Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
This evening we right back to James 4. Tonight’s verse is James 4:4.
However, before we dive into it, let’s begin by reading the entire paragraph first and then we will get right into this evening’s study.
Already we have discovered that our root problem is our sinful flesh.
It is what drives us to “lust.”
There are two Greek words used in this paragraph for lusts.
They are used in conjunction with another painting a clear picture of how our flesh works against us.
Our flesh is driven by an intense passion for selfish pleasures.
One Greek word for “lusts” means an intense passion which can be used for good or bad.
The second Greek word for “lusts” simply means “pleasures.”
Thus, we understand how each of us possess within us an intense passion to satisfy our own gratification.
It is a battle that wars in our members.
As it does, it becomes then the source of all battles both within and without.
From there, we learned how lust causes things to escalate.
We becomes so consumed with pleasing ourselves that we will go to some extreme measures to get what we want.
Hence, we kill, fight, and war.
Unfortunately, we are never satisfied.
This scenario is especially bad for the believer.
We have a Heavenly Father Who loves us having promised to take care of all our needs.
All we must do is put Him first.
Therein lies some our problem.
Too many times we make what we want first in our lives instead of Him and His righteousness.
However, if we would simply submit to His will, He is more than willingly to answer our prayers.
We have not because we ask not.
Then, last week, we learned how sometimes we ask and we do not receive.
Again, the issues is lust.
There are times we turn to God for answers, yet, we do so that we might “consume it upon our lusts.”
For that reason, the Holy Spirit notes that we “ask amiss.”
One of the things that I wanted to share last Sunday evening and was unable to do so was this thought.
My father-in-law, Eugene Nichols, preaches a great message centered on this verse.
He developed a list of things that causes us “ask amiss.”
In his message, he uses the word “amiss” as easy acronym to remember.
Here are some things that cause us to ask amiss.
A - Anger (sinful anger)
M - Mate (not having a right relationship with our mate)
I - Idolatry (placing other things before God)
S - Self (selfish requests)
S - Sin (any sin in general breaks our fellowship with God)
It is not an exhaustive list by any means.
However, it is a simple way for us to quickly examine ourselves ensuring that we do not “ask amiss.”
All this bring us to our verse for this evening’s consideration.
Note with me James 4:4
James 4:4 (KJV 1900)
4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
GRAMMAR STUDY
You can break this verse/sentence into three basic sections.
First, there is the exclamation that begins this sentence.
James 4:4 (KJV 1900)
4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
The second section is a question.
James 4:4 (KJV 1900)
4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
The third and last section answers the question with a very logical conclusion.
James 4:4 (KJV 1900)
4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
Grammatically, we see five verbs.
Three of them are being verbs [is, be, and is].
The other two are notable action verbs.
The verb “know” means to know by perception.
Pilate used this word in his remarks given in Matthew 27:65
This was his response to the Jews as they requested that he place a guard at Christ’s tomb.
Pilate responded by giving them their request and then noted they were to “make it as SURE as” they could.
In other words, do whatever they needed as they perceived need to be done.
Thus, in our text, the same thought occurs.
The Holy Spirit says, “Know ye not.”
In other words, have you not understood through your own perception that any person who is a friend of the world is enmity with God?
The other notable verb here is the word “will.”
In English, we understand this to be an auxiliary or helping verb.
However, in the Greek, this word denotes “desire.”
In fact, it goes deeper than just desire.
It has the idea of deliberately willing, wishing, or desiring to do something.
Consequently, the text reads “whosoever therefore will [deliberately desires or wills to] be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”
As for nouns, there are a whole host of them in this verse.
Right from the beginning, the Holy Spirit calls us “adulterers and adulteresses.”
He uses some powerful language to arrest our attention.
These two words are from the same Greek word.
The only difference being gender.
Essentially, an adulterer is one who is sexually unfaithful to their spouse.
However, it is used in a more spiritual sense here.
Throughout all of Scripture, God has used the marriage relationship and unfaithfulness in marriage as description of His relationship with those with whom He has a special relationship.
For example, in the Old Testament, we see this sort of descriptive language in His relationship with Israel.
These two verses are only examples of many verses in the Old Testament attesting to God’s relationship with Israel.
He loved them as a husband loves his wife.
Yet, despite God’s love, Israel quite often breached their relationship with God through their idolatry - their love affair with false gods.
We will come back to that thought in a bit as we consider how God sees His relationship with us as believers in the same light.
The other nouns are the words “friendship,” “enmity,” and “friend.”
As for “friendship” and “friend,” both are love words.
I say love words because there are three basic words for “love” in the Greek New Testament.
There are the words “eros,” “phileo,” and “agape.”
The Greek word “eros” depicts sensual and fleshly love that is all about self gratification.
“Phileo,” on the other hand, is often described as “brotherly love.”
It has the idea of “loving as well as being loved.”
Then there is the word “agape” which most are familiar with as a word for love.
“Agape” love is sacrificial and we see used often as a description of God’s love.
In our text, the word “friendship” and “friend” is the word “phileo.”
Thus, we are talking about a love expressed with thought of receiving love in return.
Remember it is “loving as well as being loved.”
Again, we will explore this more in a moment.
The word “enmity” is a noun as well.
However, later in this verse we have the word “enemy” which is not a noun, but an adjective.
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