James is continuing the thought
he began in chapter 3, here in chapter 4. And the thing that
we need to see in this is that only God, through the continual
renewing of grace in a believer, can subdue the flesh with the
affections and the lusts within us. Now, we begin here in verse
1 with a question. From whence come wars and fighting
among you? Now, all the wars and the fighting
that goes on within nations and between nations is due to the
lust of the flesh. That's the cause of it all. But we must remember now who
it is James is writing to here. Go back to James chapter 1. James
chapter 1. James, a servant of God and of
the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered
abroad, greeting my brethren. He's writing to brethren. And
James addresses them in this letter as brethren 14 times. This is brethren. And he says
here verse 1, From whence come wars and fighting among you?
Brethren, come they not hence even of your lusts at war in
your members?" Now here's the first thing we see. Believers
are sinners still. Believers are sinners still.
When the Lord delivered Israel into the land of Canaan, He didn't
He didn't drive out all the enemies in the land, He left some there
to prove His people. And so it is in this land, our
bodies, He didn't drive out the sin, He's left the enemy there
to prove His people. So that we continually flee to
the God of all sufficient grace. Now, He makes a distinction. Throughout the letter, he reminds
us there's a difference between the spirit that's in us, the
natural, earthy flesh, the old spirit, and the spirit of God,
the renewed spirit. So when he says here, from whence
come wars and fighting among you? Let's get to that. Let's
answer that. We like to play the blame game,
you know. We get the brawling in our household. and have strife in our house
or in the church. Where does that come from? We can blame all the exterior
things we want to blame, but James says, where does that come
from? Let's get down to the bottom of it. Look back in 1 James 1.14. Remember what he said there? Every man is tempted when he's
drawn away of his own lust and enticed. He says, verse 16, Do
not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect
gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights,
with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Look
over at Romans chapter 7. Whence come wars and fighting
among you? In Romans 7 verse 20, Paul says
now, If I do that, I would not. That thing I don't want to do.
It's no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find
then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with
me. For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man, but I see another law in my members, warring
against the law of my mind and bringing me in captivity to the
law of sin which is in my members. The believer can say, truth Lord,
truth Lord. Back in James 4.1, wars and fightings
come even of my own lust at war in my members. That's where they
come from. Would James address brethren concerned in this matter?
Is that necessary? To address brethren with this
matter? The unrenewed man is nothing but bitter in envy. He's
nothing but strife. Nothing but confusion in every
evil work. But that evil imagination, those
evil desires are still with the believer. The apostles didn't
have any warring or any strife between them until they started
trying to figure out who was going to be the greatest in heaven.
And then they had problems, didn't they? Paul said, let us not be
desirous of vainglory, provoking one another, envying one another.
Now I want you to see the different effects of the flesh and the
spirit. The different effects of it.
Verse 2, 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. Now this lust that he dealt with
in chapter 3 was that lust of wanting to be preeminent over
others, to want to be a magistrate over others. And the lust he
deals with here is that desire for ambition and for covetousness,
a desire to have. Note the different effects of
the old nature in the new. Here he says the flesh is contentious. He says you kill, you fight,
you war. That's all that's in the flesh.
That's all that's in the old Adam nature is warring and strife
and striving to have. What a man wants to have and
we get to, it doesn't matter about others. The care of others
doesn't matter. Self desires to have and to usurp
authority. You lust and have not. You kill
and desire to have and cannot obtain. There's no contentment
in the flesh. There's no satisfaction in the
flesh. There's no peace in the corrupt
nature. You can't get the things. The
flesh will never be satisfied. If we feed the flesh, it'll never
be satisfied. It's a ferocious animal that'll
never be attained, never be fed. Where envying and strife is,
there's confusion. There's every evil work. That's
what we are by nature. But now look at the difference
here. The fruit of the Spirit is altogether different. Look
at verse 17, chapter 3, verse 17. But the wisdom that is from
above is first pure, then peaceable and gentle, easy to be entreated,
full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness
is sown in peace of them that make peace, of the peacemakers.
So that's, we see there's a distinction being made here between the old
man and the new and we see the difference in the effects that
come from the old and the new. Now here's the third thing, that
fleshly spirit keeps us from the comfort and assurance we
have in our God. Look in verse 2, chapter 4 verse
2 at the end he says, you fight in war yet you have not because
you ask not. And then look at verse 3, you
ask and receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume
it upon your lusts. Now this is the two-fold pollution
of the evil nature within us, brethren. This is the two-fold
pollution of the evil nature within us. The fleshly spirit
either wants to have, without God having anything to do with
it, without even having to ask God, or to pray for the end of
feeding our fleshly appetite. Either not asking God at all,
just simply trying to get it ourselves, or turning to God
and asking Him simply because we want to feed the fleshly appetite. In Hosea, the Lord said, they
have not cried unto Me with their heart. They howled on their beds
at night. They howled to Him on their bed.
They prayed earnestly on their bed. But He said they prayed
for corn and for wine. Do you give your children everything
they ask for? That's just simple, isn't it?
We don't, do we? Well, you think the faithful
father's going to give his children that which is harmful to them
just because they ask for it? I can't think of a worse judgment
than to have our carnal desires filled up. You see it with these
eyes every day in the world. You see children whose parents
just give them everything they ask for. And you think, that's
child abuse. Well, that's what it would be
for God to give us everything we cry for, because we don't
always know what we need. That's just how it is. Gomer. I love the story of Hosea and
Gomer. Gomer said, I will go after my lovers. And the Lord
said, therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns
and make a wall that she shall not find her paths. She shall
follow after her lovers, but she won't overtake them. She'll
seek them, but she won't find them. Then she'll say, I'll go
back to my first husband, because then it was better with me than
it is now. Praying. to a carnal end, and wanting
to usurp authority over others, to have preeminence over others,
and to be seen, to be looked upon as wise, and to have pleasurable
things, and the things that feed this flesh is spiritual adultery,
is what it is. Look at verse 4. Ye adulterers
and adulteresses, know ye 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. Thomas Matten said, when
we make self the end of prayer, it's not worship of God, but
self seeking. It's not enough to make God the
object of the prayer, but the end also. Let me give you some
examples of lustful prayer. We want health when we're sick. Why do we want it? We want it
just because we want to be spared sickness. We want wealth. Why do we want
it? Do we want it just so we can
live in ease? We want our estates to be blessed. Why do we want that? Do we want
it just so we can make a name for ourselves and our family?
We want deliverance for the church. but we want it out of a spirit
of wrath and revenge. Somebody said, Master, speak
to my brother to divide the inheritance. And he said, beware of covetousness. Man's life consists in a lot
more than just what you eat and drink, what you put on. Simon
Magus wanted gifts from God. He wanted the spiritual gifts
of God, not for the glory of God. So people would look at
Simon Magus and say, oh boy, that's a wise man. The friendship of the world's
enmity with God. He says here, ye adulterers and
adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is
enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a
friend with the world is the enemy of God. Do you think the
Scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth
to envy? You may try to bridge a friendship
between the world and commitment to Christ, but you seek to reconcile
two of the most irreconcilable things there are. Friendship
of the world's enmity with God. It makes a man hate God and it
makes a man to be hated of God. If you're a friend of the world,
you're an enemy of God. Just plain and simple. The Lord
said you cannot serve God and mammon. It's impossibility. If spiritual, if spiritual adultery Let me give this illustration.
Men, we'd get this real simple. If our wife said, I'm married
to you, but now I'm just hanging out with this other man a little
bit over here on the side. You'd get that real quick, wouldn't
you? You understand that real easy, don't you? You wouldn't
have it, would you? God won't have it. God won't
have it. I'm married to Christ, he's my
husband, but I'm gonna flirt with his world? God says, no,
that's not gonna happen. It's not going to happen. Well
surely James wouldn't address the believer as adulterers and
adulteresses. Surely he wouldn't do that. Look
at Matthew chapter 7. The Lord Jesus Christ was speaking
to believers. And he was instructing them on
his Sermon on the Mount to ask God and that we can expect our
Father to give us that which glorifies His name. We can expect
that. And he gave an illustration.
And listen how he addresses you and I, believer. Verse 9. He
says, What man is there of you whom if his son asks bread, will
he give him a stone? Or if he asks a fish, will he
give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know
how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall
your Father... He's talking to children of God.
He's talking to believers. And He says, if you know how
to give good gifts and you're evil, how much more your Father
which is in heaven. Self-righteous men have a little
difficulty saying, I'm a sinner. They don't have any difficulty
saying, I'm a sinner. But when you get direct about
it and say, are you evil? Are you an adulterer and an adulteress
in your flesh? Now you get a little more direct
and, well, I don't know if I can say that. Well, you don't really
think you're a sinner then. A sinner is a sinner. That's
what we are in this flesh. In my flesh dwells no good thing
to this day. Apostle Paul said, this is a
faithful saying worthy of all acceptation. Jesus Christ came
into the world to save sinners of whom I am the chief right
now. That's the case brethren. We
need, it might go against us to know what we are, but we need
to have our lewdness discovered to us. We need to be reminded
continually of what we are. James is writing about things
brethren need to be reminded of continually. Now I want to
consider an example of true prayer. Turn to John chapter 12. John
chapter 12. I can't think of a better prayer
than this and something better as an example than this. Verse 27. This is the Lord Jesus
Christ speaking. Now is my soul troubled. Brethren, we can't even enter
into this trial. We can't even enter into this trial. Now is
my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father
saved me from this hour, but for this cause, for this cause,
came I under this hour. Here's the cause for His hour
of suffering, and here's the cause for our hour of suffering. Verse 28, Father, glorify Thy
name. We're getting down to brass tacks
this morning. Where's the lust come from? It
comes from us. What's the heart, the object
and the end of a true prayer? Father, glorify Thy name. What do you really pray for?
In infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, daily necessities,
in distresses for Christ's sake, what do you pray for? Do you glory and have contentment
that the power of Christ Jesus to comfort you and give you peace
in the heart rests upon you, whether the affliction is removed
or not. You see, God gives peace in the midst of the trial. If it takes Him giving me whatever
He's taken from me to make me happy, And I don't know why the trial
came in the first place. The trial came to make me understand
that Christ is my happiness, Christ is my joy, and He fills
the inner man and fills the spirit and renews the heart in His effectual
grace constantly. And in our utter weakness, in
our very depths of weakness, is when we behold it most. That's
when we behold, truly, truly, my peace is not in anything but
my Redeemer. That's when we behold it. Or
is our prayer an abuse of mercy for the sake of revenge or luxury
or excess, ease? If so, we play the adulterer
and the adulteress. God, in great mercy, in great
faithfulness, He won't give it. He just won't give it. He's going
to bring us to Christ if we're His and make Christ to be our
joy and everything else lesser. And then He may give the thing
that He took away. He may give it back. He may not
give it back. He may give us something entirely better. He
restored Job with much more than what Job had in the beginning.
Far and above what he had in the beginning. But not before
he brought Job down to see, my happiness and my sustenance and
my life and my joy is not in these things. They're in my Redeemer. That's what he's going to do.
That's what he's going to do. He's a faithful father. Now here's
the third thing I want you to see, is grace saves us from ourselves. Oh, listen to this verse 6. I
love this. but He giveth more grace. We see what we are in our flesh
and the lust that wars in our members and the lust that would
have us separated from Christ our husband, but God who changes
not will not suffer His children to be lost. He just won't do
it. He said of Hosea, Now will I
discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none
shall deliver her out of my hand. Not anybody. Verse 6, Wherefore
he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
Not a sinner in this room is going to ever submit until God
has given you a submissive heart. Never going to submit to Him
until He's given you a heart of submission. Has He made you
see the folly of fighting against Him? Has He made you see that
you can't overcome Him no matter how proud and arrogant you are,
think you are? Where He's begun a work of grace,
where He's begun a work of grace, He gives more grace. That's what
we're talking about here. He giveth more grace. That means
grace already been given. He's going to give more grace.
More and more and more out of His fullness. How does the believer
seek more grace? Verse 7. It said, God resists
the proud. He gives grace to the humble.
Submit yourselves therefore to God. You just can't wrangle those
words to say anything but what they say. Submit to God. He will not have the proud approach
Him. He hates pride. Submit yourselves
to God. You know when a dog is a stray,
he's strayed off and he's gone away from his owner and he's,
we used to, when I was a boy we had coon hounds and we'd go
out and coon hunt and those hounds would get lost and we'd just
lay up, my dad would lay down a garment, a coat or something
on the side of the road where he had let them out the night
before and we'd leave and go back. And those dogs would find
their way back. And when they found that garment,
they would just lay down by that garment, because they knew it
belonged to their master. And when you go back to them,
they've been off, they supposed to be coon house trailing raccoons,
and they'd be off trailing a deer or a cow or something that they
ran off out of the country. And that's why they were gone.
And I knew they weren't supposed to do that. And they'd come back
and you'd go back to get them. And when you pull up to get them,
They didn't walk up to you all happy and proud like they would.
They'd do that when they treat a coon, when they do what they're
supposed to do. But they would come to you just as cowered down
and just like they knew they had done something they weren't
supposed to do. They didn't come proud. They came begging. They'd been out in the cold.
They'd been out in the wilderness. They'd been out there lost in
the absolute darkness. And now they've got their master
back. And they don't come to him any other way but in just
cowered down. That's what he's talking about
here. Come to him like the dog that you are. Like a dog. That Syros Phoenician woman came
to him and he said, it's not me to give the master's food
to dogs. She didn't say, well, I'm not
a dog. She said, you're right, Lord. But can this dog just get
a crumb from the master's table? That's what he's talking about.
Wherefore lay apart that overflowing naughtiness and receive with
meekness the engrafted Word. And he says here, verse 7, resist
the devil and he will flee from you. You know, if you hear the
words being spoken, and you don't agree and you rebel and you're
angry and it grates against you. That's that devilish, earthly,
sensual spirit that James was talking about before. The devil
don't want you to believe Christ. The devil don't want you to come
to Christ. But if your hope is that God chose you in free grace,
and He can't be turned away from you because salvation is by grace,
free and unmerited, and you know that it can't be changed. If Christ has put away your sin
by the sacrifice of Himself, if the Holy Spirit has convinced
you that your only refuge is Christ Jesus, the only way to
resist the devil is to come to Christ. He won't come to Christ. And He won't have anything to
do with you when you're coming to Christ. You've been purged of all sin.
And He's got nothing to accuse you with. You were in bondage under His
wrath all your days, but Christ, through His death, has put away
the bondage. He's put away the power of death.
He's put away all the ammunition of Satan. He's got no wood to
build His fire anymore. It's gone. and He'll flee from you. He'll flee from you. Verse 8,
draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you. He's talking
to believers brethren, those that He's given grace to, those
that He's speaking to right now in the heart by effectual grace
as these words come out of this vessel's mouth. He's speaking
in effectual grace to somebody and He's saying, return unto
Me. And I'll receive Him. You see,
He's declaring He's a faithful Father. He said, you know why
that people won't come to Him? You know why a sinner won't come
to Him? You know why when we're in our rebellion, until He speaks
these words in our heart, we really won't turn to Him and
come to Him? You know why? Because we're afraid we're going
to be shamed. We're afraid we're going to be
scolded for what we did. What did James say? If any man
lack wisdom, let him ask of God who giveth in abundance and upbraideth
not. You never will be ashamed for
coming to Christ. You never will be shamed. You
never will be... Our thought is, well, if I come
into the light, all my sins are gonna be exposed. If God's given
you the grace to come into your light, into the light of Christ,
it's because He's put all the sins away. And when you step
into the light, He says, come here, my son. He won't shame
His people. He says, I'm going to give you,
if I've started giving you grace, I'm going to give you grace,
grace, grace. It's the only way to cleanse
your hands, the only way to purify your hearts. That double mind
he talked about. Don't come with that double mind.
That man's unstable, he wavers. That's what, when we start thinking
with the flesh, thinking with the old nature, and trying to,
at the same time, pretend like we're seeking God, that's that
double-mindedness, brethren. We fall into that still. The
mind's been set on Christ, but we still have this struggle within
us. Verse 9, He says, Be afflicted and mourn. Weep. Let your laughter
be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. That's what
He promised to do to Hosea. He said, I'm going to cause her
mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, her Sabbath, all
her solemn feasts. I'm going to cause it all to
cease. His chastening hand. Has He made
you to see that all you are in yourself is sin? That all your
striving, all you're doing, all your attempts at deliverance,
all your prayers, everything that you've been doing is self-serving,
self-seeking. The proud won't come because
you love your deeds and you fear being ashamed, but when He afflicts
you in grace, the sinner's going to come and God won't upbraid.
David said, it's good for me that I have been afflicted, that
I might learn your statute. It's good for me that I've been
afflicted. I tell you, when a man comes
to that place, David's house from then on out was a wreck,
and God didn't change that. He didn't take him out of that
affliction. He didn't. But it didn't matter. It didn't
matter. David said, it's been good for
me that I've been afflicted. Now I learn who the Word is. Now I learn who my hope is. Now
I've learned to trust in nothing else. Not to look to myself and
my wisdom. But don't be a hearer only, be
a doer. Come to Christ. Listen to this
word of promise, verse 10. Humble yourselves in the sight
of the Lord. and He shall lift you up. That's one of those apparent
contradictions of grace. The only way up with God is down. That's right. You've got to be
brought down, but when you're brought down, He'll lift you
up. Well, I pray that's a blessing to you.