Sermon Tone Analysis

!!! [[James 4:1-10|Bible:James 4:1-10]]

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Translation

1 What is the source of the quarrels and what is the source of the fighting among you?

Is it not out of this, that your sensual pleasures wage wars within your parts? 2 You desire and you do not have, so you murder; you are filled with envy and you are not able to obtain, so you fight and are hostile; you do not have because you do not ask, 3 you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, so that you can spend it on your pleasures.

4 You adulterers, do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?

If someone then desires to be a friend of the world he makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think it for no purpose that Scripture says, “With jealousy he longs for the spirit which he established in us,” 6 but he gives greater grace.

Therefore it is said, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

7 Therefore be subject to God, and set yourselves against the devil and he will flee from you, 8 draw near to God and he will draw near to you.

Purify your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded.

9 Be miserable and mourn and weep.

Let your laughter be turned into mourning and joy into gloominess.

10 Let yourselves be made humble before the Lord and he will exalt you.

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Outline of the Text

#.

Vv. 1-3 – The Source of Strife

* V1a.

What causes quarrels and strife?

* V1b.

The warring of passions within

* V2a.

Desire but do not have

* So you murder

* V2b.

Covet but cannot obtain

* So you fight and quarrel

* V2c.

Failure to obtain due to failure to ask

* V3.

You ask but do not receive

* Because you ask wrongly

* To use what you receive for your own passions

#.

Vv. 4-6 – Turning to Selfish Longings

* V4a.

James is addressing adulterous people

* V4b.

Friendship with God means enmity with God

* V4c.

The one being friends with the world becomes an enemy with God

* V5.

God is jealous over our spirit

* He placed that spirit within us

* V6.

God gives more grace – his followers benefit more than those who are friends with the world

* Proverbs 3:34, reinforcing the above point.

#.

Vv. 7-10 – Humility and Repentance

* V7a.

Submit yourselves to God

* V7b.

Resist the devil

* He will flee from you

* V8a.

Draw near to God

* He will draw near to you

* V8b.

Cleanse your hands you sinners

* V8c.

Purify your hearts you double-minded

* V9.

The state of repentance

* Be wretched

* Mourn

* Weep

* Let your laughing be turned to mourning

* Let your joy be turned to gloom

* V10.

Humble yourselves before the Lord

* He will exalt you

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Sermon Manuscript

What do you think is the root of your own sinfulness?

If you could peel back the layers of your sin, look beyond this or that particular sin you struggle with, what do you think you will find at the core?

And what do you think is the proper antidote, the proper response to your sin that will bring healing and a pure life?

These are the questions James addresses in our passage this morning, [[James 4:1-10|Bible:James 4:1-10]].

We don’t know exactly who James was writing to, but from the tone of his letter they must have had many struggles.

Among those struggles were conflicts within their own body.

They made up a local body of believers and yet they lacked unity.

They allowed certain petty differences to come between them, creating divisions.

James begins this section by exploring what is the root of their division.

The people are quarreling and fighting, he even says they murder each other!

What could lead one brother in Christ to treat another brother in Christ in this way?

James tells us that their sin was caused by an even deeper problem – worldly desires.

This is what he means when he says that their passions at war within them.

They want things.

They long for stuff.

They look around at the people around them and see their neighbors will all the things they want to possess, and they grow jealous, envious, they desire to possess what they do not have.

When they cannot get what they want, they grow tempted to murder in order to obtain.

They fight with one another.

They think, “If I cannot have his stuff, I will at least have the greater respect of the community!”

And so there was bickering and fighting, clamoring for social status, as we have seen in previous weeks.

This bickering was not always directed against those who had the things they wanted.

Often it was against those who were of lower status.

As we saw back at the start of chapter two, the people were mistreating those who were poor, treating the rich with special favor.

The poor were treated unjustly while they tried to win special status with the rich.

And at the root of all of this were their own selfish desires, their sinful pursuits of the pleasures of the flesh.

James gives two reasons for their not having the things they were seeking.

For one, they simply were not asking.

Scripture time and again tells us to approach God in prayer, to seek from him the things that we need in life.

If what we ask is favorable to the will of God, then God will grant us those things.

But it has to be favorable to his will.

God does not exist to serve our whim.

I do not care what the latest televangelist prosperity preacher has said, God does not exist so that you can be healthy, wealthy, and wise.

His primary plan for your life is that you would bring him glory.