WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.419 I'll please return to James chapter 4, page 10-12. That's what we're looking at tonight. 00:00:10.419 --> 00:00:15.980 Now Jesus said, didn't he, that the world would know we are his disciples by the love that 00:00:15.980 --> 00:00:26.000 ! And yet so often, so often the church doesn't really look like that, does it? So often believers 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:30.160 are not as loving towards one another as we should be. I think of some of the church members' 00:00:30.300 --> 00:00:36.079 meetings I've been in, which I'm sure were worse than local council meetings that some 00:00:36.079 --> 00:00:41.939 people may have been in. I think of a church where soon after a new minister arrived, a 00:00:41.939 --> 00:00:46.000 letter appeared in the local paper complaining that the organ was about to be done away with. 00:00:46.760 --> 00:00:50.879 And so the whole world got to see what this particular gentleman thought of the new minister 00:00:50.879 --> 00:00:54.539 and that important issue of whether the organ was playing or not. 00:00:56.000 --> 00:01:00.359 We could go on. I'm sure we all know stories of Christians arguing with each other in churches 00:01:00.359 --> 00:01:06.359 with splits and divisions where people fall out. Now why do those things happen? Why do 00:01:06.359 --> 00:01:10.260 those things happen? That's a question James asked right at the start here tonight. Why 00:01:10.260 --> 00:01:16.379 is this happening amongst these people he was writing to? And it's fascinating. At the end 00:01:16.379 --> 00:01:21.859 of chapter 3, the last verse of chapter 3, he talks about the harvest of peace. Chapter 3 00:01:21.859 --> 00:01:27.359 ends with peace. Chapter 4 starts with war. There's a contrast between the wisdom that 00:01:27.359 --> 00:01:32.780 comes down from above, which leads to peace, and the wisdom that is earthly, unspiritual, 00:01:33.219 --> 00:01:39.640 as James calls it, back in chapter 3 verse 15, which leads to war. And as we look at James' 00:01:39.799 --> 00:01:44.840 words here in chapter 4, he's getting to the heart of what he's been writing about. The heart 00:01:44.840 --> 00:01:50.340 of the letter, so far he's been like a doctor, slowly showing us one or two test results to 00:01:50.340 --> 00:01:55.200 show us there might be something wrong. Now he gets the diagnosis. He's laying out the 00:01:55.200 --> 00:02:00.120 bad news. He's saying, if you do not change your diet, if you do not change your exercise, 00:02:00.460 --> 00:02:06.240 you will have a heart attack and die. He's giving us the bad news straight up. He wants us to 00:02:06.239 --> 00:02:11.460 see three things. First of all, the truth, see the truth, the truth about the situation. 00:02:12.539 --> 00:02:18.439 Sense the danger and submit wholeheartedly to the remedy. So first of all, he wants them 00:02:18.439 --> 00:02:23.740 to see the truth. He wants us to see the truth about conflict in the church. So what causes 00:02:23.740 --> 00:02:28.879 quarrels, what causes fights among you? He writes. And I guess these people would like 00:02:28.879 --> 00:02:34.240 to have said, it's theological differences. It's because some of us are mature and understand 00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:39.760 a lot, whereas others are still weak in the faith. Or some of us have the right priorities, 00:02:39.879 --> 00:02:45.340 some of us do not and need to be taught. And that's not James' answer, is it? What does 00:02:45.340 --> 00:02:53.340 he say? End of verse 1. Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? Now that 00:02:53.340 --> 00:02:59.680 word passions in the original language is quite neutral. It could be positive passions or negative 00:02:59.680 --> 00:03:04.920 things. You could be passionate for good theology. You could be passionate for helping the poor. 00:03:05.159 --> 00:03:10.439 You could be passionate for youth work. You could be passionate for outreach. You could be 00:03:10.439 --> 00:03:16.020 passionate for all sorts of good things. So it's not that they necessarily had bad desires, 00:03:16.080 --> 00:03:21.219 although it's possible. But the problem is that they're each pursuing these passions and 00:03:21.219 --> 00:03:29.379 that they're at war within them. In other words, each one wanted to go their own way. Some 00:03:29.379 --> 00:03:33.819 people wanted particular songs in church, others didn't. Some people wanted a particular focus, 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:39.360 others didn't. Some of them thought they were pretty good. Chapter 3, verse 1, they wanted 00:03:39.360 --> 00:03:46.280 to be teachers. Chapter 3, verse 13, who is wise and understanding among you? Some of them 00:03:46.280 --> 00:03:53.620 thought they were wise and understanding. And so they wanted to pursue their agenda. But 00:03:53.620 --> 00:03:58.240 what happens when everyone individually pursues their own pleasures, their only number one 00:03:58.240 --> 00:04:04.099 priority? That's carnage, isn't it? Look at verse 2. You desire and you do not have, so 00:04:04.099 --> 00:04:11.819 you murder. You desire your own thing to progress, so you murder. Not literally, of course. But what 00:04:11.819 --> 00:04:16.319 happens? What happens to me, what happens to you when our desires get thwarted? When the 00:04:16.319 --> 00:04:22.019 thing we really want, be it at home, at work, or in the church, when that thing doesn't happen? 00:04:23.240 --> 00:04:28.060 Well, we get angry, don't we? And often that anger is found in blaming other people, saying 00:04:28.060 --> 00:04:33.920 things about other people. And that's what murder is. 1 John, chapter 3, verse 15, John 00:04:33.920 --> 00:04:40.399 writes, everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. And do you know that no murderer has 00:04:40.399 --> 00:04:46.500 eternal life abiding in him? So in the church situation, I knew of. There were people who 00:04:46.500 --> 00:04:51.719 sat on opposite sides of the church, had gone for 30 years, and did not speak to each other. 00:04:52.839 --> 00:04:58.299 Why? It's because of what happened with a previous minister, like three ministers back, when that 00:04:58.299 --> 00:05:04.939 minister had left. Some people felt he'd been treated harshly. There'd been a moral issue 00:05:04.939 --> 00:05:09.539 in his life, some people didn't know about, and they felt he'd been treated harshly and hounded 00:05:09.540 --> 00:05:13.340 out of the church and not been shown grace. Other people sitting on the other side of 00:05:13.340 --> 00:05:17.580 the church, not talking to those grace people over there, thought this man had sinned and 00:05:17.580 --> 00:05:24.140 needed to be disciplined. See what was happening? Both could try and claim some kind of theological 00:05:24.140 --> 00:05:30.360 position, some kind of biblical argument for their position. And in pursuing their own 00:05:30.360 --> 00:05:34.860 desires, they would slander and speak evil of the others, and no longer speak to them. 00:05:34.860 --> 00:05:41.980 They would murder each other right there in that church. There was an interesting opinion 00:05:41.980 --> 00:05:47.220 piece from the Guardian on Friday, reflecting the discussions in the Church of England last 00:05:47.220 --> 00:05:55.319 week. And the writer said this, people are fond of saying that religion causes wars. It's 00:05:55.319 --> 00:06:00.520 self-righteousness that causes wars. And religion is a marvellous tool for the self-righteous. 00:06:00.519 --> 00:06:05.839 That's absolutely brilliant, because it is, isn't it? That's probably what was going on 00:06:05.839 --> 00:06:11.060 here in the book of the people James was writing to. Not religion causing wars, but self-righteousness. 00:06:11.899 --> 00:06:17.099 And religion is such a great tool for creating self-righteousness. Self-righteousness is often 00:06:17.099 --> 00:06:24.439 just a disguise for our own selfish ambition. So James goes on. You covet and cannot obtain, 00:06:24.439 --> 00:06:30.560 so you fight and quarrel. It's possible to cover all sorts of things. Yes, we can cover our 00:06:30.560 --> 00:06:35.300 neighbour's car, our neighbour's kitchen, but also we can cover someone else's position, 00:06:36.079 --> 00:06:40.240 someone else's ministry, someone else's popularity and friendships. 00:06:43.220 --> 00:06:48.379 So pursuing our own desires brings all sorts of conflict. Not only that, but it cuts us off 00:06:48.379 --> 00:06:52.879 from the Lord himself. Look at the end of verse 2. You do not have because you do not ask, 00:06:52.879 --> 00:06:58.639 and you ask and you do not receive, because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. 00:06:59.740 --> 00:07:04.659 Jesus promised, hadn't he? Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. 00:07:05.519 --> 00:07:10.639 Jesus promised his disciples, John chapter 14, if you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. 00:07:12.699 --> 00:07:17.139 So these Christians were asking lots of things, but it wasn't in Jesus' name. In my old company, 00:07:17.259 --> 00:07:21.980 you had to get senior managers to sign off if you wanted to do a bit of advertising, 00:07:21.980 --> 00:07:27.040 or launch a consumer test or something like that, or spend a lot of money. He had to get 00:07:27.040 --> 00:07:32.580 to sign off. It was their way of saying they could agree with this request. As Jesus says, 00:07:32.620 --> 00:07:36.319 you can ask anything in my name. There's a sense in which he's saying, you can ask anything 00:07:36.319 --> 00:07:42.500 I can sign my name to. But they were asking for things that Jesus could not sign his name 00:07:42.500 --> 00:07:48.180 to. Because they weren't requesting things that would lead to Jesus' glory, but to their 00:07:48.180 --> 00:07:52.360 own glory, to their own appetites being fed, to their own popularity, or whatever it was, 00:07:52.400 --> 00:07:58.680 their own selfish desires. And so they were cut off from God. Their prayers were not being 00:07:58.680 --> 00:08:07.480 heard. See, James wants them to see the truth about their situation. The truth about the fights 00:08:07.480 --> 00:08:14.480 the church. They're not theological problems. They're not, because some people are not mature 00:08:14.480 --> 00:08:19.300 enough. It's not because some people were trying to be faithful and others weren't. The problem 00:08:19.300 --> 00:08:24.860 is their own sin. Their bickering is because they're each pursuing their own desires. 00:08:26.439 --> 00:08:31.379 Now that makes me stop and think, what is it that makes me angry? What is it that makes me 00:08:31.379 --> 00:08:36.279 want to think ill of somebody else? Because when I find what it is that makes me angry, 00:08:36.279 --> 00:08:41.860 I will probably find what are the passions and desires that I'm pursuing out of my own 00:08:41.860 --> 00:08:49.279 self-will, my own selfish ambition, and not actually seeking God's glory. See, James wants 00:08:49.279 --> 00:08:55.279 us to see the reality, the truth of our situation. But then secondly, he wants us to sense the 00:08:55.279 --> 00:09:02.419 danger. Look at verse 4. You adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world 00:09:02.419 --> 00:09:06.939 this enmity with God? If you look through this letter, up until now, James has referred 00:09:06.939 --> 00:09:13.240 to his readers as brothers, or dear brothers. It's all been quite warm in some senses. Now, 00:09:13.839 --> 00:09:21.079 he takes the gloves off. You adulterous, literally adulterous people. That's spiritual adultery, 00:09:21.139 --> 00:09:25.959 isn't it? If you're in a house group at the moment, you're studying the book of Hosea. 00:09:25.960 --> 00:09:31.860 Hosea is a great example, but it's a truth that is throughout the Bible, that God's relationship 00:09:31.860 --> 00:09:37.240 with his people is pictured as a marriage. Because God is completely committed to his people. 00:09:37.639 --> 00:09:44.019 He loves us with an unending, unfailing love. He gives his resources graciously to his people. 00:09:45.360 --> 00:09:49.780 And so the relationship of God to his people is always depicted, or most often depicted, as 00:09:49.779 --> 00:09:58.019 a marriage. And here, James' readers are running away from the marriage. They are rejecting God. 00:09:58.779 --> 00:10:03.639 They're concerned with their own glory, not God's glory. And so that way, they're being 00:10:03.639 --> 00:10:08.559 worldly. Because the world is all about individuals' own glory. It's all about those pictures I 00:10:08.559 --> 00:10:13.120 saw the kids show the children earlier. People being so pleased with themselves and promoting 00:10:13.120 --> 00:10:17.980 their own agendas. It's the way the world works. I'm sure at school, you know, that's 00:10:17.980 --> 00:10:21.899 like. You have some friends in your class who will ditch you if they can get into the 00:10:21.899 --> 00:10:26.759 right social group. Because all they care about is themselves, and put themselves first. 00:10:27.600 --> 00:10:34.019 I'm sure we all have, or have had, colleagues in the workplace who try very hard to get on 00:10:34.019 --> 00:10:39.300 with us and be nice to us, and then as soon as we're not going to help their career, or 00:10:39.300 --> 00:10:44.600 help them look good, they ditch us and focus on other people. Or you know that with the cold 00:10:44.600 --> 00:10:47.560 callers who call you up trying to sell you double glazing, or whatever it is. 00:10:47.559 --> 00:10:51.359 It will be ever so nice and ever so polite, until they realise they're not going to get 00:10:51.359 --> 00:10:56.759 anywhere, no commission from you. So down the phone goes. It's the way the world works, 00:10:56.799 --> 00:11:03.679 isn't it? And sadly, too often, the world gets into the church when the church should 00:11:03.679 --> 00:11:09.519 be getting into the world. So that's why James wants them to sense the danger. Adulteresses, 00:11:09.799 --> 00:11:16.079 he calls them. Adulteresses. You're going the world's way, not God's way. Friendship with 00:11:16.080 --> 00:11:21.320 the world is enmity with God. Friendship is not like Facebook friendship. It's not clicking 00:11:21.320 --> 00:11:26.379 on a button someone you barely know. It means sharing the same values as us, sharing the 00:11:26.379 --> 00:11:32.580 interests in, spending time with. It says you are being friends with the world. You are loving 00:11:32.580 --> 00:11:39.580 the things the world loves. Self-promotion, seeking your own desires, going your own way. They're 00:11:39.580 --> 00:11:46.820 the things the world loves. And that means enmity with God. It means you become God's enemies. 00:11:48.340 --> 00:11:55.720 What did Christ die to win for his people? It was peace, wasn't it? It was peace. Romans 5.1. 00:11:55.720 --> 00:12:01.440 Therefore, since we've been justified by faith, we have peace with God for our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:12:02.519 --> 00:12:09.560 Yet James is warning his readers that they're drifting away from being friends of God. Drifting 00:12:09.560 --> 00:12:20.320 away from that peace to end up as God's enemies. See, Christ died to win peace for us. That was 00:12:20.320 --> 00:12:27.280 costly peace. He paid for our selfishness, for our pursuit of our own desires on the cross, 00:12:27.280 --> 00:12:34.120 in his own flesh. He took God's just judgment for our stubborn refusal to go God's ways. 00:12:36.680 --> 00:12:43.600 To win us back, the Lord Jesus submitted completely to his Father's will. He came to be served. 00:12:43.600 --> 00:12:52.340 So he came to serve, not to be served. He forwent his glory. He forwent the dignity and rights that 00:12:52.340 --> 00:13:01.159 were naturally his. Why? So we could be God's friends. So how can we drift into worldliness? 00:13:02.540 --> 00:13:07.639 James has already held up to us back in, earlier on in this book, back in chapter 2. The possibility 00:13:07.639 --> 00:13:12.340 of friendship with God, chapter 2, verse 22. The scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham 00:13:12.340 --> 00:13:18.519 believed God, he was counted to his righteousness, and he was called a friend of God. So we can 00:13:18.519 --> 00:13:24.659 be friends of God when our faith is completed by acting on that faith, by the works that we 00:13:24.659 --> 00:13:34.340 do as Abraham's faith was. In contrast, James' readers profess faith with our mouths, but in 00:13:34.340 --> 00:13:39.280 their hearts, in their lives, they pursue their own agendas. And that's seen throughout 00:13:39.280 --> 00:13:44.620 this book. They were tolerating divisions and arguments in the church. That's behaving 00:13:44.620 --> 00:13:50.899 the way the world behaves, isn't it? Now notice, none of them intended to be God's enemies. 00:13:51.420 --> 00:13:57.240 It's not what they started out to do. It's something they drift into, because of the flow of the 00:13:57.240 --> 00:14:00.940 world around them, is going the way the world around them goes. When I was at school, this 00:14:00.940 --> 00:14:03.720 tells me something about the kind of school I went to. When I was at school, I used to 00:14:03.720 --> 00:14:11.700 row. And I go, you probably guessed that anyway. And one thing I had to do every winter term, 00:14:12.060 --> 00:14:15.900 autumn term, was sculling, because I was in a boat on my own. So I didn't have eight, seven 00:14:15.900 --> 00:14:19.900 other people to help me get out of trouble. And so some races, you go on a river where you 00:14:19.900 --> 00:14:24.300 see these signs saying, warning, we are ahead. And at that point, you pay careful attention, 00:14:24.440 --> 00:14:27.440 because the current would often speed up there, and you really didn't want to go over a 00:14:27.440 --> 00:14:33.980 year. They'd be careful of drifting. You have to be alert to the danger. And these people 00:14:33.980 --> 00:14:40.960 won't. So James wants them to sense the danger. They're about to slip from being God's friends 00:14:40.960 --> 00:14:49.160 into being God's enemies, because they're pursuing their own agenda instead of pursuing God's. 00:14:49.159 --> 00:14:56.299 The question for us is, how are we doing? How are we doing? Are we in danger of slipping 00:14:56.299 --> 00:15:03.219 into this as well? Just behaving in the church the way the world behaves? Just wanting what 00:15:03.219 --> 00:15:08.740 we want? Not thinking about what is actually godly and right? Not thinking about what other 00:15:08.740 --> 00:15:14.779 people want, what is right and what is best? So if we find ourselves getting irritated by 00:15:14.779 --> 00:15:20.579 the way things are, by the way other people are, by decisions that have been made, that 00:15:20.579 --> 00:15:26.179 can all be a sign to us that we're slipping into this worldliness. Or of course, any of 00:15:26.179 --> 00:15:31.939 the other things James has shown us in this letter can be signs of it. The signs of thinking 00:15:31.939 --> 00:15:37.000 that faith is just about what we profess, what we say with our mouths, or believe in our heads, 00:15:37.279 --> 00:15:41.220 and not what is lived out in our lives. The idea that we can listen to God's word, but 00:15:41.220 --> 00:15:46.180 not actually have to do anything with it. We saw back at the end of chapter 1. Or the 00:15:46.180 --> 00:15:51.580 beginning of chapter 2, the way people in James' church were judging each other by worldly 00:15:51.580 --> 00:15:57.240 standards. They were showing favouritism to the wealthy, and just kind of ignoring the 00:15:57.240 --> 00:16:02.060 less wealthy. Judging each other by worldly standards. These were all signs, James has been 00:16:02.060 --> 00:16:08.220 warning them of, that actually they're slipping into worldliness. You know, worldliness isn't 00:16:08.220 --> 00:16:14.680 watching the wrong movies, or reading the wrong books. Worldliness is primarily taking the 00:16:14.680 --> 00:16:19.279 attitudes of the world, the attitude of a culture that is in rebellion against God, and slipping 00:16:19.279 --> 00:16:26.600 into that mode of operating. Slipping into friendship with the world. Now when a husband 00:16:26.600 --> 00:16:32.440 notices a wife spending a bit of extra time at work, because there's a guy there she really 00:16:32.440 --> 00:16:37.960 likes. Or getting dressed up to go out with some friends, and he doesn't know quite who 00:16:37.960 --> 00:16:43.840 she's going with. He's right to feel jealous, isn't he? He's right to think, is she going 00:16:43.840 --> 00:16:48.640 off with someone else? She's mine. I love her. I want her back. I want her for myself. 00:16:49.480 --> 00:16:53.520 He's right to feel jealous, isn't he? If he didn't feel jealous, he'd be indifferent and 00:16:53.520 --> 00:17:00.440 unloving. Well look how God feels about the way these people are behaving. Verse 5. 00:17:00.440 --> 00:17:06.340 Verse 5. Let's read verse 4 again. You adulterous people. Do you not know that friendship with 00:17:06.340 --> 00:17:10.759 the world has enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself 00:17:10.759 --> 00:17:18.559 an enemy of God? Or do you suppose it is to no purpose? The scripture says he yearns jealously 00:17:18.559 --> 00:17:23.400 over the spirit he has made to dwell in us. It could be the Holy Spirit he has made to dwell 00:17:23.400 --> 00:17:27.080 in us. It could just be the breath of life he has made to dwell in us. I think more probably. 00:17:27.079 --> 00:17:32.899 But God loves the people he has created. He wants us for himself. And he wants that 00:17:32.899 --> 00:17:39.019 because that's what we're made for. That's best for us as well. So he is jealous when he 00:17:39.019 --> 00:17:43.359 sees us flirting with the world the way any good husband will be jealous to see his wife 00:17:43.359 --> 00:17:49.559 flirting with someone in the office or someone she met on the train. Now it seems James isn't 00:17:49.559 --> 00:17:54.119 writing any particular piece of scripture here. But there's a theme throughout the Bible 00:17:54.119 --> 00:17:58.579 that God is jealous for his people. Exodus 20 verse 5. You shall not bow down to any 00:17:58.579 --> 00:18:02.039 idol and servant for I the Lord your God am a jealous God. 00:18:02.639 --> 00:18:10.019 Jeremiah 4.24. The Lord your God is a consuming fire. A jealous God. He loves his people. He 00:18:10.019 --> 00:18:14.419 doesn't want us to drift off into worldliness. He doesn't want us to drift into being like 00:18:14.419 --> 00:18:20.559 the world around us. Drift into being his enemies. He loves us. So we need to see the truth. 00:18:20.559 --> 00:18:26.399 See the truth about divisions in the church. They're not caused by anything other than us 00:18:26.399 --> 00:18:32.000 following our own design and self. We need to sense the danger. We're in danger of drifting 00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:37.299 into being God's enemies. So what's the remedy? Well the remedy is in verses 6 to 12. We need 00:18:37.299 --> 00:18:43.639 to submit wholeheartedly to God. There's this great but at the start of verse 6 isn't it? 00:18:44.919 --> 00:18:49.440 You know becoming enemies with God. God is jealous. Verse 6 how does it start? 00:18:49.440 --> 00:18:59.500 But. He gives more grace. He gives more grace. You've dug yourselves into a deep hole but 00:18:59.500 --> 00:19:05.380 he gives more grace. Grace enough to lift you out. You have lost yourself in an ocean of 00:19:05.380 --> 00:19:12.960 danger but he gives more grace to send the helicopter to lift you up. He gives more grace. 00:19:12.960 --> 00:19:20.279 You're stuck pursuing your grace. You're stuck in fighting with each other and heading towards 00:19:20.279 --> 00:19:30.299 murdering each other. And you are powerless to change. But he gives more grace. As Augustine 00:19:30.299 --> 00:19:39.420 said hundreds of years ago, God gives what he demands. God gives what he demands. The remedy 00:19:39.420 --> 00:19:48.940 is not to pull our socks up. The remedy is not to try harder. The remedy is not to rely on 00:19:48.940 --> 00:19:54.800 our status, our roles, our spiritual capital, what we've kind of built up in our life through 00:19:54.800 --> 00:20:02.420 our reading and our prayers and our spiritual service. The remedy is to submit wholeheartedly 00:20:02.420 --> 00:20:07.980 wholeheartedly to the God who gives more grace. I like Motea put it like this. His resources 00:20:07.980 --> 00:20:15.700 never come to an end. His patience is never exhausted. His initiative never stops. So how 00:20:15.700 --> 00:20:20.300 do we receive this more grace? Well it's that verse we read earlier, isn't it? Therefore 00:20:20.300 --> 00:20:26.000 it says, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourself therefore to 00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:29.240 God. Then look down to the end of verse 10. The promise is repeated in a slightly different 00:20:29.240 --> 00:20:36.380 way. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. There's perhaps a danger 00:20:36.380 --> 00:20:42.880 in a church like this where in my 16 months here or whatever, I've noticed you're a very 00:20:42.880 --> 00:20:48.279 united church. We're a very united church. It's a wonderful thing. The danger is to be 00:20:48.279 --> 00:20:52.559 proud about that. You're not like those other churches Stuart's spoken about or we know about. 00:20:52.859 --> 00:20:57.500 We're much better than that. If we start thinking like that we end up with pride, don't we? 00:20:57.500 --> 00:21:03.039 And that's not the way forward. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. 00:21:04.039 --> 00:21:09.920 Or verse 7. Submit yourselves to God. Now that phrase, submit yourselves, literally in the 00:21:09.920 --> 00:21:15.200 original language it means to place in the right order under. Place everything in the right 00:21:15.200 --> 00:21:20.720 order under. The problem with James' readers is that their desires were all out of order, 00:21:20.799 --> 00:21:24.720 weren't they? All over the place. They put in their own desires. First thing, what God 00:21:24.720 --> 00:21:30.700 wanted came well down the list. James is saying you submit yourselves. Get all your desires 00:21:30.700 --> 00:21:36.640 back in order, in the proper order, under God's rule. Sin is disordered love. It's having 00:21:36.640 --> 00:21:42.460 everything out of order in our lives. Submit ourselves to God so you put them back in the 00:21:42.460 --> 00:21:47.360 right order. Now what does that mean practically? Well James gives us a couple of pictures. 00:21:47.359 --> 00:21:54.439 Verses 7-10 shows us what it looks like to submit to the Lord in our relationship with God. 00:21:54.939 --> 00:22:00.000 And in verses 11-12 what it looks like in our lives with other people. So first of all, what 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:05.399 does it look like in our walk with God? Well it means a new allegiance. A new allegiance. 00:22:05.500 --> 00:22:10.779 Look at verse 7. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw 00:22:10.779 --> 00:22:16.899 near to you. It's a different size of the same coin, aren't they? As we resist the devil, 00:22:17.059 --> 00:22:22.579 as we draw near to God. All the grace, all the resources for living God's way are found 00:22:22.579 --> 00:22:28.639 in God. So we need to draw near to him. We draw near to him as we read his work, as we pray, 00:22:29.079 --> 00:22:35.200 as we meditate on the scriptures. And sometimes we have to resist the devil to do that, don't 00:22:35.200 --> 00:22:40.079 we? Sometimes Satan whispers in our ear that we, you know, we're too bad. 00:22:40.079 --> 00:22:45.159 I know people who've stayed away from coming to church because they feel they're not sorted 00:22:45.159 --> 00:22:49.359 enough. They feel they've got things in their lives they need to sort out. That's a disaster. 00:22:50.460 --> 00:22:54.319 That's failing to resist the devil. It's failing to draw near to God, to where the resources 00:22:54.319 --> 00:23:00.139 are that can make us right and put us back together again. Yes, we need to draw near to 00:23:00.139 --> 00:23:05.799 him individually. But also draw near to him corporately as we're doing tonight. Put ourselves 00:23:05.799 --> 00:23:09.960 under the means of grace, under the preaching of his word, under prayer, under the sacraments, 00:23:09.960 --> 00:23:16.039 as we did this morning, with the Lord's help that we were served. So often people don't 00:23:16.559 --> 00:23:21.180 come to church, they don't feel like it. They feel it's too hard. Please, if that's you, 00:23:21.860 --> 00:23:29.940 remember this God who gives more grace. When you feel you've blown it, he's the one who gives 00:23:29.940 --> 00:23:35.799 more grace. He says, you can come, do come. So you need a new allegiance. You need to have 00:23:35.799 --> 00:23:41.919 a loyalty to drawing to God and not going the devil's ways. And secondly, submitting to 00:23:41.919 --> 00:23:48.899 God means a new wholeness. Look how James goes on. In verse 8, towards the end of it. 00:23:49.139 --> 00:23:54.859 Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Cleansing your hands 00:23:54.859 --> 00:23:59.339 means repenting of the actions, things we do in our bodies. In the case of these believers, 00:23:59.339 --> 00:24:05.279 it was fighting and quarreling and pursuing our own desires. And I know what cleansing 00:24:05.279 --> 00:24:11.859 your hands means for you. Is it dealing with your temper? Is it dealing with your priorities? 00:24:14.220 --> 00:24:19.079 Cleansing our hands, also repenting of actions, but purifying our hearts, which means repenting 00:24:19.079 --> 00:24:24.000 of our attitudes. And here James calls them double-minded again in verse 8. It's a phrase he 00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:29.440 is back in chapter 1, in verse 6. There they were double-minded because they're wavering 00:24:29.440 --> 00:24:33.839 between faith and doubt. You've seen their double-mindedness playing out as you go through 00:24:33.839 --> 00:24:38.579 the letter. Here they're double-minded and they're wavering between being a friend of God or a 00:24:38.579 --> 00:24:44.680 friend of the world. It's like they're trying to live with foot in both camps. All through 00:24:44.680 --> 00:24:48.680 this book is beginning to the symptoms of this. Their use of the tongue, they're judging 00:24:48.680 --> 00:24:52.940 people. They're being hearers of God's word and not doers of it. All that stems from being 00:24:52.940 --> 00:24:56.740 double-minded. What's the remedy for double-mindedness? 00:24:58.519 --> 00:25:05.340 Well, it's more grace, isn't it? It's more grace. Cleansing our hearts, you double-minded. 00:25:06.700 --> 00:25:11.299 Psalm 86, verse 11, verse 4 drew our attention to a few months ago in a series on the fear 00:25:11.299 --> 00:25:15.380 of the Lord. It's a great prayer for the double-minded like me. 00:25:15.380 --> 00:25:23.180 Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth. Unite my heart to fear your name. 00:25:24.340 --> 00:25:28.260 That's a prayer for the double-minded, that God would unite our hearts. We'd no longer be 00:25:28.260 --> 00:25:34.300 double-minded. So submitting to the Lord means he makes us whole. He's repenting of our actions, 00:25:34.760 --> 00:25:41.960 repenting of our attitudes as well. And thirdly, it means sorrow over sin. Look at verse 9. 00:25:41.960 --> 00:25:48.259 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 00:25:49.660 --> 00:25:55.579 The point is not to feel miserable, or merely to appear miserable. The point is our spiritual 00:25:55.579 --> 00:26:03.299 wholeness should be seen in genuine sorrow over our sin. Genuine sadness. Sadness and sorrow 00:26:03.299 --> 00:26:08.340 are not just over the consequences of sin. That's the politician's apology. The politician 00:26:08.339 --> 00:26:13.199 who appears next to his wife, really sorry he's been caught in this adulterous relationship. 00:26:13.619 --> 00:26:16.279 Really meaning he's sorry he's been caught. He's not sorry he's actually in a relationship. 00:26:17.099 --> 00:26:20.959 Sorry about the consequences. Not sorry for the hurt that's been done. 00:26:22.379 --> 00:26:29.519 And James is saying, don't just regret being caught. Have genuine sorrow for the effect of 00:26:29.519 --> 00:26:37.039 your sin on this jealous Lord who loves you. He sent his son to die for you. To reclaim you 00:26:37.039 --> 00:26:47.440 as his own. Weep and more. Pray the Holy Spirit will help us to genuine sorrow. This is what 00:26:47.440 --> 00:26:51.379 submitting ourselves to the Lord looks like in terms of our relationship with him. He's a 00:26:51.379 --> 00:26:57.799 new allegiance, a new wholeness, and a genuine sorrow as laughter turns to weeping. 00:26:57.799 --> 00:27:05.159 But this repentance, this drawing near to God, this submitting ourselves to God, is not just 00:27:05.159 --> 00:27:10.119 some kind of pietistic thing that we do on our own in our rooms. Rather it affects our lives, 00:27:10.200 --> 00:27:15.240 it affects our relationships. That's what James gets to in verses 11 and 12. And again he's 00:27:15.240 --> 00:27:19.839 bringing us back to the tongue for the third time in this letter. Because what we do, what 00:27:19.839 --> 00:27:24.159 the things we say can do such damage, can't they? Verse 11. Do not speak evil against one 00:27:24.160 --> 00:27:29.580 other brothers. The one who speaks evil against the brother, or judges his brother, speaks 00:27:29.580 --> 00:27:35.860 evil against the law and judges the law. See when we're jealous, when we want what other 00:27:35.860 --> 00:27:41.040 people have, then we often end up speaking evil against them. That could be through slander, 00:27:41.200 --> 00:27:46.740 it could be through gossip, it could be under our breath as we just get angry. And when we 00:27:46.740 --> 00:27:51.920 do that, what are we doing? We're setting ourselves up as judges over a brother or sister. 00:27:51.920 --> 00:27:56.200 So for example, if you think some people in the church just really aren't serving hard 00:27:56.200 --> 00:27:59.920 enough. You know, very few people who do most of the work and other people who don't do 00:27:59.920 --> 00:28:03.640 enough. You start to complain about that and gossip about that. What are we doing when we 00:28:03.640 --> 00:28:10.140 do that? We're setting ourselves up as judges, aren't we? And yet Jesus has commanded us not 00:28:10.140 --> 00:28:16.640 to judge. Jesus commands us to love our neighbour as ourselves. We're judging someone, we're 00:28:16.640 --> 00:28:23.700 not loving them, are we? In fact, Jesus goes on to say, we're judging the law. How are we 00:28:23.700 --> 00:28:29.280 doing that? Well, I know this experience, I'm sure some of you do, of driving up a motorway 00:28:29.280 --> 00:28:34.320 is a long way to get from my house in Isleworth to my parents' house in the south of Scotland. 00:28:34.860 --> 00:28:41.220 So as I'm driving up the M40 on the style of that journey, I think 70 miles an hour is a 00:28:41.220 --> 00:28:46.140 really ridiculous speed limit. Because it's going to take forever if I drive at 70. So 00:28:46.140 --> 00:28:49.500 I act as a judge on the law. So that law doesn't need to apply anymore. I put that law aside 00:28:49.500 --> 00:28:53.500 and I can drive at 80. I have this internal law, I don't drive any more than 80 usually, 00:28:53.640 --> 00:28:59.140 usually. But what am I doing? I'm acting as a judge on the law. Jesus says that's what 00:28:59.140 --> 00:29:07.000 we do as believers when we judge or slander or gossip about other believers. Acting as judges 00:29:07.000 --> 00:29:14.759 of the law. And that's serious, isn't it? Because there is only one lawgiver and one judge. 00:29:16.420 --> 00:29:22.359 So if you're judging God's law, you're not submitting to him. If we're judging God's law, 00:29:22.460 --> 00:29:26.819 if we're judging our neighbours, if we're complaining about others in the church, then we're not submitting 00:29:26.819 --> 00:29:31.779 to God. If we are submitting to God, it will be seen in the relationships of those around us. 00:29:31.779 --> 00:29:40.559 So here's the remedy for divisions and arguments in the church. It's to see the truth. These 00:29:40.559 --> 00:29:46.420 frictions and troubles are caused by our own, pursuing our own pleasures. We need to sense 00:29:46.420 --> 00:29:53.779 the danger. We're starting to live the world's way, pursuing our own desires, not God's will, 00:29:54.319 --> 00:30:00.859 not the harvest of peace, which he's talked about at the end of chapter 3. And that's dangerous. 00:30:00.859 --> 00:30:07.479 We're in danger of becoming God's enemies. And so the remedy is to submit wholeheartedly 00:30:07.479 --> 00:30:13.599 to the Lord. Let's look again at that promise in verse 10. Humble yourselves before the Lord 00:30:13.599 --> 00:30:21.919 and he will exalt you. We pursue our own passions to exalt ourselves, don't we? That's why we do 00:30:21.919 --> 00:30:27.279 it. We want to be noticed. We want other people to think highly of us. But who do we really 00:30:27.279 --> 00:30:33.700 need to be exalted by in our lives? By our peers? By our friends and neighbours? By our 00:30:33.700 --> 00:30:39.500 colleagues? No. There's only one opinion that really counts, isn't there? It's the opinion 00:30:39.500 --> 00:30:44.680 of our Lord on judgment day. Because that's what James is referring to here. The coming judgment 00:30:44.680 --> 00:30:49.599 is never far from what he writes in this letter. If we submit ourselves to the Lord now, if we 00:30:49.599 --> 00:30:55.639 humble ourselves before the Lord now, we will be exalted by him on that day he comes back. 00:30:56.599 --> 00:31:02.179 That's why he makes this impassioned plea to repent of the spiritual adultery and come 00:31:02.179 --> 00:31:08.219 to the Lord in humility so he can make us whole again now and lift us up on the last day. 00:31:08.220 --> 00:31:16.299 Now this is a danger in every church. I think of one church I know well, many miles away, I 00:31:16.299 --> 00:31:20.940 don't know very well, I don't know about, many miles away, where suddenly there's been a great 00:31:20.940 --> 00:31:25.559 division. Suddenly there's been all sorts of falling outs and problems. In a church which 00:31:25.559 --> 00:31:31.559 had faithful biblical ministry for years and wise, godly elders, and yet the devil loves to 00:31:31.559 --> 00:31:36.700 get in. He loves to cause trouble. Yet my father was telling me recently that in this 00:31:36.700 --> 00:31:45.240 church, with his great rich heritage, one Sunday, an older couple in the church, very well respected, 00:31:45.400 --> 00:31:51.160 very well loved, came to the front and publicly confessed that they had had a wrong attitude 00:31:51.160 --> 00:31:58.140 to certain people in the church, that they dealt in wrong ways and said wrong things. They 00:31:58.140 --> 00:32:03.700 confessed that they'd done wrong because the damage that had been caused was public. And 00:32:03.700 --> 00:32:09.080 so they repented of it publicly. I don't know what prompted them, other than the Holy Spirit, 00:32:09.080 --> 00:32:13.880 but maybe they'd been reading something like this in James. Maybe they saw how they perceived 00:32:13.880 --> 00:32:19.600 their own agendas. And so they humbled themselves before the Lord. They wept and mourned for their 00:32:19.600 --> 00:32:28.440 sin publicly and confessed it. How can such a big change come about? Because God is a God 00:32:28.440 --> 00:32:36.500 who offers more grace. As we humble ourselves before him, he will transform the situations and lift us up. 00:32:36.500 --> 00:32:37.720 Let's pray.