James 4, Who Do You Think You Are?

James chapter 4 hear the word of the Lord What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?

Is it not this that your passions are a 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 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 is 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 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 before the Lord and he will exalt you do not speak evil against one another

Brothers the one who speaks evil against a brother or judges his brother speaks evil against the law judges the law

But if you judge the law, you're not a doer of the law, but a judge There is only one lawgiver and judge he was able to save and to destroy

But who are you to judge your neighbor? Come now you who say Today or tomorrow we will go into such -and -such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit

Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes

Instead you ought to say if the Lord wills We will live and do this or that as it is you boast in your arrogance

All such boasting is evil So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him.

It is sin May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word Well, who do you think you are?

Just who do you think you are? Like an upset mother every I ask you that and when

I was a senior in in high school I thought I was or could be a long -distance runner, but the track coach didn't think so at least not at first When I asked about joining the team

I had a long way to go But I could do that as it turned out earlier this year when

I learned that my running was over I thought that I could be a swimmer So I poured in a lot of effort into swimming training hard to improve my swimming swimming

I I learned the flip turn so I could swim faster. I mean I figured it when

I had Trained hard at running I could be a good runner and I thought if I trained hard at swimming

I could become a good swimmer, you know, the next Michael Phelps areas at age 53 But when the time came for a swim meet in July You know,

I learned that I'm just not a good swimmer, you know The man

Mike who visited here two or three weeks ago He beat me in one race by two minutes 500 yards two minutes ahead.

Okay, that's a lot I had to face the facts, you know the the times the times don't lie

Contrary to what I thought I really wasn't a swimmer not at least not a competitive one

What if I thought I was a singer now, what if I was tormenting you with my solos? Remember American Idol They would almost always start out early in the season

It was early stages some contestant who thought he was a singer. He was gonna be the next big star

And of course he wasn't he was horrible, but he didn't know it. He can't hear yourself very well Sometimes people can't the and always this dramatic or maybe funny moment was when the this horrendous singer who thought he was gonna be the next big star

Was told the excruciating truth Usually by that guy Simon Cowell, you know that the straight -talking

Brit you're just you're lousy They would be shocked. Let's look on their face.

It'd be shocked to be told That they can't sing If I was if I thought

I was a singer, that's what I would be like, how about you? Do you think you're someone you're not?

It's important to know important to know who you are and who you're not James is here the straight talker felt like Simon Cowell in case we've forgotten who we are or in case we

We think where someone were not we see that here in five parts Who do you think you are?

Do you think first you're you're the center? Everything revolves around you. Do you think you're the friend of everyone?

Or do you think you're happy? Or fourth do you think you're you're the judge?

Or finally fifth do you think you're in control who do you think you are?

You think you're the sinner you're the one who deserves whatever it is you want everything in the universe exists around you for you

James asked what causes fights and quarrels among you means in the church Well, it's who you think you are.

That's what causes fights and quarrels You think you must have whatever it is you want you think you are the center of the universe the

Westminster catechism asks What is the chief end of man? First question and answers with the chief end of man is to glorify god and enjoy him forever but we think in our natural condition kind of born with this thinking that We're the center

The chief end Is our chief end is to be glorified not to glorify but to be glorified ourselves

And to have everything and everyone else around us even in our family even in the church even god himself to help us

Enjoy ourselves. I can enjoy god. God shouldn't help us. Enjoy. Help me. Enjoy me and if they don't

If they get in the way If they demand too much

Well, then they can be disposed of Life Is about me It's that That causes you to then bump into others

Who don't agree that life is about you that you're the center of the universe Maybe they think

That they're the center of the universe. Then you have a big problem Maybe they recognize jesus is

So the conflicting motives leads to conflicts james says in verse 2 you desire and do not have

So you murder now, I don't think he means literally they were murdering each other but they that they crave

Whatever stuff for themselves and they didn't care So consumed with their own desires for whatever it is.

They wanted they didn't care for the needs of other members That they spent on themselves And didn't provide didn't share to provide for the needs of a of a brother or sister now.

They didn't actively kill them You know, they didn't have a knife in the back or anything like that They may have wished them, you know may have wished them be warm be filled but for all they cared

The needy person might as well die As long as they you know, as long as they I got mine.

That's all I care about I get my sports car. I get the cruise I get the next I whatever

You covet and cannot obtain james says so you fight and quarrel frustrated. You didn't get what you wanted

Jonathan edwards preached does it does it make you feel unpleasantly? That they other people that they get wealth

So much easier and faster than you Or that such a one of your neighbors is advanced.

He has put into offices He grows great Is it not unpleasant news to you?

James goes on with a straight talk You do not have Because you do not ask in prayer

You ask god and yet you do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your your passions

In other words what you crave You want everything even others around you to exist for you to consume

After all you think Don't you know who I am? I'm the center.

Who do you think you are? You think you're the friend of everyone

I Think the first thing I noticed about facebook. I first started using it 10 years ago What was the frivolous use of the word friend?

And this is remember I first looked at it. What somebody has 400 friends. That's ridiculous No one has that many real friends.

It's just ridiculous that people could claim to have hundreds of so -called friends I think some just want to show off.

You know, so I add anyone As a friend that they can they will possibly accept them. I have thousands of so -called friends

Um, i'm not sure if facebook actually created this shallow use of the word friend

Or if it just if it's just reflected the shallow idea of a friend that already existed in the culture

I'm not i'm not necessarily blaming facebook. Maybe they just They're just part of the culture, too I I like this cartoon you see a cartoon

Uh, this shows the shallowness of many of these friends this deceased at a funeral has says he has 2 000 facebook friends

But how many will show up to give him last respects? Now we take it for granted

Uh that we we've either watered down the word friend Or many people really do think

That they can be everybody's friend The common assumption is that you can be the friend of everybody

If you just have the social skills If you just go along to get along, do you think you have the social skills?

Is that who you are? Uh, you think you're you're too sophisticated you're too smooth too easygoing to alienate anyone

Making enemies, you know, well, that's for those ignorant backwards fundamentalists

Not us not suave winsome educated people like me

After all look at my social skills We think I can be friends with democrats and republicans liberals and conservatives people of other nations and cultures and And and Racists who don't like those other people

Even duke fans believe it or not. Wow our tarheels fans Uh, we think we're capable of juggling two different diametrically opposed kinds of friends the the world

And god, so we're taking that same thinking To god we can get along with them both We're like If we're fooling ourselves into thinking we can get along with the world and with the lord at the same time

We're like someone in an affair adulterous Thinking we can simultaneously carry on with god

Serve and worship him while also thinking You know we can We can talk and spend and live

Just like the world does get along fine with them. They're in a way that they don't object to Getting along with everyone never offending anyone

It's like adultery he says here. Oh, he might think well that it's not for me because i'm gonna get along with everyone

Because i'm just charming and i'm multifaceted and you know, I can show everybody a different side james shouts back

You notice that here you adulterous people Talking to christians, you're unfaithful to god like a

Like a spouse is committing adultery instead of faithfulness to god. You're seeking friendship with the world

But appeasing the world means opposing god you can't be friends with everyone you have to choose

You can't have both if you choose above all to be a friend of the world to be liked by them

You know for the guys at work Just to approve of you to be popular Then you have chosen if that's your main goal

Then you have chosen to be god's enemy and if here in verse 4 you you choose

You make the decision to be to be like the world So that they'll like you If that that's your chief end to win the friendship of other people

To be too cool To be rejected by anyone You don't want the neighbors after all thinking you're some kind of religious nut

The lord jesus even told us that we have to be careful not to choose above him the friendship of those closest to us or our mother and father our children

Even our wife and husband or husband because if you do If you try to be everyone's friend

Then you are making god your enemy But if you choose that first you'll be god's friend you will make

Some people angry you will That's comes. It's part of being a disciple. That's what part of the

Carrying the cross they'll call you a bigot a hater a superstitious ignoramus, whatever

Oh, you might gain the you might gain the approval and respect of some people if you're sincerely seeking god

And people see that you're really wanting to do good to them That your christianity isn't it's in a disguise kind of like a halloween costume

It's just something for your own You know benefit you're not hiding your own self selfishness behind this veneer of religion

They if they see that Some will respect you. I think that's true If you put god first you might indeed

Get some respect from worldly people but If you try to have both

You'll lose god's friendship And probably what will happen is a lot of people in the world will see through it and think you're just a phony

Just self -serving religion C .s lewis said put first things first And get second things thrown in put second things first and lose both first things and second things

Trying to be everyone's friend friend to fit in above all else to be liked is worldliness

Worldliness means that you are shaped by the values of the culture around you

Instead of by the word of god So if the culture you grow up in says that the most important thing is is money

It's wealth it's and the things you can buy with the car the house the clothes whatever If that's the way the culture thinks and then you do too

That's because you're worldly Or you know, maybe you call yourself a christian But then you're attracted to the prosperity gospel

Or maybe you just don't give generously Because you want to have all the stuff that the world says you got to have

If your culture tells you the culture you're around tells you that you are an autonomous individual that you will

You can walk away from your commitments and and then you talk about Well, you you talk about your christianity as a quote personal walk with god

Which is true, but then you talk about it as if just with god and no one else And you live your christian life is that there were no church.

There's no covenant binding you to other believers. There's no there's no body To which you are a part

That's the case It's because you're worldly worldliness isn't about Oh what you wear

Or watch on tv or at the movies or your favorite style of music It's about why you dress or watch or listen.

Who are you trying to please? By your dress or by your entertainment

It's about who you want to be your friend We want to be friends with the world

Because you know the world Will tell us what we want to hear that we really are

What we imagine ourselves to be the center of the universe You know come to our restaurant

Have it your way. They tell us you're everybody's friend You're a good swimmer good singer how do you think those american idol contestants got to the

Got thinking they were such good singers when they're so bad People told them that anyway, whose friend do you think you are?

If you think you can be the world's friend Then then you aren't yearning for the father in verse 5.

He yearns with a holy jealousy It says a holy jelly. He wants to have our affections Not not just part of our heart.

We solely belong to him He wants that our spirits that he originally breathed into us

That they would yearn for him like he yearns for us Do you do you know that james asks

But if we think it would carry on a little affair with the world on the side We've committed spiritual adultery by seeking to make friends with the world

And so he would be right then wouldn't he? Just just unfriend us

But in verse 6 He gives more grace More than that amazing grace that originally drew us to himself that caused us to first believe

He gives us enough grace to repent again To turn from our draw to self -centeredness to the world to its individualism and materialism.

He gives us More grace Who do you think you are?

Do you think you're a friend of god or of the world Or have you fooled yourself?

into thinking that somehow You can be both who do you think you are

You think you're happy The kind the kind of person who who thinks that being a christian there's some christians who think this way

Being a christian is they think a superior way To adjust to life in this world

It's a way to get along better with everyone There's no tension if you're a christian no conflict between the church and the world that jesus is sort of the preeminent

Life coach kind of like confucius Teaches you the secrets of success here and now how to have your best life now how to have the the be happy attitudes for that kind James here has a very rude awakening in chapter 4

You think you're happy Maybe superficially you are Everything seems to be going your way life is on track.

Your ducks are on a row You think you're on top of the world? And then james comes along says grieve

And he gives eight machine gun like commands from verses 10 to For verses 7 to 10 notice that there's eight quick commands in a row first submit to god

You think you're happy because you've made life submit to you You're on top of things now

You've even gotten god to do your bidding now reject that drop to your knees and submit to god do that because in verse 6

God gives grace to the humble And his grace you desperately need second resist the devil

Like you're defending the walls of a fort against an invader. He's storming your life. He's trying to overtake your mind

Resist him push him back with the word of god and he'll flee and third Draw near to god

Because you want him If you do remember he yearns For the spirit that he created in you to commune with him and so he'll draw near to you the fourth

Cleanse your hands They're they're dirty Your hands are dirty from from trying to grab what the world was offering the stuff that it held out there when you reach for it wash your hands from holding hands with the world

Fifth Purify your hearts Instead of thinking you can love the lord and carry on with the world on the side

Stop being double -minded Thinking like the world does like it's okay to to be unfaithful because everyone else in the culture is so I just say whatever

You know, you don't you're not taking you don't have to take your words. Seriously We might some people might think biblically about doctrine their doctrine is right

They may think biblically maybe about things some some Behavior maybe like about sex, but if it comes to the church

Are we typical american consumers? If so, that's being double -minded Purify your hearts of that double -mindedness cleanse out the

Worldly part like well, I got a lot of right. Yeah, but we got this worldly part that's making you dirty

Get rid of it Six grieve and mourn and wail have the conviction that gives you that godly grief

Who do you think you are? You think you have it all together that you're happy happy happy, you know like feral

No grieve because now, you know how much of a Of a stitch how offensive our smug arrogance is to the lord so seventh turn

Your self -satisfied laughter because you just think you have everything Great like you want it so comfortable because you're

Unconvicted you're unaware of your sins like the way some churches want the preacher above all

To be a comedian show cartoons Make them laugh Turn the laughter in verse nine to mourning

Like at a funeral as your as your old man is being buried And then finally that last command in verse 10 humble yourself before the lord

Notice this list of eight commands it begins Gives grace to the humble

Well on our side with humility It begins and ends with humility humble humble

It begins and ends on his side with grace We get more grace to be humble

And if we do if we humble ourselves he gives us even more grace Because we're humble.

Who do you think you are? You think you're the judge You're speaking evil against each other your brothers and sisters in christ fellow church members

You're setting yourself up as the judge Now he's not saying here in james 4 don't judge by god by god's word

Don't submit to god's judgment indeed That's that's a way to say he's just said submit to god one way you do that is by submitting to his judgment

Are you believing what he has said? Like maybe like on whether sex outside of marriage is wrong or promise breaking is wrong

If you are telling others what god the only true judge has decreed then you are making yourself the judge

You're submitting to him Which is good, but if you're asserting your opinion as the standard of judgment

Then you're making yourself the judge you say That some of that dancing or a drinking that or doing that is wrong

You don't have a scripture to prove it You just say so Because it feels that way to you when you do that You're making yourself the judge and implicitly

You are you are saying that I have the right to pass judgment. That's that's who

I am I don't have to wait for god to judge I can do it myself So you're not a follower of the law in verse 11.

You're not someone who submits to god's law and so to god You're setting yourself up Your your own opinion up as your word your word up as the law

Well, then who do you think you are the judge No You're not

He's the only lawgiver and judge the only one who can save from judgment or destroy

Who do you think you are? You think you're in control? You have life pretty much under control you think

Things work now, but way you want it to be if that's the case then james says come

Come get a taste of reality Like simon cowell bursting the bubble of some deluded singer come james says

Let me burst your bubble of thinking that you're in control of your life that you have it all planned out

You know what's coming you're on top of it Come now, he says in verse 13 you who say

Today or tomorrow We will go into such and such a town We will spend a day spend a year there and trade and make a profit you have it all planned out

So you think you have it under control everything is working according to plan your plan the reality in verse 14

You do not know What tomorrow will bring? You know you think you can plan the next year and you don't even have tomorrow under control

The problem now here is not the planning. He's not saying don't plan anything. It's fine Even uh, it's usually wise to make plans, but you better learn to hold your plans loosely

Because they might get yanked out of your hand You know what happens if you're holding something tight and it gets yanked out of your hand might go a finger might go with it

So hold your plans loosely No, no matter how tightly you hold them. They may get they may get yanked out an old saying

Man plans god laughs Three bubble popping pins to notice here first our limitedness second our brevity and third our dependence

First we're very limited. You do not know in verse 14. Not even something as near as the future is tomorrow

You don't know what tomorrow's you don't know what monday's gonna happen on monday You might think well all my mondays go the same

I know what monday's like but something could happen to shake everything up and you have no idea what that is We don't know what we do not know knowing that That we don't know what we don't know should humble us

Should remind us of our limitedness How little we can see how little we really know

Know about yourself That you don't know second see our brevity

James s what is your life? Your whole life in the middle of verse 14 He says you for you are you're a mist like a puff of smoke appears for a time and just dissipated vanishes quickly

Our life is so incredibly short A country song laments the sharp knife of a short life

But the truth is that in in the end all of us Even if we live past a hundred, you know, we we live long compared to most people

Coming near the end. We'll look back and think Our lives were so short

Young people often are hurrying and grow up get out of school get on with life and then they get older and they look back and think

Why was I in such a hurry? Time like an ever rolling stream bears all its sons away

They fly forgotten as a dream dies at the opening day Who are we really a puff of smoke

Quickly blown away Third we're dependent Instead of thinking we have everything under control.

They're assuming that life will go according to plan um to implicitly boast that tomorrow i'm gonna i'm gonna tomorrow i'm going to work or maybe to school to class and Two and a half weeks.

We'll have thanksgiving Uh next year i'll graduate Whatever it is. We think we've arranged it

I got my plan set in our presumed Sovereignty we think over our lives that this will definitely happen

Instead of that mindset. We need to recognize that it's all under the lord's control

Never realize how strong a passage this is Here in james chapter 4 on the the sovereignty of god

Usually think of that you think of romans 9 or some passage like that. Here's james 4 Notice what james is saying here about god being in control of all things.

That's what he's saying. God's in control not you Instead you instead of saying I got it planned

Instead you ought to say in verse 15 if the lord wills We will live and do this or that Now it used to be common for christians kind of old -fashioned thing for christians to say something like almost anytime

They said something something they're going to do, you know do tomorrow in the future. They would always you know, lord willing

Lord willing we'll go out to eat I'm going to go watch football later on lord willing or whatever, uh, if If they were a little more sophisticated something in writing they put dv

For some announcement anyone notice that besides joe on the back of the bulletin dv I did the first time

I did that this this week. Uh, we'll have baptism in two weeks dv standing for deo volente, which is latin for god willing

Now that sounds a little too artificial or old -fashioned for you You could do like me often try to remind yourself of of how uncertain you how uncertain you are about the future

Of your own limitations, so, you know, you said we plan on a baptism we're planning on one

We we want to go out to eat after the service Well, are you are you not some people talk like that?

You know, they're so used to hearing people say definitely what they're going to do. Well, we hope so You know, I I don't know what's going to happen in the future

This is what I plan but you know things could change but I agree with mark devra that there's a great value In habitually reminding ourselves not only that we're uncertain about the future

We're not in control of it, you know, even but even even a thoughtful atheist could recognize that There's something could come out of the blue and change all our plans

That we're at the mercy of unforeseen events but beyond that That we're at the mercy of god's will

Lord willing We will live And do this or that And if he's not willing

We won't everything in our life Is under his control

Notice that here again in james the sovereignty of god. Notice how practical it is If it's the lord's will he's the one in charge

The one who has everything under control even in control over what we will end up doing tomorrow Then if it's his will

We'll go out to eat Or we'll have a baptism in two weeks. Thanksgiving will come We'll finally graduate next year.

Whatever we do Whatever the future holds is under the control Not of us

But of him who holds the future recognize then who you are

Your limitedness your brevity your utter dependence

If you don't recognize that Kind of talk glibly About what's coming is if you're in control of it all you got it all planned out

It's going to go according to your plans then in verse 16 He says you're boasting In your arrogance

He says all such boasting all of it is evil So in verse 17

Notice that verse 17 So in other words because of that because of what we've just seen verse 17 is not just kind of random proverb stuck in there

Detached from everything else. It is an application Of the principle we've just seen that we should not forget who we are.

Don't forget our limitedness Don't forget your brevity. Don't forget your dependence Now we know that we shouldn't arrogantly think that we're someone we're not

That we're we shouldn't think that we're in control that life goes according to our plans Instead we need to habitually recognize the sovereignty of god make it part of our speech

That that god is in control over our life That's not just a doctrine. You know, we have in our statement of faith that we say we agree with It's not just good enough to be a good calvinist who fully accepts the doctrines of predestination and the full sovereignty of god over All things, you know all that those terms you want to use you can quote r .c

Sproul then not one molecule of the universe is out of his control. It's not good good enough to have

Our doctrine down pat that one and then once we're done entertaining ourselves with our doctrine

We go on then living and talking like any other godless person As if we were still in control verse 17 so because Of our of our our brevity our dependence on him because of his sovereignty over all of our lives

Whoever knows the right thing to do And now you know it recognize god's control

Not assert ours. Whoever knows the right thing to do And fails to do it

Still goes along asserting that he's in control of his own life For him

It is sin. Well now we know the right thing to do

And now we know At least sometimes we fail to do it So we've sinned who do we think we are

Now we know We're sinners What are we to do?

Grieve mourn and weep Admit that we're wretched and lost and blind

But don't stop there The grief and the weeping in the morning is only a waiting place

There's something beyond Now we know Who we are But thank god remember