James 4

James 4 “Authentic Faith”  

·      Re-read James 3:13-18 to catch the flow of thought.

·      Chapter 4 has 5 questions for Christians to keep close to their heart.

Ø  Where do quarrels and conflicts come from?

Ø  Do you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

Ø  Do you know the Spirit who lives in you yearns jealously?

Ø  Who are you to judge another?

Ø  What is your life?

·      In chapter 3, James wrote about a troublemaker in the Church. In chapter 4, he wrote about another troublemaker in the Church.

Pride Promotes Strife 1-6 “The Problems of Pride and Self-Pleasure”

1 ”Where do wars and fights come from among you? 

Do they not come from your desires for pleasure

that war in your members?

A] What causes quarrels and conflicts among Christians?

·      Why does it seem like Christians sometimes have a difficult time getting along with each other?Selfishness!

·      The majority, if not all, the problems in the Church are simply people refusing to deny themselvesworldly lusts, refusing to deny the fallen sin nature. “Self-seeking”

·      When Christians insist upon having their own way, and fulfilling their own desires, it leads to conflicts within the church.

·      2 Timothy 3:1-5 NASB “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.”

B] Unity in the Church comes when believers aren’t selfish but instead are submitted to the purposes and will of God.

C] If you hold God’s will close to your heart, the Holy Spirit will link you with those who hold God’s will close to their hearts.

2 You lust {want, desire} and do not {cannot} have. 

{So then} You murder

and covet and cannot obtain. 

You fight and war. 

Yet you do not {cannot} have because you do not ask. 

A] When people don’t get what they want they resort to hateful and unloving behavior.

B] When Christians jealously want what others have, it leads to problems.

C] Matthew 7:7 ““Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

3 You ask and do not {cannot} receive, 

because you ask amiss {with the wrong, selfish motive}, 

that you may spend it on your pleasures. 

A] The Lord desires that our prayers lineup with His revealed will.

·      1 John 5:14 ”Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.“

B] Why is it that sometimes we ask and do not receive?

·      Psalm 66:18 ”If I regard iniquity in my heart, The LORD will not hear.“

·      1 Peter 3:7 NLT ”In the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives. Treat your wife with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God’s gift of new life. Treat her as you should so your prayers will not be hindered.“

·      Remember that “no” is an answer to prayer. God knows best.

C] True and lasting pleasure is found in living out God’s plan for our lives.

4 Adulterers {NU: omits adulterers} and adulteresses {spiritual unfaithfulness to the LORD, the Bride of Christ}! 

Do you not know that friendship {sharing immoral values} with the world is enmity with {hostility towards} God? 

Whoever therefore wants {desires} to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 

A] What is a spiritual adulterer? It is an idolater.

Ø  Someone who lives for worldly pleasures to the disregard and neglect of pleasing the Lord, not living out His will for their lives.

·      Matthew 12:39 ”But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.“

·      Revelation 2:22 ”Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds.“

B] Romans 8:7 ”Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.“

C] 1 John 2:15-16 “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.”

·      Romans 12:1-2 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

 D] Christ came to set us free from this present evil world.

·      Galatians 1:4 ”who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,“

5 Or do you think {thoughts} that the Scripture says in vain, 

“The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously {He wants us for Himself}”? 

·      Exodus 34:14 “(for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),”

·      Will you be intimate with the Holy Spirit, or will you be intimate with the world that rejects Him?

·      When God breathed into mankind and mankind became a living being, God put within man the desire to live for God’s pleasure, but at the fall, mankind is now dominated by the desire to live to fulfill selfish pleasures.

6 But He gives more grace. 

Therefore He says: 

“God resists {opposes} the proud {selfish people, the friends of the world, who live above others},

But gives grace to the humble.”

·      What is the key to winning this war over the pride of life, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes? 

·      Micah 6:8 ”He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?“

Humility Cures Worldliness 7-10 “Purify Your Hearts”

7 Therefore {So then} submit {give yourself totally} to God. 

Resist {stand against} the devil {don’t give place to the devil}

and he will flee from you. 

A] Grace is the motivator for submission and humility to God.

B] The devil doesn’t flee from those who are un-submitted to God. 

·      The devil doesn’t flee from those who don’t resist him. (Matt. 4)

C] What can we do to stand against the devil?

·      Ephesians 6:11 ”Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.“

8 Draw near to God

and He will draw near to you. 

Cleanse your hands, you sinners;

and purify your hearts {purify your thoughts}, 

you double-minded {OJB: in opinion and purpose}.

A] Drawing near to God in obedience is how we resist the devil.

·      How do we draw near to God? Acts 2:42 Word, Fellowship, Communion and Prayer.

B] If we seek the Lord with all of our hearts, He will be found by us.

C] God calls us to bear fruit worthy of repentance, cleanse our hands and purify our hearts.

D] Double-mindedness is pursuing God and worldly selfish pleasures at the same time.

Ø  Authentic faith is recognized by what it pursues.

Ø  “It was Paul’s delight to spend his life for God’s interests in other people, and he did not care what it cost.”

-Oswald Chambers

9 Lament {afflicted by your own wretchedness}

and mourn

and weep {be broken over your sin}! 

Let your laughter be turned to mourning

and your joy to gloom {heaviness}. 

A] Sadly, we don’t hear enough messages along these lines.

B] Matthew 5:4 ”Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted.“

·      Psalm 51:17 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise.”

·      Joel 2:12 NLT ”That is why the LORD says, “Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning.“

10 Humble yourselves in the sight of {before} the Lord, 

and He will lift you up {from the mourning and brokenness}.

·      Humbling ourselves of our selfishness is the beginning of the LORD restoring us. 

Do Not Judge a Brother 11-12 “Our Treatment of People”

11 Do not {stop} speak evil of {criticize, badmouth} one another, brethren. 

He who speaks evil of {defames, slanders} a brother and judges {pronounces condemnation of} his brother, 

speaks evil of {violates} the law and judges the law. 

But if you judge the law, 

you are not a doer of the law but a judge.

A] It is selfish to speak evil about people.

B] This verse is not prohibiting calling out false teachers.

·      This verse is not prohibiting us from talking to other Christians about their selfishness, their sin. 

·      At the end of chapter 5, James wrote about dealing with Christians living in sin.

·      Discernment is not about faultfinding, but about finding solutions.

C] James 2:8 ”If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well;“

12 There is one Lawgiver {and Judge}, 

Who {alone} is able to save and to destroy. 

Who are you to judge another? 

·      Romans 14:4 “Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.”

Do Not Boast About Tomorrow 13-17 “Perspective on Life”

13 Come now, you who say,

“Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, 

spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit {make money}”; 

14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. 

For what is your life?

It is even a vapor {mist, vanishing breath on a cold day} that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

A] Authentic faith keeps life in proper perspective.

B] Because my life is a vapor that appears for a little time, I want to spend my time doing what God loves, and spending time with the people I love.

C] How are you spending your vapor? 

·      “This is my vapor; I’ll live it how I want!” -The Selfish Person

15 Instead you ought to say, 

“If the Lord wills {wants us to}, 

we shall live

and do this or that.” 

A] Our tomorrows are in the hands of the Lord.

B] Even the Lord Jesus Christ, prayed to His Father, “Not My will, but Your will be done.”

16 But now you boast in your arrogance {selfish pride}. 

All such boasting is evil. 

·      Man’s pride makes him pretentious, and presumptuous. 

·      Man assumes self importance as if the world couldn’t go on without him.

·      When I drive by a cemetery, I’m reminded that life will go on without me.

·      I read obituaries in the paper that have not a single mention of God and His will and it grieves my heart, but then I read those obituaries where a person served the Lord with all their heart and loved their family, and my heart rejoices in Christ.

17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, 

to him it is sin.“

A] It’s been said that this verse is a summation of the entire book of James. It does really sum up authentic faith.

B] To know God‘s will, pleasure, purpose, plan, and not do it, is sin.

C] Authentic Faith is knowing the will of God and living it out.

·      Are you living out authentic faith?

D] What are you going to do with the rest of your life? Live it for self?

Closing: The Lord is calling us to live out authentic faith.

Luke 9:23-24 ”Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.“