If you will, let's turn again
to the letter of James, chapter 4. I mentioned several weeks ago
when I brought the first or second message to us from this letter
that I was doing so on Sunday mornings because There's so much
practical truth that we are given in this letter, practical truths
that we all need to hear. And today we're looking at several
here in Chapter 4, the first 10 verses. From whence come wars
and fighting among you? Come they not hence even of your
lusts that warn your members? You lust and have not. You kill
and desire to have. and cannot obtain. You fight
and war, yet you have not, because you ask not. You ask and receive
not, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your
lust. Ye adulterers and adulteresses,
know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever, therefore, will be
a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do you think that
the scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us
lusteth to envy? But he giveth more grace. Wherefore,
he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves, therefore,
to God. Resist the devil, and he will
flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will
draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners,
and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be afflicted and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to
mourning and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight
of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. First, I would remind
us that this was a letter a letter which was written, or is a letter,
I should say, but at first it was a letter that was originally
written to Jewish believers who were scattered abroad. It was
not divided, of course, into chapters and verses like we have
it. And as much as we appreciate
the divisions of chapters and verses, sometimes we lose sight
of the continuity of that which went before with what we are
now looking at. And in chapter three, and we
looked at this last Sunday morning, there's a contrast between the
wisdom which is of this world and the wisdom which is from
above. That is the wisdom which is from
God. There's a contrast. In fact,
James tells us that the wisdom of this world the philosophy
of this world, that it's earthy, it's sensual, and it's devilish. Then he tells us that the wisdom
which is from above, and he had said before this, if any man
lack wisdom, let him ask of God, which giveth to all men liberally
and upbraideth not. But let him ask in faith. Let
not the double-minded man think he shall receive anything of
the Lord. So this wisdom, which is from
above, is free for the asking. That's what he had told us. It's
free for the asking of God's children. And we do need wisdom. We need knowledge, and we also
need wisdom, the wisdom which is From above, he told us here
in chapter three, the first thing about it, it's pure. It's pure,
it's peaceable, and it's gentle. That word gentle in the original,
that's where we get the word gentleman from. We don't hear that word very
much anymore, I don't guess, but a gentleman, a gentle woman. Those English words come from
this Greek word, which is here translated, the wisdom which
is from above is pure, is peaceable, is gentle. It's easy to be entreated,
full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without
hypocrisy. Now in looking at these 10 verses
that we've read here, I'm going to divide them into two equal
parts. First, James describes conduct
which is clearly produced by the wisdom which is not from
above. Let me say that again. In these
first five verses, the apostle clearly describes conduct which
is produced by the wisdom which is not from the world. which is not from above, I mean.
It is from the world. It produces strife, contention,
envy, pride, and these things James warns us about. Now, before we look at the verses,
let's recognize that James uses a number of figurative expressions. A number of figurative expressions. We read of wars. He's not talking
about Christians fighting each other. Wars, I mean fistfights. Wars, fighting, killing, adulterers. These are all metaphorical terms
that he uses here. And we should not take them literally. Do not understand them literally. And the first thing that we see
here is he asks a question. In verse one, he asks this question,
from whence come wars and fighting among you? Where do these things
come from? Well, we know that they originate
from that old man. These things that he mentions,
every child of God knows that these things are not right. Every
child of God knows that we are taught to love one another. In
fact, that's one of the marks of a true child of God, of a
person who has been born again of the Spirit of God. We have
love for the brethren. And our Lord Jesus Christ, he
told his disciples, by this shall all men know that you are my
disciples, if you have love one to another. The Apostle Paul
admonishes believers in Ephesus, be ye kind, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
Look with me over a few pages to 1 John. Every child of God
knows that these things that he describes here ought not to
be. They just ought not to be. In 1 John chapter three and verse
23, This is His commandment that
we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ. That's
a commandment. If you're here today and you
have never believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, this is His commandment,
that you believe on Him, that you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and love one another. as he gave us commandment. That
is, the Lord Jesus commanded his disciples to love one another. And then if you turn back to
Philippians chapter two, there seems to have been a disagreement
between two persons in this church at Philippi when Paul wrote this
letter. In chapter 2, he said, chapter
2, verse 2, fulfill ye my joy that ye be like-minded, having
the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done
through strife or vain glory. The fact that he tells the people,
the believers in this church at Philippi, that they should
not do anything through strife or vain glory, lets us know that
there is a possibility. There is a possibility that believers
might do things through strife or for vainglory. But we should
in loneliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own
things, but every man also on the things of others. Now that
doesn't mean to be a busybody in other people's matters. Of
course not. But when he writes that we should,
every man look on things of others, we should consider others. And
not, it shouldn't always be just about me, in other words. we
should consider one another. And that's what James is dealing
with here, the strife and the envy that may be among believers. He asks the question, where does
this come from? From whence, look back to our
text, from whence comes wars and fighting among you? We know that we should love one
another and that's our desire, isn't it? to put others before
ourselves? That's our desire, and all believers
feel the same way. Then where do these things come
from, these quarrels, these disagreements? Sometimes they do exist. Where
do they come from? A congregation is not a congregation
of holy angels. That's not the congregation here.
We have a congregation made up of holy men and women, that is,
saints of God, but men and women who still have an old nature. It's called the old man. And
the reason it's called the old man is because it has been part
of us from our first beginning, from the moment we were conceived. conceived in sin and shapen in
iniquity. And when the Lord saves a person,
when he saved you, he doesn't eradicate that old man, that
old nature. Now he gives you a new heart
with new desires and new longings. But James is simply asking this
question. First of all, where did these
things come from? They come from that old man,
that old nature. You know, even the Apostle Paul,
in Romans chapter seven, he confessed, he said, I find a law, this is
my experience, he said, I find a law that when I would do good,
and I would, and I would always do good, I find a law that when
I would do good, evil is present with me. He didn't say it was
present with me. No. And then he went on to say,
who shall deliver me from this body of death? And that deliverance
only comes from the Lord Jesus Christ. When he comes again and
we receive a glorified body, a new body, that old man will
be buried in the grave when This body is buried and he shall never
come forth again, not for the child of God. That's what James
says here. The flesh lusteth against the
spirit. In other words, that old man
lusteth, envieth against the spirit, that new man, that which
is born of the spirit. Notice the second thing we see
here in verse Verse two, you lust and have not, you kill and
desire to have and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Now, a person
may become jealous, become envious of someone else, some other believer. It may be material things. It may be that you become envious
of someone who has a larger house than you have has a larger bank
account, or has a better job, you expect, you think, than you
have, or it could be the talents that you see other believers
have. You see people in the church that God is using, God has given
them a particular gift, and they're allowed to do this for the good
of the whole body, and you become jealous. I wish I had that talent. I wish that was me, that were
me doing that. That's what James is talking
about. And this covetous may arise to the point of hatred,
of hatred. And our Lord said, when we hate
someone in our heart, we become guilty of murder. And that's
what he means here by kill. You lust and have not, you kill. He's not talking about taking
a gun and murdering someone. He's talking about that hatred,
that envy rising to hatred in your heart. And in your heart,
you're guilty of murder. The law, if the Lord Jesus Christ,
when he taught the Sermon on the Mount, he made very clear
that the law is spiritual. It doesn't just deal with the
outward actions. It's not the outward act of adultery,
but no, it's having the lust in the heart. The law is spiritual,
and that's the reason the apostle Paul could say, I was alive once
without the law. In other words, he believed that
he was holy. He was right with God by his
obedience to the law. Outwardly, he obeyed the law. But then he said the law came
to him in power. That's the work of God the Holy
Spirit, isn't it? God shows us that the law doesn't
just deal with outward acts, but it also deals with the very,
the first beginnings of desire, which is evil. Whether you ever
fulfill the act or not, just the desire is to sin against
God. And then he said, the reason
you don't have what you desire just may be because you've not
asked for it. I remember a pastor friend who's
now with the Lord, but he said one time someone told him, well,
the Lord hasn't saved me. And he said, well, have you ever
asked him? He said, no. Well, ask him. Ask him. The scripture still
says, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved. Believe him. Take him at his
word. He can't lie. Ask him. James says, maybe the
reason you don't have these things that you're desirous of is because
you've never asked for them. Ask. But then notice third, he
said, oh, here's someone that might respond to James. Oh, but
I have asked. I have asked. I have prayed to
the Lord that he would give me the things that I desire, the
gifts that I see others have. I have asked for someone else's
talent. I have asked for the prosperity
or the gifts that others have, but I have not received them.
You have asked amiss, obviously. Obviously. Isn't that what he
says? Look at the end of verse two. Or verse three rather, you ask
and receive not because you ask amiss. Now, how are we to ask? We all know that we pray and
we all know that we have needs and we pray for others. How is
it that we are to ask? We're to ask according to God's
will. We're to pray like the Lord Jesus
Christ prayed that night in the Garden of Gethsemane when he
said, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless,
not my will, but thy will be done. Let me ask you something. Every child of God here today,
would you want God to give you something? that it wasn't His
will to give you? Would you? Do you believe you
know more than God? That you know what's better for
you than God does? What presumption? Turn with me
to 1 John chapter 5. This is the confidence that we
have. James said, you ask and receive not because you ask amiss,
that you may consume it upon your own lust. Here in John chapter 5, verse 14, this is the confidence that we
have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears
us. He hears us. And if we know that
He hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions
that we desired of him. We know that. Now James supposes
that they had asked and had not received what they asked because
they had asked amiss. They had asked to consume it
upon their own lust. In other words, for their own
show, for their own vainglory. for the wrong reason. They didn't
ask for maybe more prosperity in this world to use it for the
glory of God, but no, they asked for more things of this world
to spend upon themselves. Not thinking about the things
of the Lord, not thinking about the glory of God, it's just more
for me, more for me. You're asking a mess. And I'm sure all of us have been
guilty of it. We've asked amiss many times. In the verse four, do you know,
James says, you adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that
the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore
will be a friend of the world is enemy of God. Do you know
that? Do you? I'm speaking as James
wrote to every believer here. Do we know this? Do we really
know this? That friendship with the world
is enmity with God? That what our Lord said is still
true. A man cannot serve two masters. He cannot serve God and mammon. We can't do that. It has to be
either one or the other. And friendship with the world
is likened unto adultery. When a man commits adultery,
he leaves his wife and he has relations with another. Now,
James, of course, is speaking of spiritual adultery here. The nation of Israel, this is
one thing they were charged with in the days leading up to their
destruction, days leading up to the nation of Israel being
carried away into captivity. They were guilty of adultery,
spiritual adultery. They committed adultery by worshiping
false gods, by worshiping idols. God considered it adultery. They had left Him. and gone after
these other so-called gods. They were guilty of that. Believers, sometimes we choose
the things of this world over our relationship with Christ.
Doesn't mean we deny Christ and say, well, I don't believe in
Christ anymore. No, but our actions just show
that we're more in love with the things of this world than
we are with the things of God. Sometimes we choose to fellowship
with the people of this world over fellowship with the people
of God. We'd rather spend time with those
who have no real love for the gospel than to spend time with
those who love the gospel, who love our Lord and our Savior.
That's to be a friend of the world. You know, the one verse
of scripture that I thought would apply to these verses so well
is that word that the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Timothy, when
he said, godliness with contentment is great gain. Godliness with
contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this
world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. For they that
will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish
and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. Godliness with contentment. You can't improve, you can't
have anything better than godliness with contentment. You just can't. Now the fifth thing, in verse
five, the spirit that dwells within believers. Now many people
see this as God the Holy Spirit, and it is true that God the Holy
Spirit does indwell every child of God, we know that. Do you
think that the scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth
in us lusteth to envy? But there's others who see this
as referring not to God the Holy Spirit, but the spirit of the
flesh, that remains in us, that which he had spoken about, the
old man, that spirit from the old man, it lusted to envy. It remains in believers, though
we have a new spirit that loves righteousness, this spirit remains
in believers and lusts with envy for those things that appeal
to the flesh. those things that appeal to the
flesh, the spirit of that old man, lust for those things. That's one reason this so-called
gospel of prosperity has drawn so many people away from the
truth, because the preacher is preaching about things that our
flesh desires, our flesh envies, and he's telling us that We can
have these things if we'll just sow the seed of faith. And usually
that means sending some money to him. That's usually what that
means. This gospel of prosperity, it's
a false gospel. It's not the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ, but it appeals to the flesh. This spirit lusted
to envy that remains in a child of God. Now the second part of
the message, hurriedly, James gives us several exhortations
and several encouraging truths. Number one, God gives sufficient
grace, verse six. Yes, we have this spirit in us
that lusteth to envy. We do, we don't deny that. We
have the old man, but at the same time, We know that God gives
more grace. He does. He gives us more grace. The apostle said, being confident
of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you
will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Now it is true
that believers do have this spirit of the flesh, which lusts after
the things of the world, but God gives more grace. He told
the Apostle Paul, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength
is made perfect in weakness. Grace, if it's God's grace, it's
always a gift, isn't it? That's what it means. Unmerited
favor. God's grace is always a gift.
And when God begins the work of grace in the heart of his
people, he causes us to come to know that we're poor, spiritually
poor. Causes us to be humble. Man by
nature is not humble. Man by nature is not poor in
spirit. He's haughty, he's proud, he's
self-sufficient. I can do all things, I don't
need anybody. I can take care of myself. That's the way most people are. because of sin. But God, He gives
grace. And not just at the beginning
of our Christian experience, but all along the way. He gives
us grace, grace for every day. My grace is sufficient for thee.
And second, does that mean we are then to do nothing in this
conflict? With the flesh, yes, we are.
We are to submit to God. We are to surrender everything,
ourselves, to him, to his will for us. Not my will, but thy
will be done. We submit to his will to give
us what he sees best for his glory and for our good. And then we are to resist these
evil tendencies like envy, jealousy, covetousness. They are of the
devil and they must be resisted. And by the way, the devil is
a real being. He's not some boogeyman that
men have made up to scare people. The devil is a real being. We
know that from the word of God. And he is one of the three major
enemies that every child of God has. The flesh, the world, and
the devil. Resist the devil, the scripture
says, and he will flee from thee. The one thing the devil cannot
allow is to see a child of God with the spirit of prayer And
the word of God, the devil cannot defeat that person. He just can't
do it. He'll flee from him. Just like
when David, there's this big giant, Goliath, and he has the
whole armies of Israel afraid, fearful, because of his size,
because of his history. And here comes David, just a
young man, and what does he do? He comes against this giant in
the name of the Lord God of Israel. And who is defeated? The giant
is. The same thing is true of the
devil. You may see yourself as a weak Christian, but in the
name of Christ, resist the devil and he will flee from thee. Well,
what are we to do as believers if we have succumbed to envy?
We know we've been guilty of that and of strife. He says,
draw close to God, draw nigh to God. He will draw near to
you. You've got to look at that. You've
got to look at that a while, don't you? Are you going to draw
nigh? to the one in whom you live. He's omnipresent. We live and
move and have our being in Him. How are you going to draw nigh
to Him? Of course, we have to understand
that. By drawing nigh, we draw nigh
to Him in repentance. We're guilty of these things.
We confess our sins unto God. We turn from them. We draw nigh
to God by confessing our need of cleansing and his promise
to cleanse us from all iniquity. And I would encourage every child
of God here when we think about drawing nigh to God. I know all
of us, our circumstances are all somewhat different the way
we live, but every believer should have a place. The Lord Jesus
had a place, the Garden of Gethsemane. When Judas would lead those wicked
men out to apprehend the Lord Jesus Christ, he knew right where
to go. Why? Because that had been the
habit, the custom of the Lord Jesus Christ, to go to that garden. And we know many knights spend
the night there in prayer. Every believer, every child of
God, you should Draw nigh to God. You should have a place
or maybe in your car, maybe in a room in your house where you
get along with God and shut the world out. Shut the world out. Draw nigh to God. Just unburden
your soul to Him. And then the fourth thing, weep
over your disloyalty. Weep over the way you've treated
such a kind, generous, and loving friend who's been so gracious
to you. Is this the way he should be
treated? Weep over that. And then lastly, he said, humble
yourselves before God, knowing that he will lift you up. Peter wrote, humble yourselves,
therefore, under the mighty hand of God. that he may exalt you
in due time. One of the preachers I've heard
over the years made this comment. He said, when the scripture says
here, humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God,
how many fingers is on on your hand? Most people have five fingers,
don't they? Humble yourselves under the mighty
hand of God. Number one, think about total
depravity. What you are by nature, a sinful
individual, unable in yourself to come to God. He had to come
to you. Number two, unconditional election. You didn't choose him first,
he chose you first. Number three, limited atonement. Christ died for his people. The shepherd gave his life for
his sheep, not for the goats. He's a good shepherd. And number
four, irresistible grace. Your part in salvation was you
were running as far away from God as you could go. And he got
you. He got a hold of you, didn't
he? And before long, you were doing things that you had said
you'd never do. You'd never pray. You'd never
call upon the name of the Lord. You'd never follow the Lord in
baptism. You never do any of those things.
Those are for weak people. Those are for people that need
a crutch. This whole thing about religion. As one of the communist
leaders at first said, that's the opium of the people. No,
no. It's the truth. And when God
reveals the truth to your soul, it's irresistible grace that
you look to him. And number five, here's this
little old finger, God preserves us and we persevere. The promise in the covenant was,
I will not turn away from doing them good and they shall not
turn away from me. Humble yourself under the mighty
hand of God. I trust the Lord will bless this
word to all of us here today. Practical, right? Some practical
truths. Now, I don't mean to be mean. I need to be locking these doors
at 12 o'clock. And you know why, okay? We love
to visit. Some love to visit and visit
and visit. So let's visit, but let's consider
we've got a ways to go. All right, David, let's sing
a hymn.