primarily. There is a reference,
but not primarily. These words are too harsh. The
charges are too un-Christlike to be applied to new creatures
in Christ. For example, let's just read
some of the opening statements. From whence come wars and fightings
among you? His church is a place of peace.
rest and joy. Come they not hence even of your
lusts that war in your members? You lust, you have not, you kill? God's people kill? Wish folks
dead? Desire to have and cannot obtain,
you fight and war? That may be true in religion,
but not in God's church. Not in the family of believers.
They don't fight and war among themselves. You ask and receive not, because
you ask amiss, you may consume it on your lust. God's people
seek the glory of Christ, the good of the church, well-being
of believers. Your adulterousness and adulterousness,
adulterousness and adulterousness, this is not natural, this is
a spiritual application. It's friendship with the world,
it's leaving God. That's enmity with God. Man be
a friend of the enemy of God. We're not the enemies of God,
we're the children of God. So, first of all, and look at the
opening statements of chapter 5. Go to now you rich men. Weep
and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Is that
the church? Your riches are corrupted, your garments are mouth-eaten.
The gold and silver is cankered, the rest of them There's a witness
against you and she'll eat your flesh. The hire of the laborer,
verse 4, is reaped down your fields and kept back by fraud? God's people? No. What this is,
I'm just convinced, and I'll see if I can help you with it
a little bit. It's been helpful to me to face
this for what it is, number one, This is the state of natural
men. These words are to the world,
to the natural men primarily, all men and women of this world. This is a description of what
we were when God found us, where we'd be if it wasn't for His
grace. Sons of Adam, rebels within, without. It's the state of all men by
nature and it's a warning to the people of this world. And
then secondly, it's a warning to those who profess to be believers
but aren't. Isn't that what James is writing
about anyway? You see, Paul wrote justification
of the soul before God is by faith. by the blood and righteousness
of Christ, by faith in Christ, alone, plus nothing, minus nothing.
And some people violated that. They said, well, you can be saved
and not live like a saved man. You can be saved and not have
works of righteousness and of truth and beauty and full of
the Spirit. And James says, not so. Not so. He said, you can't show faith
without works. And James, all the way through
this book, is talking about not the justification of the soul
by faith, which was Paul's thing, but James is talking about the
justification of our faith by our lifestyle and by our attitude
and by our works. And so this chapter is written
not only to the world in general and to mankind, But it's written
to professing church members who claim the grace of God and
live in disgrace. It's written to them. And then
thirdly, and of course you can't take any portion of God's word
and lift it out as applicable only to one group of people in this vain on this subject. So, it's
written to the church because the old man and the old nature
remains in us. All who believe have a new nature,
but they also still have that old man. We're constantly told,
put off the old man. Crucify the old man. Mortify
the old flesh. Keep putting it down. And no
sin of the flesh or spirit is beyond any believer except for
the grace of God. So when these things are talked
about here, we're talking about that state of nature, that ruin
by the fowl, that which motivates all the evil and corruption and
sin in this world. And it's written to people who
are in religion but have no No fruit of the Spirit. No grace
in the heart. Who profess to be God's children
who are not God's children. And you know and I know that
there are many religious organizations that are nothing but battlegrounds.
They're this terrible. But that's not true of the true
church. And then it's written to believers
because we need to be warned daily to put off this old man
with his deeds. Put on the new man in Christ.
Mortify the old flesh, because there is no sin beyond us, except
by the grace of God. That's true. Alright, let's watch
this now and listen to it. And here James is addressing
everybody. Everybody. Now listen. From whence
come wars and fightings? Wherever they are, private or
public. Wars and fightings. Two modes. Trouble. Where does it come from? Does
it come from the sky? Animals? Plants? No. It comes
from within. That's where trouble all comes.
Fighting and warfare and all of this tumult and confusion
between people, in homes, in places of business, in the world.
Where does it come from? It comes from your lust that
war in your members. It's the corruption of human
nature. Our Lord says these things which defile us come from within
us. Pride, envy, covetousness, hatred,
murder, malice. These are all things that come
from a natural heart. We're born with this nature.
Let's look at the scripture. Turn to Psalm 58. Psalm 58. Whence come wars and conflicts
and fighting? They come from your heart. They
come from your old man, the old nature. That's where it's born
and bred. That's where it lives. Psalm
58. The wicked are strained from the womb. That's where it starts,
from birth. They go astray as soon as they're
born. Speaking lies. Have a lying heart. Lying soul. Turn back to Psalm 51. Psalm 51, David says in verse
5, this is where I had my beginning and all men. Psalm 51, 5, Behold,
I was shapen in iniquity and sin my mother conceived me. That's how I was born. So let's
look at our text now. Where does it come from? Fighting
and war, tumults, conflict, comes from within. Now look at verse
2. This is the story of the human race. Four words here. Lust,
unbridled passions. Another word, kill. Kill. Another word, desire. Another
word, fight. This is the whole of life on
this planet. That's what's going on all around
us. Lust, murder, unbridled desire,
and fighting, fighting, fighting. What is this lust? It's greed. Passionate greed. He said in
you, you lust and you don't have. You're never satisfied. The natural
man is never satisfied. He'll never be satisfied. He's born a rotten, evil person,
and he'll die a rotten, evil person. And his life is spent
lusting after things, and when he dies, they plant him in the
ground naked, just like he came out. You lust, desire, passionately
seek these things, and die without them. Never fulfilled. And secondly, you kill. That's
killing others in our hearts by nature. You desire the death
of others that you may profit thereby. Here's a man who knows
a man ahead of him at the business. If he dies, I get his place.
Here's a family that has a father, a grandfather, an uncle. If he
dies, I get his money. That's evil. You lust. That's not a believer.
That's the natural man. And if the believer discovers
thoughts like that, he says, oh no, no, that's not me. You're lost. You don't have,
you never have. You're never satisfied. You kill.
You desire to have. Never satisfied. Cupidousness
abounds. You envy what other people have.
I want what he has. I'm not satisfied with what God
has given me. I want what He has. You cannot obtain and you fight,
wrangle and quarrel, quarrel with your wife, quarrel with
your children, quarrel with your neighbors, quarrel with your
husband, quarrel over property, quarrel over land, quarrel over
business, quarrel about where they work, fuss, fight. That's
human nature. That's not the church. Believe me, that's not the church. And you have not because you
ask not. What don't you have? You don't have satisfaction.
Natural man doesn't have any peace. He doesn't have any contentment.
He doesn't have any rest. His soul, the scripture says,
is like a troubled sea. He's never satisfied, never happy. Never has any peace, never has
any rest. You know why he doesn't have
any peace? He never asked God for it. God's the fountain of
peace and the fountain of grace. He never asked for it. Our Lord said to the woman at
the well, He said, if you knew who's talking to you, you'd ask
me and I'd give you living water. But they don't know who's talking
and they don't know anything about living water and they don't
ask. I don't care who the sinner is,
if he asks God, he'll save him. You have not because you ask
not. That's not the church. That's
the natural manner. We spend our time asking God.
You know, like Abraham said, I don't want to wear you, Lord,
but here I am again. But the world, they don't have
because they don't ask. Now watch the next line. And
when you do ask, What do you ask for? Flesh. When you do ask, you ask amiss. Not for the glory of God. Not
for the good of the kingdom. Not for the praise of Christ.
It's gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme. I want something else. I want a better this, better
that. Bigger this, bigger that. More of this, more of that. When
you don't ask, you'll never have any peace if you don't ask. But
when you do ask, you ask for the wrong thing. The woman, the
Canaanite woman says, mercy, she got it. The thief on the
cross said, remember me, he got it. Brian Barmaeus, oh Lord that
I may see, he sought. Look at this next line. Your
adulterers and adulteresses, this is used in a spiritual sense.
See, a person, a man who leaves his wife and marries another
is an adulterer. A woman who leaves her husband
and marries another is an adulteress. She's left her man. He's left
his wife. Well, when a person leaves God,
he's an adulterer or an adulteress. That's what it's talking about
here. You've left God. And you've joined up with the world. Don't
you know that to leave God and become bonded with the world
is enmity with God? No man can have two masters.
The sons of Adam have left God and taken up with the world and
with the flesh and with Satan. And a man can't serve two masters.
And whosoever will keep company with the world, he's going to
be a friend to the world. He's going to walk with the world.
He's going to do the things of the world. He's God's enemy.
Not God's friend. Turn to 1 John, just a few pages
over. 1 John chapter 2. This is what
this is talking about. 1 John chapter 2, verse 15. Love not the world, love God. Love not the things of the world.
If any man love the world, the love of God is not in him. All
that's in the world, the lust of this flesh, the lust of the
eyes, the pride of life, is not of the fathers of the world,
and the world passeth away. You're joining your soul with
something that's fatal. It will pass away and you will
pass away with it. But he that doeth the will of
God will abide forever. When you leave God and team up
with the world, you lose your life, lose your soul. What should
a proper man be gaining in the whole world? Lose his soul. He says, do you think the Scriptures
speak in vain? when they describe our human
nature. Do you think God is talking in
vain when He describes what we are by birth, by nature, what
dwells within us? What's in this cave of flesh
and sin by nature? Do you think it speaks in vain
when it says that the spirit that dwelleth
in us is bent toward ending evil? Human nature is bent toward envy. Why do you use the word envy? Self. And that leads to every
other sin. Self. Not think of God, think
of myself. Don't think of my family, think
of myself. Don't think of Christ, think
of myself. Don't think of the future, think of myself. It's
envy. Covetousness. And that's idolatry. Avoid covetousness,
which is idolatry. The Word of God doesn't speak
in vain when it says every imagination of man's heart is evil continually. Natural man. He can't think righteously. He
can't talk righteously. He can't desire righteously.
Even, listen, Isaiah 64. His righteousness is a filthy
rag. Psalm 39, man at his best state
is vanity. You think God speaks in vain
when He says that? Or this, in Jeremiah 17, the
heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. Who can know it? You
say, you're talking terrible up there about human nature.
I haven't touched it like it ought to be described. The Scriptures
really paint from the sole of your feet to the top of your
head. Is that in vain? Open running sores that have
not been bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Does the Scripture
speak in vain? God looked down from heaven to
see if there was any of it that did too good. He found they all
together become unprofitable. Is that in vain? Do you think
the Scriptures speak in vain? But, verse 6, there's grace to
be had even for that kind of person. Right here in this congregation,
such were some of you, but you're washed. There is grace to be
had. He giveth grace. The world can't
give you any grace, but He can. And He giveth more grace. What
do you mean more grace? Where sin did abound, grace did
much more abound. I know something bigger than
this cesspool of iniquity, that's the grace of God. I know something
better than this cesspool of iniquity, the grace of God. I
know something that will overflow and wipe out this cesspool of
iniquity. More grace! He giveth more grace. Yeah, we are sinned, but He's
good. We are envious, but God is generous. We are evil, but
God delights to show mercy. He loves to save us sinners. Paul said, He came to save sinners
of whom I am the chief. But he said, I'm going to tell
you this, God resists at the fount. He gives grace. and favor, but
he resists the proud. He gives grace to the humble,
but he resists the proud. A proud man is not going to be
brought from the dunghill to the throne. It's going to be
the humble man brought from the dunghill to the throne. Proverbs
3.34. We've got to read this. Listen. Proverbs 3.34. Listen to this. He says here, Proverbs 3 verse
34, Surely he scorneth the scorners,
he begiveth grace to the lowly. Maybe somebody will hear James
say this, hear this preacher or some other preacher talk about
what we are, what we were, what we are by name, but God is gracious. God delights to show mercy. God
will put His leavened arms about us, center, and come down where
He is. But, He resisted the proud. So what do we do? Well, here's
some instructions. Verse 7, Submit yourselves to
God. Submit yourselves to God. Bow
down. My sin is ever before me against
thee, and thy sin against thee only. Thou shouldest mark iniquity.
O Lord, who would stand? You are just and righteous when
you condemn. Bow down! Submit to the Word. Submit to the charges against
you. Guilty as charged. Unworthy. We get what we deserve. If God sends me to hell, that's
where I ought to go. Submit. That's hard. Barnard said over there in John
chapter 1 where it says as many as receive Christ, he said that's
what that word means. Submit. Surrender. Stack your arms. Throw down your
shotgun. Everything you say so. Submit. Surrender unconditionally. Secondly,
Resist the devil. Now don't let, he's a shrewd,
he's a shrewd enemy. He'll give you a thousand reasons
not to do this. He'll influence you. You say
that preacher's fanatic, that preacher's radical, that's not
what the word says, that is what the word says to him. That's
exactly what the word says about us and about his grace. It's
sovereign. And don't you let some smooth-talking
fella come along and convince you otherwise. That's Satan speaking. Resist him. He'll flee from you. He's not going to do battle with
God's Spirit. Resist him. And verse 8, look
at this. He says to the sinner, draw nigh
to God. Seek the Lord. A miserable man can't seek the
Lord. He better. He will if God enables him, but
he better. You'll seek me and find me when
you search for me with all your heart. Submit to the Word. Say no to any voice that tells
you differently. Seek the Lord. Seek Him in His
Word. Seek Him in His house. Seek Him among His people. Worry
somebody. Wait on the doorstep till they
open the doors and go in and hear it. Read, study, seek the
Lord while He may be found. Call on Him. Draw nigh to God. I have people that tell me once
in a while, I'm interested in what you're saying. I come and
sit down here and get ready to preach and I seek for them in
vain. I thought we had a Family reunion, I couldn't make it.
We had, you know, the children play ball, and this, you know,
all these different things. We had company come in to last
minute. Draw nigh to God. Draw his nigh to God as you draw
to that other stuff. Draw nigh to God. Draw nigh to
God. And he'll draw nigh to you. That unjust judge. You remember
that woman? She kept on worrying him. He
said, I'm going to do this for you because you're worrying me
today. I'm going to do this. Not because I want to, because
you're worrying me. Something like that. Draw an
eye to God. He'll draw an eye to you. This
is to a sinner. Because believers are in Christ.
which used to sing that song, I'm pressing on to higher ground,
and you're in Christ, you're high as you can get. The believer's in Christ, seated
with God. There's a sinner here tonight,
you've drawn out of God, He'll draw out of you. Listen, cleanse
your hands, you sinners, He who shall stand before Him,
he that hath clean hands, where on earth am I going to clean
them, cleanse them? In the blood of the Lamb. Purge me with hyssop, and I'll
be clean. At the cross of Calvary, cleanse
your hands. He who shall stand in His presence,
he that hath clean hands. And listen, purify your hearts.
And a pure heart. That, my friend, is justification
and sanctification. That's the blood and the water
that flowed from his side. Let the blood from thy wounded
side which flowed, let the water and the blood from thy wounded
side which flowed be of sin, a devil cured. Save me from wrath,
cleanse my hands, and make me whole. Purify my soul. Take this
out and put him in. Take this, your lust, and kill,
and desire, and fight, and war, and curse, and swear, and wrangle,
and take that out of me. Purify me. Verse 9, be afflicted and mourned. Paul said to the believers, rejoice.
These folks ain't got nothing to rejoice about yet. A man's
not going to be healed until he's afflicted. A man's not going
to be clothed until he's stripped. A man's not going to be exalted
until he's brought down. So come on! Weep and mourn over
your sins. Let your life to be turned to
mourning. You've got nothing to laugh about, sinner. You're
going to hell so fast. People ought to cry singing and
laugh about. They ought to be crying all the
time. Your joy ought to be heavy in this. That's not a believer.
Paul says ten times in Philippians, Rejoice! And again I say, Rejoice! And everything give thanks. No,
not this guy. He's got nothing to give thanks
for yet. Humble yourself. Humble yourselves
in the sight of the Lord. Be afflicted and mourn. And He'll
lift you up. He lifted me from sinking sand. He lifted me with tender hand.
He lifted me from shades of night to plains of light. Oh, praise
His name. He lifted me. He's going to lift
the weary and the broken and the contrite and they're humble. But that old proud boy, he's
so proud, he won't be broken. But if God doesn't break him,
he'll damn him. That's just so. There's the instructions.
There, when men acknowledge their sins, acknowledge their evil
religious doings, and seek the grace of God in Christ, When
men humbled themselves before God, owning their total dependence
on Him, He lifted them up. He lifted the poor out of the
dust and the beggar, mercy beggars, out of the dunghill. Put some
of them on benches. And they know who did it. They know who did it. And they
know they didn't deserve it. And here in this verse, James
goes back to the tongue. And that's not only the chief
offender of a believer, that's the chief offender of all men,
is the tongue. It's the tongue. He considers
the chief offender among our members. It speaks from the heart,
of course, but it's the instrument of evil. And what he says here
is, speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil
of his brother, That's brother in the church or brother, any
brother. A friend of mine called somebody
brother one time and a theologian corrected him and said, he's
not our brother. And my friend said, well, if
I don't get him in Christ, I'll get him in Adam, but he's my
brother somehow. It's no more evil to speak evil
of your brother in Christ than it is your brother in the blood,
is it? Just as evil. So that's, speak not evil of
the brethren. Judge him. Speak of the evil
of the law. Judge of the law. If you judge
the law, you're not a doer, you're a judge. A fellow said one time,
this is the evil of which we're all so guilty. Speaking of others
in a critical and judgmental way. We're more prone to find
fault than to find quality, virtues. We're more prone to point out
failure than to point out good characteristics. We're more prone
to repeat the bad than to tell the good. But remember, one can
never elevate himself by discrediting another. Gossip and criticism are not
acceptable even when they're true. I read that and I thought,
that's interesting. Gossip and criticism are not
acceptable even when they're true. Why is that? Well, our words
ought to be guided by love as well as truth. Somebody says,
well, I'm going to speak the truth in love. That softens it. What does that
do? covers a multitude of sins. You see what the author is saying?
Let me read it again. Gossip and criticism are not
acceptable even when it's true. Well, it's just true, I know,
but it's still not acceptable. For our words ought to be guided
and guarded by love as well as truth. So speak the truth in
love. And love will cover a multitude
of sins. And then he said this, in judging
others, in speaking evil of others, you know what we're doing? Now
this is serious. We're usurping God's office. Who's the judge of the earth?
The judge of all the earth. Who's the judge of all the earth?
God is. An act of power that belongs
only to God is judging, not to us. So when we judge others,
this is what he's saying, we're sitting in the chair of the judge.
We're usurping the authority of the judge and we're executing
a sentence. And actually, which sin is the
greatest? The one we broke or the one he
broke? Which is the greatest? The one we just broke by judging
or the one he broke? That's interesting, isn't it? Alright, verse 13. Go to now ye that say, today
and tomorrow we'll go into the city and continue there a year
and buy and sell and get gain. As I told you a few weeks ago,
he's not condemning buying and selling. He's not condemning
the lawful practice of conducting business. He's still rebuking
that worldly, selfish nature that resolves these things without
consulting the will of God. That's what he's doing. He's
condemning that nature, that proud nature, which resolves
our business, our plans, our lives, without consulting the
will of God. He said in verse 14, whereas
you know not what shall be tomorrow, don't even know if we'll be living
tomorrow, So it's foolish to talk about tomorrow and not take
into account the will of God. But what is your life? It's a
vapor. Job said it's like a swift ship
on the sail. It's like an eagle at full speed
seeking prey. It's like a weaver's shuttle.
It's like the wind that stirs up the dust and the leaves and
it's gone. What is your life? It's a vapor.
It appears for a little while and then vanish away. This is
what we ought to say. And believers have been taught
to say. And believers rejoice to say,
if the Lord wills. And that's a byword here for
which I'm thankful. I'm thankful. And it will be
the byword of a man who's brought out of this. by the grace of
God into Christ. Because we say with the songwriter,
listen to this song. My times are in thy hand. My God, I wish them thou. My
life, my friends, my soul, I leave entirely to your care. My times
are in thy hands, whatever they may be. pleasing or painful,
dark or bright, as best may seem to be. My times are in thy hands. Why should I doubt or fear? A
father's hand will never cause his child a needless tear. He didn't say a father's hand
will never cause a child a tear. He'll never cause a needless
tear. Some tears are needed. Do you understand what he's saying? This is wise. My times are in
thy hands. Why should I doubt or fear a
father's hand will never cause his child a needless tear? My
times are in thy hands. I'll always trust in thee. And
after death, at thy right hand, I shall forever be. You ought
to say. And you do say. And thank God
we've learned to say. And thank God we're glad to say.
The Lord willing. The Lord willing. Let's just
make that a byword. The Lord willing. See you tomorrow,
the Lord willing. I'll be by at the church, the
Lord willing. And that's the way we wanted it. Don't say the
good Lord willing. There's something wrong with
that. There's just one God and He's good. And we don't have
to designate Him by His characteristics, we just say, God willing, the
Lord willing. Alright, but now, back to the,
you better come out of this, you're rejoicing, you're boasting.
You rejoice in your plans and in your strength and in your
expectations and in your successes without regard to God's will
or your dependence on Him. You rejoice in your boasting,
and that ain't smart. Such boasting is evil. Only one
boasting is permissive, and that's our boast in the cross, our glory
in the cross, in the blood and righteousness of my Lord. So,
to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, To Him it's sin to know these things and do them
not.