James 4:1-10 He Gives More Grace

You are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan. Hi, I'm Rob Knold. Welcome to Recast. Sorry for the mic problems. Don asked me to fill in for him preaching this morning, and I'm excited to do that today.

And to be honest, I don't preach here super often. It's been a few months, maybe more like a year. So I wanted to introduce myself briefly for those who don't know me, and then we'll dig into the text this morning as we prepare our hearts for worship.

I am Rob Knold. I'm married to my better half, Carrie Knold, who's not here in the first service. She's back teaching the four and five-year-olds. So you may have met her that way. And we have been here at Recast since the beginning.

And what a blessing it's been. I've just been so grateful for what God has done here. I have three kids. Their ages, this David, Anna, Sarah, they're not here this morning, but their age is 24, 22, and 19.

And it's just been great to see what God has been doing here over the years. I've had a chance to serve here in different roles, as an elder, as a worship, helping lead worship at times, and then also in community groups.

And that's really where I've enjoyed serving the most, probably, is in smaller settings. I just don't gravitate toward the upfront thing. I'm happy to do it, but I really love to just connect in a smaller setting and get to know people and build relationships that way and dig into God's word.

And that's the second thing I really enjoy, and I guess I'm passionate about, and that is God's word. And I just wanted to expand on that for just a moment as we're getting prepared to dig into God's word.

And that is, I don't know if you've been through different phases of life and you've read the Bible, you've read a passage, you know what it says, but you read it again and it just hits you in a new way.

I've had that happen to me over and over again. I think God has a way of speaking to us through his word at different points and at different times in our lives in fresh ways, and I just need that. I don't know about you, I need God's word to speak to me, because frankly, without God's word, what foundation do I have in life?

Am I, I'm basically getting blown around and buffeted by the waves, right? If I don't have that firm foundation in God's word. So I'm so excited to turn to God's word this morning and read, but before I do that, we're going to be in the book of James this morning, and it is a book that I've been preaching through.

So it helps me as I preach to really preach through and have context, right, as I'm teaching. But I want to give you guys some context because you haven't been in James necessarily. So I'm going to give you a brief overview of the book and then we'll read the passage together.

So first of all, I just wanted to say that James was written by, many believe it's the half brother of Jesus. So in the Bible, you'll read about James and there's more than one James. So it gets confusing.

There's James the apostle, he was the brother of John, right, James and John. Well, he died fairly early. He was martyred before the writing of the book, so he is not the author. And so the James that most believe wrote this book is the half brother of Jesus.

And who is he? Well, he actually didn't believe in Jesus. It says that the brothers of Jesus did not believe in him during his ministry on earth. But then Jesus went to the cross, died and was raised to life and James saw him, met him.

And then he ascended to heaven and James then became a Christian. He didn't just become a Christian, he became a leader in the Jerusalem church. So the author of our book today, think about this, the half brother of Jesus growing up, rubbing shoulders with Jesus, that's gotta be interesting.

And secondly, went from lacking faith to gaining faith as he personally observed Jesus raised from the dead. And so I'm excited to dig into that. We also will talk a little bit about what the book covers.

So one of the interesting things about James is it's an epistle, it's a letter. James, the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes scattered among the nations, greetings. You know, he starts off the book writing a letter.

He's penning a letter to who? To the Jewish believers who have been spread out amongst the known world at the time, around the Mediterranean. Probably Gentile believers as well, because we know that there were Gentile believers and Jewish believers in these cities.

So this book is written to believing churches, but it's also a wisdom book. James, if you've ever read James, it just jumps from topic to topic and theme to theme and it just hits you hard, it punches really hard.

It's a lot like Proverbs with wisdom, with nuggets of information. And so it's often compared to Proverbs, it's kind of like the New Testament Proverbs. And for that reason, I have just really enjoyed reading and studying James over the years.

I'm gonna give you just a taste of some of the topics that we've hit so far in the book of James as we prepare here. James 1, he starts off by saying, the testing of your faith develops perseverance. He actually says, you should be joyful in trials.

He says, trials are there for a reason in your life. You may want everything to go well, you may want a smooth ride, I know I do. I don't like the problems and the troubles, but God gives them to us for a reason and it's to grow our faith.

And we should be thankful for those things. He goes on to say in chapter one, that we need to not just hear the word, but do the word. And James is really emphatic about this point. And it kind of, that's a theme that keeps coming up in the book.

He is all about action. You know, if you hear the word and it goes in one ear and out the other and you don't do anything, what good is it? What benefit did it have? Zero benefit. So he says, you need to hear the word and do the word.

Then he goes on in chapter two to talk about partiality. That's the sin of favoritism, favoring one person over another, one group over another. And he addresses the rich over the poor specifically in chapter two.

But really any kind of favoritism that we show is sinful. And he addresses that. And then he goes on to talk about the definition of true faith. True faith, he says, is accompanied by works. And a lot of people struggle with James at this point.

They're like, wait a second, Paul says you're saved by faith alone and not by works. James, what are you saying? But the two are actually in agreement. As we dug into in a previous sermon, basically, we are saved by faith alone.

There's no doubt, there's no question. But true faith will result in works. It's not optional, it will happen. And that's glory to God. He's the one who brings that about in our lives, right? But true faith will be accompanied by works.

And James makes that point. In chapter three, he talks about the power of the tongue. And we learned in that chapter how our words are super potent, super powerful. And James really singles out the leadership and says, if you're upfront teaching like I'm doing right now, you need to guard your words because words have a tremendous effect both for good and for bad.

And lastly, the last sermon I preached, it was about wisdom. There's really two types of wisdom at the end of chapter three that James talks about. A godly wisdom, which leads to all kinds of good fruit in your life.

Think about the fruit of the spirit. In our lives, what we see is good things resulting from a godly wisdom. But he contrasts that with a worldly wisdom. And what is worldly wisdom? It's basically, well, have you looked around and paid attention to the culture at all?

You probably could define this as well. It's basically promoting myself and then basically envying and being jealous of what others have. And that's how James defines worldly wisdom. And he did that 2000 years ago.

And so we see that continue on today, but worldly wisdom leads to all kinds of sin. It says it just leads to all kinds of destruction. Again, remember the audience is the church. He's saying worldly wisdom in the church leads to all kinds of sin within the church.

And this passage today we're about to read, chapter four, is expanding on that. It's talking about some of the fruits, some of the negative fruits coming from a worldly wisdom. Excuse me. So we're gonna dig into the text this morning.

The Root Cause of Quarrels and Fights in the Church

James chapter four, and I'm gonna read verses one through 10 this morning. James chapter four and verses one through 10. So please pull out your Bibles if you have them, your phone, your app, and we'll dig it together.

James chapter four, verses one to 10. What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.

You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it to no purpose that scripture says he yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us, but he gives more grace.

Therefore it says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves therefore before the Lord and he will exalt you. That is our scripture for this morning.

And I'm gonna pray now as Dave comes to lead us in worship. Heavenly Father, I thank you for the text this morning. I thank you for your word. God, sometimes it is encouraging words. Sometimes it's inspiring words.

Sometimes it's convicting words. God, I just thank you for all of the words, God. And the word you have given us is precious, God. It's good to dig into it and hear it. But Father, I just pray as we prepare to hear the words that I preach in a moment, Lord, I just pray your spirit would be active and moving.

Lord, we need you. We need you desperately in our lives. We need you in our hearts. We need you to bring conviction. We even need your help to worship properly, God. We get so distracted so often. I know I do with my mind wandering.

God, we just ask that you would fill this place with your spirit to lead us and direct us into your throne room. I thank you, God, for the chance to worship. It is a good thing to lift our hands and our hearts and our voices together.

And so just pray we would be united and worship together right now. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Good morning, and again, back to the passage today. Excited to get back into James. Gave a little bit of an introduction on the book earlier, and we're gonna dive right into the text now.

The Problem of Sinful Desires and Broken Relationships

And I wanna just start by showing you a quick outline for the message this morning. It is a three-part outline. And the first part there, you can see on the screen, is the problem, and it's problem number one.

And that's verses one through three, and it's basically, it's sinful desires that are causing the conflicts within the church. It's conflicts within the church body. The second part of the outline is verses four and five, and that's really problem number two, which is it's not just a broken relationship with each other, but it's a broken relationship with our God, our Heavenly Father.

There's a hostility with God that has to be dealt with. So there's two problems, and thank goodness for verses six through 10, the third part of our outline, which brings a solution for us. It's God's grace.

We know that, right? But this is really encouraging to finally arrive at the solution here, and we'll dig into what that means and how that's applied in our lives. So that's the outline today, and we're gonna start off with the first part, part one, verses one through three, and I just wanted to begin by looking at how James phrases this first verse.

He says, what causes quarrels? What causes fights? You know, why do they happen? It seems like churches do have applicable areas there, or with other friendships, what causes those? I think the word cause led me, as I was reading this, to jump into sort of work mode.

I am a quality manager, and I've worked in the quality industry for manufacturing for years, and I just can't help but think about root cause. I think Zach may have preached a sermon touching on cause a little bit, root cause or some problem solving, but what I remember in my experience in problem solving is first off, you have to define the problem.

What is the problem that you're going after? If you don't know what it is, it's very difficult to attack it, and James lays that out for us here. It's conflict, it's fights and quarrels, and he goes into detail, but then to get to root cause, usually what you do is you need to gather data, and you need to analyze, and you need to dig into the root cause and get to the cause, because why?

Because if you don't understand what's causing a problem, it's very difficult to apply a solution. It's not very effective to just implement solutions that don't tie at all to the cause of the problem.

So James is very helpful this morning. He does all the hard work for us, and what we see here in verse one is he lays out the root cause of the problem of these conflicts, and what is it? It's the passions that war within you, the passions that war within you.

I'm gonna get into that word passions in just a moment, but I just, first of all, wanna just tie together to the preceding passage and remind us what we're coming out of in chapter three, and you're welcome to flip back there and look at the preceding verses, but specifically in verses 14 and 16 of chapter three, James identifies a worldly wisdom that basically is defined, he defines it as envy and selfish ambition.

It's basically self-promoting, and it's being envious and jealous of others, and James is very strong in his language. He calls it a worldly wisdom. He even calls it demonic, of the devil, and he says this is horrible stuff, and this is, have you ever thought that self-promotion and jealousy is demonic?

I mean, it's very strong language, but that's how James addresses it, and that's the word of God to us today. So when we're jealous and when we want stuff for ourselves, basically that leads to conflicts, and that's tying back to that chapter three theme of worldly wisdom.

Now I wanna dig into that word passions for just a moment. So we said the cause was the passions in us. That's what leads to the conflict. So what do we mean by passions? Well, passions are strong desires.

They're things that we long for and want very, very badly, and passions in and of themselves are not wrong. We can have all kinds of good desires, right? So what kind of passions are we talking about here?

Well, first of all, I wanna point out that we can be led into sin really in two ways here. First of all, our passions or desires may be for sinful things, and I think we would all agree, if I am desiring and longing for sin, that is wrong, just blatantly, flat-out wrong, and that certainly can lead to all kinds of fights and quarrels, so that's a very straightforward application of this section.

There's another way that I think passions and longings and desires can lead to conflict, and that is sometimes we long for something that's good, and it's not that the desire that we have is wrong, it's what we do with it that's wrong.

We want it so bad that we go and sin against our brother or sister in Christ because we just have to have what we want, right? And so you can want something that's good, but it's really the application of what you do about that which leads us into sin.

So really, there's two potential paths into sin here that I believe we need to be mindful of, and to be honest, the second one is the one that I see happening more and more often, more frequently in the church, because, and I'll just explain really quickly, I think it's because we have, we feel very self-righteous in our desires, right?

Like what I want is right, it's the good thing, and so we fight and we war with each other, and that leads to these conflicts. Now I need to find my place in my notes. You know, a couple of examples of this, these may be trivial examples or silly examples, but I'll just give a couple examples really quick to bring this home.

We don't have a lot of carpet on our gym floor, but we do have some carpet on the stage back there. You know, we could get, we could argue about the carpet color, right? Like we wanna replace the carpets, they're all stained, and we want, you know, one side of the church wants a blue carpet and the other side wants a brown carpet.

It's trivial, but you know, sometimes we want something and we end up overstepping and just making a bigger deal out of it than we need to, and that leads to conflicts and broken relationships. That is a silly example, but you can imagine and extrapolate that example.

Another one is worship music. I know many churches that have really just had division in the church over, you know, some people really, really, really want hymns and others really want choruses, right?

And again, neither is wrong, and they're both good, and you can glorify God both ways, but sometimes we let our preferences and our desires turn into conflicts within the church. I think the question I wanted to ask is, as you examine your own heart this morning, and perhaps there's things you're desiring and wanting, is there anything that you need to self-identify that maybe you've allowed your preference to lead to a conflict or a quarrel with somebody else in the church, perhaps?

Do we put ourselves above others? I think that's the question we need to ask. Are we putting our own preferences above others, and we need to examine our own hearts. Verse two goes on and says it even more clearly.

He says, you desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. It's just amazing how strong this language is. Our internal self-centered desires are causing covetousness, jealousy, and that's leading to all kinds of sin in the body of Christ.

Quarrels, fights, war, murder. I mean, the language is so strong. I read commentary on it and it was, some of the commentators were like, man, this was actually murder and people were killing each other.

And that's possible back in the early church age. But I think other commentators, most of the commentators felt that this was figurative language. It's really expressing just how serious broken relationships are inside the church.

That it is horrible that the body of Christ would be split and divided and relationships would be marred because of the jealousy and the fighting and the quarreling. You know, I wanted to ask some questions here.

Do we realize when we break fellowship with each other and we hold a grudge, do we realize that we're fracturing Christ's body, the church? We're breaking it up. When we get angry at each other over an offense and we fail to forgive each other, do we understand how simple that is and the extensive damage it does to the body?

I remember Jesus in Matthew five explains the commandment, do not murder. And you guys remember that in the Old Testament, Exodus 20, the commandment, do not murder. And Jesus goes on to say, he says, he quotes the Old Testament and says, do not murder in the Sermon on the Mount.

Whoever murders is subject to judgment. But then he goes on to say, whoever is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Whoever calls his brother fool is subject to hellfire. We just name call in the church.

We disparage each other. That is equivalent to murder in the language of Jesus in Matthew five. This is, Jesus took it seriously. James took it seriously. We also ought to take it seriously as far as saying bad things and destroying fellowship within the body.

A few weeks back, Don preached a sermon and he touched on communion. And it was about, do you remember this sermon? He says, it's about remembering. And he talked about connections within a church and the fellowship within a church.

He used the word together. He said, it's about celebrating the Lord's table together, communion. Celebrating the Lord's table and remembering together. And he encouraged us, even as an application point with communion.

He said, when you pause before you take communion, if there's a broken relationship you have with another brother, go make that right. Go find that person and talk to them. Better to do that than to continue with communion.

So again, there's a call to unity every week when we do communion. And when we do it later this morning, you'll have a chance to really reflect on that. But I think sometimes it takes a little bit of courage to confront an issue, to confront a brother and to resolve a conflict.

But that's what God calls us to, is resolving conflict, forgiving each other and addressing issues of relationships that are broken. Verse two ends with a statement, you don't have because you don't ask.

Pretty straightforward, right? You don't have because you don't ask. And I think it is a call to supplication. It's a call to bring our requests before God and ask him for things. It reminds me of Philippians 4, 6 and 7, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition.

With thanksgiving, present your request to God. That's, we're directed in everything to present your request to God, ask. That's what it says here. But then verse three clarifies something for us. He says at the beginning of verse three, when you ask, you don't receive because you ask basically for selfish reasons, to spend it on your own pleasures, to spend it on your passions.

Are our prayers selfish? That's a little bit convicting, right? He's asking us why, he's challenging us that sometimes we ask with wrong motives. So I think it's important that we ask. It's also important that we examine our hearts.

And I think in time, God will, as we grow closer to God, and we're gonna talk about nearness to God and what that means in a little bit, but as we draw near to God, his desires become our desires and those align.

John 14, 14, Jesus says something very, very similar to James here. And he says, if you ask for anything in my name, I will do it. A lot of us have probably heard that verse and maybe memorized that and seen it on coffee mugs or in quoted often out of context.

If you ask for anything in my name, I will do it. I thought it was interesting to read the preceding verse, which says the identical thing with an added clarification. It says, if you ask for anything in my name, I will do it, so that the father may be glorified in the son, so that the father may be glorified in the son.

We are to ask for things, yes, so that God would be glorified. That's the point. And I think anytime we're reading scripture, we need to look at that context. The following also details an explanation of this verse as well.

It says, if you love me, you'll keep my commands. And then he goes on to say that Jesus is gonna send us his spirit. These are all great promises, but the point is, I think taken together that we should love God and obey God and be filled with his spirit and aligned with his purposes.

And we should be bold in asking for things and that those things bring glory to God. I mean, that's the whole message in context. So again, it's very, very important to examine those verses in context and ask.

And really what the point and the reason I'm bringing all this up is when we ask, sometimes we just fail to ask, we're lazy and we don't pray, but then sometimes we pray, but we're praying for all the wrong things.

And we get frustrated with God, right? He's not answering me, he's not giving me what I want. I think there again, we have a very mixed up idea of how this whole relationship with God works. He is God and we're the servants.

He's in control and we aren't one to command him and demand and he's not a genie that some people will treat God like a genie and just ask for things and expect him to deliver. I think it's also important to know that God is a giver of good gifts.

So think about it this way. If you're asking for something, to spend it on your passions or whatever, as this text says, and they're not good for you, they're bad things, if you're asking for them, why would God give you bad things?

He is not a giver of bad gifts. It said earlier in James, God is a giver of good gifts. So he's not gonna give you the wrong thing. And so when God gives gifts, they're always good. So I think that we need to realize he is a good God and when we're asking for things and we're not receiving them, I think it's healthy and helpful to examine our motives.

What are you asking for? Why do you want that thing? And perhaps God can bring conviction there to change our desires and help us align with him. All right, so we're gonna move on to part two in the outline.

Friendship with the World and Hostility with God

It's verses four and five. Friendship with the world causes hostility with God. And this second point in the outline really shifts us from the broken relationship we have with others because of our sinful passions leading to conflict and hostility with others.

Now it shifts to the broken relationship we have with God. We were designed as people to be in relationship with each other and with God. That's exactly what we're here for and that's how he made us. And so what a travesty when those relationships are broken.

And as we look at the broken relationship with God, James starts off verse four with some of the strongest language I've seen in scripture. He says, you adulterous people. He is calling them adulterers.

Super strong language. And why? Because they're being unfaithful to God. And he defines how they're being unfaithful. What is it that he says? By being friends with the world. And what is friendship with the world?

What does that mean? It means basically aligning ourselves with the world's systems, with the world's priorities and with the world's values. So when it says the world, being a friend of the world is really talking about buying into everything that the world tells you and living according to the world.

Again, I'm just going to repeat what I've said earlier, worldly wisdom, putting yourself first, being envious and jealous of others. And verse four here clearly says that if you're a friend of the world, then that means you're an enemy of God.

And that's that broken relationship with God that we are digging into here. I'm going to point to one other passage. And again, it's amazing how aligned scripture is. And I love seeing that alignment because it just reinforces and helps bring clarity to our understanding of what this passage is teaching.

1 John 2, 15 and 16, 1 John 2, 15 and 16. The apostle John says essentially the same thing as we see here from James. He says, do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him.

For everything in the world. So he actually defines in this next phrase, he defines this term world, right? That we talked about. For everything in the world. What is it? The desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life is not from the father, but from the world.

The desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life. The things that we want, our flesh wants, our human nature wants sinfully. The things that our eyes long for, lust for, and desire and covet.

And the pride of life, just boasting and being confident in ourselves and our own strength. Those are not of the father, but of the world. So let's slow down here for just a moment and think about what this means.

How are we to remain and function in the world and without becoming friends with the world? How do we do that practically? And I think this is something that is worth exploring a little deeper. It is not easy.

We are commanded to love those around us and connect with them and engage with them. And yet at the same time, we're not to fall in love with the world, the way the world values things and the world systems and priorities.

So, you know, what does this mean practically? I'll just use a few examples here. Is it okay, so if you have a secular job, you work, you know, wherever in a job, that's, is that okay to throw yourself into your job, to be a hard worker, to be diligent?

Is that all right? Or let's just say another example of stuff in the world like art. Is it okay to just enjoy art, beautiful art that's around you, or to be into sports and you're just a huge fan of the Detroit Lions?

Wish they were playing tomorrow. Or hunting or fishing or whatever your hobbies, like, is it okay to be passionate and desire and love those things? And is that being worldly? Have we crossed the line?

And, you know, you might get, you might start wondering some of those questions. I would just tell you, first off, that God is a giver of good gifts. And many of those things are beautiful and great things.

And there's nothing sinful in those things, but I do wanna just help draw the line here. If you are seeking your ultimate happiness and joy in those things, yes, those can be false idols. They can be false hope.

They can be dangerous pursuits that consume us. You know, let me give an example. I love sports and I play sports. And like, if you're playing sports and it is all about you, you want the glory and you want to be recognized and you want everyone to look up to you because of that, then, and you're seeking that approval from others, then I'd say that that has crossed the line.

And it is sinful. And again, you need to examine your own hearts in some of these areas. I would encourage you to just draw the line here very clearly, don't chase after things of the world like money, wealth.

Clearly, we're commanded that that is a false hope and a false God. Power and control over all the things around you, pleasure, and don't try to find your fulfillment in those type of things. Those are false idols.

They're terrible gods. You can spend your entire life chasing them. And at the end of your life, you're going to find out it's just completely empty, completely worthless. So there is no God, but our heavenly father.

So we're going to move on now to verse five, verse five. And it says, and it quotes here very specifically. It says, Scripture says he yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us.

Scripture says he yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us. The thing I would just explain about this verse is it's not a specific quote of Scripture, but it's rather a summary statement summarizing what the Bible teaches about this.

In fact, it just explains that God yearns jealously for us. We know in the Old Testament, we see that God is a jealous God. And sometimes, I don't know about you, but I've wondered about that. Like, it's wrong for me to be jealous.

Why isn't it wrong for God to be jealous? There's a difference. And the primary difference is God is the greatest. And when God is jealous for our attention and affection, he desires us to desire him, which is the greatest thing.

There is nothing better. So when we say God is a jealous God, we're actually explaining a truth about God, that there is nothing higher and better than God. It may sound confusing. Again, for us to be jealous, we may be envying that could be wrong, but for God to be a jealous God is not wrong.

Also, we are his bride when we belong to him. When we express faith and trust in him, he desires that we would seek and desire him above all else. And those other things we would chase after that I mentioned earlier, power, wealth, whatever we would seek for fulfillment are cheap and lousy gods.