James Part 4
James • Sermon • Submitted
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· 2 viewsRepentance is more than saying "I'm sorry." It's an action that is grounded in humility.
Notes
Transcript
Intro:
Intro:
Welcome
Recap
Continue this week to discuss the characteristics of the spiritually mature.
Pray
What are your greatest desires?
What are your greatest desires?
What do you want most in life?
What are you chasing after?
What are you doing?
The American Dream
If we are honest with ourselves usually the things we want most in life have a lot to do with ourselves.
Our desires are typically selfish. It’s not wrong in wanting things and achieving things in life.
But how often do we allow our desires to stunt our growth, our spiritual maturity, our relationships, our character?
Here’s what James says about our desires:
1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?
Remember: James has just finished talking about Godly wisdom. He painted a beautiful picture of what heavenly wisdom looks like.
It’s pure and peace loving, and submissive, full of mercy, impartial.
James goes from talking about peace and righteousness to the opposite. And it was deliberate.
It was supposed to be a slap in the face.
Doesn’t this paint the picture of what we see in our culture today?
American freedoms
Political parties
Doesn’t this paint the picture of what we see in a lot of churches today?
Denominations
Churches not getting along
Power control
Doesn’t this paint the picture of what we see in our own lives today?
My way is the best way
Me, me, me
2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.
James is probably not speaking to literally murdering (although that was happening) but more so speaking to the good things that we kill by our desires.
22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister, will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.
So we must be careful not to “kill” people with the way that we speak or think.
James gives us the answer: “You do not have because you do not ask God.”
Which then we would probably respond. Oh I pray. I talk to God. And James would tell us yes but you do it with wrong motives.
3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
Even your prayers are self driven.
Now James and Scripture is not teaching us that prayer for worldly prosperity is evil.
We see accounts of this in
2 Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.
In the next chapter James is going to encourage prayer for those in trouble or are sick. So our prayers don’t have to be limited but once again James is after the motive.
The motive behind why you would pray for earthly things.
9 “This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread.
It starts with humility, moves to motive, and ends with petition.
So we must be a people who does not seek our will and our wisdom but God’s
The New Bible Commentary 4:1–10 The Source of Evil and Its Cure
God’s goal is not to give human beings what their own impulses demand; his goal is that human beings will learn to love what he loves. It is not that God does not want people to have pleasure, but that he wants to train them to take pleasure in what he knows is truly good. As with Christ, crucifixion comes before resurrection for God’s people
James continues
4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
This statement “You adulterous people” would have reminded them of similar statements found in the OT and prophets.
It would have reminded them of God and His chosen people Israel in all the times they chose to turn their backs on God
It reminds us of the church. The Bride of Christ.
He says God has called you to love the things He loves and you have chosen the things of this world.
You have cheated on God.
24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
This doesnt say its hard to serve God and money or God and desire or God and the world, it says that it’s impossible! You CANNOT!
In fact that if you choose to do so that you become God’s enemy.
5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us?
This scripture is notoriously difficult to translate. There’s no known Scripture that James is quoting here.
There really isn't any pneumatology, doctrine of the Holy Spirit, in the book of James.
So this scripture probably isn’t focused on God’s Holy Spirit indwelling us and God’s jealousy for that.
Instead He is probably talking about the spirit that was breathed into us from God as Creator to make us living creatures and spiritual beings. The part of us that is eternal.
God is jealous for us.
Not a human, sinful, negative jealous.
More accurately a envy or desire for us to do that which He created us to do - Worship Him.
6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”
34 He mocks proud mockers but shows favor to the humble and oppressed.
God’s grace is enough.
20 The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more,
Where we stumble, where we fall, where we find ourselves worshipping the things of this world, when we humble ourselves before Him, His grace is enough.
There’s nothing you could have done that won’t warrant that grace in your life.
Our jealousy would provoke pulling back, God’s jealousy causes Him to give more.
So then we might say, well why wouldn’t we just sin more. Why wouldn’t we keep indulging ourselves with the things of this world so God will give us more and more grace?
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.
Submit yourselves
Submit yourselves
Recognize who you are and recognize who He is, submit to Jesus as Lord
To obey, not oppose
Resist the devil
Resist the devil
Word “resist” is an active imperative in the Greek
Going to war. Fight against. Putting Godly wisdom to action.
We don’t passively hope to not stumble. We actively fight against sin.
Come near to God
Come near to God
This comes with a promise - and He will come near to you
We are not Deists. We believe God is intricately involved in every detail of our lives and He desires a relationship with us
He promises us that when/if we draw near, search Him, read His word, worship Him, that He will draw near to us
Wash your hands, purify your hearts, grieve, mourn, wail.
Wash your hands, purify your hearts, grieve, mourn, wail.
We must understand the seriousness of our sin
When we do this should be our response.
Our sin should cause us to weep and mourn. Grieving over the fact that we choose self over the Creator of all things, giver of every good and perfect gift.
This is the picture a picture of repentance in the life of the believer
We have a messed up view of what repentance is.
Repentance is more than saying “I’m sorry.”
Repentance is more than saying “I’m sorry.”
The idea behind repentance is in line with what James letter teaches us
It’s more then messing up and saying im sorry. It’s more than just realizing your flaws.
It’s understanding the severity of your sin and doing everything in your power to prevent it from happening again.
At the foundation of a spiritually mature person we find humility
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
The gospel can be translated into good news.
To truly understand and experience good news there must be the possibility or the reality of bad news.
So, as believers, the bad news is that sin is serious. It should cause us to grieve and mourn. And you and I are sinners.
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.
Our pride struggles against this.
It’s difficult to view yourself this way. It’s difficult to see that you were dead and that there was nothing you could do about it.
But when we can humble ourselves and see that it allows Him to lift you up
That word in the Greek is probably best translated exalt which is defined as “to cause someone to have high status - to give high position to.”
So here is what Jesus does....He takes us, sinful, evil, wicked, dead people and He exalts us.
He makes us sons and daughters of the living God
17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
We are co-heirs with Christ.
If you want to be a spiritually mature person you will be a person who is constantly in pursuit of humility.
That humility should drive you to repentance
In that repentance we find the gospel “good news.”
In the gospel we find Jesus
So let’s be a people who are humbly seeking Jesus every day!