Sunday 02/05/17
Series: Doers of the Word
Message – Being Friendly with the World I
Friendly with the World
We are still talking about being Doers NOT just hearers of God’s word and we are using the letter of James as our instruction guide.
So far our lessons have taught us…
- Being a doer IS Christ in you!
- God influences’ us towards His character.
- God reminds you of who you are.
- Modest Reverence.
- Fear of the Lord.
- Count His Words as Precious (like love letters).
- Ponder them, think on them, revel in them, daydream of them.
- Confusion comes from an impure heart – one with dual-loyalties.
- Clarity comes when your vision is free of yourself.
- Diligently guard your heart.
- Surrender your heart and your tongue will follow.
Jesus will not be Lord if we are not looking to Him and trusting Him. What does the Word tell us…”Looking unto Jesus the Author and developer of our FAITH.”
What overcomes the world? OUR FAITH!
As you become more and more familiar with the scriptures you will notice that there are “KEY” statements in various places that serve as anchor texts or summery statements. As we ease our way into chapter 4 this morning let’s revisit this one of these anchor texts James made in 1:27
James 1:26-27
“(27) Pure and unpolluted devotional obedience before God and the Father is this:
to visit orphans and widows in their trouble
to keep oneself pure from the world.”
So this is calling us to devotion through eyes that are NOT focused upon ourselves and our own desires. Which nicely introduces chapter 4….
James chapter 4
Versus 1-2
James knew of the “friendly” relationship these Christians were developing with the world and so begins to address the dangers of it with a question that he offers the answer to in an gentle way.
“Where does your striving, struggling and fighting come from? From the earthly, sensual and demonic things your un-renewed soul still takes pleasure in!”
“you Murder” – Slay others through harassment and oppression due to envy.
Guzik says, “The word kill [murder] is startling and meant to startle; James sought to force his readers to realize the depth of the evil in their bitter hatred toward others.”
“…and yet you cannot attain your final goal.”
What is the heart’s goal when pursuing these things? Satisfaction…and in particular a satisfaction APART from Christ as a result of your own “WORKS”. Rather than being a friend of God, the child of God falls prey to the lie that a friendly relationship with the world will bring acceptance and satisfactions – both are lies!
It is a type of “soul-salvation” we attempt to acquire for ourselves BECAUSE we buy the lie.
This morning we sang the song ‘All Your Ever Wanted was My Heart” and in it there is a line that says,
“You gave me life worth dying for,
but between the altar and the door
I bought the lies that promised more…”
This reminds me of James who told us in chapter 1 that EVERY man is draw away by his own desires and enticed by them, but that we were not to be deceived – “every good & perfect gift” actually comes from the Father.
James said this to encourage them NOT to buy the lie temptation sells – that it has the power to satisfy.
Synopsis of verses 1-2:
We set our affections on THINGS and people and circumstances that favor our flesh and we can’t hold onto them. Once we grasp them they become like the air in our grip. It is impossible for the child of God to true enjoy a “friendly” relationship with the world, our hearts will not let us.
Verse 3
“You ask.” – Though the passage does NOT actually say “ask God”…the words mean ‘You as an inferior go to make request of an SUPERIOR’.
Given the state of these Christian’s envy and covetousness towards one another – it is most unlikely that they saw them as superior who possess what they desired. So it is generally thought that James is referring to PRAYER – Supplication. They finally broke down and asked God for the thing they lusted after.
To make this real passage real to you and make it something you can relate to…ask yourself if you have ever done this. (I know I have)
Example:
I have a dear brother in the Lord that I love very much. I met him several years back. He had been through a very painful divorce of his own, but had remained faithful to the Lord, attending church after church, but never finding true rest or soul peace. He also lived in hurt and a least a little confusion about what happened to him.
Eventually he stumbled upon a more “stable” version of the grace of movement and his heart began to find hope again. Unfortunately, as often happens, Satan was not content to let him find his rest in the Lord, so through a series of events he brought a woman to him… a married woman… a married Christian woman, who had grown discontent with her husband.
My friend provided a sympathetic but not so discerning ear. She claimed abuse which later, much later, was proven false.
To make a long story short, they spent time praying together, which is perhaps one of the most intimate things any two people can do outside of sexual intercourse. I daresay, it wasn’t exercise she and her husband did not practice together.
Well it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what they “magically heard from God” in one of their passionate times of prayer. He claimed the Spirit of the Lord, told them that she was too leave that deadly relationship, that her husband was not a Christian man and that she should marry my friend. God supposedly told them this because God loves her, and would never want her in such a destructive relationship that she was in.
Well thank God, my brother was in a church that practiced what the Bible teaches in regards to sin in the congregation. He was approached privately and then several men of the church came together to confront him. My friend grew more and more defensive, protective and hardened to the words of his brothers, who were seeking to save him from a very deadly course of action.
In the end, my friend followed his fleshly passions and desires claiming it was the will of the Spirit. She got divorced and they got a License of marriage from the state and are currently living in what the Bible calls adultery.
As I’ve watched on, I’ve witnessed from afar, that the longer he stays in this situation the more loose his doctrine gets…the more accepting of the sins of others he becomes…and farther he gets from true intimacy with the Lord.
As I said earlier… they bought the LIE. However in their case, it was even worse because they believed that the Spirit of God would lead them to do something that the scriptures clearly speak against.
Guzik says about verse 3,
“The reason these destructive desires exist among Christians is because they are not seeking God for their needs (you do not ask). Or, when they do ask, they ask God with purely selfish motivation (you ask amiss).”
With the SOLE intention of spending what you hope to get on your pleasures:
The word Spend is the same verb used to describe the wasteful spending of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15:14. Destructive desires persist, even if we pray, because our prayers may be self-centered and self-indulgent.
What did I teach you about prayer when we were talking about the Kingdom of God? That all prayer MUST be Kingdom focused, not SELF focused.
Guzik goes on to say,
So a devoted Christian’s heart is NOT seeking it’s own and so would NEVER pray this prayer in the first place!
Why am I mentioning devotion here? Because James is building on a point he made about being a DOER of the Word and being a devoted child of God since chapter 1. These verses are simply taking his beginning statements further and helping to walk us through their logical implications in regard to every day temptations to sin (to be NOT devoted).
These Jewish brothers and sisters in Christ had allowed the allegiance of their hearts to be “romanced” away by other lovers, and James called them out on it!
I am NOT being melodramatic here by using words like “romanced…by other lovers” – NO! That is PRECISELY the way God sees it!
Remember the “love letters” approach of reading and cherishing God’s words within us? God does this with us – He is a JEALOUS lover and will NOT allow our devotion to Him to be shared with another without a fight.
Verse 4
What does God call them here? “You ADULTRESSES”. Literally only “You Adultresses” since He is addressing His bride.
An unbeliever is NOT married to Christ and therefore their devotion to earthly sensual and demonic things is NOT adultery.
Jesus said something about the desires satan’s kids have…what was it?
“You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you WANT to do.”
“Do you not know that your friendship with the world IS enmity with God?”
Guzik says,
“James recognizes that we cannot both be friends of this world system in rebellion against God, and friends of God in rebellion against the world at the same time (Mat_6:24).”
When talking to His disciples about not allowing your heart to store worldly things as treasures in their hearts He said,
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” – Mat 6:24
Guzik finishes with…
Even the desire to be a friend (wants to be a friend) of the world makes one an enemy of God.”
Let’s do some word study on verse 4…
Friendship – philia A relationship of knowing and liking. Someone with whom you share common desires and interests.
Wants – in the Greek this phrase is emphatic and means, “is resolved to be”.
To be a friend of – dearly loved, befriended, friendly, kind. -Denotes relationship.
So the idea here is NOT simply a desire for the world and therefore possessing a “friendly” attitude towards it – that would be bad enough for sure…, but is actually a heart that has become resolute in the pursuit of a friendly relationship with the world where they reciprocate the same love in return.
So this verse is saying that if any child of God resolutely and deliberately chooses the interests of this world, desiring also it’s returned befriending and dearly loved affections he is in very fact, God’s enemy.
Paul dealt with this in his ministry…See 2 Tim. 4:10,
“Demas has deserted me, because he loved this present world, and has gone to Thessalonica…”
Verse 5
Now I do NOT want any personal examples – past sins in your relationships are past…so my question here is hypothetical…
Have you ever felt the bitter pain of coming upon a lover who, thinking you are not near, is laughing and enjoying another’s company like they used to do with you…but haven’t in some time. This overly friendly relationship IS a form of adultery. So it is with God, for the child of God to become overly friendly with the world – is adultery…and that is what He calls it!
THAT is the impact we have of God! You might think…that can’t be! I’m the created – how could I inspire envy in God?!
Synopsis of Verse 5:
However, unlike the rage of a jealous human lover…he give more grace…by which is meant that He romances and wooes you….chasing after you…until you return with all your heart or grow stone cold through resistance to His pursuit of you. Hosea
“He influences you more…which is why He says that he resists the proud and obstinate who reject Him, but influences the modestly reverent.”
When I read this I hear God through Hosea,
Hosea 2:13-23
“(13) And I will punish her for the days of the Baals when she burned incense to them, put on her rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but forgot Me. This is the LORD’s declaration. (14) Therefore, I am going to persuade her, lead her to the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. (15) There I will give her vineyards back to her and make the Valley of Achor into a gateway of hope. There she will respond as she did in the days of her youth, as in the day she came out of the land of Egypt. (16) In that day–the LORD’s declaration–you will call Me: My husband, and no longer call Me: My Baal. (17) For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth; they will no longer be remembered by their names. (18) On that day I will make a covenant for them with the wild animals, the birds of the sky, and the creatures that crawl on the ground. I will shatter bow, sword, and weapons of war in the land and will enable the people to rest securely. (19) I will take you to be My wife forever. I will take you to be My wife in righteousness, justice, love, and compassion. (20) I will take you to be My wife in faithfulness, and you will know the LORD. (21) On that day I will respond–the LORD’s declaration. I will respond to the sky, and it will respond to the earth. (22) The earth will respond to the grain, the new wine, and the oil, and they will respond to Jezreel. (23) I will sow her in the land for Myself, and I will have compassion on No Compassion; I will say to Not My People: You are My people, and he will say: You are My God.”
Hosea 3:1-5
“(1) Then the LORD said to me, “Go again; show love to a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, just as the LORD loves the Israelites though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.” (2) So I bought her for 15 shekels of silver and five bushels of barley. (3) I said to her, “You must live with me many days. Don’t be promiscuous or belong to any man, and I will act the same way toward you.” (4) For the Israelites must live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, and without ephod or household idols. (5) Afterwards, the people of Israel will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They will come with awe to the LORD and to His goodness in the last days.”
…Blessings!
I hope this teaching will challenge you and encourage you to place your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
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Blessings!
