asked why they don’t present the gospel in their services they were quite honest. Our board has decided that would be contrary to making the unbeliever feel comfortable. Well, why are you there? They can go to a ball game and feel comfortable if things are going right. I mean, there are many places the unbeliever can go and feel comfortable. We hope that he comes and by the grace of God, the Spirit will bring conviction so they are uncomfortable and realize they need to bow themselves before the living God and receive His cleansing so that they can be welcome in His presence. Now they are His enemies. “Friendship with the world is hostility toward God.” I cannot tell you how much material I get supposedly to help evangelical churches be more successful by traveling around doing seminars, writing books and it all has to do with what? How we can be liked by the world so that they will respect us and want to be part of us. James is addressing that. “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” Make your choice: do you want to be the world’s friend or God’s friend? Well, can’t we have a little of both? What does James say? No, the picture is that God is not willing to share His wife. You say, “Well, that’s a little crass.” It’s just how God sees it. You belong to Me. I want your total devotion. That’s what James says, “Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself”—he wishes; there’s a desire there and the person desires a relationship with the world. We live in the world no doubt; we have contact with the world, and you get the idea you know what James is talking about if you are a believer. There is no friendship with the world. There is no meeting of the minds here. So you wish—you have a desire and that is where it starts, in our hearts and minds. If you desire to be a friend of the world you make yourself an enemy of God, and that word translated “enemy” comes from the same basic word translated “hostility” in (v. 4). When you are hostile to something, you are an enemy of something, so same basic word here. “Hostility” and “enemy” is sometimes translated “enmity, hostility”; you make yourself an enemy of God. Your decision, your desire to be connected to the world, to have a relationship with the world, to be a friend of the world, puts you in a position of hostility. Therefore, if you claim to belong to God, joined in a marriage relationship to Him (we’re the bride of Christ) that makes you an adulteress. You make yourself an enemy of God.

(V. 5) “Do you think (what James is going to do is demonstrate the validity of what he has just said.) Do you think the Scripture speaks to no purpose: 'He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us'?”

Again, (v. 4) “do you not know (v. 5) …Do you think”—obviously they don’t think this; you know they would agree with what the Scriptures said. “Do you think the Scripture speaks to no purpose”—“To no purpose” is a word meaning “empty, vainly,” but “to no purpose” gives the idea. It would be like saying, “Do you think God talks just to hear Himself talk?” I don’t even like to suggest that but that is what he is talking about here. “Do you think the Scripture speaks to no purpose”—Isn’t the Scripture God speaking? Do you think God speaking is just hot air, empty, with no purpose? He is just talking to hear Himself talk? That’s terrible. James is addressing this. Is this what you people that I’m writing to that claim a relationship with God, really think? I mean, you see how serious the matter is; it is like adultery saying that, “God is filled with hot air.” I mean you think He is just talking, emptily to no purpose?

It says, (v. 5b) “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us.” Now there is a lot of discussion about this passage and we are not going to spend a lot of time working through the details. Some of you who particularly do your own study could do that in the better commentaries. The problem comes that the Greek text can be translated in different ways. Now the encouraging thing is no matter which way you go, it’s biblical. You can’t eliminate and decide which is the better translation because neither one would be contrary to the rest of Scripture; so there is not an issue here of something being biblical. The issue is what is James is talking about? Our New American Standard Bibles, which I am reading from and most of you are probably using, translated “He” as referring to God. “He jealously desires the Spirit which He made to dwell in us.” The translators are connecting (v. 5b) to the previous verse, “You adulteresses,” and so being an adulteress and God desires His Spirit, which He has put within us. In other words, that we belong to Him and be devoted to Him. That would be consistent, we’ve seen. God desires that relationship with those that belong to Him. He requires it. We read the Old Testament passages for Israel and their relationship. It would be true of New Testament where the church is the bride of Christ and the Spirit of God dwells in us. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) We are no longer our own; we have been bought with a price. That would be a biblical view but I don’t think it is the best understanding of the passage.

Another way to translate this is that the spirit that He has put within us longs to envy and I think that’s more the emphasis here. We’ll say more about it but it’s just a different translation. Both can be an accurate translation. I’m limiting it to these two possibilities, which I think are the most probable. I think that what He is really saying is the spirit that God has placed within us has an intense desire to envy. The point being that our human spirit has been corrupted by sin and now it’s driven by selfish desire. That seems to me to be the better view.

I usually try not to disagree with the translation we have here. I don’t mean to undermine your confidence because the Greek could be translated either way. It’s, “What in the context fits better?” And I think here, the spirit, which He has placed within us, longs, has a strong desire for envy. One of the reasons is the only other use of “the spirit” so far in James has been to our human spirit. He hasn’t talked about the Holy Spirit in the book so I won’t bring the Holy Spirit in at this point. I think it fits the context of what James is saying. What is the danger we face as God’s people even as redeemed people? We have a fallen nature and the spirit that God breathed into us at creation has been corrupted by sin, and there is that desire even, if we’re not careful, that leads us into sinful things. It’s that desire, the spirit within us has a strong desire to jealously envy. That word translated “desire” denotes an intense longing, a craving and I think the picture is of our fallen spirit. Even in redeemed people, if we’re not careful we know what it’s like. There is a desire there for selfishness. That’s why we’ve talked about in our marriage and family series what happens in relationships, husband and wife. Selfishness enters in and there is going to be conflict even among believers. That’s why Paul had to write to believers that they couldn’t divorce. It shouldn’t even be an issue but it is. Do you think the Scripture speaks to no purpose when it says that the spirit within us is driven by strong desires for envy, selfishness? That word “jealous” is translated “jealously” in your New American Standard when he says, “He jealously desires” or “the Spirit within us desires jealously.” That word translated “jealously” is always used with a bad connotation in the New Testament.

Take a moment. Come back to (Romans 1:28) you see how the word translated “jealously” is used. If you take it the way it is translated, that God jealously longs for, desires our spirit you are using that word “jealously” in the good sense but that wouldn’t be consistent I don’t think with its other uses. Talking about those controlled by a depraved mind in (v. 28), “God gave them over to a depraved mind, (v. 29)
…Being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy,” (translated “jealousy,” a word translated sometimes “jealousy” sometimes “envy” because that’s what it means; envy, jealousy, all reflecting the same kind of attitude and sin—full of envy.

It is one of the deeds of the flesh. (Galatians 5:19) “The deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: (v. 21) envying,” that’s our word that is translated “jealously.” It is a work of the flesh. (1 Timothy 6:3) talking about those who would advocate doctrine contrary to the truth of the word of God. (V. 3) “If anyone advocates a doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, (v. 4) he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions, disputes about words, which arise out of envy.” There’s our word.

Remember the context (James 4:1) is talking about. Where “come wars and fightings”? They come from within yourself. These things drive them: envy, this kind of attitude.

You don’t need to go there but you can jot down these passages: (Titus 3:3) and (1 Peter 2:1). This is the word used in the context consistently of the action of unbelievers, of fallen man.

The Old Testament would support this; it indicates that as a result of sin apart from the work of God’s grace in a life we are driven by what? Selfish, sinful desires. They are strong and intense. Isn’t it amazing what people will put themselves through for the pleasure of sin? That’s why I say, sin makes you stupid. Look at what drugs do to you but a craving for them drives people. What does immorality do but bring disgrace? We’ve had leading figures get involved in immoral relationships, and then they are disgraced. Why would you do that? They have this d-e-s-i-r-e they are just driven by. You say that’s ruinous that’s destructive. They are controlled by it.

Come back to (Genesis 6:5) and it is leading up to the flood but what’s the situation? (V. 5) “Then the Lord saw the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” The condition of man in his fallen state, driven and controlled by sin and that fills his thoughts all the time.

Come over to (Genesis 8:21) now we’re after the flood but something has not changed. We have a demonstration of God’s judgment on an unbelieving world but you know what—righteous Noah and his family come through the flood but you know what they bring through the flood? What we call fallen sinful natures, right? The flood has subsided and after the flood Noah offers sacrifice to God from the clean animals he’s taken on the ark, (v. 21) “The Lord smelled the soothing aroma; and the Lord said to Himself, 'I will never again curse the ground on account of man,' (why?) '…for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth.'” Sad to say but you would think the flood took care of that. Now we have people that aren’t evil in heart but you know what? God says He is going to be gracious and not destroy the world this way again. In (Genesis 9:11-16) you will have the sign of the rainbow, which is indicative of the fact God will not wipe out the world with a flood again. It does not mean there won’t be floods in the world but there will not be a worldwide catastrophic flood as there was in the days of Noah. God is going to be gracious. (Genesis 8:21c) “…the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” There is no hope that it is going to get better because we are born this way.

Come over to (Psalm 14:1). The psalm opens up, “The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.' They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; there is no one who does good. (v. 2) The lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. (v. 3) They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.” We are familiar with these passages because Paul repeats them in (cf. Romans 3:10-12)—no exceptions here. God looks down and sees a universal condition of what? Sin. They’re not pursuing good.

Come over to (Psalm 51:5). David writes, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” Not saying conception is sin but the sin nature was passed on so at my moment of conception, I was conceived as a corrupted sinful being. It does say something about when life begins; this fallenness of our nature was passed on.

Over in (Psalm 53:1), “The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no god.'” Now note, he is repeating what (Psalm 14) said. (V. 1) “They are corrupt, and have committed abominable injustice; there is no one who does good. (V. 2) God looked down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there is anyone who understands, who seeks after God. (V. 3) Every one of them has turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.” That is why moral reformation is an exercise in futility. The corruption is in the heart. (Matthew 23:25-28) You try to clean up the outside of the cup and Jesus said, “You are like a whitewashed tomb...full of dead men’s bones.” You haven’t done anything.

(Jeremiah 17:9) “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord, search the heart.” He is the One and the only One who knows the depth of depravity of the human heart. That’s what drives us because Jesus said it is “out of the heart” (Mark 7:21) that all sin comes from and all kinds of sins so the heart has to be dealt with.

Come back to (James 4:5) and he says, “you think the Scriptures speaks to no purpose” that the spirit that He placed within us has an intense desire to envy, to jealousy. The point is it is driven by selfishness; it is driven by what I want for me, my way. That is the root of sin, isn’t it? Pride, selfishness. It’s not going to be God’s way; it is going to be my way. What are people like today? They are bold to say they disagree with God because they don’t believe in Him. They don’t even acknowledge Him. He doesn’t even enter into the conversation anymore. We are determining our conduct and what we will do based on what we want, what we think is best. We bring God into the picture, you say, “Oh no, no, don’t bring Him into this discussion.” How are you making your decisions? On the basis of what we decide. It’s man, driven by His own selfishness. It is the root. The spirit is being corrupted by sin—not that God put a sinful spirit in us, but the spirit He put within us has now been corrupted by sin as we saw in the Old Testament. What is the answer?

(V. 6) “But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, god is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (cf. Psalm 138:6). We are all in Adam, so all are Adam’s descendants. If we are conceived in sin and that corruption of sin is passed on to us, what hope is there? There is no one that does good and there is none that seeks after God. Paul repeats that in some length in (Romans 3). Parts of it are repeated again and again. What is the hope? The hope is God gives a greater grace; He gives grace greater than our sin. It is what we sing about: grace, grace, God’s grace. Grace greater than all our sin. That’s the only solution! To imply that there is any other solution is to try to develop a relationship with the world and their thinking. There is no meeting of the minds on this.

“He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, god is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” The proud means one who shows himself, manifests himself above others, thinks of himself as better, more important than others. A person who thinks himself more important than God, when it comes down to it, because he overrules God. We have this going on in the world today; we are talking about homosexual marriage, the audacity of it. I saw the article in the Omaha paper this week, front page, top of it, what? Now the majority in Nebraska, particularly in Omaha agree that homosexual marriage is OK. Is there any wonder that sinners agree? Any wonder that those opposed to God who have no fear of God before their eyes agree and are in rebellion against God? That becomes the standard but what about what God says? (Oh, that’s just your religious convictions; we don’t...) No, that is what God said; He wrote it here. (You can’t quote the Bible either… We don’t want God in the picture.) That’s what he is saying here.

(V. 6) “God is opposed to the proud.” Those who are what? In a relationship with the world, belonging to the world, who have made themselves the enemy of God. There is a solution: He gives greater grace but it is only given to the humble. Who are the humble? The humble are those who will bow themselves before God. These are pictures of warfare, the wording, He gives greater grace; God is o-p-p-o-s-e-d to the proud. A word that means “to take your stand against someone.” A word of battle where you have two armies opposing one another. Well, God stands opposed to the proud but He gives grace to the humble. The humble will be the theme in (James 4:7-10) which we will cover in our next study. There will be ten sharp commands, aorist imperatives in these few verses that characterize the humble. There is no alternative. You either bow yourself in submission to the living God or you are his enemy and He is at war with you. That’s the picture.

Now when he says, (James 4:3) “You adulteresses,” friendship with the world is to be the enemy of God, and if you make yourself a friend of the world you make yourself the enemy of God. This idea that we can have some kind of mushy Christianity and oh yes, I believe in Christ. Yes, but I don’t believe that has to mean that we can’t … And now the church is some kind of, I don’t know, how do I say it? Airy, it just has no substance to it. Of course, there is something for everyone, people come, they're happy and the unbeliever feels comfortable here, the believer feels comfortable here, and we are growing. Is everything all right here? We get comfortable with this. We all would like to fit. Let’s be honest, why does the Scripture have to emphasize this again and again? We would like to fit in.

I had a man come who had been in this church with his family for a number of years and was actively involved in a leadership position. He just came into my office one day, sat down and said, “We are leaving.” “You’re leaving?” He says, “I’ve decided I don’t want my family involved any longer in [what he referred to as] a prophetic style ministry where we are always doing battle. I want to go somewhere where it is a little more comfortable.” I didn’t know what to say. Do we battle over anything but the truth? I try to teach the truth, try to oppose those… but you’re leaving because…?

We’re all like that. I am like that. You know what I would like? I would like a nice comfortable—Over the years, I’ve said to Marilyn, “You know what I want to do, I want to go somewhere there is a small comfortable church and I can just teach the Bible and we won’t have any conflict.” And nice to have a wife who brings me back to reality. She said, “You realize if there is that nice quiet place and you go and teach the word, it will no longer be a nice quiet place.” (Laughter.) I can dream if I want, right? You know we all desire that.

I remember talking with a man who had pastored large churches who was now out of that kind of ministry because of sin and we were visiting. It was on the west coast. He said, “Gil, I’m not a battler anymore, I’m a lover. I don’t want to do battles; I just want to get along with people.” His ministry was over, sadly, it was over and I realized that in my heart but I can’t succumb to it; we can’t individually, we can’t as a church. That’s selfish.

I want a comfortable life. Should I have it better than My Master? Isn’t that what Christ told His followers? (Matthew 10:24) That “a slave is not above the Master.” They treated Me this way, why should you think you should be treated better? Selfishly, I don’t think it’s selfish, I think I’m what? Being kind but no, I’m being selfish. I would like an easier life; I would like to be liked by everyone. I would like people to say nice things about me, recognize me… Wait a minute, self drives me. That is what he is saying, (v. 6) “God is opposed to the proud.” He is opposed to exalting yourself but He gives grace to the humble. You must bow yourself before God. That’s the starting point, right? No one can be saved who doesn’t start at this point, can he? We have to bow and acknowledge that God is God and we are not. We are sinners and we cast ourselves on His mercy. We are submitting ourselves to His grace by His grace in placing our faith in Him. Now I realize that’s to be the condition of my life from that point on, right? To be humble in the sense I submit myself to God. (1 Peter 5:6) “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.” That has to be the characteristic of our life. There is no other option. (Matthew 12:30) Jesus said, “He who is not with Me is against Me.” The same point that James is making—there is no middle ground; either you are a friend of the world or you are the friend of God. If you are a friend of the world, you are the enemy of God. If you are the friend of God, you will be the enemy of the world. His grace is what has transformed us. We were all born sinners driven by our sin, serving ourselves until His grace intervened; and brought us to our knees so we recognize that there is a Savior and the Savior is Jesus Christ. We bow before Him trusting in what He has done.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the greatness of your grace. The grace that intervened in our sinful selfish lives, opened our eyes to see the glorious light of the gospel. Thank you, Lord, for the privilege of bowing in submission before you. Lord, it is necessary that we be reminded that it is the beginning of a life lived in submission and obedience to you. The allurements of the world must be rejected. Lord, we must draw upon grace, submitting to the Spirit that now indwells us so that we live as those who are the friends of God and count that our greatest blessing. May that be true of us as we serve You during the days of the week. Of course, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.