I want to invite you to open up to James 4. We’ll be looking at verses 1 through 10 this evening. That really is a beautiful song we just sang. Oftentimes, when I’m explaining the gospel, or even you’ve heard me probably several times when I’m preaching and I explain the gospel, I like to say that it’s us crying to Jesus, I need you, Jesus. And I love that song, I need you, especially when it says, even in the midst of joy in our life, just the idea of we always need our Savior. We always need God, no matter what’s going on. We’ll be looking at James chapter four verses one through 10, and I’ll just be picking up in verse one of chapter four. So, James writes, as inspired by the Holy Spirit, what is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is it not the source of your pleasures that wage war in your members?

You lust and you do not have, so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that Scripture speaks to no purpose? He jealously desires a spirit which he has made to dwell in us? but he gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and he will exalt you.

Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, I wanna pray that you bless this time of the service, the preaching of your word. I thank you that here at Fellowship Baptist, we emphasize the importance of your word and how it should be preached. I pray the Holy Spirit will open up our hearts this evening, and as we receive this word, the Holy Spirit will speak through me as I preach. In Jesus’ name, amen.

I recently, this year, I have a goal. And my goal is I want to read 45 books for the year. Now, not to brag, but I’m already about 71% of the way towards the goal. So needless to say, I think I’m going to get over 45. But every time I finish a book, I’ll start a new one. And I have multiple going on at one time. But one of the books I’m going through right now is one of the John Steinbeck novels called A Cup of Gold.

It’s his first novel written in 1929. And it’s an interesting one. It follows the young Henry Morgan as he goes from being a young, naive boy in Wales to the most fearsome pirate in the Caribbean. So it’s kind of a pirate story, pirate novel. John Steinbeck has taken a real figure, Henry Morgan was a real figure in history, and he sort of fictionalizes the tale. And he shows how this, like I said, this young boy who longs for glory, for riches, for wealth, And he goes and gets all this stuff, becoming a very fearsome and famous pirate. And Henry Morgan, the main character, is motivated by an insatiable desire for wealth, prestige, and to be a master of men. And even when the story starts, as he’s a young 15-year-old boy, you see that.

He goes, I want to be the master of my fate. He hears stories of pirates, and he wants the wealth that they have accumulated. He wants that for himself. As the story moves along, he desires this more than anything. He wants his ship so he can pillage and raid the Caribbean. That’s his goal. He craves the pleasures the world has to offer and he craves the praise of men.

And he determines, as the story goes on, that he will submit himself to no man, but only to himself. Every man he encounters will answer to him and him alone. He will be the chief of all men. And I’m about, I’m close to finishing the book and where I’m at. He really embraces the pleasures of the world. He embraces the world.

One of the things that made me think of, even in our own world, is that when people refuse to submit to God in life, then they are following the world. That’s one of the things I realized about this character, Henry Morgan, in this book, is he really is following the world and chasing the pleasures of the world.

And when we come to this passage in James 4, verses 1 through 10, we see that Christians are to reject the world and submit to God. Christians are to reject the world and submit to God. But before getting into The text that we’re looking at tonight, just a quick review, and remember James? He’s telling these Christians in this letter how they are to live in a changing pagan world. It’s a world that’s changing, and it’s a world that is hostile to the gospel, and how they’re to practice godly living. They are to be a humble people who act godly and speak in a godly way. Things he’s already addressed.

In the previous passages that we covered last week, James chapter three, three verses 13 through 18, we looked at what James had to say about wisdom. And he first introduced wisdom in chapter one, but he expanded upon it at the end of chapter three. We talked about how wisdom displays itself in godly living. Throughout verses 13 through 18 of chapter three, James emphasized humility, selflessness, and being a peacemaker.

The humble are selfless, and they put others before themselves. And where there is no peace, there is disorder. These are all things he hit on in the previous passage. And I’m referencing these themes because they’re important in our passage tonight as well. He’s still addressing some of these topics. He’s gonna address humility again. And he’s gonna continue drawing out these themes. We still see the need for humility and the sin of envy. And we will see in these first three verses, actually, that a lack of peace leads to strife. So Christians are to reject the world and submit to God. And if you’re taking notes, our first heading for the passage is reject the world. And this will cover verses one through six.

So just reading verse one again, James says, what is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members. So James begins with a question, which he does, he’s already done several times throughout this book. He uses a lot of questions, a lot of rhetorical questions. In fact, in the first verse, he uses two questions. And what we see him doing here in this first verse is he’s working from the general to the more specific. And the first question he brings up the issue.

He says, what is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? He’s stating the issue. There’s quarrels and there’s conflicts among you. I’ve heard of this. Here’s this issue, so he starts general, he talks about the issue, but with the next question, he goes more specific. He actually, and what he does with the second question is he actually answers the first question.

So what is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is it not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? So he’s like, hey, the source of the quarrels and conflicts among you, what’s the source? It’s the pleasures, the pleasures, or the desires that wage war in your members.

So he says, here’s the issue, and here’s the problem. Here’s the source of the issue. The source of conflicts and quarrels are the people who start the quarrels and conflicts. I’ve mentioned this several times as we go through this book, but in several points throughout the book, James is almost pointing his finger at the people and giving a direct indictment to them, saying, this is you. You are the problem. And the proper response from James’ readers should be yes, when they hear these two questions. You’re right, James, there are quarrels and conflicts among you, and yes, you’re right, we are the source of the problem. We are the problem.

He brings it back to their heart like he did in chapter three, verse 14. In chapter three, verse 14, James says, but if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant, so lie against the truth. He’s talking about the heart, getting to the heart of the matter. These quarrels and conflicts are serious issues that have probably been going on for some time. The fact that James is writing to them about it shows that they’re probably serious, and like I said, they’ve been chronic issues.

And the word that is translated as pleasures or passions or desires is never used in a good way in the New Testament. And different translations translate differently. My version, the NASB, says pleasures. Your version may say passions or desires. But the Greek word that’s used there is never used in a good way in the New Testament. It’s never used in a good connotation.

And one of the things we need to remember when we’re talking about this idea of rejecting the world, is that rejecting the world is that we also must reject the worldly desires we have and the pleasures we seek. Those worldly desires and worldly pleasures. So when I say reject the world, it’s rejecting the sin of the world, those desires and pleasures we have. Because worldly living is characterized by chasing our own selfish desires. And there’s a lot of definitions you could give for what worldly living is, what it looks like to live worldly. But I think this is one helpful definition. It’s characterized by chasing our own selfish desires.

And these desires are what we crave more than anything else. Now, are desires inherently bad? No. That’s not what James is talking about. Desires are fine. Pastor and Susan have desired to have a long-lasting marriage, and they have, and that’s great. There’s good desires we have. However, when our desires are contrary to Scripture, or when we’re obsessing over them, then they become sinful.

That’s what James is talking about. He’s talking about these sinful desires that are contrary to Scripture. In fact, he’s going to get in a little bit to the sin of envy, and that is a sin. And James here, like I said, is talking about sinful desires.

These are the things that we think will bring us the most pleasure in life. If I have this one thing, everything in life will be okay. If I get this one thing, then everything will be good. This is what will bring me the most pleasure. What James is talking about with these desires, with these passions, with these pleasures, is the things we want that make us maybe feel good. That’s one thing I think about with the word pleasure. is what’s gonna bring me the most pleasure?

And these desires or pleasures or passions James is talking about, it’s those things we think that are gonna make us feel good. We think we’ll make everything better. And he’s going to show that they don’t, and we’re wrong thinking that way. James is showing that it is because these people are chasing their own selfish desires that they are having problems. which it’s easy for us to be like, well, duh, obviously, but every time we have that thought, we need to remember, are we any different?

Now, he says in verse one, the second question, he says, is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? And that phrase, my version says within your members, your version may say within your body parts, but that phrase probably has kind of two meanings. One of them is individuals. And what he’s saying is, hey, These sources, your pleasures that wage war in your members, these sins that you have, these individual sins you struggle with. And he’s gonna go on and describe them a bit more as the passage continues.

But the source of these problems are your sins. But I think it can also refer to the war that exists in this context going on between the members of the church, the actual individual members of the church. It’s clear from this very first verse that there’s some kind of conflict going on with the people in these local churches. So when James is talking about the wage war in your members, I think he’s saying, hey, there’s these sins in your life that are causing issues. And because you’re having these sins that are causing issues, it’s causing you to have issues with other people. These conflicted quarrels come from your sin. And because you’re letting this sin run rampant, it’s creaking, causing havoc in this local church.

When we chase what we want, we care not for others. And I addressed this last week when we covered the end of James 3, but selfish desires, when we’re chasing what we want, we care only about what we want, and we don’t think about others. And then as we move on to verse 2, we see that James goes on to list some of these specific sins, and probably the specific sins that are arising. He says in verse 2, you lust and do not have, so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.

And there is a correlation between what he talks about here and what he talked about in 13 through 18 of the previous chapter. I’m not going to go back and read verses 13 through 18 of chapter 3, but he talked about bitter jealousy and selfish ambition there.

He talked about how sinful they are. And in here, in chapter 4, he’s saying the people are less full And they’re envious. So we still see some of that selfish ambition, that bitter jealousy. He’s talking about it again. I think we need to see that these are big issues. I talked last week about how some people will look at jealousy or envy and kind of maybe almost look at them as little sins. But when we read James, he really shows that these are not just little sins. This is a big deal. He’s still talking about it. And lust and envy being paired together are meant to highlight the seriousness and pervasiveness of their selfish desires and sin. He’s using lust and envy together to show this is serious and it’s happening a lot.

It needs to stop. All they are doing is thinking about themselves. You lust and you do not have, so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. All they’re doing is thinking about themselves. I like what he says there, you’re envious and cannot obtain.

Envy, that sin of envy is that obsessive sin where you want what somebody else has, and you’ll do anything to get it, but he’s talking about, he’s giving the picture of an envious person who wants that one thing, and yet they can’t obtain it, so they’re just becoming more and more obsessed. They want it more and more. And that’s their life, that’s what they want. He says something interesting at the beginning of verse two.

He says, you lust and you do not have, so you commit murder. And I think he uses the word murder there intentionally. It’s kind of used to shock his audience. No one wants to be described as a murderer, especially someone who’s never murdered. But he says, you commit murder. So I can imagine his readers listening being like, what? And maybe looking around being like, who’s the murderer? But he’s using that to shock them, to get them thinking. It’s probably best understood in a figurative sense.

He’s saying, hey, you have so much hate in your heart. This envy, this selfish ambition, this jealousy you have is causing you to have hate in your heart, which Jesus, in Matthew chapter five, verses 21 through 26, said is a sin. They’re full of this hate. And these people that James is writing to, they want what others have, and like I said, they’ll do anything to get it.

And James is giving them specific reasons as to why they’re having problems in their churches. I wonder if some of these people in the churches were thinking, why are we having these problems? What’s the big deal? What’s going on? And James is saying, this is the problem. It’s this sin in your lives. This is why you’re having problems. Sin leads to more sin. He’s very specific. It’s not very vague. His audience can’t walk away thinking, man, I wonder what James meant by that. No, it’s clear what he meant.

As we read this, and even in this whole passage, but especially this first two verses, I’m reminded of the famous Frank Sinatra song, My Way, which I have to say, if sung well, is a very impressive song. Not that I can sing it well, but it’s a neat song. But it’s also an odd song because the lyrics are so man-centered and so selfish. They really are. And the second chorus goes like this.

Don’t worry, I won’t sing it. But he says, for what is a man, what has he got? If not himself, then he has not to say the things he truly feels and not the words of one who kneels. The record shows I took the blows and did it my way. One of the things I think about when I hear this song and specifically this chorus is this selfishness. This is the cry of the world, my way. I’m not gonna bow to anyone, I’m not gonna kneel to anyone. He says later on or earlier on in the song, regrets, but I’ve had a few. Basically, I really have no regrets in life. I’m glad for the way things happened, because it went my way.

And the cry of the world is to follow our own desires, to be masters of our destiny and take whatever we want, to do things our way. That’s what we want, that’s the cry of the world. And we read the second verse, That’s what we should think of, doing things our way and not God’s way. And the end of verse two is interesting because it kind of segues into verse three. And I’ll read the end of verse two into verse three.

James says, you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives so that you may spend it on your pleasures. So they don’t have, they want these things, and like I said, there are desires that are good. It’s okay to desire things, but they have these desires, and they don’t have them because they are not asking.

Simply put, they’re not praying, they’re not taking the requests to God. But those who are asking, those who maybe are taking their requests to God, are asking with wrong intentions. They’re asking, they’re going to God with sinful intentions. I’m going to read it again. You do not have because you do not ask. So there’s some people who just aren’t going to God. They’re not praying to God. And the other group is asking and not receiving because they’re asking with wrong motives. They’re going with sinful intentions. And let’s just remember one thing, that whenever we go to God and pray, if we ever think we’re being sneaky and trying to hide our intentions from God, He knows. So there’s no really hiding intentions from God. He knows our hearts.

And one of the things that these two verses together should remind us of is the importance of prayer. I was reminded of Jesus’s words on prayer from Matthew chapter seven, seven through 11. I’m not gonna read all of it, but just the first two verses.

He says, ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Kind of one of the big things Jesus is getting at there is that Christians are to pray persistently and recognize that God does answer their prayers. Christians should always pray. We should take our requests to God. He wants us to talk to Him. He wants us to pray to Him. And He does answer us. It may not be the answer we always want. It’s the answer we need, though.

But here’s the other thing that’s important about prayer, and this gets to verse three of our passage. You ask and you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend it on your pleasures. So they’re asking with wrong motives, and what they’re asking for is so they can get what they want, so they can spend it on their worldly pleasures. They’re focused on their worldly pleasures.

And this is important to remember about prayer. We need to remember that our prayers should be godly. 1 John chapter five, verses 14 and 15 say this. This is the confidence which we have before him, that if we ask anything, he hears us? No. If we ask anything, according to his will, He hears us, and if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him. We must pray according to the will of God.

So if you’re praying, Lord, I lied today, let me get away with it, and He doesn’t let you get away with it, well, there’s a reason for that. It’s sin. We cannot go to God and say, can I get away with this sin? Or can you let this sinful thing happen? No, we cannot go to God in prayer with wrong motives, with sinful intentions. Because if we’re going to God so that He will give us these sinful things, so that we can just do these sinful things, He’s not going to answer us. He’s not going to hear that. He doesn’t want to hear that. That’s sin.

We need to pray according to the will of God, godly prayers. We must evaluate the desires we go to God with. And that’s one of the things James is kind of almost, in a way, getting at with these people. He’s like, hey, check your desires that you’re going to God with. Don’t go with sinful intentions. Have godly prayers. And as we move into verse four, we see James deliver a direct indictment.

So he’s already kind of said, you commit murder. So he’s already shocked his audience, and if they’re not shocked enough, he literally starts verse four with, you adulteresses. Now, there’s a lot of interesting type of people in the world, there’s some very wicked people, but I can’t think of many people who would like to be called that, even if they are an adulterer. So he’s calling this local church, he’s saying, you commit murder, and then he says, you adulteresses. Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?

He shocks him again. I mean, I don’t know about you, but if someone called me, that’d be like, what? He calls them adulteresses. And we need to remember, we need to look back to the Old Testament. So why is James using this word? Why is he calling him this? And in the Old Testament, we remember that Israel was often portrayed as the bride of God.

Isaiah chapter 54 verses five and six say this. Talking to Israel. So we see all throughout the Old Testament Israel’s portrayed as God’s bride. But we also see and various places throughout scripture, especially in the prophetic texts, that Israel is portrayed as the unfaithful wife to God, due to her spiritual unfaithfulness. Jeremiah 3, verse 20. However, as a woman treacherously leaves her lover, so you have dealt treacherously with me, house of Israel, declares the Lord. And we see that even not in the prophetic text, but when you read the historical books of Israel, you see their constant, just, they go to God and then they sin. Sort of that constant pattern, that constant unfaithfulness to God. So James’ audience, when they hear this, when they hear him say, you adulterous, is, and remember, he’s writing to who are most likely Jewish Christians.

So they would have been familiar with the Old Testament. They would have been familiar with why he is using this term. And they would have understand all the implications of it. They would have thought, oh, James is calling us unfaithful. James is saying we’re unfaithful Christians. He’s saying we’re not being godly. One New Testament scholar, Dr. Rob Plummer, had this to say. He says, James’s arresting language sets before us the ultimate loyalty, faithfulness, and relational intimacy that God’s people share with him. And the heinous sin, it is to violate that. the ultimate loyalty, faithfulness, and relational intimacy we have with God, and the heinous sin it is to violate that. And that’s what James is saying.

He’s like, hey, you are being unfaithful to God. And once again, another almost shock factor. But just in case they did not understand what he meant by this, he goes on to provide more explanation. And I’ll read the rest of the verse, you adulteresses. Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. These people have chosen the world and its pleasures over God.

And friendship in the ancient world was actually a sort of a spiritual and physical unity. Oftentimes in our language, we’ll talk about, in modern day, we have friends. We’ll say, oh, we have a best friend or a good buddy or an acquaintance. But in the ancient world, when you had a friend, or friendship was understood in more of a serious sense.

There was loyalty there. Your lives were joined together. So what James is saying here, when he uses the word friendship with the world, he says you’re loyal to the world. This isn’t just a casual friendship he’s talking about. This is talking about being in the world and of the world. They want the pleasures of the world. So once again, another indictment towards these people. He’s saying, hey, you’re friends with the world, that’s what you’re loyal to, that’s what you care about most. They wanna be like the world. And it is important to understand that this friendship with the world does not satisfy. It’s one thing we have to remember is chasing the pleasures of the world, chasing the different cravings doesn’t satisfy, and it will demand more and more of us.

I mentioned in the beginning I’m reading this book by John Steinbeck called A Cup of Gold. And the main character, Henry Morgan, is kind of chasing these desires. And it’s interesting because at the point where I am in the book, it’s about 15 years from the start of the book. And as the book has gone along, John Steinbeck, the author, has described the desires, and really the lusts of the main character, and how he cannot satisfy them, no matter what.

And the book is called A Cup of Gold, and really it’s kind of described his chasing this cup of gold. He’s chasing that one thing to satisfy him, whether it’s women, whether it’s prestige, fame, or riches. But he can never satisfy himself, and he’s just this unhappy figure. because he’s chasing after all these worldly things. And it reminds us that being a friend of the world and chasing after those wicked desires does not satisfy. And these people James is talking to, they want to be friends with the world, even if they become enemies of God.

And I think that’s interesting. It doesn’t say, it just doesn’t say you’re not on good terms with God, it says enemies of God. Enemies is pretty much a universal term. If you say this is our enemy, you know what that means. They’re bad, we’re good. Or maybe they think we’re bad and they’re good. Either way, enemy is a bad thing.

So he says if you’re a friend with the world, you’re an enemy with God. And I gotta be honest, it’s not exactly a good place to be in life. You don’t wanna be an enemy with God. You go to the Bible and you read about what he did to his enemies. Doesn’t usually end up very good for him.

And even when Jesus returns, those who are apart from him, those who are his enemies, will have eternal punishment. To be an enemy of God is a serious thing, and he’s using this language once again to show them this is serious what you’re doing. You’re an enemy of God, that’s how you’re acting.

1 John 2, verses 15 through 17 say this, talking about kind of this sin of loving the world. John says this, do not love the world nor 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, and the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lust, but the one who does the will of God continues to live forever. It’s pretty clear. Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. We are not to love the world. The less of the flesh, the less of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life. It is either God or the world. It’s not both.

And as we move into verse five, we see that God desires us to desire him. Verse five says this, or do you think that the scripture speaks to no purpose? He jealously desires the spirit which he has made to dwell in us. Now, this is a quotation, it references scripture, but it’s not actually a direct quote from any particular part in scripture, and it’s more so a summary of Old Testament teaching on God’s jealousy for his people. For instance, Exodus chapter 20 verse 5 says this, this is God speaking, You shall not worship them nor serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. inflicting the punishment of the fathers on the children, on the third and fourth generations of those who hate me. God is jealous for the soul he gave to his children.

And this is a good thing. I’ve talked about this before, but it’s good that he doesn’t want us chasing worldly pleasures. It’s good he jealously desires our soul, our life, our love. But the good news, and the verse will go on, but the good news is that God gives a great grace so that wicked sinners can be liberated from sin and know him. Verse six, but he gives a greater grace. I love that, he just doesn’t give a grace, he gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And this is a quotation from Proverbs chapter three, verse 34. And once again we see humility again. James has talked about that a lot in this letter, it’s almost like he wants us to know it’s a big deal.

But the proud say that they do not need God and they desire the world. But the humble say they need God and reject the world. The humble say, I need thee God, I need thee every hour. That’s the cry of the humble. It should be the cry of the Christian. The humble say they need God and they reject the world.

We must reject the world. As we think about this idea of rejecting the world in our own life, we need to remember That we should reject the teaching that says we must gratify our envious and selfish desires. We must reject that. Whatever it is, whether it’s an advertisement, whether it’s just that craving that says, satisfy this within yourself, we have to reject it.

Let’s not let envy, or any other sin for that matter, be the reason we have conflict with each other. In our local church, here at Fellowship Baptist Church, we don’t want quarrels and conflicts amongst each other. We don’t, we shouldn’t want that. But when we do have issues with each other, or when we have sinned against each other, let’s go to one another and work it out in the biblical way. And not let those quarrels and conflicts grow.

Not being a friend of the world may require us to make difficult decisions. It’s difficult sometimes rejecting the world and its pleasures, saying no to our lusts, but it is worth it. It made me not hanging out with that one friend, not going to that website that could lead to sin, or even not envying the lifestyle and materialism of people we see on TV. It’s easy to look at celebrities, and whether it’s an athlete or an actor, whoever it is, even a politician, and look at all the stuff they have and think, man, that’s nice. I’d like to have that. And then we keep thinking about it. And then we keep thinking about it. And it becomes all we think about. And we’ve slipped into envy. And I say slipped in, but I mean chose. We’ve chosen to be envious.

And finally, we must remember to pray often and pray according to God’s will. And this is one of the things I want us to think about when we’re praying. Why are we praying for what we are praying? Now sometimes it’s easy. Our church has been praying a lot for Hannah because she’s going through cancer and we want her to be healed. But are there sometimes times, or are there sometimes occasions in our life where we’re praying for something, or on the surface, we might make it seem like a good thing, but behind it, we have a selfish desire behind the prayer, behind the intention. And this is something I was thinking about as I was working on this sermon.

And something I don’t think about enough in my own life, but why am I praying for that specific thing? Is it because I want to glorify God? And because I want to obey His Word? Or is it because there’s a selfish desire behind it? Whatever it might be. We also need to ask God to show us the desires of our heart. You wanna know what the desires of your heart are?

Ask God. He’s good at showing us our sin. The Holy Spirit will convict you of sin. He’ll say, hey, this is where you messed up. We should be asking God, show me the desires of my heart, show me my sin, and give me new desires. Give me godly desires. That should be a constant prayer we have. Give me godly desires. Take these wicked desires away. Rejecting the world is necessary.

And it’s necessary when we submit to God, which brings us to our second heading, submit to God, which covers verses 7 through 10. Now James in these first six verses has shown what friendship with the world looks like. He says you’ve got problems in your church, you’ve got quarrels and conflicts, you’re envious, you’re lustful. You’re not handling things right, you got problems. But then 7 through 10 are the opposite of what he’s just talked about. He says, hey, verses 1 through 6, friendship with the world, 7 through 10, this is what you’re supposed to be like.

So he gives them the problem in the first six verses, and the last little bit he shows, this is what you are supposed to do. Instead of following the world, they are to submit to God. And this submission to God requires grace and humility, as verse six explained. And I’m gonna go ahead and read verse seven. It says, submit therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you.

And I love that. I love that first sentence of verse seven. He’s talked about these bad things. He said, you’re doing this, you’re doing this. The people are thinking, what’s the solution, James? What do we do? Submit therefore to God. Submit to God. What’s the answer to their problems? God. That’s the answer.

And what he describes as 8, 9, and 10 go on is what this submission looks like, what this submission should look like. And it’s interesting because I talked about the world and he mentions Satan here. We need to remember that Satan is the author of evil. He’s the god of this world, that Satan and the world tell us we can be kings, that we can be the masters of our destiny, we can do whatever we want.

But God says, no, you submit to me. My son is the king. And you will do as I say, and I expect things of you, and you will do them, and that’s what’s good for you. So the world says, hey, you can be the king of everything. God says, no, you listen to me.

Once again, that’s where Christianity is so different than anything else in the world. It’s different because it’s true. Now, submission is not a popular word in our culture, but it’s an important one. And there’s a quote I have here that I wanna read from a New Testament scholar, and this is a really helpful definition of verse seven.

He says, to submit to God means to place ourselves under his lordship and therefore to commit ourselves to obey him in all things. I wanna say that again. To submit to God means to place ourselves under his lordship and therefore to commit ourselves to obey him in all things. And I love that, because I think that captures this idea of submitting to God so perfectly. And also what makes it so difficult, because we have to deny that desire that says, hey, I’m in charge, I know everything, and say, no, He is Lord. He is Lord of my life, and because of that, I will follow and I will obey him.

God is in charge and we are not. And if we submit to him, we must obey. We can’t say, yeah, I submit to God, but I’m still gonna do things my way. That’s not how it works. It’s like a little kid saying, yeah, dad, I submit to you, but I’m not gonna listen to you. It’s like, no. If I did that to my dad when I was a kid, my bottom would have been hurting, you know?

But when you submit, you obey. And that’s what he’s talking about here. And when we are submitting to God, we will be resisting the devil. Satan and his demons do tempt. That’s just a reality. But we’ll leave if resisted. Now, it’s important to understand that we do resist the devil and the demons, but we resist it by the power of the Holy Spirit. And when we resist, they will leave. And let’s not forget, like I said, that Satan is the author of evil and God of this world, the God behind these worldly pleasures and desires.

And as we move into verse eight, we see that we are to draw closer to God. Verse eight says, draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. All of what James describes here cannot be found in following the world, because following the world means we are running from God, we have filthy hands, and we have an impure heart. And the Christian life is about drawing closer to God. I love that language, drawing closer to God, or coming closer to God.

It really gets to that relational intimacy that we have with Him, that we have with Him because of Jesus. But we have an actual relationship with God, and we can get to know Him more and more. As God renews our mind, we want to be with Him more. And drawing near, coming close to God, happens through obedience, an important part of submission. And when we obey, He draws near to us. God draws near to us. That’s amazing. And the closer we come to God, the more holy and pure we will be. The more sanctified we become through the work of the Holy Spirit.

But James ends this verse, in this verse, verse eight, he says, draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hearts, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. So he’s reminding them, hey, you are sinners. Don’t forget you’re sinners. But at the end of verse eight, he uses the word double-minded. He used that in verse one. And I think he’s showing them, he’s saying, hey, don’t be double-minded.

It’s God or the world. It’s not one foot in and one foot out. You can’t say, yeah, I serve God, but I’m also gonna do this. I’m gonna serve God, but still do this on my own time when no one’s looking. It’s not like that. It’s God or nothing. The Christian life is a commitment. It’s a commitment to following God every day. And if you’re following the world, then you’re following Satan.

And James then, in the final verse, or as we get to verse nine, gives them a picture of what genuine repentance looks like. It’s actually an interesting verse. He says, be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. No pun intended, but it can almost be perceived as a gloomy verse. It’s like, man, James, you want us to be sad?

But what he’s getting at here, he’s like, hey, you need to have genuine sorrow for your sin. You’re thriving in your sin, it seems like. By thriving, I mean they’re enjoying it. He’s like, you’re sinners, but you need to have sorrow over your sin. Instead of laughing and enjoying their sin, these Christians should have sorrow over their sin. That’s an important word, sorrow over their sin. Genuine sadness, not like, oh, bummed, I messed up, oh well. No, I messed up. I sinned against God. Our joy should be in the Lord, not sin.

So if we have joy in sinning, if you’re joyful in sinning, you need to be upset about that and get gloomy about your sin. And these Christians he’s talking to, they should have genuine repentance. Repentance is a very important thing. It’s an important part of salvation. It’s turning from sin and looking to Christ. It’s when we recognize our sin, have sorrow over our sin, and commit to stop sinning.

I want you to, if you don’t mind keeping a finger in James chapter 4, but turn briefly to 2 Corinthians chapter 7. 2 Corinthians chapter 7, verses 9, 10, and 11. In that passage, Paul gives a helpful description of what repentance looks like. And he even talks about sort of the will of God behind it, and it’s very helpful. And Paul writes in 2 Corinthians chapter 7, starting in verse 9, he says this, I now rejoice Not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance.

For you were made sorrowful according to the will of God so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. So he’s describing two different sorrows, sorrow leading to repentance, sorrow of the world. Verse 11, for behold, what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow, repentance is a godly sorrow, has produced in you. What vindication of yourselves? What indignation? What fear? What longing? What zeal? What punishment of wrong?

In everything, you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter. This is repentance, genuine sorrow over sin. I messed up. I am sorry, God. Forgive me, Jesus, for what I’ve done. And this repentance, though, is not just a one-time occurrence. It just doesn’t happen at salvation. We can wipe our hands and say, I’m good, I’m done. No, repentance is a part of the Christian life. When we sin, we need to say sorry and repent. Repentance is important.

And in verse 10, James concludes with a call to humility. He comes back to humility. There it is again. He says in verse 10, humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and he will exalt you. And a call to humility is a call to submission. The proud does not say, oh, I need you, Lord. The proud says, I got me and I’m good. The humble says, I need you, Lord. Submission requires humility.

And when we do this, we are exalted. We are exalted, we are honored by God. Too often I think we spend our time drilling on earthly exaltation and not heavenly exaltation or the exaltation that God gives. We must submit to God. As we think about this in our own lives, submission to God, first and foremost, means we must submit to Christ.

We must recognize we are sinners and that the only one who can rescue us from this wretched state is Jesus Christ. How can we be saved? How can we be saved from our sins? By putting our faith and trust in Jesus Christ and repenting of our sins and turning to Him.

And we must submit to Christ just as our Savior. I submit to Christ as my Savior and I’m good. No. We submit to Christ as our Lord and Savior. He’s Lord of our life. A lot of times people like to think of Jesus just as their Savior, but not as the master of them. He’s not my Lord. He is your Lord.

And we must follow Him all our days. Submission to God means submission to His Word. The Bible is the final authority in what we believe and how we are to act. Therefore, we must read it and obey it. It’s great every day when we get in our Bibles and we read it and we see what God’s word says. It’s an amazing book. Reading the Bible and praying are great ways to draw closer to God. They’re the best ways to draw closer to God.

And finally, does our sin grieve us? Because it should. Now this doesn’t mean we have to wallow in our past sins because we have been forgiven of them. And that’s not what James is getting at when he’s talking about this repentance. He’s not saying you need to wallow in the misery of what has happened. But he is saying these sins you’re currently doing, they should bring you sorrow. You should have grief over them.

Because when we sin, we sin against God and we sin against each other. Christians must reject the world and submit to God. We must fight the envious desires we have that so easily wreck the church. The world tells us our desires are natural and good, and that they are our friend. The world says, we’re your friend. Satan and his demons say, we are your friends. But to be a friend of the world means that God is our enemy. Submission to God through belief in his son and obeying his word is the only way to live a truly joy-filled life.

I’m gonna close by reading the second verse of the song, My Way Again. But then after I read that, I’m gonna read, and it’s already up there, the second verse of the song, Speak, O Lord, which is what we’re gonna finish with. And I wanna compare what a submission to the world looks like with the song, My Way, and then what a submission to God looks like with the Speak, O Lord song. So, My Way, the second chorus, again, it says, For what is a man? What has he got? If not himself, then he is not. And that’s an important line. Not the words of one who kneels. He doesn’t kneel to anybody. He does what he wants. Everyone answers to him. The record shows I took the blows and did it my way.”

It’s the cry of the world. But what should be the cry of the Christian? What should be the cry of the one who submits to God? It should be, teach us, Lord, full obedience. Holy reverence, true humility. Teach us obedience. Teach us humility. Test our thoughts and our attitudes. In the radiance of your purity, cause our faith to rise, cause our eyes to see, cause our faith to grow. Your majestic love and authority, words of power that can never fail. Let their truth prevail over unbelief.

That should be the cry of the one who submits to God. That should be our cry. Let’s pray before we close with a final song. Heavenly Father, I pray that we submit to you. And if there are those here who have not submitted to you, they will submit to you by submitting to your son and giving their life to him. I pray that we reject the world and its lies and its pleasures. And you bless the rest of this service. In Jesus’ name, amen.