Worldliness & Conflict (IV)

This is a transcript. It may contain some inaccuracies.

So we return again this evening to James chapter 4, where James is teaching us how to deal with conflict. How to deal with conflict and how it is connected to worldliness.

If you doubt that conflict is a part of our world and you didn't watch the news or didn't read the newspaper or didn't hear the news, didn't do any of those things. I mean, it's all around us, everywhere. Wars and, really, rumors of wars, conflict and contentions, fighting and threatening. You look at the Middle East, and you see it constantly really on the brink of war, an all-out war. And while the issues are complex there, they go back to Genesis in a strange little plan that Sarah cooked up along with her husband. Nevertheless, I could tell you the true source of the conflict, according to the Word of God, obviously. That's where our authority is from.

It's the same source that lies behind every sinful conflict in our world, whether it's wars between nations or the fight between a husband and his wife and everything else in between. James here tells us exactly what the problem is. He puts his finger on the real issue, and, even better, James tells us not only what the real problem is, but he tells us how to deal with it, how to resolve it, how to resolve the arguing and fighting and warring and quarreling that can be so much a part of our world today—part of our sin-cursed world, fallen world, broken world. I mean, we see it all around us every single day. You and I live in a broken world, in a fallen world, in a sin-cursed world.

This paragraph, as we have seen already together, contains three very practical steps for dealing with conflicts in our lives. What I want to underscore tonight is that all of these three practical steps involve knowledge. They involve knowledge. So often, our problem as believers is our thinking. Our mindset needs to be adjusted. We need our minds renewed by the Spirit. How? Using the Word of God. "Sanctify them by your truth; your Word is truth." We need our minds to be adjusted, realigned. We need our minds to align with the Word of God. We need to think God's thoughts after Him, and that's what James is attempting to do here.

Notice, in fact, how he does it. Just for us to see it very briefly—James, verse 1, he says, "What is the source?" And then he goes on to explain the source of the quarrels and conflicts. Now, in verse 4, he says, "Do you not” – what – “know." Knowledge, right? Don't you know? He's saying, “You ought to know this. You ought to know this. I taught you this, but somehow the truth of it hasn't really gripped your heart. So now let me explain that to you again. This is something you ought to have known, and you know."

And then, in verse 7, he says, In light of all of that, all of that I've just explained, let me give you the application. He goes on through a series of imperatives. The implication is that you and I don't know how we got into the conflicts and quarrels, what the issues are that lie behind it, or how to get out of that situation—how to remove ourselves from our current sinful fighting and arguing and quarreling condition. So we need to learn the path out, and he gives it to us here. He tells us what we ought to know and to apply that.

James' mission in these verses is to explain to us what we need to know about how to deal with conflict. But it's really knowledge—not simply the accumulation of information—but knowledge applied, that we apply to our lives.

So he tells us what we need to know about how to deal with conflict, the three practical steps that set us on the path of resolving the conflicts that are so much a part of our lives. Here they are—three very practical steps.

Now, as you remember, I trust we've already learned one of them, and last time we began to consider the second one. The first one, just by way of reminder, is to identify the true source of conflict, he tells us. So the first step, the first practical step in dealing with conflict and knowing how to resolve conflict and avoid it, is he says, identify the source of the conflict. That's found in the first three verses. You can see that. He says in verse 1, "What is the source… Is not the source your” – hēdonōn – “pleasures, that wage war in your members?"

We've learned together in detail that it's the pursuit of sinful pleasures, or, to put it another way, our efforts to satisfy the sinful cravings of our hearts that create quarrels and arguments. A way to picture it is like this: Within our hearts—within that unredeemed part of us the Bible calls our flesh, that indwelling sin, that remaining corruption, there are these cravings that function like a mighty army crying out for satisfaction and fulfillment.

When someone gets in the way of our fulfilling, our satisfying of those cravings, guess what happens? An argument breaks out. That army expends its energy on that person that stands in their way. I want it. I want it now. I want it badly. That army of cravings declares war against anyone who gets in the way of that satisfaction, whatever it is we have set our hearts upon.
Every time you and I find ourselves in a quarrel, in a fight, in an argument, we should ask ourselves the simple question: What self-centered craving or sinful expectation am I trying to protect by engaging in this argument? Really, that's what it comes down to.

So the first step in overcoming conflict is to identify the real source, the true source behind it. What is it? It's the pursuit of our pleasure. It's something we want, and the other person stands in the way.

We then began to look at the second practical step in dealing with conflict in our lives, and it's this: Not only must we identify the true source, but we must enlarge or magnify the real sin behind the conflict. That's found in verses 4 and 5.

I really skipped a lot of the details that we've covered. This is just a very brief overlook by way of reminder. So, magnify the real sin behind the conflict. What exactly is the real sin that lies behind arguing and fighting and quarreling? Well, it's identified here for us with one Greek word, a key word, ’moichalides’. In English, it is translated "adulteresses." It's the feminine form because it harkens back to the image of the Old Testament, how Israel committed spiritual adultery, turned after other gods, and left the living God.

That's pretty shocking to read, really. James says, "You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world sets himself as an enemy of God."

Now, if you're thinking with me, and I hope you are, your next question should be, Hold on, wait a minute. How did we get from quarreling and arguing to spiritual adultery? How can James say that the real sin behind arguing and quarreling is unfaithfulness to God? Well, that seems on the surface, doesn't it, like a huge illogical leap?

James goes on to explain. Look at verse 4 again: "You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is” – hostility toward God, – “enmity toward God?" Now, remember, he's already identified the source of quarreling as the pursuit of our pleasure, our cravings. Now he's saying that when we live to pursue those pleasures, we are living just like the world around us.

So when we decide to pursue our own pleasures, we declare ourselves, as it were, to be the friends of the world. When we make pleasure the chief aim—remember, when we make pleasure the chief aim of our lives—we become the friend of the world. The word friendship, ‘philia’,  here, is used only here in the New Testament. Its verb form is a word that we're familiar with, "phileo," often rendered "love," to love or to have affection for.

Now, in this context also, this word translated "world," ‘kosmou’, does not mean people, obviously, in this context. Elsewhere, it may have different nuances, but here it doesn't mean people. Rather, it means a system, a value set, a mindset, a way of thinking. It's describing those who are locked into a system of pursuing what? Self-satisfaction, self-enjoyment, self-promotion.

It's all about the self. It's all about me, myself, and I. It's all about my pleasure, my self-promotion, my self-enjoyment, my self-satisfaction—what makes me happy, period. That's what they live for. That's what it's all about. And when you and I become locked into that kind of mindset, we become friends of the world—or, in other words, you've heard this word before—worldly.

Now, this word worldly is a word that is often misunderstood, and so I want to clarify this word worldly or worldliness because, in certain Christian circles, there's a lot of confusion about what it means to be worldly. And so we need to define this word. We need to get a better grasp on the word worldly or worldliness.

The reason I want to spend this time on this word is to clear the debris out so that there'd be no confusion because there are really two dangers in defining worldliness. The first danger is to define it in an aesthetic way, to define it in an aesthetic way.

Let me explain. That's the person who thinks that Christians must completely remove themselves from living in the world. The person who thinks that it's wrong to enjoy even the legitimate pleasures that unbelievers enjoy here in this world.

There are people around us who believe that worldliness is enjoying any of the pleasures of this life that God has given to us, and so worldliness then becomes exactly that for them. You see them disconnect themselves from the culture. You see it in the lifestyles of people like the Amish. You see it in the nunneries and monasteries where they withdraw themselves and live in seclusion in some place away from everybody. It's an aesthetic approach to worldliness when the heart of the problem really is the problem of the heart.

The other misunderstanding of worldliness, however, is to think that it's merely external. There are some professing Christians and some who grew up in certain backgrounds, and they think, well, it's merely external, that worldliness is bound up in certain things you do. Of course, that list varies. There's a list, that group has a list, and that list varies depending on where you are and who you're associated with and your baggage, your environment, your upbringing, and it's really strange how it can happen.

Let me give you a couple of examples of this. For example, a predisposition against any sort of alcohol consumption. They say that's worldliness. Or against Christian women wearing pants to church or wearing makeup or wearing jewelry or earrings or any sort of that. So you see the list varies and the list goes on, but it varies depending on where you are and who it is you're connected with.

And the reason for that confusion, listen carefully, beloved, worldliness is not primarily about externals. It isn't. Worldliness is a mindset according to Scripture. Primarily, it's an attitude. Worldliness doesn't have anything to do primarily with the externals. It has to do with what's going on where? Your heart and mind.

Here's the definition: worldliness is eagerly pursuing the same sinful pleasures the world pursues or living with the primary purpose of pursuing legitimate pleasures. Let me say that again. Worldliness is eagerly pursuing the same sinful pleasures the world pursues or living with the primary purpose of pursuing legitimate pleasures. That's worldliness.

Let me put it this way. Either pursuing sinful pleasures with the same sort of reckless abandon the world around you does or pursuing God-given legitimate pleasures as your only purpose in life. They become ultimate pleasures.

James' word here, the way James is diagnosing the problem and calling us to repent, at the very heart of sinful conflict is a pursuit of selfishness, a selfish pursuit of my own way. And in the Bible, a selfish pursuit of my own way is actually what? You guessed it, a philosophy. It's a philosophy, a philosophy of life. The term that the Bible uses for that philosophy of life is worldliness. That's what it is.

Worldliness is that philosophy of life where I'm in pursuit of my own way all the time. Worldliness, or as James calls it, “friendship with the world,” – is hostility, “enmity toward God”. Why is that? Because the pursuit of sinful pleasure and the pursuit of God are diametrically opposed.

In 2 Timothy 3:4, Paul says, there are “lovers of pleasures” and then there are, on the other hand, “lovers of God”. And you can't be both at the same time. You're either a lover of pleasure or a lover of God.

So back in James chapter 4 and verse 4, the first part of the verse, the Holy Spirit makes a general point: friendship with the world is hostility, enmity toward God. And then the second half of the verse, he applies it very directly: “Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world sets himself as an enemy of God.”

Now your first response to that may be, I don't want to be a friend of the world. I don't want to be a friend of the world. Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world sets himself as an enemy of God. I'm reconciled to God. I don't want to be a friend of the world, but that's James' point.

If you choose, and if I choose to pursue our own sinful lusts, the same ones that the people around us pursue, and then when someone gets in the way of our pursuit of that pleasure, we consistently argue and fight and quarrel with that person, then we are choosing to be a friend of the world. If we love the world, we are idolaters, and our false god is the world, the mindset of our age.

It can happen certainly to false Christians, pseudo-Christians, counterfeit Christians, that is, people that connect themselves to the church but end up showing that they weren't the genuine thing to begin with. Remember, even this morning, many of his disciples forsook him and walked with him no more. You remember Demas, 2 Timothy 4:10, Paul says concerning Demas, Oh “Demas, having loved this present age, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica." He deserted me, he's gone. He abandoned the faith.

But beloved, we can also be affected as believers. Turn to 1 John 2, and there's a warning for believers there. 1 John 2, the Apostle John gives us this warning that you and I can be susceptible to falling in love with the world, the system, the mindset that's around us. Remember Lot.

1 John 2:15: "Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves,” – as a habit, as a pattern of life, is loving literally the world, – “the love of the Father is not in him." He's warning believers, don't go that way.

For all that is in the world, now he's going to give us an idea of what he means by this term world. He says, let me give you an idea of what constitutes the world. All that is in the world, here it is: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life.

Notice that worldliness here is all about what goes on in your heart and mind. It's craving—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the boastful pride of life. What are these things that constitute the world system in which we live? You want to know what the world is in biblical terms? Here it is. It's the system that encourages, that promotes these three realities:
The “lust of the flesh”, that is, the cravings of our flesh, probably a reference to our bodily appetites. It's a life lived to satisfy the strong cravings of the flesh, and you and I both know people around us who live to satisfy those cravings, they live for that.

Then he says, the “lust of the eyes”—the cravings of the eyes—a reference to the fact that we long to possess what the eyes see, we crave to have so badly. We live in a world that's given over to the pursuit of things. You know, the guy with a bumper sticker that says, "He who dies with the most toys wins." That's the mindset of the world. I've got to have, I've got to have, even if I can't afford it, even if I'm forbidden to have it, I've got to have it.

And thirdly, he says, the “boastful pride of life”. That's the person who takes pride in who he is, in what he has accomplished, in his status in the world. This is what really characterizes the mindset of a world that's hostile to God. It lives for the cravings of its flesh, for the cravings of its eyes, and desire to possess, and it inflates itself above others.

He goes on to say in verse 16, all of that “is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away”. The world is passing away. You're not going to live here forever, and the things of the world are not going to be here forever. It's passing away, and also its lust, “but the one who does the will of God abides forever”. It's exactly what James is saying.

And let me ask, by the way, who's the God of this world? Who's the God of this world? Once, Jesus was speaking to the Jewish leaders who were intent on killing Him. He said to them, John 8:44, "You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning." I often really thought of this latter part of this verse,  “he was a murderer from the beginning”. At first glance, it's a puzzling statement, an intriguing statement. I mean, who did Satan kill in the beginning? How was he a murderer? How is he a murderer?

Well, from the beginning, when Lucifer fell and became Satan, the adversary, what did he do? He was in hot pursuit of his own way, wasn't he? Hot pursuit of his own way. He was in hot pursuit of other people worshiping him, giving him glory—his glory, he thought. And what did he want to do with those people who don't worship him and don't give him his way? Well, he hates them. He hates them and wishes to destroy them.

And so, the two ways—the world and God—the two families, Satan’s and God’s family, represent two ways: devotion to God or devotion to self. Devotion to God or devotion to self. Worldliness is pursuing your own way. The way of the world is the way of who? Cain. Remember Cain. The way of the world is the way of Cain: "I'm going to get my way no matter what, and I will destroy those who stand in my way, whether I destroy them physically, emotionally, mentally, or financially. However it is, I will destroy them to get my own way."

Dear ones, when you and I pursue our own way, we're aligning ourselves with the world. What a staggering thought. It really doesn't matter how Christian your movie collection is, how Christian your music collection may be—if your life revolves around self-gratification rather than love for God and love for neighbor, then you and I may be gold or platinum card-carrying members of the world. You see, worldliness is loving self more than God.

And what does it do to God when I'm devoted to self? What does it do to God when I'm devoted to self? What does it provoke in God? Jealousy. Holy jealousy. We see that in verse 5. That's why in verse 4, when we act like this, we are, to God, breaking our covenant with Him. We are committing spiritual adultery.

Now, you may never have thought of it this way, but here is James again helping us to look at the external to help us understand the internal. You see how he's kept doing this in this letter? He keeps pounding the same message. He's helping us look at the external to help us understand the internal. He doesn't let you get away with, Well, I'm sincere, I know what I want. No, no. He says, I want you to test the invisible with the visible, the internal with the external.

Remember, he makes you test how you hear the Word by how you what? Do the Word. He makes you test your faith with your works. He makes you test your wisdom by your fruit. And here, he's going to make you test how devoted you are, who you really love, by the war or the peace which characterizes your life.

If conflict ignites everywhere I go, I can say one thing about myself: I am worldly in my orientation. There's someone in my life that I consistently love more than Christ, and that is self—my way, my things.

You see, Jesus Christ came to save us from the devil's family. He came to rescue us from the way of Satan, from the way of the world, from the way of self-destruction. Do you really want to live in that system? Do you really want to live in that way of life where it's dog-eat-dog, devouring each other, last man standing?

Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful" (John 14:27). So how do I get that peace? Well, here's the irony: to have peace, I've got to stop fighting to have my own way. And I have to yield. I have to surrender. I have to yield to someone else.

And who's that person? You see, the irony to ending conflict is that you've got to yield to someone. You've got to surrender, you've got to submit, and that person you've got to yield to every single time is Christ. The irony of ending conflict is you come to His peace when you surrender and submit to His Lordship and embrace His way over you.
That's salvation, by the way, isn't it? Die to self, live for Christ. That's sanctification, too. Die to self, live to Christ.

Now, let me show you how this works. Imagine you say, okay, I don't want to be devoted to my own way, I want to be devoted to getting His way, God's way, Christ's way. I don't want to be devoted to pleasing myself, I want to be devoted to please Him. What does it look like?
Well, number one, if there's any sinful desire in your life, you and I will quickly, immediately, decidedly repent of it. When I want something God doesn't want me to have, I shouldn't pursue it.

Second, it's gonna help those good desires from growing into monstrous idols as well. All right, you want a clean house, you want an unobstructed drive home, you want professional success, you want time by yourself, you want respect from your spouse, you want obedience from your child, you want, et cetera, et cetera. Good. These are wholesome things.
But now, you see it not just with reference to yourself anymore, but with reference to God. You ask yourself, will it please God if this happens? You're God-oriented, you're spiritually minded. Does this glorify God? Does God want this to happen? Does He want this to happen with the same intensity that I want it to happen?

Does God care more about me getting this thing or about how I respond if I don't? Which does He care more about? Is it possible that God may deny me this thing? Is it possible that right now, He wants me to defer to another person's wishes or preferences if it's not sin, to exercise patience to please God?

You see, beloved, what's happening? Now my loyalty is not to myself and my desires. Rather, my loyalty is to Him. I am spiritually minded. And, beloved, this is where we come back to real prayer. Because James told us, when we're independent, we don't pray. Or if we pray, we pray what? Selfishly.

But if we're forsaking worldliness, every day we're really pressing on, forsaking worldliness, embracing humility, do you know what's gonna happen immediately? You're right, prayer. Prayer.

And we're gonna say something like this: “Lord, hallowed be Your name, not my name. Right now, this is about Your reputation, Lord, not my reputation. Lord, Your kingdom come, not my kingdom come. Lord, Your will be done, not my will be done. Lord, right now I submit this thing that I want from my spouse, from my child, from my grandchildren, from my sibling, from my neighbors, from my colleagues, from my friends, from my brothers and sisters—I give it all to you. God, please give me this thing only if it is Your will, and I will go after it, but only using ways and methods that please You and glorify You. And once I cross over that line and I use things and say things and do things that are not pleasing to You, then, Lord, I know that I'm not loyal to You at this point and I've switched loyalties and I've become more devoted to self. And I repent. Once I introduce selfish conflict, I'm loyal to myself, I'm pleasing myself, I've turned my desires into gods, and I'm demanding others' worship. Please, Lord, help me to love what You love and hate what You hate. “

But now, listen carefully. Listen carefully, beloved. I'll say, Lord, help me to love it the way You love it. It's a big difference. Help me to love it. Yeah, help me love what You love and hate what You hate, but oh, help me to love it the way You love it—with the intensity that You love it, not giving it more value or intensity than You do.

Now, to that humble heart, to that humble posture, what will God give as we will see when we get to that verse, verse six- ‘charin’, grace, grace. In fact, a greater grace. Pleasing God first before pleasing self is really the fire extinguisher that puts the fire out before it begins or puts it out before it spreads.

That's, beloved, how we stop a good desire from becoming a bad desire because we're treating it like the ultimate desire. And, beloved, what should be your ultimate desire and mine? Love for God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

In an old monastery in Germany, there's said to be a pair of antlers from two deer, and supposedly these two deer were fighting and having locked horns so tightly that they became jammed together and they just couldn't be separated. They got stuck together, jammed together. And apparently, the deer died with locked horns.

Somebody saw that and saw the picture of what that is and took those jammed horns and mounted them in that monastery as a symbol. And what is the symbol? It's exactly what Paul said in Galatians 5:15; “If you bite and devour one another, beware that you are not consumed by one another”. Fight sinfully and no one wins, no one wins. Who wants that kind of earthly, sensual, demonic wisdom? I know you don't.

As brothers and sisters in Christ, we want to forsake a rabid devotion to self. We want to pursue love for God, which brings love for neighbor.

Back to our text. To support this radical, really amazing, incredible statement that he's made in verse four, James directs us to the scripture, verse five: “Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”?”. Do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose, he's saying, in vain?

Now, it's clear here that James intended to support the statement that he's made in verse four with Scripture, but where exactly does the Scripture say what's in the second half of verse five? Well, let's underscore this or be clear from the get-go. James is not referring particularly to a specific verse, but rather he was summarizing the truth expressed in much of the Old Testament. That's why if you have a good translation, you'll find that not to be capitalized, because it's not a verbatim quote. Rather, he's simply summarizing the thrust of Scripture, the teaching of Scripture.

When you look at what he says at the end of verse five, understand as we look at it, it's the most difficult passage in the entire letter to understand. It's one of the most difficult verses, really, in the entire New Testament to translate. It's complicated, it's complex.

Now, without dragging you through every nuance that I had to uncover the last couple of weeks, believe me, I mean, it was hours, really. Let me see if I can help us understand the problem. The problem with this expression in verse five is that the word “Spirit” in Greek can be used as the subject of the sentence, or it can be the object of the sentence, which makes life a little difficult as we try to understand the text. But there's a second problem. A second problem is whether the word “Spirit” refers to the Holy Spirit or to a human spirit.

In the end, though, just to simplify the whole thing, when you put all the factors together, when you look at all the evidence, you essentially come down to two main possibilities. Let me distill that, and this is like hours of study, and here it is. I'm just gonna give it, hopefully it will make sense.

Possibility number one: the human spirit constantly craves and envies. That's the first possibility. One commentator explains this view this way: the human spirit imparted at creation longs perversely for the enjoyment of the world's pleasures, even to the point of envy. That's one approach.

The NASB, the LSB as well, take the second approach. You see it here: “He,” – God, – “jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell within us”. In wrestling and trying to sort this out, studying, I really think the weight of the evidence supports the second translation, the one in the LSB translation and the NASB. But in this view, we could be talking about the human spirit, or we could be talking about the Holy Spirit as well. But in the end, it really doesn't matter. It really doesn't make much difference. The point is the same either way, and that's what we need to understand.

I like how Thomas Constable really puts it. He said “James 4:5 is very difficult to translate, but the best rendering seems to be something such as the following: God jealously longs for the spirit that He has made to live in us. Another translation, he goes on to say, is: The Spirit, capital S, which He made to dwell in us jealously yearns for the entire devotion of the heart. Both translations really fit the preceding context very well. God's people who love the world, in that moment of weakness and in that moment of acting according to the remains of corruption, God's people who love the world have committed spiritual adultery against Him. But God, or His Spirit, jealously longs for their love.”
 
And listen carefully, beloved. Here's the point, I believe: God jealously desires us to belong wholeheartedly to Him. That's the point.

You see the Greek words, jealously desire. ‘Phthonon epipothei’—jealously desires. This word ‘epipothei’’ means to yearn, to desire earnestly, to long for. Those words refer to the kind of desire that a husband has for his wife's complete love and affection. It is to be totally, completely his.

Warren Wiersbe says concerning this verse, and I quote: "Living for the flesh means grieving the Holy Spirit of God who lives in us. Just as the world is the enemy of God the Father, so the flesh is the enemy of God the Holy Spirit." He goes on to say, "There's a holy, loving jealousy that a husband and wife have over each other, and rightly so. The Spirit within jealously guards our relationship to God, and the Spirit is grieved when we sin against God's love."
Douglas Moo, in his commentary, says the same thing pretty much: "What God requires of us is total, unreserved, unwavering allegiance to Him rather than to the world."

We've already encountered this concept. You remember back in verse 17 of chapter three, where we're told that the mature person is first of all what? Pure. Remember that word "pure"? It can be morally pure, this word "pure," but it can also mean devotionally pure. That is what? Wholeheartedly, wholeheartedly committed to Christ. God will tolerate no rivals for our affection.

This is what God jealously desires from us: complete devotion, wholehearted affection. We must give Him our total, unreserved, unwavering allegiance. No one can serve two masters. No one.

Now, I don't know about you, but when I hear that, it seems like an impossible goal because I know my own heart. How can we achieve that level of commitment? How can we achieve that level of commitment—total, unreserved, unwavering allegiance?

Well, let me tell you something, beloved. Never through the strength of your own will and mine or the force of your own resolutions or mine—never. So where do we turn for hope? Well, let me give you a little glimpse. We'll get there, we'll get there.

Verse 6: But He, God, gives a greater – ‘charin’, a greater grace. It's an astounding promise. It's the first real breath of grace that James gives us, and we're going to look at it in detail next week, Lord willing, but stay with me just a couple of minutes. This provision of grace does not in any way lessen God's demand for our allegiance because the command for our allegiance is based on His character. It's all grace, really. That's why Paul is able to say, I am that I am by the grace of God (1 Corinthians 15:10).

This seems strange to our ear, but listen carefully, beloved. God, our God, is a jealous God, and many texts point to this reality. Like I said, this provision of grace does not in any way lessen God's demand for our allegiance because the command for our allegiance is based on His character, and so this is the Scripture, really. It tells us again and again, God is a jealous God.

Exodus 20, for example. Exodus 20, in the middle of the Ten Commandments, as we've just been told not to worship other gods or make idols, verse 5: "You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, Yahweh your God, am a” – what? – “jealous God." In Exodus 34, verse 14, He says, "for you shall not worship any other god, for Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God." Wow. "Whose name is Jealous is a jealous God."

Turn with me to Deuteronomy 4. Deuteronomy 4, as Moses recounts the law for the people gathered outside the Promised Land, he says this in verse 23 of Deuteronomy 4: "So keep yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of Yahweh your God, which He cut with you, and make for yourselves a graven image in the form of anything against which Yahweh your God has commanded you.” – Here it is: “For Yahweh your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God."

How could God be jealous? Well, I think this commentator, Alec Motyer, is right when he says, and I quote: "Jealousy, properly considered, is an essential element of true love. It is an essential longing for the loved one's welfare." Similarly, John Blanchard writes, "When the Bible uses jealousy of God, it is not the jealousy of self-centered possessiveness or carnal desire, but a loving concern for the welfare of His people.” It's holy jealousy. It's a jealousy that is really concerned for the welfare of the person loved.

The bottom line is this: God demands our absolute, undivided allegiance. He will tolerate no rivals. He is a jealous God. He's a jealous God.

As you sit here this evening, in this place, beloved, perhaps you've never announced your hostility to God, even tonight as you sit here. Maybe even it's a time for self-examination. Perhaps you've never announced your allegiance to and affection for the world. But let me ask a couple of pointed questions.

Do you find your pleasure and entertainment in things that are patently hostile to God? Do you find your pleasure and entertainment in things that are patently hostile to God? Have you, to use James' expression, made friends with movies, music, entertainment that undermine, attack, demean the very God that you profess to love? Do you crave constantly? Do you pursue constantly pleasures that God has directly forbidden in His Word? Only you can answer those questions.

If so, James says that you are engaged in adultery against God. You're setting yourself up as an enemy. It's insane if you profess to be a child of God. It's madness. Let me ask more directly. As you look back at this last week, think of your time for a moment. The use of your time. Last week, and I don't know how else to put this. I hope you don't take it in a legalistic way. I pray it is simply just to provoke thought.

What percentage of your time did you commit to carrying out love for God and love for other people? What percentage, on the other hand, of your time did you use pursuing your own sinful pleasures or pursuing your own selfish agenda? As I've searched my own heart, I've had to have dealings with God this past week.

If we're going to learn to deal with sinful conflict, James says we must, number one, identify the true source. It's the pursuit of selfish pleasure. Whatever makes us happy, that's what we want, and whoever gets in the way of our happiness, we're willing to fight. He says identify the source. And number two, we need to magnify the real sin that lies behind the conflict. If we're engaged in a pattern of arguing and quarreling, it's because we love God too little and this world and our sinful, selfish desires too much.

Dr. Christiaan Barnard performed the world's first human heart transplant on December 3rd, 1967. That transplant obviously made him one of the world's most noted surgeons. He went on to perform a number of other transplants, and the story is told that he once asked one of his patients, a man by the name of Philip Blaber, if he'd like to see his old heart. And Blaber said, yes, he would. So he walked with him over to the cupboard, took out a glass container, handed it to his patient, and for a moment he simply stood there in sort of stunned silence because he was the first man in human history to ever hold his own heart in his hands.

Eventually, he spoke, and he and the doctor carried on a conversation about the technical nature of the procedure, the surgery. And when they were done, Blaber took one last look at the glass container, and then he handed it back to the doctor and the surgeon, and he said these words, and I quote, "So that is my old heart that caused me so much trouble."

Beloved, James has shown us our hearts this evening, and we've been able to look at them right in front of us as it were, and our only hope is God's grace. Our only hope is God's grace, and we'll learn about that next time, Lord willing. Tonight, we learn the diagnosis. Next week, we will look into the prescription. So you need to come back for that.

Let's pray.

Father, these are hard words for us to hear. To think that You think of us when we live lives pursuing pleasure as committing spiritual adultery. Oh, Father, forgive us. Forgive us. Forgive us. Forgive us for tolerating rivals to our affection to You. Forgive us for loving You too little and loving ourselves and our own selfish, sinful pursuits too much. Forgive us those times when we're guilty of that.

Help us to identify, Father, the real source that lies behind our fighting and quarreling and arguing and contending, and help us to see the real sin for what it is. It is adultery against You. Because arguing and quarreling betrays the reality that we live to pursue our pleasures. Forgive us, Father. Help us to learn from this incredibly insightful passage how it is that we can overcome these things in our lives so that we can grow more in our sanctification.

And, Father, I pray as well for the person here this evening who was locked into, enslaved by a pursuit of pleasure because they don't know Your Son. They have an empty profession. This is the lifestyle. This is the pattern of their life. They've never had a new heart given to them. It's not that they're struggling. This is how they're living. I pray that this evening You would strip away all of the pretense, all of the hypocrisy, all of the empty profession year after year that they're in Christ, that You will expose that lie and deception and help them to see the reality of how they stand before You and draw them to Yourself.

We pray and ask this for the glory of Your name and in the name of Your Son, our glorious Redeemer. Amen.