James 4

James 4

Battling Worldliness

Pastor Scott Campbell

Part of Wed Night

February 7, 2024

James 4
Battling Worldliness
Jas 4:1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
Jas 4:2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
Jas 4:3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
1. James continues here on the subject of a living faith or a faith that is

by dealing with strife amongst believers.
2. For that reason he asks a rhetorical

.
3. He is trying to get us to see that the root of our discontentment is

.
4. The wars that we fight with others begin in side our

.
5. Lust causes us to desire things we can not have, to fight for things we can not obtain and strive for things without God’s

.
6. Our flesh will cause us to not

or often to ask for things out of God’s will.
Jas 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
Jas 4:5 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
7. These fleshly desires lead us into

.
8. Worldliness is looking to the worlds

to meet our needs instead of God.
9. This is why James address his audience as

and

.
10. The idea of being a friend of the world here denotes the idea of a “

”.
11. We can not be

to the world and claim to be friends with God.
12. The spirit in verse 5 refers to our sinful

.
Jas 4:6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
Jas 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Jas 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
Jas 4:9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
Jas 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
13. Here James begins to build the truth that God ALWAYS

the wayward Christian!
14. He does so first by defining the lost person as

but the Christian who is in sin as humble.
15. Verses 7-10 are how Christians should

to God when he convicts us of our sin.
16. First we

ourselves by seeing things as God sees them. Vs 7
17. Second we have to

anything that does align with God’s word because it is from Satan. Vs 7
18. Thirdly we continue to draw closer to God through confession and

. Vs 8
19. Fourth ALWAYS WELCOME

. Vs 9
20.

ourselves before God by acknowledging our weakness, our inability and our lack of understanding. Vs 10
Jas 4:11 Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.
Jas 4:12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?
21. When we are humbled before God we will recognize that we have no business

others.
22. James isn’t saying that we shouldn’t

a persons submission or lack thereof but he is referring to evil, harsh and unfair judgements.
23.
Jas 4:13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
Jas 4:14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
Jas 4:15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
Jas 4:16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
Jas 4:17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
24. The chapter ends with a lesson on dependency and

.
25. There isn’t anything wrong with planning and providing but those things should not consume our

.
26. We can never forget that these days are short and

and that all the blessing of them come from God.
27. Verse 17 is saying now that we have this

we have no excuses.