Worldliness & Conflict (II)
This is a transcript. It may contain some inaccuracies.
I don't have to convince you, so I'm not going to spend much time…I don't have to take time to really convince you that we live in a society, a culture, a climate here in North America - North American culture - we live in a climate that is permeated with really living for pleasure, entertainment, a pleasure of one form or another.
Living for pleasure, however, is absolutely deadly. It's deadly to the individual soul, deadly to one's relationship to God. And as we discovered last Lord's Day, looking at James 4, beginning to look at James 4, it is devastating. The self-seeking pursuit of pleasure is really devastating on all of our relationships. Because as we pursue pleasure, our pursuit of pleasure puts us up against, and in conflict with, those around us - people around us, people in our lives.
Now, before we move on and pick up where we left off as we talk about pleasure, I thought it important for us, before we move on, to look at James 4, it's important that we take notice of some very important distinctions. So, I want to make some careful distinctions so that there is no confusion on this subject of pleasures and rather that we can have clarity.
The Bible does not say that pleasure in and of itself is sinful, necessarily. In fact, we're told that God pursues His own pleasure. In Psalm 149:4, we read, "Yahweh takes pleasure in His people." In fact, Scripture makes it clear that there are legitimate pleasures that have been given to man by God. God is gracious that He's given us pleasures. Psalm 37:4, "Delight yourself in Yahweh, and He will give you the desire of your heart."
We see our world filled with things in which we can find legitimate pleasure. Scripture tells us, for example, food and times of feasting are one of those pleasures - and we all enjoy that, don't we? Different types of cuisine, and, you know, you eat something you like, you take photos, and you take photos before you eat it, and then you dig into it. Then you show others, and you tell them about the flavor, the explosion of flavor, and everybody is exchanging pictures about food - and so it is pleasure.
You remember what Paul told Timothy, and that is that all things are given for our, what? Enjoyment. And if we receive those things with thanksgiving - a specific reference to food - there in his first letter to Timothy, well, we enjoy feasting, and we take pleasure in that, and we thank God for the gift of taste. We don't have to eat, as I often say, the same thing every day just simply to survive. He's given us the pleasure of taste. That was part of Israel's world - feasting, food. It's a part of our world. That's a good thing. That's a legitimate pleasure.
We enjoy other things. We enjoy family. We enjoy friendships. We enjoy children. We enjoy different things. We enjoy traveling and exploring different parts of the world, and all of those things are good and legitimate pleasures. In fact, Scripture tells us that heaven itself will be a place of consummate pleasure. We will find our pleasure - our ultimate pleasure, of course - in God Himself. As Psalm 16:11 reminds us: "In your presence there is,’ what? “fullness of joy; in your right hand there are pleasures," pleasures, plural, "forever."
Well, C.S. Lewis understood this reality. In his book, Screwtape Letters, most of us are, I trust, familiar with it, in this particular book, Lewis writes as if it is a series of letters written by an older, more experienced demon to his young apprentice named Wormwood. Listen to what C.S. Lewis has this older, more experienced demon write to Wormwood, his younger apprentice: "Never forget that when we are dealing with any pleasure in its healthy and normal and satisfying form, we are, in a sense, on the enemy's ground. I know we have won many a soul through pleasure. All the same, it is His" - capital H, reference to God - "it is His invention, not ours. He made the pleasures. All our research so far has not enabled us to produce one.” Now watch this. “All we could do is to encourage the humans to take the pleasures which our enemy" - in this case God - "has produced at times or in ways or in degrees which He has forbidden. Hence, we always try to work away from the natural condition of any pleasure to that which is least natural, as ever-increasing craving for an ever-diminishing pleasure is the formula."
Those are incredibly insightful words. That's exactly right. True and legitimate pleasure comes to us from God, our good and gracious God. And we are to enjoy those legitimate pleasures in this created world always, always, to use Augustine's expression, “with an eye to God's glory.”
He said that when we enjoy the things around us, Augustine said, we are always to enjoy those things with an eye to the glory of God - always. And if we enjoy those things, anytime we enjoy those things without an eye to God's glory, then those things, beloved, become idols to us. They become to us idols. We are ultimately then to seek our true pleasure, our ultimate pleasure, in our God.
Now, just as there are legitimate pleasures that God has given us as good gifts, as expressions of His love and goodness to us, well, there are also, the Scripture tells us, sinful pleasures - pleasures that are opposed to God. Now the question is, when is pleasure sinful? Well, let me share with us three answers to that question. When is pleasure sinful? When is it sinful?
First of all, pleasure is sinful when legitimate pleasure - God-given pleasure - becomes more important to us than God. When legitimate pleasure, God-given pleasure, becomes more important to us than God, then it becomes sinful pleasure. When a God-given pleasure becomes more important to us than God.
Listen to 2 Timothy 3:4. Paul, in describing to Timothy the last days, he says, "Men shall be lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God." What an indictment. When pleasure - whether sinful pleasure, certainly, but let's talk for a moment about legitimate pleasure - when legitimate pleasure becomes more important to us, and we love it more, we love it rather than God, then that pleasure has become sinful. When this happens, even a legitimate pleasure, a God-given pleasure, can become an idol of the heart. That's number one.
Number two, pleasure is sinful when legitimate pleasure is pursued in excess. When legitimate pleasure is pursued in excess. It’s an inordinate giving of oneself to that pleasure. As I mentioned before, food and feasting is a wonderful gift from God - that’s a good thing. And while the Scripture commends that and encourages us to enjoy this good gift, at the same time, the same Scripture forbids gluttony. So, a legitimate pleasure in excess can become sinful.
A third way pleasure is sinful - and this is an obvious one - is when Scripture forbids that pleasure, when it is indeed a forbidden pleasure. For example, God has given us the wonderful gift of physical intimacy in marriage, but intimacy - physical intimacy before marriage or outside of marriage - is forbidden by Scripture. That pleasure is a sinful pleasure.
And by the way, let me say generally about sinful pleasure, whatever it is, make no mistake, that sin often brings great short-term pleasure. Sin brings short-term pleasure - great short-term pleasure.
I’m reminded of this point in Hebrews 11:25, where we’re told that Moses chose to endure ill-treatment with the people of God rather than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. So sin brings with it pleasure - sometimes and oftentimes great pleasure. There’s pleasure in sin, but it is short-lived, it is temporal, and it is deadly. Deadly.
Sin, for a short time, can be very pleasurable, very satisfying, but it’s passing, short-lived, and it never really satisfies. It promises what it can’t deliver - will never deliver. Eighteenth-century scholar Samuel Johnson said this, and I quote: "Of all that hath tried this selfish experiment, let one come forth and say that he has succeeded. He that hath made gold his idol - has it satisfied him? He that hath toiled in the fields of ambition - has he been repaid? He that hath ransacked every theater of sensual enjoyment - is he content? And any answer in the affirmative? Not one. Not one.”
Another author said, and I quote: "The best cure for hedonism is the attempt to practice it. Someone gives themselves to pleasure, and they soon find that it is a cardboard dream." It never satisfies. It simply creates an appetite for more and more and more. And the more you try to be satisfied, the more you feel dissatisfied - chasing after a mirage in the desert. In fact, if you live to satisfy your cravings as a goal of your life, you are not only living in rebellion against your Creator, but the Scripture says you are a slave to those cravings. Titus 3:3, speaking of unbelievers, describes them as being “enslaved to various lusts and pleasures.”
You think you’re free. You’re actually a slave, he says, to those lusts and pleasures. Jewish rabbis put it this way, speaking of those cravings of the heart, and I quote: "The evil impulse is first a wanderer who passes by, then a guest, and finally master of the house who gives order."
Now, it’s these sinful pleasures that James is referring to in chapter 4. James particularly has in mind those sinful pleasures.
Where do these cravings for sinful pleasures come from? Well, as we saw last time, they come from our fallenness, our flesh, the indwelling sin that remains - the corruption from that part of us that is yet not redeemed, unredeemed.
These cravings arrive and arise. How do they affect us? Well, those who live to satisfy their cravings - and this is very important for us to understand - those who live to satisfy their cravings are internally in this constant state of warfare. Look at verse 1: "Your pleasures that wage war in your members." Members - a reference to the physical and mental elements of the body, which contain man’s fallen flesh and humanness. He’s saying within you rages this war, this fight, this battle. For the person who lives to satisfy his cravings has a war within his own heart. There’s this battle raging. That’s the same thing Peter said in 1 Peter 2:11, where he speaks of those cravings that “wage war against the soul.”
Now, beloved, understand this: where a person is living to satisfy their cravings, there is an internal war that is constantly raging - constantly. And when there’s conflict with others, it is simply the spilling over, if you will, of that internal war that already exists in their own hearts. That’s what James is saying here. Notice verse 1 again: the source of the wars and battles among you, that is, among you people, is the cravings within each of you, he’s saying.
Now, beloved, take heed how you hear this point because this is absolutely critical to understand. When a person is at war with others, when a person is known for arguments and quarreling and fighting, that expression of fighting is merely the overflow of the war within their own hearts, James is saying. So these cravings, these lusts, these desires for pleasure of various kinds are the driving force - not only, as we found back in chapter 1 of James, behind temptation, behind the pirasmos (the temptation) - but they’re also the source of every quarrel, every argument that we ever have with others.
This is what we began to learn from James last Lord’s Day. And the reason is, it’s very important for us to understand the nature of the pleasure that James is describing here. There are good and legitimate pleasures, and there are sinful pleasures. Now, we’re talking here about sinful pleasures; James is talking about sinful pleasures.
Now follow along as I remind us of the flow of his argument in verse 1. It’s hard to see on the surface the flow of the theme that ties that paragraph together, but it is a paragraph, and there is a common theme. The common theme is introduced to us in verse 1: “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you?” So the issue is conflict, and you see it tied in with worldliness a little bit later. But that’s the theme that lies behind this paragraph.
What we learn in this paragraph is that there are very specific steps that you and I must take in order to deal with interpersonal conflict. In fact, this passage, this paragraph, contains several crucial practical steps for dealing with conflict in our lives. The first one comes in the first three verses. And as we introduced it last Lord’s Day, here it is again: James wants us to identify the true source of the conflict. Identify the true source.
You see, before you and I can legitimately, adequately deal with the conflict in our lives, we must understand where it comes from. What’s the source? What’s the origin?Verse 1: “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you?” Now, the second part of the verse, as we said last time, we could legitimately convert it to a statement of fact. It’s not really a question, you know, seeking information, but rather it’s a statement of fact put in the form of a question. James, in other words, is saying: the source of the quarrels and conflicts among you is your pleasures. You see, the pursuit of sinful pleasures, or our efforts to satisfy the sinful cravings of the heart, is what creates quarrels, arguments, conflict.
As we saw last time, this word pleasures, translated the Greek word idhoni, you recognize that word - from which we get our English word hedonism or hedonist. It’s a word that came to be used for the pleasure, the desire of all the senses. Eventually, it came to describe the desire or the cravings of the heart. And so, get the picture that James is painting for us here. For all of us who are believers, there are still within us, growing out of that unredeemed part of us, strong desires, cravings that are continually assaulting our souls, constantly. Sort of like a Roman 7 situation.
Those cravings may be for position, they may be for power, for influence, for peace, for security, for safety, to be married, not to be married, to have children, not to have children - any number of strong desires, to be liked, to be accepted, sexual pleasure - any number of strong desires that could be resident within our hearts. But that’s what he’s describing. Those strong cravings that are attached to our unredeemed self, the flesh that still resides in us even though we’re new persons in Christ. We still retain the flesh, and attached to that are these cravings. They assault our souls constantly, regularly, continually.
According to James 1:14, they lead us into temptation. And according to James 4:1, they lie behind every sinful conflict. It’s very important to understand that when you’re involved in a quarrel - or when I’m in a quarrel, when we’re in an argument or fight with someone else - the issue, the true source of the conflict, is not really the issue we’re arguing. It isn’t the person in the argument. The problem is us, the cravings of our hearts. That’s what James is putting his finger on.
James pictures here the cravings of our hearts like a mighty army inside of us, ready at any moment’s notice to declare war against anybody who stands in the way of our getting whatever it is that we’ve set our hearts upon. As I said last time, every time you find yourself in a quarrel, in an argument, in a verbal war, pause and ask yourself the question: what self-centered craving am I trying to protect by engaging in this argument? Because that’s what it always comes back to.
Now, as we continue to look at what James teaches us here, James is still helping us to see the true source of our conflict. But notice with me the progression of his argument. Verse 1, he makes the point that self-seeking desires lie behind every conflict, behind every quarrel. And then in verse 2, he illustrates exactly how those desires produce quarrels and arguments. So we have the illustration here. He’s told us that it is these desires that produce them. Now in verse 2, he’s going to give us a couple of illustrations to help us see how that actually takes place, how that actually happens - the course it takes.
Illustration number 1 is found at the beginning of verse 2: “You lust and do not have.” See the word lust? We’ve encountered this word before. It’s a verb here - the verb form epithimeo, and the noun form is epithimia. And so, this word is a synonym, as we said last time, for the word idhoni - pleasure, translated pleasure. They’re used together and synonymously here. The word lust simply means to crave, to have strong desire, to set your heart on something.
So, what is the relationship now between lust and pleasure? Well, here it is: lust is the craving unfulfilled. Lust is the craving unfulfilled. Pleasure is the craving satisfied. The craving satisfied. And so, he says, “You crave and you do not have.”
You know, there are profound lessons about God’s moral universe in that statement. God, in His great love, usually does not allow all our cravings - all of our desires - to be fulfilled. And He graciously insulates us. But even when they are fulfilled, they never, never fully satisfy. You see, our lives are crowded with discarded pleasures. Before we enjoyed them, each one promised to bring true, lasting satisfaction. If I only have that, if I only experience that.
But instead, it only created a greater appetite for more, when you get it. It’s like the stranded, deserted man dying of thirst, imagining that the salt water he drinks is truly satisfying his thirst when, in reality, it’s only creating this greater appetite for what truly satisfies.
James writes, you lust, you crave and do not have. Now watch what he says next: "So you murder." What? I mean, isn't that a tad too much, over the top? Those are, by design, words intended to shock us. Remember, he's writing to Christians.
There are those who believe that there were actually murders going on in the churches to which James wrote, but I don't believe that. I think, really, James wants us to realize how evil our desires and the conflicts that they cause really are, and he wants us to know the seriousness of it. See, we're tempted to sort of dismiss them as unimportant, to assume that quarrels and fights are really not that big of a deal, but James is warning us of where our sinful desires can lead us if we allow them - pardon me - to run unrestrained.
John Blanchard, in his commentary, writes, and I quote: "Unbridled, selfish passion knows no limits. It will do anything to achieve its ends. Never underestimate the power of human desire." Never underestimate the power of human desire. You want an illustration of that? I'm not going to give you an everyday life illustration. I'm just going to give biblical illustrations. It's the best illustrations, really. The two greatest illustrations, look in the Old Testament.
The first one, of course, and the most common one, being David. David. In 2 Samuel 11, David wanted more than anything else to be with Bathsheba. And he worked it out for it to happen. And then he realized that she was pregnant. To cover the deed, he decides to manipulate Uriah, his faithful, mighty man, to go to his home so that perhaps it would be obvious that the baby was by Uriah - appears to be. But Uriah, being an honorable man, refused to go in and dwell with his wife. Because of that, David felt in his own deceived mind that there was only one option left for him to do. And it was to arrange for Uriah to be thrust forward in the battle and all the other troops withdrawn so that he would be struck dead. And it happened exactly that way. Uriah died, as it were, really by David's own hand. It's as if David took a sword and plunged it into Uriah's heart in the sight of God.
Nathan the prophet comes in to David, and he says, "David, you are the man." And he is indicted. Beloved, don't ever underestimate the power of cravings that live in your heart and mind. Never, never ever. If we don't control them by the grace of God, enabled by the Spirit of God, if we don't restrain them by the power of the Spirit, there is no limit to where they will go to satisfy themselves. Beware.
Another example, of course, would be the unbelievers, Ahab and Jezebel. One example from each. Ahab desperately wanted Naboth's vineyard, which was nearby his palace, and like the weak man that he was, he pouted until his wicked wife, Jezebel, said, don't you worry, honey, I'll get it for you. She arranged for false accusations to be leveled against Naboth, and for him to be stoned to death because they wanted that vineyard - cravings.
Don't you for a moment imagine that things have changed today, beloved. Our sinful desires, left unchecked, can go to the most extreme measures to satisfy themselves. "I want my way, my cravings satisfied." Our sinful desires, left unchecked, can indeed go to the most extreme measures to satisfy themselves.
While it's true that our sinful desires can lead to actual murder, as with David, I believe James here has in mind - as most commentators believe - a metaphorical use of the word murder here. In other words, it's not that the people in the congregations James wrote to were actually killing each other. Instead, it was a metaphor for something else that was going on.
Turn back to Matthew 5. You remember the words of our Lord, Matthew 5:21, as He gives His famous Sermon on the Mount, explaining the law of God. He doesn't repeal the law of God; He explains it, He interprets it properly, in a profound, deep, profound way. Look at verse 21, Matthew 5:21. "You have heard that the ancients were told, 'You shall not commit murder,' and whoever murders shall be guilty before the court." Guilty of what? Guilty of death, the death penalty. Verse 22: "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court." In other words, worthy of the death penalty. That's what He's saying. "And whoever says to his brother, 'Rekha,' shall be guilty before the Sanhedrin. Whoever says, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell."
Now Jesus isn't giving really different levels here of offenses. He's just saying this: that angry, derogatory words, name-calling, hatred in the hearts are, before the throne of God, the moral equivalent of murder. They’re potential murder because it's the same feeling, the same expression of hatred that expresses itself in anger in the heart, hatred in the heart, pouring out words versus taking a knife or a gun and killing another person. He goes to the heart.
And so James is saying in James 4, when we crave and we can't have what we want so badly, our hearts become filled with sinful anger for the person, or against the person, who stands in our way. It's as if we're willing to kill them. We so badly are angry with them and hate them, and given time and opportunity and circumstances, we might end up there if we're not careful. It starts with lust, that craving for something, but then you don't get it, and since you don't get it, you hate the person who's denying it from you, so you commit mental murder - hatred.
You covet, you strive for what you want, but you can't obtain it, so you fight and quarrel, and still, you're without it, without what you want, because you're independent and you haven't prayed. That's what James is saying.
In verse 2, he gives a second illustration. He says, "You are envious and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel." He's making the same basic point here as the previous phrase, but there's a progression. Instead of just anger and hatred in the heart, now anger erupts in fighting, in actual fighting and quarreling. We crave something we don't have, and somebody's in our way of getting it. The first thing that happens is this anger, this hatred in the heart, the moral equivalent of murder that occurs in the heart, and then it explodes into the relationship in quarreling, fighting, arguing, shouting, when we don't get what we want.
Don't miss the big point that James is making here. All human conflict, whether a verbal argument between family members or friends, whether physical violence or murder or wars between nations, all human conflict can be traced back to one common source: the unmet cravings of our sinful hearts for what we want so badly.
Now, the rest of verse 2 and in verse 3, James is still here helping us to identify and understand the true source of quarrels. He's made it clear that the source is these unfulfilled desires, but that raises an immediate question: Why are they unfulfilled? Why are these desires not satisfied? Well, James helps us by identifying two reasons that these desires often are not met, they are not satisfied, and the first reason is, he tells us, it's because we don't ask. Verse 2: "You do not have, because you do not ask."
Edmund Hebert, in his commentary on James, writes this concerning this portion, and I quote: "Instead of turning to God as the giver of every good and perfect gift, we attempt to satisfy our gnawing wants through our own efforts." Plain and simple.
Now, we just don't ask. Let me be quick to say, this doesn't mean that these people weren't praying at all. It's just that they weren't praying and asking God about these particular cravings. Usually, we know that it wouldn't be right to ask God for these things that we're going to consume on our own pleasures. Instead, what do we do? We scheme, we plan, we sulk when we don't get it, and we get angry with the person who stands in the way.
Compare that with Jesus' promise in Matthew 7:7: "Ask, and it will be given; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be open to you." In other words, everything that is good and right for us, everything that is aligned with the will of God for us - when we ask, God responds.
But there's a second reason that these desires are often not fulfilled. Not only do we not ask, but, in verse three, we don't ask with the right motive. We don’t ask with the right motive. You ask and do not receive. Sometimes we are so clueless that we do ask God for things we want that are fully intended just to satisfy these sinful cravings in our hearts, but we don't receive what we ask for. Why? Because you ask with wrong motives, he says. Literally, in the Greek text, you ask kakos - badly, wrongly. And then he goes on to explain why badly. The next phrase explains it: you ask badly so that you may spend it on your idhoni, pleasures.
The Greek word translated "spend," dapanao is the Greek word, in this context implies to spend recklessly - to spend with abandon. The same word is used of the prodigal son in Luke 15, where it says he spent everything recklessly, with reckless abandon. In other words, you ask so that you may spend with reckless abandon on your pleasures. Idhoni - same word, verse one. And we often are unaware when this happens. We can see it sometimes in the lives of others, but in our own hearts, we don't even see when we're asking God for things that are simply to satisfy our own sinful cravings, sinful hearts. Often our motives are skewed, they're tainted, they're tarnished. We ask God for something, and our motive to get that thing is to simply satisfy our sinful desire.
Here's an example. We could pray that our service in the church would be effective, that we'd be successful. Seems like a worthy thing, doesn't it? But we could pray for our service in the church to be effective and successful with the wrong motive. We can pray it, with a primary motive behind all of this being, the increase and building up of our own reputation so we can get the credit. As one writer of old puts it, and I quote: "Prayer is not asking God for what we want; it's asking God for what He wants."
As you think about the fact that our pleasures, our desires, are what lie behind our temptations, our arguments, our quarrels, our conflict in life, it reminds you that our greatest and most compelling need is that our desires would be changed. Isn't that right? That our desires would be changed. Isn't that right? What Jonathan Edwards called our affections - that our affections would be changed to love and crave holy things, good things, God-honoring things, things that God delights in. We need to pray that God will change our desires, that first and foremost, above everything else, we would desire God, that we would find our ultimate joy in Him, that He is indeed our exceeding joy. And we must pray, then, that God would help us to see how every pleasure that we seek outside of God never really satisfies.
I read the following illustration about an intriguing etymological experiment in Annie Dillard's book, The Writing Life. In the experiment, a male butterfly was placed in an enclosure with a living female butterfly of his own species, along with a painted cardboard cutout one. This experiment then showed that a male butterfly - it's incredible - will ignore a living female butterfly of his own species in favor of a painted cardboard one if the cardboard one is bigger than he is, bigger than any female butterfly could ever be.
The male butterfly frantically - we read in that illustration or the experiment - tried to get the attention of the cardboard piece. Nearby, the real living female butterfly opened and closed her wings in vain. She couldn't get his attention. I thought to myself, this isn't just a problem for butterflies. This is a profound illustration of human nature, male and female. We spend our lives chasing cardboard pleasures all the time, ignoring the real thing: pleasure that's found in God Himself.
You know the prophet Jeremiah? I'll close with this tonight and we'll pick up where we left off next Lord's Day, but I want to close with this tonight. Turn with me back to Jeremiah 2. We need to see this before we move on further in our text. The prophet Jeremiah confronts this problem in powerful language. Jeremiah 2, look at verse 9: "’Therefore I will yet contend with you’, declares Yahweh." Oh boy, that statement should make you shake, should make you quiver. The all-powerful God, Yahweh, the I Am, He says, "I will contend with you." Oh boy.
And the word "contend" here is a Hebrew word that literally means a court case. He's saying, I've got a court case against you. I'm the plaintiff, and I'm presenting a complaint against you, Israel. This is God speaking. I have a court case against you. I have a complaint I want to present in court.
And He says, "’And with your sons' sons I will contend. For cross to the coastlands of Kittim and see, And send to Kedar and perceive closely.’" In other words, check the nations around you, the south, and see if there has been such a thing as this: "’Has a nation changed gods though they were not gods? But My people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.’"
Wow. My people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Verse 12: "’Be appalled, O heavens, at this. And be horribly afraid, be very devastated,’ declares Yahweh." He says, listen, when the skies hear this, they should shut up. They should absolutely be shaken to their foundation at what I'm about to say. And what is He about to say?
Verse 13: "’For My people,’" - and this is the indictment - "’have done two evils:’” Two evils. “‘They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water."
What a graphic picture of the human heart. Leaving living fountains of fresh, cool water to hew out our own cisterns that don't even hold water. Laboring for the food that perishes.
Let me ask you this evening, as we conclude tonight, this is between you and God, as I had to wrestle with this in preparation. This is one of the things where you say, "Search me, O God, and know my heart." Here's my question, and please take time to reflect on this with a judgment-day honesty before God: Is there anything that gives you more pleasure than God? Is there anything that gives you more pleasure than God? Is there anything in your life that gives you more pleasure than God Himself?
Then whatever it is has become to you your own cistern, hewn out, that will never satisfy. And that thing, that thing right now in your mind that came to your mind as a result of this question - that thing has become to you an idol of the heart. And it will never satisfy. It will never satisfy. Listen, you are pursuing a cardboard reality instead of the real thing. David says, God, God, in your presence is fullness of joy, and it’s your right hand where we find pleasures forever. Everything else is a cardboard dream.
Whom have I in heaven but you? Oh God, on earth I desire none beside you. You are everything. You are my pleasure. You are my satisfaction. You are my everything, Lord. Forgive me for those idols. Forgive me for this idol and name it. Repent of it.
If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, who can stand? But there is forgiveness with you, that you may be feared. He is by nature forgiving. And again, I say to any here this evening, repeating the same message as this morning, if you're outside of Christ and chasing after pleasures - the pleasures of this world and food that perishes, the temporal pleasures of this world - listen, sin will bring in it and with it great pleasure, but it is short-lived, it is temporary, and it is deadly. Turn to the living fountain. Turn to Him who alone satisfies the deepest longing of the soul and live.
Living for pleasure, however, is absolutely deadly. It's deadly to the individual soul, deadly to one's relationship to God. And as we discovered last Lord's Day, looking at James 4, beginning to look at James 4, it is devastating. The self-seeking pursuit of pleasure is really devastating on all of our relationships. Because as we pursue pleasure, our pursuit of pleasure puts us up against, and in conflict with, those around us - people around us, people in our lives.
Now, before we move on and pick up where we left off as we talk about pleasure, I thought it important for us, before we move on, to look at James 4, it's important that we take notice of some very important distinctions. So, I want to make some careful distinctions so that there is no confusion on this subject of pleasures and rather that we can have clarity.
The Bible does not say that pleasure in and of itself is sinful, necessarily. In fact, we're told that God pursues His own pleasure. In Psalm 149:4, we read, "Yahweh takes pleasure in His people." In fact, Scripture makes it clear that there are legitimate pleasures that have been given to man by God. God is gracious that He's given us pleasures. Psalm 37:4, "Delight yourself in Yahweh, and He will give you the desire of your heart."
We see our world filled with things in which we can find legitimate pleasure. Scripture tells us, for example, food and times of feasting are one of those pleasures - and we all enjoy that, don't we? Different types of cuisine, and, you know, you eat something you like, you take photos, and you take photos before you eat it, and then you dig into it. Then you show others, and you tell them about the flavor, the explosion of flavor, and everybody is exchanging pictures about food - and so it is pleasure.
You remember what Paul told Timothy, and that is that all things are given for our, what? Enjoyment. And if we receive those things with thanksgiving - a specific reference to food - there in his first letter to Timothy, well, we enjoy feasting, and we take pleasure in that, and we thank God for the gift of taste. We don't have to eat, as I often say, the same thing every day just simply to survive. He's given us the pleasure of taste. That was part of Israel's world - feasting, food. It's a part of our world. That's a good thing. That's a legitimate pleasure.
We enjoy other things. We enjoy family. We enjoy friendships. We enjoy children. We enjoy different things. We enjoy traveling and exploring different parts of the world, and all of those things are good and legitimate pleasures. In fact, Scripture tells us that heaven itself will be a place of consummate pleasure. We will find our pleasure - our ultimate pleasure, of course - in God Himself. As Psalm 16:11 reminds us: "In your presence there is,’ what? “fullness of joy; in your right hand there are pleasures," pleasures, plural, "forever."
Well, C.S. Lewis understood this reality. In his book, Screwtape Letters, most of us are, I trust, familiar with it, in this particular book, Lewis writes as if it is a series of letters written by an older, more experienced demon to his young apprentice named Wormwood. Listen to what C.S. Lewis has this older, more experienced demon write to Wormwood, his younger apprentice: "Never forget that when we are dealing with any pleasure in its healthy and normal and satisfying form, we are, in a sense, on the enemy's ground. I know we have won many a soul through pleasure. All the same, it is His" - capital H, reference to God - "it is His invention, not ours. He made the pleasures. All our research so far has not enabled us to produce one.” Now watch this. “All we could do is to encourage the humans to take the pleasures which our enemy" - in this case God - "has produced at times or in ways or in degrees which He has forbidden. Hence, we always try to work away from the natural condition of any pleasure to that which is least natural, as ever-increasing craving for an ever-diminishing pleasure is the formula."
Those are incredibly insightful words. That's exactly right. True and legitimate pleasure comes to us from God, our good and gracious God. And we are to enjoy those legitimate pleasures in this created world always, always, to use Augustine's expression, “with an eye to God's glory.”
He said that when we enjoy the things around us, Augustine said, we are always to enjoy those things with an eye to the glory of God - always. And if we enjoy those things, anytime we enjoy those things without an eye to God's glory, then those things, beloved, become idols to us. They become to us idols. We are ultimately then to seek our true pleasure, our ultimate pleasure, in our God.
Now, just as there are legitimate pleasures that God has given us as good gifts, as expressions of His love and goodness to us, well, there are also, the Scripture tells us, sinful pleasures - pleasures that are opposed to God. Now the question is, when is pleasure sinful? Well, let me share with us three answers to that question. When is pleasure sinful? When is it sinful?
First of all, pleasure is sinful when legitimate pleasure - God-given pleasure - becomes more important to us than God. When legitimate pleasure, God-given pleasure, becomes more important to us than God, then it becomes sinful pleasure. When a God-given pleasure becomes more important to us than God.
Listen to 2 Timothy 3:4. Paul, in describing to Timothy the last days, he says, "Men shall be lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God." What an indictment. When pleasure - whether sinful pleasure, certainly, but let's talk for a moment about legitimate pleasure - when legitimate pleasure becomes more important to us, and we love it more, we love it rather than God, then that pleasure has become sinful. When this happens, even a legitimate pleasure, a God-given pleasure, can become an idol of the heart. That's number one.
Number two, pleasure is sinful when legitimate pleasure is pursued in excess. When legitimate pleasure is pursued in excess. It’s an inordinate giving of oneself to that pleasure. As I mentioned before, food and feasting is a wonderful gift from God - that’s a good thing. And while the Scripture commends that and encourages us to enjoy this good gift, at the same time, the same Scripture forbids gluttony. So, a legitimate pleasure in excess can become sinful.
A third way pleasure is sinful - and this is an obvious one - is when Scripture forbids that pleasure, when it is indeed a forbidden pleasure. For example, God has given us the wonderful gift of physical intimacy in marriage, but intimacy - physical intimacy before marriage or outside of marriage - is forbidden by Scripture. That pleasure is a sinful pleasure.
And by the way, let me say generally about sinful pleasure, whatever it is, make no mistake, that sin often brings great short-term pleasure. Sin brings short-term pleasure - great short-term pleasure.
I’m reminded of this point in Hebrews 11:25, where we’re told that Moses chose to endure ill-treatment with the people of God rather than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. So sin brings with it pleasure - sometimes and oftentimes great pleasure. There’s pleasure in sin, but it is short-lived, it is temporal, and it is deadly. Deadly.
Sin, for a short time, can be very pleasurable, very satisfying, but it’s passing, short-lived, and it never really satisfies. It promises what it can’t deliver - will never deliver. Eighteenth-century scholar Samuel Johnson said this, and I quote: "Of all that hath tried this selfish experiment, let one come forth and say that he has succeeded. He that hath made gold his idol - has it satisfied him? He that hath toiled in the fields of ambition - has he been repaid? He that hath ransacked every theater of sensual enjoyment - is he content? And any answer in the affirmative? Not one. Not one.”
Another author said, and I quote: "The best cure for hedonism is the attempt to practice it. Someone gives themselves to pleasure, and they soon find that it is a cardboard dream." It never satisfies. It simply creates an appetite for more and more and more. And the more you try to be satisfied, the more you feel dissatisfied - chasing after a mirage in the desert. In fact, if you live to satisfy your cravings as a goal of your life, you are not only living in rebellion against your Creator, but the Scripture says you are a slave to those cravings. Titus 3:3, speaking of unbelievers, describes them as being “enslaved to various lusts and pleasures.”
You think you’re free. You’re actually a slave, he says, to those lusts and pleasures. Jewish rabbis put it this way, speaking of those cravings of the heart, and I quote: "The evil impulse is first a wanderer who passes by, then a guest, and finally master of the house who gives order."
Now, it’s these sinful pleasures that James is referring to in chapter 4. James particularly has in mind those sinful pleasures.
Where do these cravings for sinful pleasures come from? Well, as we saw last time, they come from our fallenness, our flesh, the indwelling sin that remains - the corruption from that part of us that is yet not redeemed, unredeemed.
These cravings arrive and arise. How do they affect us? Well, those who live to satisfy their cravings - and this is very important for us to understand - those who live to satisfy their cravings are internally in this constant state of warfare. Look at verse 1: "Your pleasures that wage war in your members." Members - a reference to the physical and mental elements of the body, which contain man’s fallen flesh and humanness. He’s saying within you rages this war, this fight, this battle. For the person who lives to satisfy his cravings has a war within his own heart. There’s this battle raging. That’s the same thing Peter said in 1 Peter 2:11, where he speaks of those cravings that “wage war against the soul.”
Now, beloved, understand this: where a person is living to satisfy their cravings, there is an internal war that is constantly raging - constantly. And when there’s conflict with others, it is simply the spilling over, if you will, of that internal war that already exists in their own hearts. That’s what James is saying here. Notice verse 1 again: the source of the wars and battles among you, that is, among you people, is the cravings within each of you, he’s saying.
Now, beloved, take heed how you hear this point because this is absolutely critical to understand. When a person is at war with others, when a person is known for arguments and quarreling and fighting, that expression of fighting is merely the overflow of the war within their own hearts, James is saying. So these cravings, these lusts, these desires for pleasure of various kinds are the driving force - not only, as we found back in chapter 1 of James, behind temptation, behind the pirasmos (the temptation) - but they’re also the source of every quarrel, every argument that we ever have with others.
This is what we began to learn from James last Lord’s Day. And the reason is, it’s very important for us to understand the nature of the pleasure that James is describing here. There are good and legitimate pleasures, and there are sinful pleasures. Now, we’re talking here about sinful pleasures; James is talking about sinful pleasures.
Now follow along as I remind us of the flow of his argument in verse 1. It’s hard to see on the surface the flow of the theme that ties that paragraph together, but it is a paragraph, and there is a common theme. The common theme is introduced to us in verse 1: “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you?” So the issue is conflict, and you see it tied in with worldliness a little bit later. But that’s the theme that lies behind this paragraph.
What we learn in this paragraph is that there are very specific steps that you and I must take in order to deal with interpersonal conflict. In fact, this passage, this paragraph, contains several crucial practical steps for dealing with conflict in our lives. The first one comes in the first three verses. And as we introduced it last Lord’s Day, here it is again: James wants us to identify the true source of the conflict. Identify the true source.
You see, before you and I can legitimately, adequately deal with the conflict in our lives, we must understand where it comes from. What’s the source? What’s the origin?Verse 1: “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you?” Now, the second part of the verse, as we said last time, we could legitimately convert it to a statement of fact. It’s not really a question, you know, seeking information, but rather it’s a statement of fact put in the form of a question. James, in other words, is saying: the source of the quarrels and conflicts among you is your pleasures. You see, the pursuit of sinful pleasures, or our efforts to satisfy the sinful cravings of the heart, is what creates quarrels, arguments, conflict.
As we saw last time, this word pleasures, translated the Greek word idhoni, you recognize that word - from which we get our English word hedonism or hedonist. It’s a word that came to be used for the pleasure, the desire of all the senses. Eventually, it came to describe the desire or the cravings of the heart. And so, get the picture that James is painting for us here. For all of us who are believers, there are still within us, growing out of that unredeemed part of us, strong desires, cravings that are continually assaulting our souls, constantly. Sort of like a Roman 7 situation.
Those cravings may be for position, they may be for power, for influence, for peace, for security, for safety, to be married, not to be married, to have children, not to have children - any number of strong desires, to be liked, to be accepted, sexual pleasure - any number of strong desires that could be resident within our hearts. But that’s what he’s describing. Those strong cravings that are attached to our unredeemed self, the flesh that still resides in us even though we’re new persons in Christ. We still retain the flesh, and attached to that are these cravings. They assault our souls constantly, regularly, continually.
According to James 1:14, they lead us into temptation. And according to James 4:1, they lie behind every sinful conflict. It’s very important to understand that when you’re involved in a quarrel - or when I’m in a quarrel, when we’re in an argument or fight with someone else - the issue, the true source of the conflict, is not really the issue we’re arguing. It isn’t the person in the argument. The problem is us, the cravings of our hearts. That’s what James is putting his finger on.
James pictures here the cravings of our hearts like a mighty army inside of us, ready at any moment’s notice to declare war against anybody who stands in the way of our getting whatever it is that we’ve set our hearts upon. As I said last time, every time you find yourself in a quarrel, in an argument, in a verbal war, pause and ask yourself the question: what self-centered craving am I trying to protect by engaging in this argument? Because that’s what it always comes back to.
Now, as we continue to look at what James teaches us here, James is still helping us to see the true source of our conflict. But notice with me the progression of his argument. Verse 1, he makes the point that self-seeking desires lie behind every conflict, behind every quarrel. And then in verse 2, he illustrates exactly how those desires produce quarrels and arguments. So we have the illustration here. He’s told us that it is these desires that produce them. Now in verse 2, he’s going to give us a couple of illustrations to help us see how that actually takes place, how that actually happens - the course it takes.
Illustration number 1 is found at the beginning of verse 2: “You lust and do not have.” See the word lust? We’ve encountered this word before. It’s a verb here - the verb form epithimeo, and the noun form is epithimia. And so, this word is a synonym, as we said last time, for the word idhoni - pleasure, translated pleasure. They’re used together and synonymously here. The word lust simply means to crave, to have strong desire, to set your heart on something.
So, what is the relationship now between lust and pleasure? Well, here it is: lust is the craving unfulfilled. Lust is the craving unfulfilled. Pleasure is the craving satisfied. The craving satisfied. And so, he says, “You crave and you do not have.”
You know, there are profound lessons about God’s moral universe in that statement. God, in His great love, usually does not allow all our cravings - all of our desires - to be fulfilled. And He graciously insulates us. But even when they are fulfilled, they never, never fully satisfy. You see, our lives are crowded with discarded pleasures. Before we enjoyed them, each one promised to bring true, lasting satisfaction. If I only have that, if I only experience that.
But instead, it only created a greater appetite for more, when you get it. It’s like the stranded, deserted man dying of thirst, imagining that the salt water he drinks is truly satisfying his thirst when, in reality, it’s only creating this greater appetite for what truly satisfies.
James writes, you lust, you crave and do not have. Now watch what he says next: "So you murder." What? I mean, isn't that a tad too much, over the top? Those are, by design, words intended to shock us. Remember, he's writing to Christians.
There are those who believe that there were actually murders going on in the churches to which James wrote, but I don't believe that. I think, really, James wants us to realize how evil our desires and the conflicts that they cause really are, and he wants us to know the seriousness of it. See, we're tempted to sort of dismiss them as unimportant, to assume that quarrels and fights are really not that big of a deal, but James is warning us of where our sinful desires can lead us if we allow them - pardon me - to run unrestrained.
John Blanchard, in his commentary, writes, and I quote: "Unbridled, selfish passion knows no limits. It will do anything to achieve its ends. Never underestimate the power of human desire." Never underestimate the power of human desire. You want an illustration of that? I'm not going to give you an everyday life illustration. I'm just going to give biblical illustrations. It's the best illustrations, really. The two greatest illustrations, look in the Old Testament.
The first one, of course, and the most common one, being David. David. In 2 Samuel 11, David wanted more than anything else to be with Bathsheba. And he worked it out for it to happen. And then he realized that she was pregnant. To cover the deed, he decides to manipulate Uriah, his faithful, mighty man, to go to his home so that perhaps it would be obvious that the baby was by Uriah - appears to be. But Uriah, being an honorable man, refused to go in and dwell with his wife. Because of that, David felt in his own deceived mind that there was only one option left for him to do. And it was to arrange for Uriah to be thrust forward in the battle and all the other troops withdrawn so that he would be struck dead. And it happened exactly that way. Uriah died, as it were, really by David's own hand. It's as if David took a sword and plunged it into Uriah's heart in the sight of God.
Nathan the prophet comes in to David, and he says, "David, you are the man." And he is indicted. Beloved, don't ever underestimate the power of cravings that live in your heart and mind. Never, never ever. If we don't control them by the grace of God, enabled by the Spirit of God, if we don't restrain them by the power of the Spirit, there is no limit to where they will go to satisfy themselves. Beware.
Another example, of course, would be the unbelievers, Ahab and Jezebel. One example from each. Ahab desperately wanted Naboth's vineyard, which was nearby his palace, and like the weak man that he was, he pouted until his wicked wife, Jezebel, said, don't you worry, honey, I'll get it for you. She arranged for false accusations to be leveled against Naboth, and for him to be stoned to death because they wanted that vineyard - cravings.
Don't you for a moment imagine that things have changed today, beloved. Our sinful desires, left unchecked, can go to the most extreme measures to satisfy themselves. "I want my way, my cravings satisfied." Our sinful desires, left unchecked, can indeed go to the most extreme measures to satisfy themselves.
While it's true that our sinful desires can lead to actual murder, as with David, I believe James here has in mind - as most commentators believe - a metaphorical use of the word murder here. In other words, it's not that the people in the congregations James wrote to were actually killing each other. Instead, it was a metaphor for something else that was going on.
Turn back to Matthew 5. You remember the words of our Lord, Matthew 5:21, as He gives His famous Sermon on the Mount, explaining the law of God. He doesn't repeal the law of God; He explains it, He interprets it properly, in a profound, deep, profound way. Look at verse 21, Matthew 5:21. "You have heard that the ancients were told, 'You shall not commit murder,' and whoever murders shall be guilty before the court." Guilty of what? Guilty of death, the death penalty. Verse 22: "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court." In other words, worthy of the death penalty. That's what He's saying. "And whoever says to his brother, 'Rekha,' shall be guilty before the Sanhedrin. Whoever says, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell."
Now Jesus isn't giving really different levels here of offenses. He's just saying this: that angry, derogatory words, name-calling, hatred in the hearts are, before the throne of God, the moral equivalent of murder. They’re potential murder because it's the same feeling, the same expression of hatred that expresses itself in anger in the heart, hatred in the heart, pouring out words versus taking a knife or a gun and killing another person. He goes to the heart.
And so James is saying in James 4, when we crave and we can't have what we want so badly, our hearts become filled with sinful anger for the person, or against the person, who stands in our way. It's as if we're willing to kill them. We so badly are angry with them and hate them, and given time and opportunity and circumstances, we might end up there if we're not careful. It starts with lust, that craving for something, but then you don't get it, and since you don't get it, you hate the person who's denying it from you, so you commit mental murder - hatred.
You covet, you strive for what you want, but you can't obtain it, so you fight and quarrel, and still, you're without it, without what you want, because you're independent and you haven't prayed. That's what James is saying.
In verse 2, he gives a second illustration. He says, "You are envious and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel." He's making the same basic point here as the previous phrase, but there's a progression. Instead of just anger and hatred in the heart, now anger erupts in fighting, in actual fighting and quarreling. We crave something we don't have, and somebody's in our way of getting it. The first thing that happens is this anger, this hatred in the heart, the moral equivalent of murder that occurs in the heart, and then it explodes into the relationship in quarreling, fighting, arguing, shouting, when we don't get what we want.
Don't miss the big point that James is making here. All human conflict, whether a verbal argument between family members or friends, whether physical violence or murder or wars between nations, all human conflict can be traced back to one common source: the unmet cravings of our sinful hearts for what we want so badly.
Now, the rest of verse 2 and in verse 3, James is still here helping us to identify and understand the true source of quarrels. He's made it clear that the source is these unfulfilled desires, but that raises an immediate question: Why are they unfulfilled? Why are these desires not satisfied? Well, James helps us by identifying two reasons that these desires often are not met, they are not satisfied, and the first reason is, he tells us, it's because we don't ask. Verse 2: "You do not have, because you do not ask."
Edmund Hebert, in his commentary on James, writes this concerning this portion, and I quote: "Instead of turning to God as the giver of every good and perfect gift, we attempt to satisfy our gnawing wants through our own efforts." Plain and simple.
Now, we just don't ask. Let me be quick to say, this doesn't mean that these people weren't praying at all. It's just that they weren't praying and asking God about these particular cravings. Usually, we know that it wouldn't be right to ask God for these things that we're going to consume on our own pleasures. Instead, what do we do? We scheme, we plan, we sulk when we don't get it, and we get angry with the person who stands in the way.
Compare that with Jesus' promise in Matthew 7:7: "Ask, and it will be given; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be open to you." In other words, everything that is good and right for us, everything that is aligned with the will of God for us - when we ask, God responds.
But there's a second reason that these desires are often not fulfilled. Not only do we not ask, but, in verse three, we don't ask with the right motive. We don’t ask with the right motive. You ask and do not receive. Sometimes we are so clueless that we do ask God for things we want that are fully intended just to satisfy these sinful cravings in our hearts, but we don't receive what we ask for. Why? Because you ask with wrong motives, he says. Literally, in the Greek text, you ask kakos - badly, wrongly. And then he goes on to explain why badly. The next phrase explains it: you ask badly so that you may spend it on your idhoni, pleasures.
The Greek word translated "spend," dapanao is the Greek word, in this context implies to spend recklessly - to spend with abandon. The same word is used of the prodigal son in Luke 15, where it says he spent everything recklessly, with reckless abandon. In other words, you ask so that you may spend with reckless abandon on your pleasures. Idhoni - same word, verse one. And we often are unaware when this happens. We can see it sometimes in the lives of others, but in our own hearts, we don't even see when we're asking God for things that are simply to satisfy our own sinful cravings, sinful hearts. Often our motives are skewed, they're tainted, they're tarnished. We ask God for something, and our motive to get that thing is to simply satisfy our sinful desire.
Here's an example. We could pray that our service in the church would be effective, that we'd be successful. Seems like a worthy thing, doesn't it? But we could pray for our service in the church to be effective and successful with the wrong motive. We can pray it, with a primary motive behind all of this being, the increase and building up of our own reputation so we can get the credit. As one writer of old puts it, and I quote: "Prayer is not asking God for what we want; it's asking God for what He wants."
As you think about the fact that our pleasures, our desires, are what lie behind our temptations, our arguments, our quarrels, our conflict in life, it reminds you that our greatest and most compelling need is that our desires would be changed. Isn't that right? That our desires would be changed. Isn't that right? What Jonathan Edwards called our affections - that our affections would be changed to love and crave holy things, good things, God-honoring things, things that God delights in. We need to pray that God will change our desires, that first and foremost, above everything else, we would desire God, that we would find our ultimate joy in Him, that He is indeed our exceeding joy. And we must pray, then, that God would help us to see how every pleasure that we seek outside of God never really satisfies.
I read the following illustration about an intriguing etymological experiment in Annie Dillard's book, The Writing Life. In the experiment, a male butterfly was placed in an enclosure with a living female butterfly of his own species, along with a painted cardboard cutout one. This experiment then showed that a male butterfly - it's incredible - will ignore a living female butterfly of his own species in favor of a painted cardboard one if the cardboard one is bigger than he is, bigger than any female butterfly could ever be.
The male butterfly frantically - we read in that illustration or the experiment - tried to get the attention of the cardboard piece. Nearby, the real living female butterfly opened and closed her wings in vain. She couldn't get his attention. I thought to myself, this isn't just a problem for butterflies. This is a profound illustration of human nature, male and female. We spend our lives chasing cardboard pleasures all the time, ignoring the real thing: pleasure that's found in God Himself.
You know the prophet Jeremiah? I'll close with this tonight and we'll pick up where we left off next Lord's Day, but I want to close with this tonight. Turn with me back to Jeremiah 2. We need to see this before we move on further in our text. The prophet Jeremiah confronts this problem in powerful language. Jeremiah 2, look at verse 9: "’Therefore I will yet contend with you’, declares Yahweh." Oh boy, that statement should make you shake, should make you quiver. The all-powerful God, Yahweh, the I Am, He says, "I will contend with you." Oh boy.
And the word "contend" here is a Hebrew word that literally means a court case. He's saying, I've got a court case against you. I'm the plaintiff, and I'm presenting a complaint against you, Israel. This is God speaking. I have a court case against you. I have a complaint I want to present in court.
And He says, "’And with your sons' sons I will contend. For cross to the coastlands of Kittim and see, And send to Kedar and perceive closely.’" In other words, check the nations around you, the south, and see if there has been such a thing as this: "’Has a nation changed gods though they were not gods? But My people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.’"
Wow. My people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Verse 12: "’Be appalled, O heavens, at this. And be horribly afraid, be very devastated,’ declares Yahweh." He says, listen, when the skies hear this, they should shut up. They should absolutely be shaken to their foundation at what I'm about to say. And what is He about to say?
Verse 13: "’For My people,’" - and this is the indictment - "’have done two evils:’” Two evils. “‘They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water."
What a graphic picture of the human heart. Leaving living fountains of fresh, cool water to hew out our own cisterns that don't even hold water. Laboring for the food that perishes.
Let me ask you this evening, as we conclude tonight, this is between you and God, as I had to wrestle with this in preparation. This is one of the things where you say, "Search me, O God, and know my heart." Here's my question, and please take time to reflect on this with a judgment-day honesty before God: Is there anything that gives you more pleasure than God? Is there anything that gives you more pleasure than God? Is there anything in your life that gives you more pleasure than God Himself?
Then whatever it is has become to you your own cistern, hewn out, that will never satisfy. And that thing, that thing right now in your mind that came to your mind as a result of this question - that thing has become to you an idol of the heart. And it will never satisfy. It will never satisfy. Listen, you are pursuing a cardboard reality instead of the real thing. David says, God, God, in your presence is fullness of joy, and it’s your right hand where we find pleasures forever. Everything else is a cardboard dream.
Whom have I in heaven but you? Oh God, on earth I desire none beside you. You are everything. You are my pleasure. You are my satisfaction. You are my everything, Lord. Forgive me for those idols. Forgive me for this idol and name it. Repent of it.
If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, who can stand? But there is forgiveness with you, that you may be feared. He is by nature forgiving. And again, I say to any here this evening, repeating the same message as this morning, if you're outside of Christ and chasing after pleasures - the pleasures of this world and food that perishes, the temporal pleasures of this world - listen, sin will bring in it and with it great pleasure, but it is short-lived, it is temporary, and it is deadly. Turn to the living fountain. Turn to Him who alone satisfies the deepest longing of the soul and live.
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