The Importance of the Gospel

(Galatians 1:6-17)

By Jordan Hines

I talked to him a little bit when he came in and he said that this was a nice day because he only had to travel 15 minutes to church last week. Apparently he was in Indiana and that was about an eight hour drive. So it's always nice to be close to home and we're glad that we can be close and have you here.

Come and share the word of God with us. Good morning is a great day in the house of the Lord. And as you turn to James chapter four, think with me to the last time you had car trouble or something wrong with your car.

You thought through what's going on. My life is kind of stopped right now because of this problem and you took it to a mechanic to diagnose that problem. We recently had some car problems with our van and we had to see what was going on.

You might relate to going to a doctor's office and seeing what's happening. Why is this problem happening and how can I fix this problem? We spiritually have a diagnosis and we have a problem. And that problem is our desires.

Our desires are the root of many of our problems. As we look at James chapter four, he gives us a very clear direction for the source of what's going on in our lives. Sure, we live in a sin, cursed world.

We live in a place where people are sinning against us all the time, and yet there is sin coming from our own hearts. And we have to acknowledge that this morning we'll be talking about those desires and what those desires produce. So join with me in James chapter four.

As I read James. Chapter four. What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have.

So you murder, you covet, 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 wrongly to spend it on your passions.

You adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God? Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that scripture says he yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us? And then in a few weeks when I come back to preach, I'll be going over verses six through ten that give the follow up idea. This first message really brings out the idea that we are these sinful people with sinful problems. These desires that we have produce idolatry.

Our hearts produce the desire to seek after this world. And because of that, verse six says, but he gives more grace. That is where our hope is.

Our hope is in the fact that even though we are these people who need God. We have God. We have a place that we can run for grace.

But first we have a problem. We're going to see our problem in the first verse, and then we're going to see kind of the source of that problem in the next couple of verses and the end of verse one through verse three. And then we're going to see a call to faithfulness in the last couple of verses, verse four and five.

But it all starts with the problem, right? We have to understand what the problem is before we can even think about solving a problem. And verse one is very clear when it says what causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Notice here that James is not beginning with the question, are there quarrels? Are there fights among you? He's not asking, does this exist in your life? He's saying, these things exist in every person's life. And here's why.

It's a rhetorical question, really. It's a question with an obvious answer. And he's going to walk them through this obvious answer.

These quarrels and fights is literally a conflict, a war, a battle. US. As Americans in the 21st century, we think of military conflict.

We think of relational conflict. And we know that battle and war is ugly. We know that it's easy to have casualties along the way in these battles and conflicts.

James is talking not about military conflict, but he's talking about relational conflict. I think he's also talking about conflict in our hearts, conflict between good and evil, between those desires that we have as human beings that battle the Holy Spirit. And as we know, the Holy Spirit is the one who enables all believers, who equips all believers to fight this battle.

We know that from Ephesians chapter six, and that we have everything that we need to win and that Jesus has already conquered sin and death and that it is a one battle. And yet we are still in the midst of this conflict because of our hearts. It is a reality of who we are.

Think of this passage almost as a parent confronting two of their kids and wondering why Timmy and Johnny are fighting. And they go to Timmy and Johnny and you say, Timmy, what happened? And then, well, Johnny stole my toy. And then Johnny says, well, Timmy stole the toy first.

And you have to think through, okay, what's going on here? What caused this conflict? It was their desire for the same toy. The desires that we have lead us to natural sin. And as we sin, these things are evidences of what's really in our hearts.

Our actions speak louder than our words, do they not? They show who we are on the inside and know that this conflict is a reality, something that we deal with in our jobs, in our relationships, in this church, in the global church, in our marriages, in our business partnerships, in everything that we do, there is the opportunity for conflict. And you will face this in all areas of life. So the premise here is that we have a problem.

And I think that's really important for us to understand, even as believers who have acknowledged this over and over and over again. Our sin is so prevalent in our lives, I think we can just become numb to it. We have a problem, and our problem is sin.

Our problem is our desire to sin. James moves on in the end of verse one as he answers this question what causes quarrels and fights? He gives us the answer. He says in verse one, what causes quarrels and fights among you? Is it not this that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder, you covet 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 wrongly to spend it on your passions.

James tells us that our passions are at war within us, that they're raging. When you look at someone who's calm and collective and you think, well, that person's got it all together, think again. There are things that are going on in their minds and their hearts that they are battling, that they're confronting sin, and they're confronting desires that they have to do good and evil.

All of us have these challenges. It's a battle between the flesh and the Holy Spirit. And there was no one else to blame here except ourselves.

And it is true that we are a part of a sin cursed world and our flesh desires to be fulfilled. So we can't blame our parents, our kids, our boss, our friend, our coworker, our neighbor. We can't blame anyone else.

People sin against us for sure, but we have sin in our hearts too. And how we respond to sin is important. We battle this evil in our own hearts.

Even think of in the book of James. He has made this point before. You can flip back to chapter one of James and look at verses 14 and 15.

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death.

James very clearly tells us that he, as a person and identifying with the people here, are tempted. We are lured, we're enticed, we are drugged away from our life of Godliness into a life of sin. He wants them to see that the sin that they are being tempted and lured towards, it brings death.

There are consequences for this sin. Think of the famous song come, thou fount of every blessing this chorus prone to wander, Lord, I feel it prone to leave the God I love. Take my heart, oh take, and seal it with Thy spirit from above.

Rescue thus from sin and danger purchased by the Savior's blood. May I walk on earth a stranger? As a son and heir of God, I trust that you can identify with that, with the idea that we are prone to wander, that even though we have been changed and transformed by the grace of God, there are times in our lives we look at sin and we think, I want that so bad. And yet the grace of God is sufficient for all these things.

Know that this is not just doom and gloom. This is not just an examination that reveals a cancer. This is an examination that reveals the cure.

It reveals that even though we have this illness, even though we have this problem, we have a God who's just as faithful as the depth of our sin. And James gives us four heart conditions in these few verses, and he tells us first that you desire and do not have, so you murder. And we're going to see a trend here in these four statements.

It is a heart condition, something that happens on the inside that leads to an action which is a very it's a helpful way to think through the consequences of our hearts and what we are meditating on. You desire and do not have. I want things that I don't have.

And because I don't have those things, I'm willing to murder. And James is going to do this again, but he gives us an extreme example and he wants us to see that our hearts are capable of wicked, wicked, wicked things, even murder. Our desires lead our heart are led by our hearts.

Our hearts, when they go unchecked, lead to hands that do terrible things. You desire and do not have, so you murder. We are capable of those things also.

We covet and cannot obtain. We desire something that is our neighbors, that we shouldn't have, that God has blessed them with. Maybe or maybe it's something evil that we see the world having, that the world obtaining and the world enjoying.

And we want it. We don't want them to have it. We want to have it.

We seek only the good in our relationships. And because of this thing, because of this covetousness, we fight and quarrel. Same idea as in the first verse.

We fight and we quarrel. There's conflict. Our selfishness causes.

This thirdly, you do not ask God for help. I don't ask God for help, and therefore I do not have. There are times in lives, our lives, when we need help from God that we don't seek God.

Our first reaction isn't always to seek after God. Our flesh, our desire is always to take care of it ourselves or to feel sufficient in ourselves. And yet, as this verse says, we do not ask God for help.

We seek every earthly means to resolve our conflicts. We ignore the only one who can actually help us and because of this we do not have and as it gets progressively worse. James is piling on in the fourth phrase here.

It's interesting. You do not ask God for help. And when you do ask the last statement, you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions.

Sometimes we do. Ask God. We ask God for things we shouldn't have.

We ask God for things that aren't in accordance with the will of God, with the glory of God. We ask for things that are selfish. We want God to make our lives comfortable.

We ask it wrongly to spend it on our passions. We want God to rubber stamp our plans and make our lives exactly how we want them to be. And these heart conditions reveal kind of who we are.

Think of if you're going to be making a pot of coffee or a cup of tea. When you have quality coffee or quality tea, the hot water of life, when it's poured onto that tea or coffee, it produces good coffee or good tea. When the hot water of life is poured on us and our hearts, our hearts produce action and our action is evidence of our hearts.

And it is time in those actions to look back and think, what does this say about my heart? What is being produced by my heart? How am I living? We have to recognize that our heart is wicked. Think of Jeremiah 17, nine and ten. It says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick.

Who can understand it? I, the Lord, search the heart and test the mind to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds. God searches the heart. God knows our heart.

He knows the wickedness of it. And yet he came and he died for us. He paid the penalty even though he knew how wicked we are.

We need to recognize our heart is wicked. We need to walk with the Holy Spirit. Galatians five is the passage that it lists off all the works of the flesh.

And these are the things that our hearts produce. And then it gives us the fruit of the spirit, gives us something to walk by the Spirit in Galatians 516 through 18. But I say instead of walking in the flesh, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposite of each other to keep you from doing the things that you want to do. If we are walking by the Spirit, we are not doing this in our own strength. It's an interesting comparison because if it was a worldly concept, it would probably go something like this don't walk by the flesh.

Change your lifestyle, do this differently and your life will be better. Because you're working hard, because you've earned it because you're making a difference in your life. Be proactive.

You can make a difference. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says that you can't do it by yourself.

You can't change your life by yourself. You need God. We need God.

We need to walk with him. We need to be empowered by the Holy Spirit. This means that the fruits of the Spirit are produced in our lives when we submit to his working and we say, I can't do it.

But God, I want you to work in my heart to remove this sin from my life and to show me how I can walk by faith and show me how I can live in these faithful Godly relationships. Produce the Spirit in me, not through my strength. What goes into your heart and mind will come out in your thoughts, actions and heart meditations.

So we must cut off the old man's lusts and feed our heart and soul what is good. Philippians Four, Eight and Nine says, finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things, what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. Practice these things and the God of peace will be with you.

When we meditate on the word of God, we meditate on things that are honorable. Our hearts are becoming more sanctified and purified. Think of it as an air filter that purifies the air, takes in the bad air and spews out the good.

It is something that is changed and it's a gradual process. It is something that sanctifies us. We know that salvation happens instantaneously, but sanctification begins, and it's progressive.

It happens over time. And God is working in us and changing us. And all this happens in community with each other.

So know that you are not alone in this. You're not alone in this desire and in this charge to pursue Godliness, grow in community. Be accountable to each other for your sins.

Be encouraging one another in the Word. Serve the Lord together. Share your burdens together.

Cast your cares upon the Lord because he cares for you. And as James has painted kind of an ugly picture here in the first three verses, he only makes a stronger case in the last couple verses here in verse four and five. And he does this on purpose.

He gives us a very bold accusation. He says in verse four, you adulterous people. Exclamation point very clearly.

It's you. That's hard, and it's hard on purpose. This accusation is very clear.

You adulterous people. It's personal. It is you, but it's also the people.

It's corporate. It's an intense and graphic accusation. It's something that is meant to catch our attention.

It's humbling. It cuts to our heart and something that we need to hear. And he follows it up by explaining furthermore what he means.

Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God? Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the scripture says he yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us? So James is doing this on purpose. James is very clearly telling us that we are adulterers. This would catch their attention, just as it catches our attention.

Adultery is something that we sort of put on a pedestal as a sin that's worse than other sins. It's a sin that we think of as awful, as gross, as atrocious. Simply put, this word is unfaithfulness, especially in the context of a committed relationship.

So we are in a committed relationship with our God because he is our Savior, we are his children, he is our Father, and he has kept his end of the bargain, and we have been unfaithful to walk with Him. If you think back to one of the more graphic illustrations of this in the Bible, Hosea married a wife named Gomer, and he was told by God to marry this woman to represent the relationship between God and Israel because Israel had been unfaithful. And I want to read the names of the children that he was told he commanded to call his children.

Hosea, chapter one, verse four. The first child is named, and the Lord said, call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while, I will punish the house of JHU. For the blood of Jezreel, I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.

On that day, I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. James is calling us and telling us that we are sinners, that we have these desires. He's calling us adulterous people.

In the book of Hosea, god is calling for these people, the people of Judah, to know that they are guilty, to understand their guilt, and he will punish their guilt. The second son, second child, she conceived in verse six and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to him, call her name, no mercy.

For I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel and to forgive them at all. But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God. I will not save them by the bow or by the sword, or by war or by horses or by horsemen.

Call her name. No mercy. God is a powerful god.

God is a loving God, god's a just God. And God chooses to show grace where he will, but he also chooses, and he must by his character, be just. He must punish sin.

And the third, which is I believe to be the most poignant one, in verse eight, when she had weaned no mercy, she conceived and bore a son. And the Lord said, Call his name not my people, for you are not my people, and I am not your God. That had to hurt, that had to sting.

I am not your people, you are not my people, and I am not your God. So as the people of Israel take in this knowledge from Hosea, I'm sure it was a stunning message. And as we take in the message from James, it tells us that we're adulterous people, that we've walked away from God.

I think sometimes we need this message. We need to know that our call to faithfulness is not just on Sundays, that's not just part of the day, but it's all the time. Because God is eternally perfect, eternally just, eternally loving, eternally caring.

He is all these things all at once, and we are not. We are finite people who need Him. And we've seen a few times in these passages that there is a conflict, a choice to be made between God and the world.

We have to choose what we're going to serve, who we're going to serve. We have to choose because the love of God is in us. One John 215 and 16 says, do not love the world or the things in the world.

If anyone loves the world and the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. As Christians, as believers, we're supposed to be different.

And the evidence of the love of God in our lives is that we love God, is that we do not love the world and that we love God. And it is a very clear distinction from walking towards the world, turning around, being confronted by your sin and saying, god, I agree with you about my sin. I agree that my sin is disgusting before you, and I confess this sin.

And I trust that you have died for my sins. And because you have changed me by your grace and radically transformed my life, I'm now going to run after Godliness because you are my Father, my Savior. That's what we find in Ephesians, chapter two.

We're not going to read through that whole passage, but we understand by grace we are saved through faith, that we understand that we are created by God and we're transformed by God. And we were transformed when we were dead. We were dead.

There was no hope. But now, because we have been transformed, because we have been changed, we now have a new purpose. And God, in who we are, has motivated us to pursue Him because of who he is, because of his love for us, because that relationship is there.

There's no neutral ground with God. There's no I don't know if I really want to pursue God. It's yes or no, we get to decide every day.

The end of this passage tells us that God is a jealous God. Like a husband jealous after his wife's affection and time. God is jealous for our hearts.

This passage points us back to passages like Exodus 20 and Exodus 34 that address the origin of the law. And it tells us that God wants us to have no other gods before Him. God is a jealous God.

God wanted all of the people of Israel all the time to walk with Him. And when they didn't walk with Him, there were consequences. God was a jealous God.

God is a jealous God. He wants our hearts. We have to be a friend of God by forsaking the sin in our lives, by abandoning it, and by growing in Christ through daily scripture reading and prayer, by being tender to the Holy Spirit's, moving in our hearts, by being willing to make any changes that the Holy Spirit would point out.

Not just listening to the Holy Spirit and being convicted, but actually taking the step of obedience to make some changes. And all this happens again in community. This happens with one another and we are strengthened, we are bolstered by the fact that we are a church, that we are a people who have a common faith, who can support each other in this, who can love each other, who can be an encouragement to one another.

But also part of that being in community is confronting sin. You know this as a church body, that sin is something that is to be condemned, is to be removed, but in a loving way that is concerned for the well being of that person and their walk with God. We ought to be passionately discipling one another and to be living this life of disciple making.

And you could be sitting here thinking I'm already doing this. This is an encouragement, but I'm already doing this. And I would say continue to do so in humility.

Know that you are not above stumbling. You need God every day. Nobody ever served God in their own strength.

Nobody ever did this life of pleasing God, of walking with God, of turning away from the world in their own strength. God gives us that faith to turn to Him. He gives us a sanctification every day to walk with Him.

He gives us the Spirit to walk with. So today, as James has walked us through sort of the problem, he showed us, look at your hearts, look at who we are. We need to be aware that our desires, our dreams, our intentions without God, if we don't include Him, are evil.

And be honest with God about the idolatry in your hearts because he sees it. He sees even the thing that isn't necessarily a bad thing, that's pulling you away from God being the main focus. Your money, your job, your family, your relationships, your hobbies, whatever it is, what is the center of your life, what is the most important thing? We need to look and realize that the grace of God is here.

Verse six says, but he gives more grace. He gives more grace, and we'll go more into that next time that I'm here. But we need to understand that the depths of our hearts are evil, but the grace of God is far abundant, far beyond any of our sin.

So don't be discouraged. Be challenged to love God more today. Be challenged to love your church family today.

Be encouraged that even though we have this heart condition, we have a God who wants to bring us back to Him. And if there is sin in your life, if there is something in your heart that you recognize and realize this morning, get on your knees today, confess that sin before God, give it all to God and say, I want to leave this behind. I know these desires are in my heart.

I know that it's pulling me away from you and my walk with you. And I just want to make sure that I'm forsaking this sin and maybe get some help with it. Ask a friend who loves God.

Let's thank the Lord for his word today. God, you are faithful, you are abundantly gracious when we need you the most. Ephesians tells us that we were dead in our trespasses and sin, and that's when you came to save us, that's when you quickened us to life.

I pray that the reality of our heart condition would just point us even more to the grace of God, even point us more to pursuing you, understanding that we need you more and more every day. Amen.