Wholly Surrendered – to God or to the World?
James 4:1-10
Who in this room grew up before the age of 12 having the Bible read to them by their parents? I can’t raise my hand. You have something that I don’t have in your story, growing up before the age of 12 reading the Bible. But my kids are living your story today. And they’re reading the Bible. One of the things that has been fascinating to me is that I don’t have many memories growing up wrestling with the Bible. I was thinking about my children, and when we first adopted Noah and then Julie gave birth to 2 children, the first song we sang to them in their ear was “Jesus Loves Me This I Know,” and I thought that was pretty special. That’s what you’re supposed to do to your kids, right? You’re supposed to tell them that Jesus loves them. So my life changed when I started reading the Bible to my children. Because I realized that in the Bible there is very, very strong language that isn’t as easy as “Jesus loves me this I know.” And it’s in the first four chapters. So I was really excited to read the Bible to my kids, because that’s what you should do, especially if you’re a youth pastor, you should read the Bible to your kids.
So I started reading it to them and I got to Gen 4 and you’ll remember it’s the story of Cain and Abel. What’s fascinating about the story is that they both, they both brought an offering to the Lord and this is what the Lord said: “The Lord looked with favor on Abel but not on Cain. And so Cain became very angry and his face was downcast.” So Cain said to his brother, hey, let’s go take a walk!” And then he killed him. You should have seen my boys’ faces as they both looked at each other and realized that one brother just killed the other. Josiah looked at me and said, “Dad, that’s mean! We’re not supposed to get angry and we’re not supposed to kill!” Well, you’re right, but it’s in the Bible. So all of a sudden I had to start thinking about the Word of God in the context of my children hearing it for the very first time. I had to explain to them that night that both of them could bring an offering to the Lord but He might not like yours, and He might like yours. To which Noah said, “He will definitely like mine.” And then Josiah’s face went downcast, but he didn’t kill him!
All of this comes in the context of this verse in James that sets up our time this morning: “God opposes the proud, but He gives grace to the humble.” When I sang in the ears of my kids I did not sing, “Jesus opposes you this I know, for the Bible…” that would have been horrible. So why did I sing “Jesus loves me,” and then how do I talk about Jesus opposing them? And so we come to our text today in the book of James. Let’s read this unbelievable text, and I want you to find the really, really harsh language, and I want you to think about how you would explain it to a child.
“1What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? 2You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
4You adulterous people, don't you
know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to
be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5Or do
you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us
envies intensely? 6But he gives us more
grace. That is why Scripture says:
"God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble."
7Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” (James 4:1-10)
Let’s pray: Thank you, God for this Word, for using strong language to get our attention. It is true that Jesus loves us, but may we see another dimension of what love is today. In your name, Amen.
If you listened carefully we will see why God is resisting you, why God is opposed to you in our verse. There’s fights, there’s quarrels, there’s a battle, there’s killing, there’s coveting, there’s quarrel, there’s fighting, there’s adultery, there’s hatred, there’s the word enemy and the word opposes. This is very, very strong language. The wisdom that was in their hearts that Pastor Nelson preached on last week is now being lived out in relationship with people, so James asks the question, why are you fighting, why are you quarrelling? But before we get to looking specifically at that, we want to look at the phrase, “friend of the world.” This word “friend” is not just a high-five in the church hallway saying, “That’s my friend.” This is literally having a deep-seated affection for something or someone. So this morning James writes this very harsh language to two groups of people. The first group is the person that is a deep-seated affectionate lover of the world. You love the world. You’re a friend of the world. You kill, you covet, you fight, you commit adultery, you’re a friend of the world. James uses harsh language this morning I think to maybe wake you up on Memorial Day weekend. Wake up!
But there’s another group, it’s those of us who are in the church. Those of us who have sat here for 30 years of Pastor Nelson’s preaching, or students that have been seniors and sat in the student ministry for 4 years. And you may not be a deep-seated lover of the world, because you love the Lord Jesus, but if we were to evaluate your life, you would see that there are some areas of your life where you are a friend of the world. And you need to repent. So James uses very harsh language to get our attention. So let’s look at the first thing he says, “What causes fights and quarrels among you?” It’s not just one fight and it’s not just one quarrel, it’s plural, it’s not just fighting and quarrelling that you’re thinking about, we’re talking about all out engaged war and specifically very intense battles that are being found in the church.
The verbs here are present tense,
which means they are on-going, its continually happening and James is saying,
how can this be? And it’s true, isn’t
it? There’s fighting and quarrelling in
my life and in yours and in this room and on our staff, I’m assuming, and in
your office and in your marriage and in your parenting. As my children are getting ready to go to bed
and it’s
Down the hallway are my two children, when they were born it was amazing. When we got Noah, brought him home, unbelievable day, had Josiah, brought him home, unbelievable day. But things changed when Josiah started walking because he figured out that he could go take things from Noah. So I specifically remember watching them interact with each other and I’d see Josiah go and take something from Noah and runa way and Noah coming across and smacking Josiah across the head. Josiah would hit the floor and Noah said, “That’s mine.” Okay, now think about this for a minute, in the life of my children, why was that visible action present? It wasn’t because of this: I didn’t sit down with my kids one day and say, “Noah, if anybody takes anything from you, you hit them, make them bleed, break their nose, make them look like a hockey player.” I didn’t do that. So the question I have to ask myself as a parent and you have to ask yourself is, “Why is that true?” James answers the question, he says, “Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something, but you don’t get it, you kill and you covet, you cannot have what you want, you quarrel and you fight.” You see he flipped the words quarrel and fight from fighting and quarreling. The selfishness is not just a wisdom from the devil that’s in your heart, it’s now being expressed in every area of your life. It’s all about me. That’s your problem.
James has been doing this all through the book. This is his 8th test of whether or not our faith is genuine. His first test was trials, his second test was temptation, his third test was the Word of God, his fourth test was caring for people in need, his fifth test was works, his sixth test was words, and last week it was wisdom in your heart and now all of a sudden we come to this climax of the book where James is saying, “Listen, God is opposing you if you don’t pass the test.” And when I look on the outside, it’s not about behavior modification in the life of our teenagers, parents; it’s about what’s going on in their heart.
This word hedonism from
“your desires, this relentless and ruthless pursuit of pleasure at nobody’s
expense.” And so watching the
“1What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? 2You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”
This is the greatest pre-marital advice that any of you can receive. This is amazing. It’s the battle inside of you. The quarrel and the fight on the outside is not my problem is it? It’s what they did to me. No it’s inside of you. And that’s why we’re so horrible at admitting it because we don’t want to deal with the real problem, because we can’t just separate people and not talk to each other. That doesn’t change anything, it’s about changing us from the inside out, it’s all about you. I was thinking about a time I met with a student, no one in this room, they shared with me their intense battle with anger. The mom called me up and wanted me to go meet with him because he got in a fight at school. She wanted me to “fix him.” So I met with him. I said, “Dude, why’d you hit him?”
“Dude, he made me mad.”
“Dude, I know.”
There were a lot of dudes. But then he said something that I think is
fascinating, “You know,
Ding! “You’re wrong, that’s exactly who you are.”
And this high school student is weeping because he’s been living a lie. He’s sitting in the church being a pretender, offering something to the Lord which from the outside looks amazing, Cain and Abel, but God saw something very different, didn’t He? Now it’s who you are. I found this really funny story about President Lincoln. I’m pretty convinced most of these stories you read aren’t true, they make stories like this up sometimes, but this is funny, I think. There’s this story about President Abraham Lincoln who’s walking down the street with his sons and they’re both crying and somebody asks him “Mr. President, what’s wrong with your boys?” And he said, “What’s wrong with my boys is what’s wrong with the world, I have three walnuts and they each want two.” Now that has to be made up, who says that?
That’s what’s wrong! I want that toy! I want to be right in my marriage, I want my kids to obey me. So I get angry. And I’m not killing anybody, I hope not, but James says, if you don’t control or work on the inside, you will kill. Then I hear Jesus talking to a bunch of people, “Hey, if you hate somebody, it’s like killing them.”
It’s inside of you, it’s inside of me. He goes on to say, end of verse 2, and beginning of 3, “you don’t have it’s because you don’t ask God and when you ask God you do not receive because you ask with the wrong motives so that you can spend what you get on your pleasures.” What’s fascinating about the people in the church is that they go to God with their requests to show that they’re spiritual. It’s like the high school student “Oh, God, I didn’t study, I was up late partying, help me get an A, Lord, I need to graduate.” On facebook, so many teenagers and college students this week: “Pray for me, I have finals.” I’m like, well, did you study? How could I pray for you if you didn’t study? There’s nothing for God to use there. I didn’t say that.
Here’s the deal: he uses the prayer life, which I think is amazing to say you’re not really searching for God, all you’re really searching for is your own pleasure. That root word for hedonism shows up again here. So all I care about is spending things that God’s going to give me on me. So I pray for that. This spend word is actually the word the prodigal son used when he went and spent everything that he had, remember, when he “wasted everything away.” He spent it all on what? Himself.
When I think of this prayer, it’s not praying for the Kingdom, it’s praying for my kingdom. And I can’t help but remember Timothy McVay’s words on the top of his poem, before he died, “I am the captain of my own ship.” If you’re a friend of the world, you’re the captain of your own ship. You’re fighting, you’re quarreling, you’re killing, you’re coveting, you don’t get so you want it more. It’s a deep-seated affection that you will go to any cost; you will do anything to get it fed because you are the captain of your own ship. You’ll even go to God and then you’ll blame God.
So what’s James’ conclusion for you and for me? Verse 4. “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” You’re breaking the covenant; you’re committing adultery. “You say you love Me, but you don’t love Me.” And maybe nobody else sees it, maybe not even your spouse, your kids, your parents, your siblings, but God does. “Anyone who chooses…” you make choices and your choices make you.
This really spoke to me this week in the book of Jude. Jude says something powerful:
“3Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. 4For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.
5Though you already
know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his
people out of
It’s right there in the book of Jude! You’ve taken your stand against God. But you’re sitting here in church. You adulterous people. If you are a friend of the world, you are an enemy of God. What’s amazing about this group of people in the book of James, not only do they go to prayer to try to look like a Christian, but James says they’re trying to misuse scripture. In verse 5, “Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?” The Bible doesn’t say the evil is there for nothing. Because there are evil impulses in man that drive him to lust after the world and not God. So don’t tell me the Bible is lying. What’s the point? God opposes the proud and He gives grace to the humble. So there cannot be an atheist in the room today, that’s what it means. Because if you’re an atheist, you’re God, because you know everything there is to know…. You’re playing God in your own life. What James is saying today is that if you’re a friend of the world, you are taking your stand against God. Whatever image you want to put in your mind. Because you are running your own life, you’re the captain of your own ship, and I know it. It’s not just the wisdom that’s in your heart that’s from the devil, it’s the actions in your life, it’s the way you talk to your kids, it the way you use your money, it’s the way you talk to your boss, it’s the way you talk to your spouse, it’s what you think about your parents, it’s how you treat your parents, it’s how you yell at your kids. It’s everything that’s going on in your life, it’s no longer just inside, it’s on full display for everybody to see and I’m going to call you out on it today, you’re an adulterer, you’re an enemy, so wake up.
But – that’s a big “but” – God “gives grace to the humble.” He gives us more grace. To the enemy He gives unbelievable grace and to the Christ follower He gives just another reminder of grace. So as we read through these ten imperatives that James gives us that are a picture of repentance, a picture of turning away from the world and turning towards God. Be mindful of which one grabs your heart. This is not a prescription for forgiveness, and if you do all ten of these things in the next ten minutes you’re going to go to heaven, but this is how you become a friend of God.
First, you submit yourself to the Lord. Literally meaning you can align yourself under the authority of another. And here’s how I like to think about this specifically with the teenagers we get the privilege to work with at this church. Often times I think students and maybe most of us think that when we submit ourselves to God the first thing we say to Him is “Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord.” But when I read Jesus I hear something different: “Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.” The first word Jesus asks you to say if you want Him is “No.” To you. To follow Jesus means it’s “no” to me! Deny myself. No to self is yes to God. Then you will begin to understand what it means to “take up your cross,” then you will begin to understand what it means to “follow me.” So submit yourself. If you want to humble yourself before the Lord so God will give you grace, say no to yourself and yes to God.
Second, “take your stand against the devil and he will flee from you.” Literally, take your stand. Just like the enemy of God has taken their stand against Him. So when you repent you take your stand against the enemy. So here’s the problem you’re always going to be somebody’s enemy, whose do you want to be? But you have this unbelievable promise that if you choose to submit and say no to yourself, you can stand against the devil.
What’s funny about this is I think this all gets back to the Christmas Story. Luke 2:11, “1Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” And I did not grow up in the church, but when I talk to students who grew up in the church, they can tell me the Christmas story till I’m blue in the face about Jesus being their Savior. But none of them understand Lordship. Because Jesus was my get-into-heaven free card at VBS and everyone high-fived me, thought it was great and I was going to heaven, it was awesome. Not saying that’s bad, but Christ as Savior also came as Lord and there are people in the church who got their “get-into-heaven-free” card and they’re going to swipe it and Jesus is going to say, “I never knew you.”
Third, “draw near to God and he will draw near to you.” Come near to God and He will come near to you. It’s about drawing near to the Lord. It’s about an intimate relationship with a father. So think about your dad, your earthly father, how did he do loving you? Fellas, how are you doing loving your children? Ladies, how are you doing loving your kids? What picture of authority do your children have? I wonder if God this week was drawing near to you, could you answer the question if we brought the microphone around, could you say that God is drawing near to you? If you can’t say that God is drawing near to you this week, it’s your fault. It’s not your parent’s fault, it’s not your spouse’s fault, it’s not because the sermon was horrible; it’s your fault! You’re making a choice, you’re submitting to God, you’re resisting the devil and now there’s this unbelievable thing here called intimate relationship where it’s not just acting like this robot of a Christian, but it’s engaging in intimacy. Paul said this on Mars Hill in Acts 17 when he was talking to a bunch of people who didn’t know the Lord, and he said this, “God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him, feel him.” Paul did not just offer an intellectual argument to believe in God. He said you can feel it.
Can you feel Him? If you haven’t you have a promise to just come near. Your last week of high school, you can come near, in your office, you can come near, and He will come near to you, and you will be able to resist the devil and he promises to flee you and you will be living out Jesus’ call to deny yourself.
I want to take a moment to share this with you. Check out what David said to Solomon, “And you my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever” (I Chr 28:9). I wonder if that’s going to be the theme at VBS this year. I don’t think it should be, but man! Don’t you think that as Solomon is walking around during the day some of that is echoing in his heart and has brought him to the place where he was able to be used by God. Because his dad understood the Lord and said, Solomon, this is what it is all about. Serve Him. Or if you forsake Him, he will reject you. Unbelievable. That would change your parenting.
Submit, stand, draw near, and then he offers two pictures: “cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts.” First, cleanse your hands; it’s the action! See my hands, it’s action. Repentance is visually … your actions are changing, you can see change! If I said 300 cuss words yesterday, today I said 299.5, but I’m changing! That’s part of the challenge. Does anyone see the change in your life? I think a lot of parents of teenagers get stuck on this one because they want to change their kids’ behavior. So teenagers learn to modify their behavior to please their parents. So I’m one thing with my mom and then I’m completely another thing. Or as we’re driving up for Winter Retreat, I’m sitting in the back of the bus, and I’m having conversations with teenagers who say “well, I cuss all of the time, I just don’t do it in front of you.”
“How come you don’t do it in front of me?”
“Well, I never thought about that, why can’t I do that? Why can’t I just be real?” They’re different people. So James doesn’t say it’s about just changing your actions, it’s also about purifying your heart. It’s this inward consecration to set your heart and not be double-minded. Operate with one mind; your hands and your heart need to be cleansed.
And then three powerful words, grieve, mourn, and weep. Grieve. James says feel retched about your sin. Yes, there’s amazing joy about being a Christian, but if someone’s caught in sin, don’t use joy to get them out of sin. He says grieve, feel miserable, have shame! Grieve, mourn. This is funeral like grief. This is losing someone grief. So for those of us in this room who have buried people that we’ve loved and we’ve wept bitterly, when was the last time you felt like that over your fighting, your quarreling, and your coveting? And that’s how he finishes off with weeping. Misery is the recognition of the state and the mourning is how the spirit responds, but weeping is how the body responds. So how did Peter’s body respond after he basically cussed Jesus out three times? What did he do? The Bible says he wept bitterly. I love Victor Hugo’s quote, and I think it is powerful, “He does not weep who does not see.” Do you see enmity before God? So stop and see your sins today. Whether it’s for the first time or whether you’ve loved the Lord for 30 years and you’re treating your grandchildren horribly, just stop and see it today and say, “I’m going to be one step closer to Jesus today by cleansing my hands and purifying my heart.”
And he closes with this unbelievable phrase, which we sang earlier, “Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up.” Humility is to make yourself low. What happened when the prodigal returned home? What did his father do? He lifted him up, he threw a party for him, because he made himself low, he came back with this full-body repentance and said, “I love you more than I love myself.” Do you think God will lift you up?
What I find utterly unbelievable is how God chose to lift us up. Listen to how Paul said God gave you more grace:
“5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God
something to be grasped,
7but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a
servant,
being made in human likeness.
8And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every
name,
10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.”
(Philippians 2:5-11)
Yes this morning God is opposed to you if you are a friend of the world. But He did not leave you with a list to remedy the situation. He killed His son so you could live forever. His opposition poured out on His Son for me and for you and so that’s why we read in Isaiah,
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was
upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah
53:5)
Oh it is great grace, isn’t it? It’s unbelievable! We’re going to sing Jeremy Riddle’s “Sweetly Broken” together – listen to the words and think about what he is writing about. Of everything we’ve talked about, think about Jesus as we sing this song.
“Sweetly Broken”
To the
cross I look, to the cross I cling
Of its suffering I do drink
Of its work I do sing
For on it my Savior both bruised and crushed
Showed that God is love
And God is just
Chorus:
At the cross You beckon me
You draw me gently to my knees, and I am
Lost for words, so lost in love,
I’m sweetly broken, wholly surrendered
What a priceless gift, undeserved life
Have I been given
Through Christ crucified
You’ve called me out of death
You’ve called me into life
And I was under Your wrath
Now through the cross I’m reconciled
Chorus:
In awe of the cross I must confess
How wondrous Your redeeming love and
How great is Your faithfulness
God, thanks for Jesus, I’m so glad that as a teenager You brought me to this church, where I got to hear the Bible taught. I pray, Father, that we would be a community of people who submit to You, who resist the devil by taking our stand and believing that in saying no to ourselves, he will flee. God, help us to draw near to You today, even in this moment to cry out to a God who we have never seen but has tried to touch us, help us to see that God, even maybe feel that today for the first time. Cleanse our hands and purify our hearts, Father. God, if we’ve never grieved, help us to grieve, if we’ve never mourned help us to mourn, if we’ve never wept, help us to weep. Help us change our laughter into mourning and our joy into gloom, so that we would be able to humble ourselves. And thank You for being a God who gave us a person to follow in Jesus Christ. And it’s in His name we pray, Amen.