Healing a Murderous Heart – part 1
James 4:1-12 (1-6)
January 11, 2015
I realize it has been quite some time
Since we have been in the book of James.
The holidays have a way of murdering the continuity of a book study.
But now with the holidays behind us
We have the opportunity to get back into our flow of this great book.
It shouldn’t be too difficult to pull your mind back to the point of this book
To sum it up for you again, James’ main point is “BE REAL”
You really get the feeling that he has a mind’s eye view of Jesus
And as He focuses on Christ and then looks at the church
James sees some alarming inconsistencies.
• He sees a church that is bitter in the midst of trials
• He sees a church that lacks wisdom and is double-minded
• He sees a church that is mixed up about the purpose of earthly wealth
• He sees a church succumbing to temptation
• He sees a church that isn’t listening to God’s word
• He sees a church that has missed the point of religion
• He sees a church that shows personal favoritism
• He sees a church is lacking genuine works to validate her faith
• He sees a church that can’t control her tongue
• He sees a church with bitter jealousy and selfish ambition
And of course all of those things are just the opposite of Christ.
James then writes the letter to sort of “right the ship”.
In some instances he strong rebuking the church.
In other areas he seems to be questioning whether salvation is even present.
And that certainly does not stop tonight.
If I can draw you back to what we talked about the last time we were in James while studying the end of chapter 3.
We talked about “Examining Our Wisdom”
James 3:13-15 “Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic.”
James saw an obvious problem in the church which was the presence of “bitter jealous and selfish ambition”
This was not Godliness
This was in fact more like Satan than God
And this concern spills over into the 4th chapter of the book of James.
It is that same jealous and ambitious attitude James is addressing here.
• We see in verse 1 that they are engaged in conflicts
• We see in verse 2 that they lust and commit murder
• We see that they quarrel and fight about what they can’t obtain
And after James addresses the issue and sort of straightens them out
He comes full circle down in verse 11 and says:
(11) “Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it.”
And so it is obvious that James is still dealing with
This concept of bitter jealousy and selfish ambition
And the slander and fighting that it is producing.
And so take a moment and back up and look at the church
And see if you see any validity to what James is saying.
• We’ve all seen church that were filled with quarreling and fighting.
And we know that James’ evaluation of the church is all too often true.
Many times throughout her history the church has been prone to fighting.
Listen to what Paul wrote to the Corinthians:
1 Corinthians 1:10-11 “Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you.”
Later he wrote:
1 Corinthians 11:17-19 “But in giving this instruction, I do not praise you, because you come together not for the better but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you; and in part I believe it. For there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you.”
Paul actually had to warn the Galatians:
Galatians 5:13-15 “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.”
When Paul wrote to the Philippians he said:
Philippians 4:1-2 “Therefore, my beloved brethren whom I long to see, my joy and crown, in this way stand firm in the Lord, my beloved. I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to live in harmony in the Lord.”
We have all seen quarrels and conflicts occur even in the church.
Incidentally, Jesus Himself talked about the gravity of such sins.
Matthew 5:21-22 “You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’ “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.”
Jesus left little doubt there didn’t He?
Slandering and condemning your brother is the equivalent of murder,
And Jesus promises that those who do such things
Will not escape the sentence of hell.
That makes things like church fighting a very serious issue.
James thought it was too.
And so in our text here in chapter 4 we are going to talk about:
“HEALING A MURDEROUS HEART”
We are going to discuss the truth about people
With selfish ambition which leads to slander and quarreling.
We are going to talk about what such sins say about that person
And how that person can change.
There are 4 main points.
#1 THE PAINFUL REVELATION
James 4:1-5
Now obviously James has already seen that there are in fact
“quarrels and conflicts” in the church.
He does not ask if they are there.
He knows they are there.
He asks, “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you?”
He knows they are there; he has seen them.
He wants to help people see why they are there.
And here is the answer.
“Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain so you fight and quarrel.”
If you want the simple answer from James, it is this:
YOU FIGHT BECAUSE YOU ARE SELFISH
And that selfishness is confirmed in several ways.
First your selfishness is seen in your CONSTANT QUARRELS
James says that you have “pleasures that wage war in your members”
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
When James talks about “your members” he isn’t talking about your church members, he is talking about your body.
And inside your body you have “pleasures that wage war”
It is that sinful, fleshly, selfish nature.
It wants what it wants, when it wants it.
It is the selfish flesh.
And that is what is causing the problem.
(2) “You lust”
• You seek what is not yours
• At times you even seek what is sinful
And the reason you fight is because your lusts are not satisfied.
“You lust and do not have, so you commit murder.”
James is referring to that same type of heart murder Jesus referred to.
You slander, You condemn, You are angry with your brother.
You murder him in your heart all because you don’t get what you want.
It is pictured by that disgruntled teenager who doesn’t get their way from their parent and they lash out, “I hate you, I wish you weren’t my parent, I wish you were dead!”
It is heart murder
And it is not limited to disgruntled teens.
The same type of slander occurs inside the church
And the source is the same.
Selfish people don’t get their way so they engage in a verbal assault.
And James says it is born out of envy and a lack of contentment.
(2b) “You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel.”
That is a person who wishes they had what someone else has.
• Maybe a certain position
• Maybe a certain possession
• Maybe a certain type of reputation or esteem
They want what someone else has, but they can’t get it
So they begin to tear down that other person.
James says, that’s really the source of your quarreling and fighting
It is present because you are selfish.
You have this inward fire in you that are seeking to satisfy with worldly things,
And it is your lack of satisfaction that has driven you to heart murder.
SO YOUR FIGHTING PROVES YOU ARE SELFISH
But that is not the only thing that proves you are selfish.
Secondly, your selfishness is seen in YOUR INEFFECTIVE PRAYER
(2c-3) “You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.”
Now that is a selfish person.
First we see that “You do not have because you do not ask.”
James is referring to a person too impatient to let prayer work.
It is a person who is too self-sufficient to wait on God.
They don’t ask because they don’t want to trust God to do what is right.
They don’t ask because they don’t want to wait on God to move.
They want what they want and they want it now
And they take matters into their own hands to achieve it,
Which is why they fight.
(Can I remind you of Jacob?)
Saw him fight, never heard him pray
And there are people like that.
They don’t want to submit to ask someone else, they would rather pursue it by their own abilities.
Now that doesn’t mean that if you do ask God then aren’t selfish,
For James addresses that person too.
(3) “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.”
There is a person who prays, but they do so out of selfish motives.
They only want to “spend it on [their] pleasures.”
They aren’t interested in God’s will
They see God as a Jeanie in a bottle who is a means to give them what they want.
All they seem to pray for is that God will continue to make them healthy and prosperous and happy and comfortable and safe.
• Where is the prayer for personal holiness?
• Where is the prayer of repentance?
• Where is the prayer for the lost?
• Where is the prayer for the poor?
• Where is the prayer for revival?
Their prayers are dripping with one selfish request after another.
Make me wealthy so I can buy all the things I want
Make me healthy so I can enjoy all the things I’ve bought
Make me safe so no one will take what I enjoy
And do that for everyone else too so I won’t have to give what I’ve got to them.
Do you get the point?
Can you see the selfishness that James is referring too?
People “ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.”
But their prayer is ineffective for they “ask and do not receive”
But you can see that James is talking about selfish people?
They are people who are driven by the lusts of their flesh.
Sure they are religious
Some of them even pray
But it doesn’t change the carnal desires of their heart
And so when James looks at the church and their quarrels
He says the reason it is happening is because you are selfish.
Paul told the squabbling Corinthians the same thing:
1 Corinthians 3:1-3 “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?”
Your life is filled with quarrels and contentions because you are a selfish person.
But that isn’t the only painful revelation
James has for these quarreling people.
On one hand they are selfish, but James is going to take one step further.
You are certainly selfish, and there is a good chance that YOU ARE LOST
(4) “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
James is still talking about that person who “lusts”
He is talking about that person who is “envious”
He is talking about that person who has “pleasures…in their members”
He is talking about that person who has “wrong motives”
He is talking about that person who wants to satisfy their inward “pleasures”
In short he is talking about a person
Who loves the sinful luxuries of the world.
The world loves to gratify the flesh
And this person loves the world because of that.
And that love for the world not only proves they are selfish,
But it also proves they are lost.
John said it very clearly
1 John 2:15-17 “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.”
John said the world is filled with “the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life”
And none of those things are of God.
And anyone then who loves those things obviously doesn’t love God.
Jesus said it like this:
Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
And of course you are familiar with the fact that
Jesus wasn’t just referring to money, but “mammon”
Which encapsulates all the treasures of the world.
Jesus said, you can’t love those and love God.
So the selfish heart that craves the world
Has a very difficult time defending that their faith is genuine.
“You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?”
Forget the fact that if you love the world then you can’t love God.
James takes it a step further and says that
If you love the world then you are even hostile toward God.
In fact, “Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself and enemy of God.”
If you are craving the things the world craves,
Not only will it lead to quarrels and ineffective prayer,
But it will also make you an enemy of God.
(5) “Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us?”
Now the translation of this verse is difficult.
First of all, if James is quoting an actual verse, no one knows what it is.
It seems more likely that James is referring to a Scriptural theme,
Not necessarily a specific verse.
It would be like if I say, “You know the Bible says that lost people love sin”
That is not a specific verse,
But it is definite theme which can be supported.
Second of all the first “He” is not in the Greek and since there are no capitalizations in Greek, it’s hard to confirm that when James is talking about “the Spirit” that he is actually referring to the Holy Spirit.
The literal translation would be:
“The spirit that dwells in us lusts to envy”
SO WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
James is talking about how a man can be an enemy of God.
People are God’s enemy when they follow their own sinful nature (their inward spirit), because it only wants sin all the time.
Remember this?
Genesis 6:5 “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
Later, after the flood
Genesis 8:21 “The LORD smelled the soothing aroma; and the LORD said to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done.”
The spirit that naturally dwells in man
Is a spirit that is only focused on evil all the time.
God said, “the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth”
And that is the reality that James is talking about.
“The spirit that dwells in us lusts to envy”
The spirit that naturally dwells in us is only on evil all the time.
SO:
If you are a person who is seeking to gratify that spirit,
(as evidenced by your quarrelling and your ineffective prayer)
Then you are obviously not a person who is living to please God.
AND YOU HAVE MADE YOURSELF GOD’S ENEMY
So there is your PAINFUL REVELATION
If your life is such that is characterized by “quarrels and conflicts”
I can tell you why.
• It is because you are selfish person who is seeking to gratify the
wrong thing.
That is why you fight
That is why your prayers don’t work
• And worse than that it reveals that you are probably a lost person
who is an enemy of God, because you love things that God hates.
Is that a hard pill to swallow?
Yes it is.
But isn’t that what James just taught us also back in chapter 3.
James 3:13-16 “Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.”
James was talking there about that same selfish attitude,
And if you have it, it is not from God.
The wisdom that comes from God is completely different.
James 3:17-18 “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”
Can you see the difference?
• Can you see that the unselfish man who seeks God’s heart is a reasonable and gently and merciful and peaceable man who makes peace with others?
• Can you see that the selfish man is a lusting and greedy and pleasure seeking man that fights and quarrels and is an enemy of God?
So examine your life.
Are you selfish or not?
Is your life characterized by quarrels and conflicts?
Is your prayer life effective?
Are you seeking to gratify your natural spirit or God’s Holy Spirit?
James just has a real problem with those who claim to be the church
Obviously living such selfish lives.
After all, need I remind you that you cannot love self and follow Jesus?
Matthew 16:24 “Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”
And James here looks at a selfish church and wonders
How they can genuinely consider themselves to be Christians.
• They fight
• They love the world
• They lust
• They are envious
• They are filled with selfish ambition
• Their prayers are only for their own personal gratification
So, there is the painful revelation,
And it requires that we get honest with ourselves.
WHY?
Because if you don’t get honest about the condition of your heart,
You’ll never go to the one who can fix it.
And that is the good news that James refers to next.
The Painful Revelation
#2 THE POWERFUL EXPLANATION
James 4:6
You have to love the first phrase here
“But He gives a greater grace.”
You are a selfish, quarreling, lustful, envious, worldly, adulterating, enemy of God…BUT
God has grace big enough to fix that.
Isn’t that what we sing about?
“Grace, grace, God’s grace. Grace that will pardon and cleans within. Grace, grace, God’s grace. Grace that is greater than all our sin.”
Paul said:
Romans 5:20-21 “The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
And we are thankful for that point.
Quite frankly it couldn’t get any worse than the first 5 verses.
That person in the first 5 verses is in about as bad a shape as a person can be in.
It’s hard to be worse than a murdering, adulterating, enemy of God.
That person would most certainly be lost and cast into hell forever:
“But He gives a greater grace.”
That is to say that God can even save that person.
“Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
And there James even tells you how to be a recipient of such grace.
HOW?
Be “humble”
WHAT DO YOU MEAN HUMBLE?
Well don’t be “proud”
• Don’t refuse to fess up to what you are.
• Don’t argue with God’s estimation of what you are.
• Don’t be too proud to confess that you are sinful…
• Don’t be too proud to let it be known that you are that person…
That is one of the reasons lost people stay lost
They are too proud
They don’t want to admit that they are sinful,
Not to God and not to anyone else.
And when God tells them they are lost
They don’t want to admit that either.
This is especially difficult for people who have spent time in church
Telling everyone that they are saved.
Many false believers would rather stay lost with everyone thinking they are saved than to be saved by admitting that they were lost.
That is pride, and God doesn’t give saving grace to the proud.
In fact James reminds that “God is opposed to the proud”
“But God gives grace to the humble.”
• God forgives the sin of the humble man.
• God wipes away the sin of the man who confesses it.
• God overcomes the sin of the man who owns up to it.
Jesus preached it like this:
Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
The person who is humble and broken
Is the person who will receive the kingdom of heaven.
In fact they are the only ones who will.
Only the poor in spirit get in
You don’t get into heaven by concealing your sin and ignoring your guilt.
You get into heaven when you come in honest humility
To the God of grace and receive His forgiveness.
And I don’t think James could have explained it any simpler.
Take that Painful revelation and examine yourself by it
And listen to what God says about you.
And then humble yourself before God.
Grace is available.
• Is your heart selfish?
• Do you lust and then murder when you don’t get it?
• Are you envious and then fight when you are not satisfied?
• Do you lack prayer because you don’t want God’s answer?
• Do you pray but only for selfish things?
• Do you love the world and that is all you want?
I won’t sugarcoat it, those things are bad indicators
“But He gives a greater grace”
He will still forgive and save if you will humble yourself before Him.
And we’ll finish up this text next time.
Pray
