9/28/11
It probably isn’t news to those who have been walking with the Lord for any amount of time that this thing called Christian faith is a tough journey. There is no doubt that you could call it a workout – and a lifetime one at that. And you know, in some ways, this journey of faith is even tougher than living life without Christ. When we didn’t know Christ, we did what came naturally. We satisfied our sinful cravings, we went for the gusto, we made ourselves king. But as believers, we find ourselves with a war waging internally. We have a Christ-following, God-honoring desire and we have a self-gratifying, pleasure-pursuing nature. It’s a war really between two systems like we talked about a few weeks ago and is one of the themes James keeps coming back to.
So here is the thesis of our passage tonight: James will say that you can befriend the world or you can befriend God, but you cannot befriend both. So a decision must be made. Read James 4:1-10
So in these first three verses of chapter 4, James gives us insight into these competing desires. Like I said at the outset, James asks a question and then answers with his second question. Our problems, our fights, the spiritual tension in our lives comes from our desires. In the Greek, this word desires is where we get our English word hedonism. Hedonism is the philosophy that views pleasure as the main goal of life. So James paints us a picture that we don’t really have to look too intently into our own hearts to see – we have a desire to please ourselves. Pleasure is the overriding desire of our lives.
So that leads us to the issue we all face. We want what we want, but we can’t get what we want. Why? James says in verse 3, that we’re going about it the wrong way. This is the picture of the prodigal son that we read about in Luke 15 . I want what I think will make me happy and I’m going to get it my way in my time. The conflicting desires James’ readers were facing aren’t much different than our own. We want satisfaction and pleasure – we want our needs to be met rather than to be conformed into God’s image in order to love Him and love others.
So James will paint the picture of competing desires through the imagery of friendship, of intimacy. And there is a friendship with the world, an intimacy with the world, and an intimacy with God. And James says, “You must be intimate, one or the other, be friends with one or the other, you cannot ride the fence on this one.” So we are going to look at two pictures of friendship tonight and the first truth we will see is this:
1. Friendship with the world fuels spiritual unfaithfulness
Friendship of the world, what does that mean? Well, it comes from the sinful desires of the flesh. V. 1, Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? We want – every one of us in this room – in our flesh, we want selfish gain, we desire earthly pleasure. And the problem is, when you put people who desire selfish gain and earthly pleasure together, there are problems that come as a result. We become marked as unfaithful Christians when we give in to this war and lose the battle. And we know that this war within us affects all of our relationships.
Every time James has addressed the readers to this point in this letter, he’s said, ”Brothers or my dear brothers” but look at v. 4, “You adulterous people,” and he brings in the stinging imagery from the Old Testament, that when we pursue our pleasure in the stuff of this world and more things and better, bigger houses and cars and clothes, and in sexual immorality or impurity or whatever it may be, we are running around on the God of the universe, that we are cheating on Him. James paints a picture of the emotions that would be associated with adultery and marriage. Why? Remember who we are: in the OT the people of God were considered the “wife of the Lord” (see Jer. 31) and then in the NT the people of God are called “the bride of Christ” (see Eph. 5). So James says that we are adulterers when we forsake God for the pleasures of this world. I don’t want to cheat on God even more than I would not ever want to cheat in my marriage. And because we have this type of relationship – we have intimacy with Him, we don’t need the world and the stuff the world gives.
But always remember that context is key. So think about the context here, adulterous people who are running around with the world, seeking pleasure there and forsaking their relationship with God, so God rightfully longs with righteous jealousy for our attention. Remember the imagery we are given throughout the OT with God’s statement that “He is a jealous God” in relationship to his people Israel. What does that mean? It means that, as a Loving Father, God is jealous for the affections of His children. He’s jealous for our love, our devotion. And anything, which threatens to steal that love or affection from your life in this world, will be met with divine force.
Now make sure you understand that this is not some insecure jealousy that’s afraid we’re going to find something better in this world. This is an infinitely good jealousy because God knows that everything that is in Him is more satisfying than everything in the world put together. And what does God desire for us? That our satisfaction and joy would be met – and it’s only found in Him! He so desires your satisfaction the He will call you, even give you tough commands to abandon possessions and things and pursuits in this world because He knows, and He wants you to know that there is infinite pleasure to be found in Him. Forsake friendship with world. Pursue friendship with God. Needless to say, I think John Piper has said it well, “God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in Him.”
2. Friendship with God results in spiritual submission
What an amazing challenge James is giving us as a workout for our faith that we would take seriously the call to intimacy with our Heavenly Father. That we would take serious the call to another way of life – one that is not in step with the world system and its desires, but God’s system – a life that is marked by longing for eternal satisfaction – the kind of satisfaction only God can give. And when we walk in God’s system – forsaking the world – it results in submission to the authority of God.
I know the temptation always is – when faced with difficult texts such as what we’ve walked through in this book so far is to walk away discouraged. When Scripture like this pushes into my heart in such a way that brings conviction, Scripture that is filled with such clarity and imperatives – it is easy just to throw my hands up in futility. And can I just encourage you – from personal experience – that whenever you begin to feel the impossibility of the Scripture, the difficulty of God’s system, to start with submission. I encourage you in humility to submit to God’s authority and say, “God, I trust you. And I need the grace you promised to give to make this a reality in my life.”
How do we do this submission thing? If you truly want to grow in intimacy with God – if you want to have a shot at winning this war of desire, James give us nine commands.
1. RESIST the devil.
2. COME NEAR to God and he will draw near to you.
3. WASH your hands. Confess the actions we’ve taken in self-gratification.
4. PURIFY your hearts. Confess your divided heart.
5. GRIEVE 6. MOURN 7. WAIL. There is no doubt that we have lost sight of the importance of feeling the weight of our sin. Treat sin seriously. James says, friendship with the world is hatred toward God.
8. CHANGE your laughter to mourning. There is a time to stop having fun; to stop amusing yourself to death. Find the proper contrition to express the depth of your repentance.
9. HUMBLE yourself before the Lord.
So, we step back, and here’s the big picture. There is a war of competing desires within us. And we as Christians have this calling from Scripture on our lives to forsake the world. But why? Just to be more like Christ. That’s part of it. But we are forsaking the world in order to love the world. That may sound crazy to you. How do we forsake the world in order to then love it?
There’s a thinking that is prevalent in our day that says the best way to love the world and to meet needs in the world is to become like the world. And James is saying the exact opposite. He is calling us as Christians to think differently, to have different desires and affections. It is clear, your friendship is not with this world. And remember why – this world isn’t our home – we’re just passing through! May it be said of all of us, like we read of our heroes of the faith in Hebrews 11, they were aliens and strangers in this world. I pray that what is said of my life. I pray that is what is said of your life and of this high school ministry here at Wildwood Church. I pray others would see us and say, “Those people don’t belong here. They are out of place. It’s like they’re living for somewhere else.” Because we are living for somewhere else with a passion for someone else!
So, in the process of forsaking the world, we are actually loving the world by and showing them that there’s another way, there’s another way and it’s the only way to find true hope, true peace and true satisfaction and it’s only found in a relationship with Jesus Christ
