James 4:1-6 He gives more
Grace! Part 1
Intro:
If I were to ask you What has been your biggest struggle with the Church since
becoming a Christian, How would you respond.
A) I think a lot of us would
respond in this way: Biggest challenge is seeing
Christians not act like Christians
B) Seeing the Church not get
along!
C) Dysfunctional
family – the best one going – but Dysfunctional none the less
Well
that is what James addresses here in Ch.4 – He does so in Brutal fashion -
A) The book of James as been
nicknamed the “In your face, epistle!”
B) James is bold / blunt –
he says it like it is – He isn’t trying to be politically correct – not
worrying about offending
C)The thing that we need to
remember is James is only writing and saying what God has inspired him to write
and to say.
1)
He only gets in our face to get into our hearts
Where
do wars and fights come from among you?
A)
Sounds like a family: Kids younger, driving
He touched me – tell him to
stop looking at me!
C)
Older, the fighting just gets more sophisticated
1) People in the Church are
not immune to it
D)
Of the early church they said, “Behold how
they love one another.” Today, people might say, “Behold how they compete and Criticize w/one
another!”
Really
it didn’t take long in the early church for things to get messed up.
A) James is written in AD 45
– only 12 yrs after the birth of the Church in Acts Ch.2
B) Notice what he describes
– Wars – big conflicts involving lots of pp – Divisions
1) Fights – individual
battles –
C) Unfortuantely both are
prevelant in the Church
D)
We have Denominational splits; Church splits; Christian Friend splits; &
even Christian Husband & Wife splits!
Why?
Where
does the fighting come from?
Do they not come from your desires for
pleasure that war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have. You murder and
covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war.
James says the
problem starts from within.
A)This is important because
we live in a world where it is always somebody else’s fault!
B)
Started in the Garden: Adam blamed Eve
1) Eve blamed the serpent
C) People been doing that
every since!
1) Democrats …. Repubs {
Vice versa
2) Faculty … students { …..
3) Army … Navy
4) Blacks …. Whites ….
5) Coaches …. Players …..
6) Husbands …wife ….
If
he just loved me as Christ loved the Church
A) Don’t hold your breath
sister – not going to happen – no one ever has
B) Be happy that he is
trying – that he has a heart to
C) If she just respected me
the way the Church is supposed to respect Jesus
1) News for you – you are not Jesus { Get over it
D) She love the Lord –
trying – allowing him to work
Be happy
E) Problem with our world
everyone wants to blame someone else!
James
says the root of the problem starts with in
A) Desire for Pleasure that
is at war in your members
B)
The word pleasure is interesting The word "pleasures" is the Greek
term, hedone, from which we get our word, hedonistic.
C) It
can be used in a positive way of pursuing God finding enjoyment and
satisfaction in God
But here James is using it in a negative way:
A) It describes an insatiable lust or desire for something without regard to
restraint or discipline.
B)This is desire to please
self – above all other desires including the desire to please God.
1) Lusting for
more { Never satisfied
C) Friday night Selmas in SC – Pizza
1) Amazing –
Stuffed – ate one piece more than I should have
D) My friend
says: lets get dessert – no way
1) Split brownie
thing – One /two bites
E) 4 Bites and
it was too Chocolaty for me
1) Like it –
much more
That is the way
it is: Money / sex – pleasure – always craving – Frustrated not happy
Leads
to wars / fights / to disputes especially when I am not getting my way.
A)Wife wants
more spending money / Hus more sex
B) Common marriage problems!
The
Philosophers agree with James
C)
Philo points out that the Ten Commandments culminate in the forbidding of
covetousness or desire, for desire is the worst of all the passions of the
soul.
“Is it not because
of this passion that relations are broken, and this natural goodwill changed
into desperate enmity? that great and populous countries are desolated by
domestic dissensions? For the wars famous in tragedy … have all flowed from one
source—desire either for money or glory or pleasure.”
Plato
writes, “The sole cause of wars and
revolutions and battles is nothing other than the body and its
desires.”
Cicero
writes, “It is insatiable desires which
over-turn not only individual men, but whole families, and which even bring
down the state. From desires there spring hatred, schisms, discords, seditions
and wars.”
Desire
is at the root of all the evils which ruin life and divide men.
Talked with a guy the other
day: Wife insisted they Buy a house they couldn’t afford –
Result stress and strain in their marriage – didn’t
satisfy
Didn’t
solve their problems – only created a bigger one now they are getting divorced.
It
starts with a desire for pleasure: Focus on pleasing self. / We even see today in the Church there is
a pleasure centered theology –
A) God exist for you – Make
your life better - / Make you more happy – Successful
B) Build a better you – Some
take it to extremes – Health and Wealth and prosperity
C)
That type of thinking is fundamentally wrong at every level.
1)
God does not exist for you but you exist for God.
Revelation
4:11
"You are worthy, O
Lord, to receive glory and honor and
power; for You created all things, and for your pleasure they exist and were created."
Real pleasure –
is found in being who and what God has called you to be!
We ought to be the biggest Pleasure seekers in this
universe! Really? Yep! Because God is the author of all true pleasure!
We must immerse ourselves in His pleasures by
immersing ourselves in Him! Psalm 37:4 Delight
thyself also in the LORD; and He shall give you the desires of your heart.
The
Problem starts with a desire for pleasure – Pursuing the wrong things
A) It leads a lack of Prayer
Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not
receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
FAILURE
TO PRAY PERSONALLY
A) With all of the lusting, envying, and desiring, James explains:
"You do not have because you do not ask."
B) The problem
of prayerlessness is symptomatic of an anemic relationship to the Lord.
1) Describing the person who is not finding pleasure in his
relationship with God.
C)The implication is that rather than finding the Lord to be his
chief delight and the provider of all that he has, the Christian slips into a
pattern of self-dependence and prayerlessness.
D) Striving to
fulfill those desires
FAILURE
TO PRAY PROPERLY
A) Motives are all messed up
–
B) Ask Amiss – Kackos – word
for evil – something intrinsically wrong with what you are asking for.
1)
Motive is wrong
C) God is Santa or a Genie -
D)
Self dominates prayer
1)
Lord Bless my project – Lord
Prayer is not the means for getting my will done in heaven – but
true prayer is the means for getting God’s will done on earth in me
It
starts with a desire for pleasure – Pursuing the wrong things
It
leads to a lack of Prayer
It
Results in Spiritual infidelity:
4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship
with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of
the world makes himself an enemy of God.
What
is the nature of spiritual infidelity?
A) James declares that it is "friendship with the
world," which implies not only a love for the world but that the world
loves back!
B) It is a growing comfort with the worldly system that is set in
opposition to the Lord.
Author Curtis Vaughan explained, "To be "a friend of the
world" is to value the approval of and cherish a relationship with persons
and forces which are either indifferent toward or openly hostile to God.”
“The situation is comparable to that of a
wife who would cultivate friendship with a man trying to seduce her. Such a
wife becomes her husband's enemy"
Can’t Have two masters – hate one and
love the other
A) Person trying to find satisfaction in the pleasures of the world
– God becomes your enemy
B) Cramps your style
Tozer said, “A whole new generation of Christians has come up
believing that it is possible to accept Christ w/o forsaking the world!”
Q:
Are you better friends w/the world
than you were 1 yr. Ago?
Q:
From which do you derive your primary
pleasure (world/God)?
So
How do we navigate this, we are to live in the world – but not be of the world
A) Balance of enjoying life
– but not being dominated by pleasure
B) Enjoying the things
around us – but finding our ultimate satisfaction in God
C) James wants us to
understand 3 intrinsic features about our relationship with God.
1) Built into us by the
indwelling of the HS
Or
do you think that the Scripture says in vain,"The Spirit who dwells in us
yearns jealously"?
#1 Holy Spirit woos us He yearns –
he is Jealous for our affection
Galalatians 4:6 Crying abba
father
The Holy Spirit
comes on to us – Always lovingly seeking
to draw us close!
1) Always seeking to pull us
toward the father
He’s
obviously speaking of the healthy jealousy a husband has for his wife.
Want
the best for her – Love to be with her – Pure!
#2
Holy Spirit warns – Yearns Jealously!
A) “the Holy Spirit,
whom God has placed within us, watches over us with tender jealousy?” TLB
B) PARENT TO A CHILD – GUARDED
1)
I have 2 daughters – One day give away in marriage
C)
I don’t have any real expectations for their Husbands
1)
Not expecting them to marry Pastors or guys in ministry.
D)
Not hoping they marry rich boys with money
1)
I made $700.00 a month when I married Denise
E)
Great yrs of trusting God – seeing Him provide
Wouldn’t
trade at all.
My
only expectation: Marry men who really love Jesus
A) Now if one of them God
forbid began to see a boy who wasn’t there or worse yet an unbeliever
B) My heart would break – I
would know she was being set up for a
big disappointment in the end
C)
That’s how the Holy Spirit feels when He sees us
Pursuing
after pleasure apart from God the father
1) He’s not mad at us, not
disappointed in us, not hurt by us, but jealous for us as
a dad is for his daughter.
D)
He hurts for us!
So the HS in
us Woos – He warns
#3 Holy Spirit empowers v. 6 He gives more
Grace!
Moreover,
He [the Holy Spirit] gives greater grace.
Kenneth
S. Wuest
(Thomas Manton stated, "Grace is
nothing but an introduction of the virtues of God into the soul"
By this we think of God's
power, love, kindness, strength, wisdom, might, patience, gentleness being
wisdom made known to the believer:
Here
is one of the most comforting Scriptures in all Scripture! He
gives more grace!
A)
This means that there’ll always be enough grace, regardless of your situation
or need…ALWAYS!
Author John Blanchard,
“For daily
need there is daily grace; For sudden need there is sudden grace; For overwhelming need there is overwhelming
grace;”
Heb.4:16 “Let us therefore
come boldly unto the throne of grace,
that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
On My computer was sent a painting of Niagara Falls "More to follow."
That aptly describes the abundance of God's grace given to us:
there is always more to follow
Whatever our condition or
situation, He always “gives us more grace.” He gives grace to overcome personal
weaknesses.
Blessing
of the Christian life is learning to respond moment by moment prompting
Woo Turn off TV – walk with
me – read
Warn Don’t go there –
Empower – Go talk –
something happens
He
gives more Grace:
Criteria for
receiving this grace: V 6b
Therefore He says: "God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble."
Awesome Promise James 4:10
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift
you up.
God requires humility: "God is
opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble."
Humility recognizes our own spiritual poverty (cf. Matt.
5:3).
Humility acknowledges consequently our desperate need of God's
help.
What humility
looks like
James 4:7 Therefore submit to God.
V.7 Submitted to God Submit to God – cease fighting &
surrender your will to His control.
James
4:7-9
Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
Resisting the promptings of the god of this
world that tell us ”assert yourselves”!
“Resist”
is a military metaphor which means to stand against, as in combat. This
martial language suggests the parallel language of Ephesians 6 where we are
told how to prepare to resist the Devil.
8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
One
of my favorite verses in all of the Bible: Draw nigh to God, and He might draw
nigh to you. No. Draw nigh to God, and He will sometimes draw nigh to you. No.
Draw
nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. That’s a promise!
Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you
double-minded.
Clean
ourselves from any moral defilement.
Outer
Purity hands – what I am doing on the outside – Actions
Inner
Purity: Motives -
9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to
mourning and your joy to gloom.
(9) GODLY SORROW!
Right perspective about sin – See my short falls / see my flesh –
mourn
Don’t sweep under the carpet – don’t make excuses
Heart of pride is to make excuses –
A) Spend a day with me – I will tell you all my flaws –
B) Blessed are they that mourn – why – they shall be comforted
C) Broken and contrite heart – God will not turn
away
from – Comforts – showers in grace – not condemnation
1) Condemnation is from the enemy – pushes you away
D) Beatitudes – Meek – Me-ek – Power under control
Idea is it affects the way that I see others – not as rivals – but
partners
Meek – because they shall inherit the earth
They will have great relationships -
James Pt V. 11-12 –
James 4:11-12
Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of
a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law.
But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There
is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?
When My heart is humble I
discover – I am no better than you – We are all in the same boat – Sinners in
need of more grace
A) Instead of putting you down – judging – you my heart is to
shower you with much Grace!
Micah 6:8 “He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”