All right, James chapter four.
You may recall that we looked at this last week where James
ended chapter three, telling us that the wisdom of this world
only produces envy and strife in our hearts. This wisdom that
causes envy and strife and fighting is a fleshly wisdom and it's
of the devil, James said. It causes confusion and tumult. And it begins chapter four. telling
us what this looks like, warning us about the strife and the fighting
that our evil nature will produce. And then thankfully he gives
us the remedy for it. The remedy for it is more grace,
more grace. That's the title of the lesson
this morning. Grace, the only remedy. I love to, we'll get down to
this in just a minute, but I love not just to hear about God's
grace, but he gives more grace, more grace and more grace. But
first we need to see this, the problem and this strife and fighting
and things that goes on. It always comes from my own nature. The fault is mine. Look here
at verse one, James four. For whence come wars and fighting
among you? Come they not hence even of your
own lusts that war in your members? Anytime there's fussing and fighting
going on, It always comes from our sin nature, which loves to
fuss and fight and cause turmoil. As I began looking at this this
week, this is something I hope we all keep in our minds, that
this is something we always guard against, we always pray about,
that we'll strive to keep that atmosphere from developing in
this place. Let's just not ever allow ourselves
to start fussing and fighting over things that just don't matter.
and keep the peace that we have here. Because we know these things
ought not be so in the church. Envy, strife, fussing, feuding,
turmoil. There are too many scriptures
commanding us against it. Too many scriptures command us
to strive to preserve the unity of the spirit. Scriptures command
us to think on what's best for others first before I think about
what's best for myself. If we all do that, we wouldn't
have strife and envy, would we? We're told to be kind. tenderhearted,
forgiving, to preserve unity and peace. Now, everybody here
knows that teaching. But even though we know that,
misunderstanding and contentions do rise from time to time, don't
they? And the real cause of it is always
me. It's not somebody else, it's
me. It's my sinful, corrupt nature. Because pride, envy, covetousness,
hatred, they all just come from one place, from my evil nature. John Gill said, they're like
so many soldiers stationed in our body. I mean, they're stationed
there, he said, to war against the spirit. They're always ready
to be there to war against the spirit. Now, the only way we're
going to get any blessing from these verses this morning is
to apply them to ourselves. If we apply these verses to the
inward warfare that goes on inside the believer between the flesh
and the spirit, then we'll start to get a blessing for ourselves
and we'll receive from instruction that will benefit us and benefit
everybody around us. Now this war, this civil war,
this strife that's going on inside the believer, where did that
start? Well, it starts with the flesh.
It starts with the old man. If we didn't have that old man,
we'd be at peace, wouldn't we? So the problem is always me. And if my inward warfare between
the flesh and the spirit, if that breaks out, and starts to
cause fighting between me and another brother. The problem
is me. Maybe the other brother did something
wrong. Maybe he didn't. But the problem is me. It's my
wicked, hateful nature of sin. If it wasn't there, I bet you
we wouldn't be fighting. So the problem is our old nature.
And that we can never get away from. That old nature negatively
affects every aspect of our lives. It affects everything. It doesn't
allow us to ever find any satisfaction. That old man, that old nature
of sin will never find any satisfaction, ever. Because he's looking for
it in sin. He's looking for it in all the
wrong places. Look at verse two. He says, you lust and you have
not. You kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. You fight
and war, yet you have not because you ask not. The word lust that
James uses here is covet. Look over at the back of a page
or two, Hebrews chapter 13. Covetousness is murmuring against
God. When we have this feeling of
covetousness, it's because we're not satisfied with what God's
given us. Hebrews 13 verse 5. Let your conversation, your conduct
be without covetousness. and be content with such things
as you have, for He has said, I will never leave thee, nor
forsake thee." So how awful is it to have this feeling of covetousness? I mean, that's shameful, isn't
it? When I feel I covet something, it's just because I'm not happy
with what God's given me. How ungrateful is that? Now look
back at Colossians chapter 3. The Apostle Paul here shows us how
serious this matter of covetousness is Colossians three verse five. Mortify therefore your members,
which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection,
evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry for which things
say the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience.
Covetousness is idolatry. Now, idolatry, we know, is worshiping
something other than God. You think, well, if I'm coveting
something that belongs to somebody else, don't belong to me, that's
not an idol. Wait a minute. Worship is setting
our affection, our desire on something. That's why covetousness
is idolatry. We've set our affection on that
rather than on Christ, rather than on things above. So this
is a serious matter, isn't it, covetousness? Now look back at
Romans chapter 7. Where does this covetousness
come from? Paul tells us, Romans 7, verse 7. What shall we say then? Is the
law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known
sin, but by the law, for I had not known lust. That's the same
word James used. I had not known lust, covetousness,
except the law said, thou shalt not covet. So it's not the law's
sake. The law just exposed my covetous
nature. It comes from our sin nature.
And that old nature, you all know it well, it covets everything
we don't have. Whatever it is we don't have,
that's what we covet in it. We covet more money, more material
goods, more honor, more fame, more popularity. I mean, this
just goes on and on and on and on and on, all the things that
we covet. And we go after those things. We seek those things.
But no matter how much of those things we get, we're never going
to be satisfied. Because that old nature of covetousness,
no matter how much you get, always wants more, more, more, more.
So it's never satisfied. And that covetousness that just
cannot be satisfied drives us to go to extremes, to try to
get enough of what we think we want. It drives us to the extreme,
we'll kill. Now, maybe it will make us commit
murder. But it will surely make us hate
in our heart. It'll surely make us wish somebody
else would be dead so I could get what I want. And the Lord
said that thought, that desire, is to be guilty of murder. And
sin and hatred, that covetousness, it'll make us spread gossip.
Whether it's true or not, we'll spread it in order to ruin somebody
else's reputation, to make ourselves look better. That's to be guilty
of murder. So it ought not surprise us that
that attitude, that nature of covetous, that nature of sin,
the way that nature of sin wants to do things, doesn't bring any
satisfaction. Because it's always sinful. And
our sin nature won't bring any peace. It won't bring any satisfaction.
It won't bring any peace. That sin nature makes us willing
to fuss and fight and go to war with even those closest to us.
We're willing to fight with our wife, our husband, our spouse,
trying to get the upper hand in something, trying to make
us feel important. And what happens if you win?
What happens if you just go to war with your wife and you win? All you've done is make your
own flesh miserable. You and her are one flesh. So
all you've done is make yourself miserable. You've made everybody
in the home miserable. You made yourself miserable,
your wife, your children, you made them all miserable. It ought
not surprise us we can't find any peace there. Because God's
not going to bless that. He's just not going to bless
that. So you see, our old nature can't ever be satisfied, can
it? Because it goes about everything the wrong way. And the problem
is us. It's always us, and that's why
we can never be satisfied. Because it negatively affects
every aspect of our life, because it just chooses the wrong way.
And here's the second thing, our sin nature and its ways.
It affects every aspect of our life negatively. It'll even ruin
our life of prayer. See that at the end of verse
two? You have not because you ask not. If you don't have something,
God says, because you haven't asked for it. Well, what won't
our old nature ask for? Well, it'll never ask for forgiveness
of sin, will it? That old nature will never beg
to be forgiven. It'll never ask for salvation
in Christ. It'll never seek atonement. It'll
never seek a blood atonement. It'll never seek peace with God
on God's terms. In context here, this applies
here. If we covet things and we're not satisfied, it's just
because we haven't asked for it. Now, we've tried fighting
for it. We've tried scheming and murder
and plotting and planning to get it, but we haven't asked
God for it, have we? Henry said this, oh, this is
very good. Here's why that's so. He said murmuring and praying
are not generally found in the same heart. That's why we murmured
and complained about it, but we hadn't asked God for it. We
haven't humbled ourselves to ask God for it. That old man
is too proud to beg, isn't he? Too proud. But I'll show you
something else. Look at John chapter four. He's
too proud to beg. But here's the other problem.
That old man is ignorant. He doesn't even know what to
ask for. John chapter four, this is our
Lord speaking with the Samaritan woman at the well. In verse 10, Jesus answered and
said unto her, if thou knewest, if you just knew the gift of
God, and if you knew who it is that sayeth to thee, give me
to drink, you would have asked of him and he would have given
thee living water. And you know, the conversation
there had, they had, she didn't even know there's such a thing
as living water, did she? So she didn't know to ask for
it. She didn't know this was the Christ. She knew he's coming,
but she didn't know who he was, what he looked like, when he
would come, what he was like. She didn't know Christ, so she didn't
ask him. She didn't ask him for the living
water. That's that old man. He's too stubborn to beg, and
he doesn't even know what to ask for in the first place. But
you know, it's also clear to me from this verse, you have
not because you ask not. It's clear to me that if I'm
not saved, It's because I haven't asked for it. It's my own fault. It's not God's fault. It's my
fault. If I don't have mercy, it's because
I haven't begged for mercy. Is that so? I challenge you to
find any place in the scriptures where any poor sinner came to
our Lord asking for mercy. Now, I'm not talking about going
and trying to stump him with questions or, you know, talk
to him about religious stuff. No, I'm talking about somebody
begging for mercy. I challenge you, find one that didn't get
it. You won't find it. You will not find it. God will
save any sinner who comes asking to be saved on God's terms. Any
sinner asking for mercy in Christ will always get it. What'd our
Lord say? He that comes to me, I will in
no wise cast out. Now, somebody's thinking, and
I know what somebody's thinking because I used to think it. Well,
I've asked God and he still didn't give it to me. No, no, you didn't
ask. You didn't ask. You bargained
with God, didn't you? Now, God, if you do this, I'll
do this. Or you, you, uh, you're just
kind of testing God out. See, what will he really do what
he said? He did just try and test him
out. I'm not so sure about this. What will he see that that's
just testing God, not asking in faith. Look here at verse
three, this is what he says. You ask and receive not because
you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your own lust. See, when
we do ask God for something by nature, we always ask for the
wrong things with the wrong motive. Every single time we ask for
more stuff that we can just waste on ourselves. We ask for things
that will make us comfortable and things that we just desire
rather than asking things that will give God the glory. It's
no surprise. That's the only way our old man
knows how to operate. So the old nature even ruins
our life of prayer. And thirdly, this is such a serious
problem because that old nature of sin is the enemy of God. Verse
four. 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. Now, when James here
talks to adulterers and adulteresses, he's speaking in a spiritual
sense. Something physical gives us a
picture of something spiritual. You know, when a husband or a
wife is unfaithful to their spouse, I mean, it's just devastating. That betrayal of trust, that
violation of the vows taken before God is devastating. But James
is talking about something worse than that. He's talking about
spiritual adultery against God. Well, what's spiritual adultery?
Well, spiritual adultery is looking for comfort, looking for companionship
outside the Christ our bridegroom. Physical adultery is looking
for a relationship or a union, something that makes us feel
better outside the covenant of marriage. Spiritual adultery
is looking for a spiritual relationship with God, something to make us
feel good about ourselves outside the covenant of grace, outside
the covenant of of grace in Christ our husband. Spiritual adultery
is setting our affection, our love, our desire on something
other than Christ alone. That's spiritual adultery. And
spiritual adultery is looking for union with the world. Now,
not just the ways of the world now. It's the religion of the
world. That's what makes a spiritual
adultery. And this seeking for union, seeking for something
to make us feel better, being willing to compromise the gospel,
something that, because something appeals to the flesh, makes us
the enemy of God. The enemy of God. Because we've
joined forces with the religion of the world, which is God's
enemy. See, these people in false religion, they're not just wrong
on a few things. It's not just that they see things
from a different point of view. They are the sworn enemy of God. And here's a warning to us, to
every one of us here. I don't care how long you've
been sitting under the sound of the gospel. You listen to
me now. Don't you ever forget our old nature is drawn to it.
Our old nature is drawn to that. And it always will be. That old
nature of sin will constantly look for some comfort and some
assurance in our works, in our faithfulness, in our obedience,
in our church attendance, in all the religious activities
we do, in our morality, our old nature always looks for comfort
and assurance in those places. That's spiritual doctrine. Salvation
is union with Christ alone. Without any of our works, it's
all His work. Without any of our contributions,
it's what He gives as a free gift. Salvation in Christ is
finding comfort and assurance in Christ alone and no other
source. And anything else makes us the
enemy of Christ. Now that's how serious this business
is, the enemy of Christ. And I'm getting right tired,
to tell you the truth. I see this and it just, it bothers
me so much. This willingness to compromise. It's a liberal attitude. Just
everything's okay. And we'll just compromise with
everybody and get along with everybody. What American here would do that
with ISIS? Not one. Not one. And if you
found one somewhere, you throw them in jail. We ought to look
at those enemies of Christ the exact same way. I'm telling you,
I'm not saying go out and be mean to them, throw rocks at
them or shoot them. I'm not saying that at all. You
know what I'm saying. It's just to compromise with
them makes us the enemy of Christ. And our old nature will always
want to do it and will carry him around to the day we die.
And not only will he not get better, that old man is going
to wax worse and worse and worse till we put him in the ground.
It's not only that that new man sees the old man, we see more
clearly how awful he is and more vile he is. That old man is going
to continue to get more vile and more corrupt until we put
him in the ground. And he's got to be put in the
ground because he's the enemy of Christ. So all this really
should come as no surprise to us because James is not the only
one that says it. This is the fourth thing. This matter of
us being completely ruined in sin. is the message of all the
scripture. Look at verse 5. Do you think
that the scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us
lusteth to envy? Now James isn't quoting any specific
verse found anywhere in the Bible here. So what's he doing? What
he's telling us is this is just the whole message of all of scripture. Just look at all of scripture
together. Go look at it anywhere on any page and you'll find this
message. You and I are ruining Everything
about us is completely corrupt and ruined in sin. There's nothing
we can do to save ourselves. There's nothing we can do to
get God to save us. We can't do anything to earn any righteousness
whatsoever, not even the first step. We're ruined in sin. We can't love anything but sin.
We can't desire anything but sin. Sin is what we are. That's
the message of the whole scripture for this reason, to shut us up
to Christ. The message of all scripture
is we are completely ruined and dead in sin. So we'll know I
don't have any other hope of salvation outside of Christ.
I got to go to him. The message of all scripture
is I'm ruined in sin. And the only way somebody like
me can come to God is through Christ. I'm shut up to him that
there's no other hope. There's no other way somebody
like me can be righteous. Other than in Christ, my righteousness.
That's why a message of All of Scripture tells us how ruined
in sin we are, to show us there's one way. There's one way of salvation.
There's one way of righteousness. There's one way of peace. There's
one way of life, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, James has painted
a pretty bleak picture of us here. We're ruined. This man
of sin is going to ruin every aspect of our life between now
and eternity. He's going to constantly be ruining
it. I know I'm not supposed to fight
against these things. I know he's not supposed to let
this sinful nature prevail. But when I look at myself, I
don't get any encouragement here. I mean, when I look at myself
and what I'm doing, all I can see is my sin nature prevailing
all the time. Well, is there any good news
to be found in this? I mean, I see how black the picture is
when I look at myself. Is there any good news? Yes,
there is. This is the fifth thing James
gives us. There is a remedy. There's a remedy for our sin
nature, and it's grace. It's grace, grace, grace, grace,
grace, and more grace. Verse six, but he giveth more
grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth
the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. But, verse six starts
out but. I love seeing the word but in
scripture, because often I find good news right after it. The
wickedness of man is great in the earth. Our every imagination
is only evil continually. What was true in Noah's days
is true in our day. Same nature. But Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. If Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord, I might too. Joseph said, told his brothers,
that's for you. You thought evil against me.
And boy, they did, didn't they? all the hatred and envy, contention,
covetousness in their heart. But God, minute for good, to
bring to pass as is this day to save many people alive. The
battle against sin, the forces of evil, the battle against this
old man in me is too great for me. The enemy's too strong for
me. Will you take comfort? The battle's not yours, but God's. I say with David, my flesh and
my heart fail him. But God is the strength of my
heart and my portion forever. You and I are dead in trespasses
and sins. We live under the power, the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience. Works in us, too, because we
got the same nature. Oh, but God. But God, who's rich in mercy,
for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace,
you're saved. You and I are ruined in sin,
but God be thanked. You were the servants of sin,
but you've obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was
delivered unto you. Somebody's going to believe this
gospel. Somebody's going to believe. Somebody's going to be delivered
from that. At Calvary, God allowed men to do everything their wicked
hearts wanted to do, to torture and put the Lord Jesus Christ
to death, but God raised him from the dead. And that old nature we are in
this constant civil war with would defeat us in every one
of these areas we've looked at, wouldn't it? It'd defeat us in
every one of them. But God's people are not gonna
be lost. Why not? Because God gives more
grace. More grace. You think how gracious
our God is. He gives grace to save. By grace,
you're saved. He gives grace to save. And Luke,
then he gives more Oh, oh, I love that. He gives more grace. God
gives his people grace to make them humble. And then he gives
them more grace because they're humble. That's all of God. Oh, what grace he gives. Our
heart is full of warfare and hatred, but God gives more grace
to make us peaceful, to give us peace. We're so proud and
strong and upright with a stiff spine that will not bow to God.
But God gives us grace. He gives us grace to ask a right. He gives us grace to know what
to ask for. He gives us the spirit in which to ask for. To ask for
mercy. To ask for grace. Ask that we
see God's glory. God, do this for your glory.
God gives grace to make us submissive. God gives grace to save. Then he puts you out in a little
boat. out in the middle of the sea and it sends a great big
storm. And you think you're going to go down with the ship. God
sends trial. He sends fiery trial. And you
think, why? Why? And God sends more grace
to make us submissive, to bow, bow to his will. God gives grace
to give us faith in Christ. And then he gives more grace. More grace to keep us believing,
to keep us trusting Him, to give us more grace so that we will
not go away from Him. That's what God does for the
humble. But now God resists the proud. I mean, there's always
the flip side of this thing. God resists the proud. God always
gives people just what they need. Always. The proud don't need
grace. So God don't give it to them.
Christ didn't come as the great physician to heal the righteous
that need no healing, did he? No, he came to heal those who
are sick. Christ didn't come as the righteousness of God to
give righteousness to the self-righteous. The self-righteous Pharisee didn't
know. He came to give righteousness to those who are unrighteous.
They don't need it. The publican and the Pharisee
praying in the temple. One of them asked for mercy.
He got it. The other one didn't. So he didn't,
God didn't give it to him. But God gives grace to his people. He gives grace to make them humble. He gives grace to save them.
And then he gives more and more and more and more grace so that
we never run out of it. James gives us three ways. And we're just going to look
at these just very, very briefly. We'll pick up here and look at
a more detail next week, but he gives us three ways. not to
fall prey to that old nature. Do not let that old nature get
the control of us here. Look at verse seven. Submit yourselves,
therefore, to God. Resist the devil and he'll flee
from you. Draw an eye to God and he'll draw an eye to you.
Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. First, he says, submit. Submit
yourself to God. Well, I'm too proud to submit.
I'm too proud. Well, God will give more grace.
See, it always goes back to his grace. God will give more grace
to enable you to submit. Second, he says, resist the devil.
Well, I can't resist the devil. I mean, I can't resist the devil
any better than either Peter did. Well, look to Christ. God will give more grace to enable
you to resist. And then he says, draw nigh to
God. And we think, well, I can identify with those the Lord
was speaking to. He told them, you will not come
unto me that you might have life. He said, you cannot come unto
me. Except the father was simply drawn. I can't come to Christ.
I won't. I see that old nature refuses.
Well, look to Christ. God will give more grace. It's
his grace that draws you to him in the first place. It's not
the threat of the law. It's not the threat of punishment.
It's His grace, His goodness that draws you to Christ. And
He gives more grace to keep drawing you, to keep you there, so you
won't stray away from Him and fall off the cliff. Thank God. Salvation is by grace. From beginning to end, it's all
of grace. And you don't have to worry about
running out of it, because He giveth more grace. All right. Hope the Lord will bless that
to you.