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00:05 Well, before I begin with the sermon, I too would like to wish all of the mothers among us a happy Mother's Day.
00:12 I don't know why, but this makes the second year in a row I have been asked to speak on Mother's Day. And I'm not a
00:18 mother. I have one or I had one. My mother has been with the Lord for about the last 20 years. And I'm very grateful
00:26 for her and the impact she had in my life. And so I want to encourage you mothers also. The role you play is so
00:33 important in the lives of your children. The text today has absolutely nothing to
00:39 do with Mother's Day. Matter of fact, it starts off talking about quarrels and fightings, and we don't want you to take
00:45 that personal. It's not geared towards a Mother's Day text by any means.
00:51 One interesting story from a mother that I just recently saw on Facebook. I don't
00:58 have a Facebook page but I occasionally look at it. I look at my wife's Facebook page
01:04 with her permission and a couple of days ago I was looking at and I saw an interesting story that a
01:10 young mother had put on Facebook former colleagues of ours that are in the US
01:15 and the lady wrote that her young son probably I don't know maybe five or six years old recently told her mom I want
01:25 to talk to God. So the mother says,"Great, let's do it."
01:30 So the boy starts to pray, "Dear God, I want a new Minecraft video game."
01:40 But it gets better. Dear God, I want a new Minecraft video game for your glory.
01:49 Amen.
01:54 The mother said then she tried to use that as an opportunity for a teachable moment to help him learn a little bit
01:60 about prayer. Wasn't hard on the little fella. I mean after all he was just a little kid. But I was amused when I read
02:06 that story because I thought h that prayer is not a whole lot different
02:12 coming from little boy than from what I hear us adults frequently praying. Except it may not be a Minecraft video
02:19 game. It might be something else we're putting in there. And I also was thinking in relation to the sermon topic
02:26 today. Oh, even at a very young age, you're in contact with the world and the
02:32 values and the pleasures, the desires of the world. And even at a young age, we
02:37 begin to try to cloak our desires in godly terms. And it seems like even at a
02:46 young age, we begin to start wrestling with the world. Want to break the sorry want to break
02:53 the text into a couple of parts this morning. The first five verses we're
02:58 going to be looking that we are facing a struggle as we wrestle with the world.
03:04 We're in a struggle. What is the struggle? What are its causes? What are its results?
03:11 And then the last five verses, way to victory in this wrestling match
03:17 that we have with the world. And we'll see that the way to victory is through God's grace when we respond
03:25 appropriately to God's grace. Now, our text this morning begins with a question. Very simple question. What
03:33 causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?
03:40 Some translations are a little bit more graphic and really more literal to the original. From whence come wars
03:48 and fightings among you. Now this word usually does mean a
03:54 literal political physical armed combat.
03:59 It can also be used symbolically. And more than likely, James is using this
04:06 symbolically here rather than an actual armed conflict. But he's choosing a very
04:13 strong word to emphasize how serious the
04:18 quarrels and the fightings are that are going on. And the two different words he
04:23 uses, the first one, wars. It's like something that's continuing,
04:28 a feud that does not end. Disputes that just keep on going.
04:35 And then the second word would be more like a battle, just a sudden flare up and then it might be over. But
04:42 nevertheless, whether it's just a flare up and a terrible blow coming to blows
04:47 or if it's a long sthing thing that just never comes to resolution,
04:53 he's asking us this question. What's the cause? Where does this come
04:59 from? And he asks, where are these quarrels coming from that are among you?
05:07 Now you could be applied to everybody because when we look at the answer when
05:14 he gets to the answer when we look at the answer we see this is really true of all human conditions all human conflicts
05:22 whether interpersonal or international conflicts the answer he gives will apply
05:29 but in our context of James he's specifically talking to people like you
05:34 and me people who are either Christians or if they're not Christians, they're family
05:40 members or friends of Christians or those who are somewhat at least interested in the Christian message. And
05:46 so he's asking what are the what's causing the quarrels and fightings among
05:52 you? But before I look at the answer that James gives, I'd like each one of us to
05:59 ask ourselves that question. Think back to the most recent quarrel or fight that
06:05 you had. What caused that?
06:10 Maybe there's some dispute or feud ongoing conflict that you're currently involved in. It's been going on a while.
06:18 It has not been resolved. What's the cause of that?
06:25 Are you in an ongoing quarrel struggle with somebody? What's causing all of
06:31 these blowups? Usually when we get asked a question like that, we're very quick to point the
06:37 finger. It's them. They did something to me. You should have seen what he did.
06:44 You should have heard what she said. And just like way back in the Garden of
06:49 Eden, it's easy to shift the blame. Adam, did you eat of that fruit? Oh no, it wasn't me. It was my wife's fault.
06:56 And then, no, no, it's not me. And the blame is passed. So answer the question, what causes the
07:02 wars? the fightings among you. And don't be too quick to point to the other
07:08 person. This is the answer that scripture gives us. Is it not this that your passions or
07:16 your lusts are at war within you?
07:21 Another translation. Isn't it because you are full of selfish desires that
07:26 fight to control you? While it's easy to blame other people,
07:32 the scripture is wanting us to look at ourselves. Oh, undoubtedly the other people have
07:39 fault within them, too. But I'm not going to straighten their life out.
07:45 God wants me to get my life right with him. So, let's look at ourselves.
07:50 Scripture wants us to look at our problems. Scripture wants me to look at my problems. Scripture wants you to look
07:56 at your situation. Look at the problems within you.
08:02 Do we have self-centeredness, arrogance, and pride that's leading us into these
08:08 conflicts? Is it my desire to control? My desire to get my way? My desire to
08:14 push my agenda through, my desire to get what I want?
08:22 One of the most famous quotes from US military history was from the War of
08:27 1812. When Commodore Perry said, "We have met the enemy and he is ours."
08:33 Meaning they had defeated the enemy and captured all of their equipment.
08:38 Well, when I was a teenager, a comedian or a comic writer changed that quote.
08:47 We have met the enemy and he is us.
08:53 And I think that's what James is trying to tell us. It's easy to say they're the
08:58 enemy. They made me so mad I just couldn't help myself. I had to.
09:05 We have met the enemy. He is us. James says, so when the scripture says, "What's
09:12 causing the quarrel? Is it not this? It's your passions that are at war within you. It's your selfish desires."
09:20 Now, when you look at that, you might ask, "Well, what specifically is he talking about? which particular passions
09:26 or lusts, which particular selfish desires.
09:32 And it's interesting, he does not identify any specifically.
09:37 And I think possibly he left that openended because if he listed two or three, we would be tempted to say, "Ah,
09:43 that's not me." And then there would be some others that we would be guilty of. So take a moment
09:50 and just ask yourself what passions are waring within you.
09:59 What are the selfish desires that you have that are waring within you?
10:09 What do you want to do that would lead you to sin? What do you
10:15 want to have that would cause you to sin?
10:20 Well, the text continues, "You desire and do not have, so you murder. You
10:27 covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel."
10:33 And so, we see here that this problem of selfish desire starts to escalate. And
10:39 we're never satisfied. These cravings, these lusts, passions that you've maybe
10:46 just recently identified as I ask you that question could possibly include
10:51 some things like the insatiable desire for wealth or money or business
10:56 opportunities. It could include the insatiable desire for power, influence, prestige, respect,
11:05 possibly the desire to be involved in some illicit sexual relationship.
11:11 Possibly the desire just to always be right and always push your way through.
11:16 Possibly a desire just for security or acceptance, fame, popularity.
11:23 You may have thought of something else that I didn't list. But whatever it is that's waring within us, it's going to
11:30 keep going and compound and get worse, and we're going to find out it still does not bring fulfillment.
11:38 Even if we get what we think we want, usually we still end up somewhat empty.
11:44 There's still something lacking. We still want more. John D. Rockefeller, very rich man
11:52 couple of centuries ago in the US, was one time asked, "How much money do you
11:58 need to have enough?" His answer was, "Just a little bit
12:04 more." The craving is never satisfied. Always
12:10 has to be something else. And so here in this text, James is saying when you
12:15 don't get what you want or if you don't receive satisfaction from what you want,
12:21 then it builds to anger and resentment and you forcefully try to get what you want and you might even murder.
12:30 Now hopefully this too is being used symbolically like when he said wars
12:36 earlier that could be symbolic
12:41 but not necessarily. This happened two weeks ago in a church
12:46 in the USA. What the deal was a man came into church
12:52 and he went and sat down in an empty seat. Somebody else came to him and say
12:57 uh these seats are reserved. Two people were already sitting there. They've left. They're going to be coming back.
13:03 That man said, "Don't touch me. Don't tell me what to do." They got in a verbal conflict all the time. The praise
13:10 team's on the stage singing. They're singing a hymn while this is going on. And it comes to blows and the one guy
13:17 pulls a gun. The other guy says, "What are you going to do? Shoot me?" And he hauls off and hits him in the face. And yeah, the guy shot him.
13:27 wars and fightings within us can lead to violent outbreaks such as that. And the
13:35 ironic thing about the whole thing is this happened at a church that has the
13:40 name fellowship in the name of the church, Keystone
13:46 Fellowship Church. But the fellowship was obviously broken because of these waring desires
13:53 within the two individuals that ended in a literal murder. Each
13:60 wanted to get their own way. The struggle wasn't really over a seat. It
14:06 was a power struggle. I want my way and nobody's going to push me around.
14:11 So they end up carrying one off in a stretcher and putting the other one in jail. Well, hopefully
14:20 in our situations it has not escalated to that point. But nevertheless, we need
14:26 to remember the words of Jesus. James being the brother of Jesus, I'm sure had
14:32 this in mind when Jesus in the sermon on the mount was saying, "You have heard it of old. The ten commandments says you
14:39 shall not murder." But let me expound that. Let me get to the heart of the matter. When you have
14:46 anger against your brother, when you insult your brother, when you call your
14:52 brother horrible names, it's like character assassination.
14:58 And just a couple of weeks ago in our Sunday morning service, we heard about the damage that can be done by our
15:04 tongues. Think about your own life for a moment.
15:09 No, I don't imagine anybody has actually committed murder here. You wouldn't be here. You'd be in jail. But what weapons
15:17 do you use in your quarrels?
15:22 Do you assassinate character? Are you insulting people? Are you doing
15:28 something that in the term of Jesus application here
15:34 that could really be called murder in the sense that we're assassinating somebody's character?
15:44 Let's continue with our text. You murder, even you covet, you cannot
15:50 obtain. So you fight and you quarrel. And now this is interesting. you do not
15:56 have because you do not ask. We don't have what we're wanting because
16:04 we don't ask God. Now, that brings a whole new dimension into the discussion
16:10 here. But be careful how you interpret that. Some people when they see that, they
16:15 say, "Ah, now I know how to get what I want. I'll just ask God." and then God's
16:22 going to have to give me what I want because it says right here in his word he's going to.
16:28 No, it doesn't say that. God's not going to necessarily give us a new Minecraft video game just because we
16:36 pray and at the end throw in for your glory God or our adult version of that
16:43 prayer. The verse, the text continues to explain
16:48 that even though you ask, you're still not going to receive
16:54 because you're asking wrongly. You have wrong motives. You're wanting to spend
16:59 it or use it on your own passions, your own lusts, your own selfish desires.
17:06 Think about your prayers for a moment. Are your prayers with wrong motives?
17:14 Are your prayers so that you'll have something for your own desires or are they really for God's glory?
17:22 Frequently when Christians pray at the end of their prayer, they will say the phrase in Jesus name we pray.
17:30 Amen. And frequently, I'm sure that's just the phrase we say. And I'm not wanting to
17:37 condemn anybody. I'm sure I'm guilty also. just just something we say.
17:43 But if we really mean in Jesus' name, it would be in accordance with Jesus
17:50 character, in accordance with his will. Therefore, I am praying this prayer
17:56 because this I know is God's will because of the scripture, because of how
18:02 God is leading. I'm praying according to Christ's name, according to his will.
18:10 We need to be careful because our heart can deceive us. Just like that little boy, God, I want this for your glory.
18:18 And we can easily deceive ourselves into thinking, no, there's nothing selfish about me. Nothing selfish about that
18:25 prayer. But remember what Jeremiah the prophet
18:30 said, "The heart is deceitful above all things. Who can understand it?"
18:36 our heart. We think, "Ah, this is God's will." But
18:42 it's really my will. But the Lord does search the heart. The Lord does test the
18:48 mind. The Lord does know. One scripture that is sometimes misused
18:55 by Christian people would be Psalm 37:4 where it says, "Delight yourself in the
19:01 Lord and he God will give you the desires of your heart." And so people
19:07 then try to, okay, if I go to church and if I read my Bible and if I do this and this and this, then I can get God to do
19:14 what I want him to do. No. If you delight yourself in the Lord,
19:20 God is going to change your heart. If you delight yourself in the Lord, he
19:25 is going to change your desires and you'll desire his will. You'll
19:30 desire what he wants. and then you will not be asking a miss.
19:37 You will not be asking with wrong motives because you'll be asking according to his will. But if we see
19:43 prayer as a way to try to manipulate God to give us what we want,
19:49 we're no different than most of the other world religions. It's why in the Lord's prayer before we
19:56 get to the part give us this day our daily bread and we express our needs and
20:01 our desires the first half of the prayer deals with God
20:06 who is our father in heaven sovereign Lord. Hallowed be his name. Our emphasis
20:13 is on the glory the majesty of God. And then it continues your will be done.
20:20 your kingdom come, your rule on earth, your rule in my life, your will in my
20:25 life be done. And after we get through that part of the prayer, if we're
20:30 serious, then we're in a position to bring our requests to God.
20:39 Now, this is not a comprehensive treatment on prayer, these few verses in James, and
20:44 I'm not giving a comprehensive treatment on prayer. So do not read into the text
20:50 in the event that you might be praying a prayer now and it has not been answered.
20:55 It might be because you have wrong motives, but it might not be because you have wrong motives. You might be praying
21:02 something that is in the will of God, but yet God has not yet answered that in his timing. Or maybe God has another
21:09 plan you're not aware of that would be better. So don't just automatically assume any answered unanswered prayer is
21:16 a result of my passions that are out of line with God. But the text is saying
21:23 that is one reason one big reason for unanswered prayer. Our motives are
21:29 wrong. So in this text we see there is a broken
21:35 relationship with people. We quarrel, we fight, we even murder or at least
21:41 symbolically are trying to destroy them with our words. And the relationship
21:46 with God is broken and that we try to misuse prayer. We pray in my will be
21:52 done rather than thy will be done. And so the relationship with God is
21:58 broken. And when we get to verse four, then we get really to the heart of the matter.
22:04 As James says, "You adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the
22:11 world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the
22:16 world makes himself an enemy of God." Now, when James said, "You adulterers
22:23 and adulteresses," that was pretty harsh language, pretty
22:28 shocking language. And I'm sure when the people heard that, they probably recoiled and said, "No, no, that that
22:33 was that's not my sin. That might be somebody else's
22:39 harsh words because he's wanting to get across a point. You adulterous people, you unfaithful
22:48 people." James being well schooled in the Old Testament prophets
22:54 was very much familiar with the fact that in the Old Testament God had sometimes through his prophets called
23:00 his people adulterers and adulteresses because they had violated the covenant.
23:09 Especially the prophet Hosea, we see how Hosea had a wife who was unfaithful to
23:14 him on numerous occasions and God used that as an object lesson and said, "That's the way my people are to me."
23:23 And in the Old Testament, we see examples where the people would still try to worship God, but then they would
23:30 also worship idols. And there came times that even they would go into the temple,
23:37 but then outside, just right outside the temple, there might be an altar to the god Baal.
23:44 They would go to the temple on one day, they would go to an altar to another god on another day. They would go to the
23:50 temple and say all of the right words, go through all of the right rituals, and then they would go and live a terrible
23:57 lifestyle with so much social injustice. and the prophets calling the people to
24:03 honesty and fairness and respect for other people. They're being unfaithful to God. You're
24:10 an adulterer, an adulteress, the prophet would say, because you are not living
24:16 according to the vows that have been made to God. And the New Testament has
24:22 similar terminology where Christ is the groom, we the church, Christians are the
24:30 bride. And if we're unfaithful to Christ, then
24:35 we like these people that James is writing to are adulterers.
24:40 We're trying to be in bed with two different lovers
24:46 or we're trying to go in two opposing directions or as in the words of Jesus, you're
24:53 trying to serve two masters and you cannot serve two masters.
24:58 Earlier in the book of James chapter 1, we heard him talking about people that were double-minded with divided
25:04 loyalties. Yes, I want to be a good Christian, but yes, I want to do these
25:10 things that do not please God. So, he's showing here there's a major heart
25:16 problem. And it's interesting to be interesting at the end of that text, it says,
25:21 "Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world or could also be translated, whoever chooses to be a friend of the
25:30 world, we have some responsibility in that we have come to God. We say, "Yes, God. We
25:36 want you to take our life. We want you to tell us how to live. We want to
25:42 follow Christ." But yet, we also try to choose, well, no, I'm not going to follow God's will
25:49 here. I would rather go this other direction. And we become what scripture calls a friend of the world.
25:57 Now, the New Testament world has different meanings. Just like in the English language, one word can have more
26:04 than one meaning depending on the context. We see in John 3, God so loved the world
26:10 that he gave his own son. Okay, it's okay to love the world if you're talking about loving the people of the world in
26:17 a sacrificial way to want them to come to faith in Christ. But here James is
26:24 talking about society that is organized without any reference to almighty God.
26:31 It's a social value system that is alien to the kingdom values of the kingdom of
26:39 God. It's an amoral, immoral, secular, materialistic society and culture.
26:50 many of the things that we see around us that we might not even say, "Oh, that's sinful, but yet it's being lived and
26:58 carried out not under the lordship of Christ." And we get so intertwined with
27:05 things and we give our loyalty to things that are not under the dominion, the
27:10 lordship of Jesus. And it turns out that the more we get entangled with things of
27:16 the world, the less interest that we sometimes have for things of God. So
27:22 James is saying if you're a friend of the world, you're an enemy with God.
27:30 You can't have both. You're not going to be a loyal servant of God and also be in bed with the
27:37 world. There's a clear-cut choice here. And James is using strong words here.
27:44 We've already mentioned adulterer. Very strong word. The marital symbol
27:50 there of how there's no faithfulness anymore. The vows have been broken. And
27:56 then the other word he used has political connotations. Enemy. You're at war with God. So we're
28:04 unfaithful to God. And it's like we're at war with God. And the ironic thing is that when we first come to faith in
28:12 Christ, we're reconciled with God. And the scripture talks about the peace that
28:17 we now can have with God. But because we then allow sin to come in
28:23 our life, and because we then try to serve another master or get in bed with
28:29 somebody other than remain loyal to Christ, once again, we become enemies
28:36 with God. The next verse is a little difficult
28:42 grammatically to translate. So I'm not going to spend much time here. This is
28:47 one translation. Do you think that the scripture says in vain, the spirit that dwells in us lustth to envy? Or similar,
28:57 the spirit in man turns toward envious desires.
29:02 But because in the grammar it's difficult to know exactly what the subject is, it could be translated this
29:08 way. He God yearns a jealousy over the spirit which he has made to dwell in us.
29:15 Well, without going into detail on that, really this verse is a transitional verse. And if we take the first two
29:22 possibilities, it's basically a conclusion of what we've just seen. The
29:28 spirit that is in us is turning towards envious desires. Our natural self. The
29:35 terminology Paul would use would be the flesh, the old man, the old nature is
29:42 yearning for these evil desires. Or if we take the other possibility, God
29:49 is yearning for us. That then transitions us into the next section where we see God is going to give us his
29:57 grace. So before we continue to the next part, we've been talking about the struggle
30:03 that comes in wrestling with the world and we've seen the causes of the struggle that comes from our impure
30:11 motives. These selfish desires that are waring within us.
30:17 It comes because we're not totally committed or submitted to God. We're
30:22 friends of the world. And we've also seen the results of the
30:27 struggle, which would include the inner strife, the waring that's going on within us that leads to discontent and
30:34 anger and then results in broken relationships with our fellow man as we quarrel and fight.
30:42 And it leads to a broken relationship with God because we're unfaithful to
30:47 him. We've become his enemy because we're now friends with the world.
30:58 So, we go now to the next part, the last five verses of the text, and we're going
31:04 to see the way to victory and the response that God wants us to
31:11 make to his grace. Now, the solution to the problems we've just seen is God. The
31:17 solution is his grace. Verse six says, "He gives more grace."
31:26 We're dependent on God. We're dependent on his grace. It's not that I'm just going to try harder to control my
31:33 passions or try harder to not have quite so many selfish desires or if I have
31:39 these selfish desires, I'm going to try just a little bit harder to not come to blows over it.
31:45 Yes, there will be some effort, and we'll get to that in a minute. But ultimately, the only way we can win out
31:52 or receive victory in this wrestling with the world and wrestling with Satan that we're involved in is through God in
31:58 the grace that he gives. Grace by definition is undeserved.
32:04 It's unmmerited. That's something we cannot earn. It's not a reward that we
32:10 get for being good little Christians. It's not a result of our religious rituals.
32:18 But the verse continues, "Therefore, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the
32:26 humble. We're dependent on God and his grace,
32:33 but we receive it when we're humble. If
32:39 we're proud, self-centered, arrogant, we're not going
32:44 to be recipients of God's grace. If we're self-sufficient and think we
32:50 can achieve everything we need in life through our own strength, we're not going to receive God's grace.
32:58 A presidential candidate in the US, I won't mention any names, but he made headlines.
33:04 You already know who I'm talking about, don't you? But he made headlines some weeks back when he was asked about his
33:11 faith and he was asked if he ever asked God for forgiveness. And the answer
33:17 came, "No, he really hadn't because he just tried to do good."
33:22 Well, it's commendable to try to do good, but you're not going to receive God's
33:28 grace if you don't admit your sin and ask his forgiveness. And while we can
33:34 look at this political candidate and kind of laugh at him or say, "Oh, that's terrible." Look at our own lives before
33:40 we start pointing fingers because I imagine sometimes those thoughts come into our minds.
33:48 I am pretty good person. And if we compare oursel to somebody that's worse in our eyes, yeah, of course, yeah, we
33:56 look pretty good. But we end up being like the Pharisee
34:01 who was really a pretty good person in that parable that Jesus told when he said a Pharisee went to the temple to
34:07 pray and also a despised sinful tax collector went. And the Pharisees prayer
34:13 was God I thank you that I'm not like other people. I'm not an extortionist. I'm not corrupt. I'm not a an adulterer.
34:21 I don't do all these horrible things like that sinful man there. Why? I pray.
34:26 I tithe. He didn't receive God's grace. Jesus
34:32 said, "If you're going to receive God's grace, it's when we come to him humbly." The
34:39 sermon on the mount, Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." Meaning those who realize their need for
34:46 God that they cannot come to God on their own merit. Blessed are those that
34:52 hunger and thirst after righteousness. Those that are humble are those who bow
34:58 their knee, submitting before God rather than I'm going to do it my way. I'm
35:05 going to run my life. But rather, God, you are God. You are Lord. You are King.
35:11 You are master. You lead my life.
35:18 And then the text continues, "Submit yourselves therefore to God.
35:24 God gives grace, but we receive God's grace when we
35:30 humbly submit ourselves to him. In the scripture, almost always when we
35:37 see God extending his grace, we also see that he expects a response.
35:45 And unfortunately in some of the teaching in the church today,
35:51 the response that God wants us to make is negated because they're wanting to
35:57 stress so much that it is God and it is God's grace. Both are true. We don't need to just
36:04 choose one or the other. Many times heresies, false teaching that have come into the church, what they
36:11 teach is true, but it's not the whole truth. For example, one of the earliest heresies
36:18 that the early Christians fought about was over who Jesus is. And one group of
36:23 people said Jesus is divine. Nothing wrong with that. We would agree
36:29 Jesus is the son of God. He is God the Son. The word became flesh. He Yeah,
36:35 he's God. But the problem was the people that were saying he is God denied the other
36:43 scriptures that said he was flesh, that he was also human. And then another
36:49 group, another heretical group took the opinion that Jesus was a man. Well, that's true. The word did become flesh.
36:57 He had hunger. He had thirst. When he was crucified, there was actual blood that came out of his body. But the
37:04 problem was those people that said he's human, then they denied the divinity of
37:09 Christ. So both groups had the truth, but only part of the truth. And I think
37:15 when we look at James here, we can see how things fit together. Yes, God is
37:22 sovereign. He's in charge of the world. Yes, salvation comes only through grace,
37:28 through what God does. We cannot earn it. It is not by works. nothing we do
37:34 will earn us salvation. But if you emphasize only those things,
37:39 which some camps in the church today do, you're deemphasizing, you're missing out
37:46 on so much of the rest of scripture where over and over and over it's
37:51 repeated in scripture that we are to respond to God in repentance, respond to
37:57 his grace in faith. In the Old Testament, Joshua tells the
38:02 people, "You've got a clear-cut choice. Choose you this day whom you will serve." John the Baptist told the
38:09 people, "You need to repent and bring forth works that show you've repented."
38:14 Jesus himself said, "The kingdom of God is at hand. The grace of God has come
38:20 near to you. Therefore, repent and believe the gospel."
38:25 And one time when Jesus was looking out over Jerusalem, he was weeping and he said, "Oh Jerusalem, I would have
38:31 gathered you as a mother hen will gather as chickens." But you would not. They
38:40 chose not to. They did not respond in faith. So here we see a balance in
38:46 James. We don't ever want to say that we earn our salvation, but to give the impression
38:53 that God's grace is just going to somehow automatically flow over us and there's no response on our part violates
39:02 so much of the rest of scripture. Now, sometimes people might have an
39:07 experience where it just seems like the grace of God is just washing all over them.
39:13 But God's grace can be resisted. I have resisted his grace at times. And
39:21 if you're honest, I'm sure you have resisted his grace at times. God wants us to respond in repentance and faith to
39:29 his grace. So the truth of the matter is God does give grace,
39:34 but he's not going to give it to the proud. He's going to give it to those who humbly submit themselves before God,
39:42 bowing their knee before him, acknowledging him as the Lord. Before I go ahead, I want to go back to
39:48 the word grace one more time. Even though our text does not say it, I want to include it. The way God showed his
39:56 grace the most, the most full expression of
40:01 God's grace is what he did through Jesus Christ. God was in Christ reconciling
40:08 the world to himself. God so loved the world that he gave his own son that all
40:14 who believe in him can have eternal life. Christ died for our sin according
40:20 to the scripture. Christ died for our offenses and he was
40:26 raised for our justification. That's where we see the grace of God the most
40:31 clearly and that's the grace of God that we are to respond to in faith.
40:39 Well, the verse continues, "Submit yourselves to God, but resist the devil
40:44 and the devil will flee from you." Now, notice, submit to God,
40:50 resist the devil. Logical, makes sense. Good idea.
40:58 Sometimes I think we tend to twist those around.
41:03 Rather than resisting the devil, we sometimes resist God.
41:11 Sometimes, maybe it's not true for you, but I've noticed that in my life, sometimes it's
41:17 even easier for us to resist God than it is to resist the devil. a temptation
41:24 comes and no, I know I shouldn't give in, but okay. This one time, God tells
41:30 us to do something. Forgive your enemy.
41:36 Show respect to people with other ethnic, racial, religious backgrounds.
41:43 Share the gospel with people who have different backgrounds. And we say no.
41:48 And God tells us again. And we say no. And sometimes we go through our whole life resisting God and we just turn this
41:56 thing around rather than resisting the devil. Oh, I just couldn't help myself. But resisting God, no problem. When
42:04 that's the case, there's something wrong with our heart, folks. There's something wrong.
42:10 God gives his grace. He's not going to force us to follow him
42:17 and accept his grace. We can resist him, but we're encouraged here when God gives
42:23 his grace that we do submit ourselves to him. Do not resist him, but rather
42:30 resist the devil. A story that I heard from a seminary
42:35 student, and by the way, this was not in Malaysia, and it's been several years ago, so don't try to think, was this
42:42 Masimo or Mark Ton or one of the other seminary students I know? But a seminary student some years back I heard this
42:49 account from him that illustrates this idea of God-giving grace. But nevertheless that struggle within us. Am
42:56 I going to submit to God? Am I going to resist the devil or am I going to twist
43:01 it around? Seminary student was single, wanted to be married but had not yet
43:06 found the right one. Healthy young man, hormones worked. uh
43:12 he was interested in the ladies and he met a girl who was really
43:19 attractive according to this fella. And this lady was not a Christian.
43:27 And he had the impression, I think if I asked this girl out, she would probably
43:32 go with me. And based on what I know, I think if I ask her out, there might be
43:38 the possibility that well, you I'll leave it to your imagination.
43:44 Of course, I realize some men have these thoughts and it's just their own ego. It's not true. But this guy thought,
43:50 "Nah, this probably if I ask her out, some things could really happen. Fireworks could come."
43:56 And so there was a struggle going on him. Do I resist the temptation
44:02 and submit to God or not? And then it got worse because a friend of this girl,
44:10 a a girl who was a friend of this girl he had had met came to him and said,
44:15 "Hey, this girl is interested in you. She likes you. she would like to go out with you
44:22 and then she said something and I think it would be worth your time. I think you
44:27 would enjoy your time with her indicating there would be some good possibility of some fringe benefits
44:34 there. And so that made the struggle even worse. What do I do? And do I
44:39 submit to God? Do I resist the devil or do I give in just this one time?
44:45 And he said that finally as he was just thinking who am I? Am I a child of God?
44:52 Am I a follower of Jesus? And also who's am I? Do I belong to God
44:58 or do I belong to myself? Do I belong to the world? And God gave him the grace
45:05 and he submitted and resisted the temptation, resisted the devil at least
45:11 that time. I can't say about the rest of the life, but nevertheless, here's an example. It would be wrong to say, "Oh,
45:18 that boy's a hero. He was so strong." No, no, no. Only through the power and
45:24 the strength of God could any young man resist that kind of an offer.
45:29 But yet, it wasn't grace that just automatically came on him and he was a robot and had no other choice.
45:36 God enabled him to choose correctly, but there was still that conscious
45:42 submitting to God and resisting the devil.
45:47 Some people get the idea that if we're resisting the devil, it's kind of like we're a ninja warrior or I'm Iron Man or
45:53 the Incredible Hulk and I go out and trump on the devil. No, that's a very overinflated view of
46:00 yourself. In some Christian circles, I've even heard people pray in the middle of their prayer, start yelling at
46:07 the devil. I don't understand how you can talk to God and then interrupt your talk to God and start yelling at the
46:13 devil. I really don't think that's what the scripture means. Basically, when you
46:18 resist the devil, it's just say no. Like that young man I told you about, he's
46:24 facing a choice. Do you resist God or do you resist the devil? Well, I say no to
46:30 the devil. Some other help we can get is from the life of Jesus. This is a stained glass window, picture of a
46:36 stained glass window from a 13th century church in France where Jesus was being
46:41 tempted by the devil to change stones into bread. And how did he say no to the
46:48 devil? He quoted scripture.
46:54 And the next two temptations, he resisted those the same way. He quoted scripture. So, we resist the devil by
47:01 saying no based on what the scripture says is God's will and what is not God's
47:06 will. In Ephesians, we also have some help on how to resist the devil to put on the whole armor of God.
47:13 But again, don't get too many ideas, but I'm going to be a big tough soldier like this guy because really look at what the
47:19 armor of God is. It's God's salvation. It's righteousness.
47:25 It's truth. It's the word of God, the scripture. It's a preparation to share
47:31 the gospel of peace. Ready to share the Christian witness. It's faith and all
47:38 covered with prayer.
47:44 Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. And
47:49 then the scripture goes on to say, "Draw near to God and he will draw near to you."
47:55 Draw near to God in faith, through prayer, through scripture, through
48:01 worship, by submitting yourself to God and saying no to the devil. And in the
48:07 Old Testament, we see the symbol that you could only get so close to the
48:13 presence of God and you could go no further. In the temple, there was a veil that separated the holy place where the
48:19 presence of God was. And nobody could get back there except the high priest once a year.
48:25 But at Easter, that veil was ripped in two. And now access into the presence of God is possible. And we see in Hebrews
48:32 this comparison that now Jesus is like the veil. And we can get through that
48:38 veil. We can go through Jesus to come boldly drawing near into the presence of
48:45 God. And imagine we draw near to God. And then the God, the Lord, the creator
48:51 of the universe, will draw near to us. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify
48:58 your hearts, you double-minded. Again, harsh words, sinners. He doesn't
49:04 say just a little mistake, little discretion, a failure. No, you sinned.
49:10 You're a sinner. You're doubleminded. You're not wholeheartedly committed in
49:15 faith to God. Cleanse your hands. Talking more than
49:22 likely about the deeds, the actions that we do. We need to clean up our life, the way we live. And he gets to the heart of
49:29 it with purify your heart. Our hearts need to be changed.
49:36 So ask yourself in cleansing your hands, what are some
49:41 things that need to be cleaned in your life? What sins do you need to repent of? Look at your heart. What are the
49:48 impure motives, thoughts, desires that you might have that need to be purified?
49:56 And then he talks about being wretched and mourning and weeping. And what he's basically doing is just explaining
50:02 repentance. We come near to God. We confess our sin. We let him change
50:09 our heart. And we truly feel this heartfelt sorrow for sin.
50:16 Have you ever felt that type of a heartfelt sorrow for sin that it brings you to weeping and mourning?
50:24 When was the last time you felt something like that? But when you look at church history,
50:29 most of the great revivals, the outpouring of God's spirit throughout history in the church was when people
50:36 actually did confront the reality and the seriousness of their sin. And there
50:41 was this heartfelt turning in repentance towards God.
50:47 Unfortunately, in a lot of our worship services, we don't really have a place for that. We want something that's
50:53 upbeat and exciting. And on the one hand, yeah, we want to be uplifted when we come to church,
50:60 but yet the true way to be lifted up in our worship
51:06 is what we see in verse 10. When we humble ourselves before the Lord, then
51:12 he will lift us up. He will exalt us.
51:17 So this morning we've been looking at wrestling with the world and we've seen the way to victory is through God's
51:24 grace. He gives more grace. And our response is that of a
51:30 wholehearted single-minded faith as we submit ourselves to God and genuine repentance.
51:39 In conclusion, our struggles with the world are caused by our impure motives, our selfish
51:47 desires, our friendship with the world. And the results are our inner life is a mess,
51:54 our relationships are a mess, and our relationship with God is broken.
51:60 And the only way that we can receive any help in this is through God's grace.
52:06 when we respond to him in repentance and faith.
52:12 When you first come to Jesus, this is how you need to come. Repentance and faith.
52:18 As a Christian and you have been walking with Christ for a while, when sin comes into your life and you realize you're
52:24 wrestling with the world, we need again to repent in faith, submit ourselves to
52:30 God. Unfortunately, it's not just a one-time thing. that little boy who was wrestling
52:37 with the world on wanting a new Minecraft video game for God's glory. He's going to find out as he grows that
52:44 that struggle is going to continue. Although it gets more advanced, more adult in the desires,
52:51 but we want God to change our heart, change our desires so that we can see the victory more often. Let's pray
52:59 together. Father God, when we look at our lives,
53:04 we realize our need for you. We see that our hands do need to be cleansed.
53:10 There's sin in our lives. We see that our heart needs to be purified because there are impure motives and desires and
53:17 thoughts. Father God, we realize that it's easy to point the finger at others and blame
53:23 them for the difficulties we're facing, but help us to see where we are at
53:29 fault, where we need your forgiveness, where we need your grace. And almighty God, if there's someone here this
53:35 morning who has never responded to you in repentance and faith, that today they would come to Christ and receive his
53:41 grace. Those of us who have been walking with Christ for a while, yet we realize that
53:47 daily we're in need of cleansing, I pray that we will truly experience this heartfelt repentance where we're not
53:54 happy just to continue living with the sin, but that we're willing to let you
53:59 cleanse us as we genuinely mourn coming to you, submitting our lives to you. In
54:05 Jesus name we pray. Amen.
