Alright, so James for beginners:
Practical Christianity. This is lesson number 7 in this series and the title of this lesson is,
Prescription for Worldliness.
If you're following along in your Bibles, it's James chapter 4.
Hopefully, we'll be covering verses 1 to 10.
A little review to get us into tonight's material. After having warned the church, his readers about how to
discern between good and bad teachers, last time that's what we talked about.
How do you know you have a good teacher versus a bad teacher? And so, he was talking about that
last time. And the conclusion we came to was,
good teachers produce good things in their students by drawing upon heavenly wisdom,
which is already evident in themselves.
So James leaves off speaking about teachers. He does a, kind of,
spiritual checkup of his readers, as we move into chapter 4. He was talking about those who were
teaching them and how they could discern which are the
good ones, which are the bad ones, and then he, kind of, narrows down.
Now he's not talking about the teachers anymore. He's talking about the students.
He's talking about the members of the church to whom he is writing.
He's going to diagnose them. Kind of a spiritual diagnosis about their spiritual condition.
Then after reviewing their symptoms and diagnosing their illness, their spiritual illness,
he gives not only a prognosis for the future for those with the spiritual illness that they have,
he also provides them with a spiritual prescription
that will bring healing, spiritual healing for the problems that they are suffering.
That's why we're calling this lesson, Prescription for Worldliness.
Let's begin reading as James performs this spiritual checkup.
And we read chapter 4 verse 1a, he says,
"What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you?" And we'll stop right there because there's the
diagnosis, if you wish.
He describes the wisdom from below. Remember, he was talking about teachers who were drawing
on wisdom from above and those who were drawing wisdom from below.
So he describes what the wisdom from below, that they have been feeding on, is
producing in them, the symptoms of an unhealthy
body, spiritual body. Now, the right teaching with the right motives and a sincere
response produces a different result than what they are experiencing, however when reviewing the symptoms to his readers,
James notes that the fruit of their conduct is negative and destructive.
So in the next section he goes on to, as I say, to further his diagnosis of the problem.
And we'll see what the problem is.
Now he's going to look for the cause. So the problem is they're quarreling,
there's division.
And he's saying that's because you've been feeding on the wisdom from below.
Probably being taught to you by teachers who are drawing on this kind of wisdom,
in order to teach you. So let's look for the cause.
The symptoms are war, strife, fighting in the church.
Verse 1b says, "Is not the source of your pleasures that wage war in your members?"
So James begins by noting that it is a pleasure for the flesh to want its own way, and thus
continue quarreling and dividing among the members of the body in order to obtain it.
There's the problem, he says,
getting one's way no matter what the damage or costs.
He is suggesting that people fight over worldly things
using worldly tactics, and in the end things are usually worse no matter who wins.
I mean, that's true in the world.
That's true in the church. That's true in a school, even in a family, right.
If all we do is fight and divide and we just up the ante, what's the natural result of this?
Well, it can't be good. And that's what he's saying to them. You fight, you quarrel, there's division.
And you continue to do so in order to get what you want.
So his kind of rhetorical question is, what do you think this kind of activity is going to produce?
It's not going to produce anything good. So in verse 2a he says, "You lust and do not have;
so you commit murder." Here's how wars begin. They begin with quarrels, right?
They are quarrels that continued and continued, and become aggravated and grow. They grow into wars eventually.
He says to them, you desire but cannot obtain. A lot of people say, well,
what are they desiring? Money? No. In this case what they're desiring is to get their own way.
That's what their desire is. You war, but you cannot obtain what your own way.
So what do you do if you can't get your own way? Well, you continue to quarrel. You continue to go to war.
You continue to divide.
In verse 2b and 3 he says, "You are envious and cannot obtain,
so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.
You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives.
So that you may spend it on your pleasures." There's a little bit of
misunderstanding here, if you think that their envious. We always think people are envious because they want what they have.
Money, a nice car, or a beautiful wife. They're thinking this is the kind of - when they read this you're envious and cannot obtain.
Right? But he says the quarrels and the wars and divisions begin and continue because
of the things you desire.
They are not spiritual things. They are worldly things.
Well, what are the worldly things that these people were desiring? Well, power.
Who is in charge?
Honor among men and selfish ambition. Who's going to be first? Who's going to boss who around?
Who's going to get their own way?
These are the things that they were envious of. These were the things that they were fighting over
and competing with one another.
Now he's saying, these things here, they appeal to the flesh, not to the spirit.
James says they don't receive what? Well, they don't receive spiritual things
because they don't ask for these kinds of things. Well, what kind of thing? Well, humility, peace of mind,
graciousness, the ability to forgive, a more expansive heart to be able to love.
These are spiritual things and he's saying, you're not asking for these kind of things,
so you're not receiving these kind of things.
He says to them, you would rather fight over worldly things. Well, what are the worldly things? Well, in this case,
it's not money. It's the worldly things that who's in charge.
Who will receive the attention of everyone or the applause of everyone?
Whose word will be listened to? These are the things that you want. These things, he says, these are not heavenly things.
They're not things that come from above. They're not gifts, the type of gifts that God gives to men.
Those are not the type of things.
Actually, God is not going to give them these type of things even if they ask for them.
People rarely argue and compete over spiritual matters.
It's usually fleshly matters that they fight and quarrel over. I'll give you an example,
I've been a minister for more than thirty seven years and
in all that time I've never seen a debate over the mop.
You know what I'm saying? Over the mop. In other words,
no one competes over who will get to the church building first on Saturday morning to mop up the floors in the bathroom.
I've never seen two people go, no, you give me the mop. No, I want to mop up.
You mopped up the bathroom last week. I want to be able to do it.
I've never seen an argument like that. Nobody fights over those type of things.
Service. Humble service.
I've never seen brethren fighting over who will visit the sick and shut-it.
I've never seen two deacons going back and forth, well,
listen you've been to visit the sick and the shut-in and bringing them communion on Sunday afternoon.
You've done that for three weeks, it's my turn. Let me do it.
No, I want to do it. Their fighting back and forth over the communion kit.
I've never seen two people fight over that.
People do not compete over who will give more for the offering.
I've never seen any of the deacons fighting with one another over the privilege of locking
down the building after services.
That's not usually the attitude. I see usually it's like oh, it's my month. Oh, man, I get it.
I have to stay late. I have to wait till everybody's gone before I can lock up and go home.
Not always, but sometimes that's the attitude. But I've never seen deacons fighting over the privilege of doing that particular chore.
We rarely argue and fight over the pursuit of heavenly things like personal purity or
service to the church or preaching and teaching the word. Nobody fights over those type of things.
The things we fight over are things from below.
Who receives personal honor?
Who gets privilege?
Who exercises power? Those are things from below.
We pursue these fleshly things with methods and tactics from below -
quarreling, division.
Because these things satisfy that part of our nature which is from below.
Things like pride or lust for control or selfishness.
So this is the point that James is saying here. You quarrel and fight over things which are from below.
You don't ask God for things that are from above. And so, obviously, He won't give them to you.
And even if you asked Him for the things that you want which are from below, He wouldn't give the, to you anyways.
Why? Because they would simply serve your flesh and
actually exacerbate the problem that is taking place.
All right, so now he's going to give a prognosis. You go see the doctor,
he does the tests, he makes a diagnosis, he tells you what's wrong with you, and then he gives you the prognosis.
So here's the prognosis, well, you have a mass on your kidney and
what we're going to do is we're going to remove it; and you have a ninety percent chance of success.
Or you've got stage-four cancer, and there's not much we can do for you.
We give you three months to live. The prognosis.
So he's going to give them the prognosis. So briefly, let's review what we have so far: a - the symptoms:
quarreling, division, trouble. The diagnosis is: you're desiring things from below and you're using
tactics from below in order to acquire these things. So he says in these verses
he'll give a prognosis, an opinion as to what this problem will result in, and
how long does the patient have to live, and can he recover?
So we read in verse 4a he says, "You adulteresses,
do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?"
So he compares this type of conduct to adultery. In other words, here's what's really wrong with you,
you're committing adultery.
Not sexual adultery. The idea is that these Christians are unfaithful to Christ when they act in this way.
Then in 4b he says,
"Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God."
So this behavior, he says, is a sign of increasing friendship with the world. There's your prognosis.
There's your illness. Let's put a name on your illness. Okay, well,
the name of your illness is you're stopping being a friend of God, and you're starting to be a friend of the world.
So whoever identifies himself as a friend of the world in this way makes himself an enemy of God.
Alright, so in verse 5 he says, "Or do you think that the scripture speaks to no purpose:
"He jealously desires the spirit which he has made to dwell in us"?
In other words, God is serious about what He said in the scriptures. The spirit of God within us is
jealous when we make friends with the world,
instead of pursuing and developing our friendship with God.
In this regard I want to read another scripture, but not in James.
So if you're following in your Bible,
just keep a finger in James and let's go over to Ephesians chapter 4, verse 30 in 31. He says in that particular
epistle, Paul says, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption."
Sealed for the day of redemption. In Acts 2:38 Luke writes that Peter preaches,
"Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins
and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." What is the gift of the holy spirit?
It's the Holy Spirit coming to dwell within us. Well, what's the significance of that gift?
Well, Paul answers that in Romans chapter 8.
I paraphrase here, but he's saying, if the spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, if that spirit, that
dwelled in Him and that raised Him from the dead, if that spirit dwells in you, as well,
then that spirit will raise you from the dead in the same way that He rose Jesus from the dead.
There's the significance of having the indwelling of the Spirit.
Like, the end game of having the spirit, is through the power of the spirit that were raised from the dead.
So I continue in Ephesians 4, he says, so there's the seal for the day of redemption, okay?
We're sealed by the Spirit. We're given the spirit to guarantee that we will resurrect on the day of redemption.
Then he says, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander
be put away from you. Along with all malice. Well in this particular
passage, in Ephesians, Paul is describing actually what's taking place with the people that James is talking about.
What's going on with them?
What bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander and malice? Those are the things that are happening
among them. So Paul warns his readers about this and James does exactly the same in the book of James.
So we go back to James verse 6 he says, "But He gives a greater grace.
Therefore, it says, "God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
And so picking up our line here, you don't ask God for things from below ask God for things from above.
So he says, God, however, through this same spirit rewards with grace and blessings those who resist these
fleshly temptations to pride and selfishness and ambition. Those who resist these type of things,
God will bless them. Those who resist these type of things by humbling themselves before God and
humbling themselves before their brethren, what will happen? Well, he says, God will lift them up and
they will also receive the respect of their brethren.
Isn't it the most common thing that we experience when we talk about someone we admire?
Just take sports figures for example. You're watching TV and they're doing a thing about a famous sports figure,
some individual in some area of sports and they're
complimenting him. When they're complimenting this sports figure, man or woman,
and they're talking about their ability that they show in their sport, but then when they start talking about that person's character,
what's the thing that -
the thread that runs through all of these great sports figures, admired by people.
They say yeah, and he's such a humble guy.
He's helpful, and he's a team leader, and he's generous. He doesn't hog the ball, for example.
Isn't that the same thing they say about anybody, any great person that they admire? Always this idea.
Yeah, and they're so humble.
They're not full of themselves, right?
That's what we admire in people. I've never heard anybody say oh, I admire that
athlete so much because he's always shooting off his mouth.
Because he's always bragging on himself.
Because he's selfish, he doesn't participate with the team. We never hear anybody praise someone for that kind of behavior.
We never hear other humans
raise up an individual who acts like a like a jerk.
No, usually it's somebody that shows humility and generosity and kindness. That's what appeals to people.
So that's what James is saying here.
He's saying, not only will you be raised up by God,
but you'll be raised up by the brethren as well, as an example of someone that they admire.
Someone they might want to follow.
So the point here, excuse me, the point here and James's prognosis is that a Christian cannot be friends with the world.
Meaning, desiring worldly things and then
acquiring them using worldly tactics. So a person can't be a friend of the world and then be friends with God.
Meaning, desiring spiritual things and obtaining them through spiritual methods.
A person cannot be both at once.
That's what he said. You can't be both things at once. You can be one or the other.
But you cannot be both at once.
Jesus talks about this, doesn't He? You can can't serve God and man. There's always a choice involved.
So James's final opinion based on his diagnosis is that, division, arguing, unbridled ambition,
constant criticism of each other, these are the definite marks of a worldly church.
Not a church that belongs to Christ.
All right, so he moves from this position here, from the prognosis,
to a prescription.
James will prescribe three things that must be done in order to become friends with God, and therefore cure
this illness of worldliness that this church is suffering. Alright, three things. Number one he says,
make your choice.
Verse 7a, he says, "Submit, therefore, to God." Christians in trouble, in a slide away from Christ and into division
and conflict, they need to take a stand.
That choice is a firm decision to come under God's rule once and for all.
Stop going back and forth. Usually, Christians,
when they're having problems in their spiritual life,
they're not all in the worldly camp,
they're in the worldly camp for some things, and some activities, and some type of thinking.
And then they're in the spiritual side for other type of things, that they tend to go back and forth on. So James is saying,
come on. Make your choice once and for all.
So for non-Christians making that choice, making that choice means a
positive response to the gospel. That's making a choice.
And we know for non-Christians making a choice means
hearing and believing that Jesus is the divine Son of God. You believe it or don't you believe it.
Somewhere along the line you have to say, there's enough evidence.
I've read enough to convince me that this is true. That when I'm thinking about Jesus,
I'm seeing the Son of God in fleshly form. Make a choice what you believe and then
repenting, are turning away from things that come from below and focus on the things that are above; because that's one of the things
Jesus says to His disciples,
they need to repent. They need to stop living by the power of the things that are below and start living by the
power of the things that are from above.
Sometimes, if they're simple things like giving up a bad habit.
Maybe you're a smoker or maybe you consume pornography. Some things are kind of simple to see.
You start just unloading bad habits that come from the world. Others are more subtle.
Maybe too big an ego, a little too puffed up in pride.
That has to go. Also, that character reformation has to begin as well.
That's part of repentance. And then, of course, acknowledging your faith in Christ to others.
I believe it, and I'm not a ready to acknowledge it, and then being baptized and meaning
being immersed in the water
and doing so in the name of Jesus and the Godhead for the forgiveness of sin and to receive this gift, this
indwelling of the Holy Spirit within you. So for people who are not Christians, make your choice
once and for all.
So for the non-Christian, the first mark of submission to God is to obey all of these.
To confess Christ, to repent of sin, to be baptized. Some people say, well, I do believe that Jesus is the son of God and
I'm going to start making an effort to live a better life. But baptism, well, it's not necessary.
It's just the ceremony. I can do without it.
There's no magic in the water.
The only power that baptism has is that it's been given by God to man in order to do. There's the power of it.
We've been asked to do this by God to complete our
full submission to Him in faith. It's an expression of our faith
demanded by God. Okay, so a lot of people, they won't do that. Well if they don't do that,
they are not in full submission to God. Again, make a choice. Are you going to obey fully or not?
Neglecting one voids the rest, because we have refused to submit to God's word about salvation.
Same thing with repentance. Yeah, I believe Jesus
is the Son of God. And okay, I'm going to be baptized, but I'm going to continue to consume pornography because I like it.
Or I'm going to continue to use anger in order to manipulate and
threaten other people. That's going to be my stick that I use in my personal relationships to get my way.
You've done the faith part, you've done the baptism part,
but you haven't done the repentance part. Not sincerely. You see, this is what I'm trying to say here. Make a choice,
he says. Make a choice.
No matter what the situation,
I put myself always back into God's hands.
And I need to do this because I have a habit of trying to take control of my own life.
Some people are like that. They do all of that, and then they go back to living their life according to their own
thinking.
Make a choice. If you choose Christ, and you submit to Christ,
and you have to submit to Him every day. Don't take back your life.
In the cure for worldliness, James prescribes first and foremost that we make a choice once and for all,
of who we are. And if that choice is that we are Christians,
then we should act like Christians, with wisdom and conduct from above. That's his point.
Number two in the cure:
make a stand. Let's read verse 7b. He says, "Resist the devil and
he will flee from you." So make a stand or make a defense against the devil. A lot of people
fall or are led away from Christ because of several things. Because they play around with sin.
They're curious about sin. They're curious about, well,
what would it be like if I did this or what would happen? Surely God is not going to punish.
They play around with sin.
They're not serious about - no, I'm not doing this thing. This is a bad thing. This can lead me to other things.
Or they take their time with sin.
Well, just this once. Oh, the one that is really dangerous is, well,
if it gets worse or if I get caught then I'll stop. I'll just try to keep it under the
radar. I'll just play close to the line.
If I get caught or something happens, okay, that'll be it and then something happens and what do we do? Well, okay,
next time, I mean, if this happens - we just keep parlaying our denial.
I call it parlaying our denial. Rolling over our denial until the next time something bad happens.
Or, it's a problem, but I'll deal with it tomorrow, or when I feel like it, or when the time is right.
Or when there's a new moon. Putting it off until later.
People, mistakenly, believe that God doesn't think this sin is really serious and won't really punish me for it.
That was the original lie in the garden.
Isn't that what the devil said to Eve? Really? Is God really, has He really said this? That you will die if you eat?
You will die? Come on!
It's just a fruit. What's the big deal? And it's good for you.
We continue to believe that lie. God really won't punish me for this.
People who are involved in adulterous relationships, they got their spouse at home, but they got this
partner on the side, male or female, whatever,
and in their minds think, but I love this person. It can't be bad if I love this person.
And this person is such a nice person, and they make me happy and they make me feel good and the sex is great.
I mean, how can this be bad?
Well, it's bad because God says, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." That's what makes it bad.
No matter how you feel.
See, that's what people do. They go into denial. They start thinking, well, God certainly He wouldn't do that.
Much more reasonable than that.
We have to remember that the devil will remain near and he will continue to find ways to entice you and
to give you reasons to give in to sin and offer you promises of pleasure and satisfaction
with sin until you do one of two things. So he stays at you all the time,
until you do one of two things: One, you give in or give in again; or two,
make a stand. Resist. Say no.
I've said this before myself, if I'm starting to think or do something or go
down that road where I know I'm going to get myself in trouble, I say it out loud sometimes.
No. I scare my wife.
What are you saying no to? It's okay, I got it.
I got it under control. Or if the threat of a thought starts going through my mind,
some evil ugly thing goes through my mind,
no, stop. Just to break the moment.
To say out loud, to Satan, no. I don't want that. Go away. Make a stand.
Satan only fleas when you make a stand to resist him. Otherwise he works away at your indecision
until you succumb to him.
Like a little child is after you all the time. Mommy, mommy, can I have a cookie? Can I have a cookie?
Can I have a cookie? You know little kids,
they only have one thing to do. And that's to get their parent's attention for whatever, for food, or for a toy.
That's all they got to do. They get up in the morning, their job is to get on to their mother or dad, to
listen to them. Well, it's not the perfect parallel, obviously, but Satan's like that.
He's only got one job. That's to make you sin.
To lead you into some kind of sin or sinful situation,
so that you will be condemned. And certainly to lead you into disbelief and resistance of the gospel or putting it off.
That's his only job. I mean he's done. He's already defeated. His judgment has already been pronounced.
So he's playing a game of attrition here.
It's just a game of attrition.
How much damage can he do? It's like a football team is losing
100 to nothing; and they're in the last quarter and so the team that's got zero points,
they can't win the game,
but they can do some dirty hits on the quarterback. You know what I'm saying. They can play dirty.
Maybe injure some players.
Attrition. Yeah, you beat us, but we're going to take a pound of flesh.
Well, it's as if Satan's doing the same thing.
All right, number three. Remember we're talking about the prescription here, make a choice, make a stand.
Number three, draw near to God. Verse 8 to 10. He says, "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts you double-minded.
Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.
Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you."
If we make a stand against the devil it will become a first step in drawing closer to God.
The thing that separates you from God is sin. Every time you remove a sin out of your life,
you've just taken one step closer to God and He, a step closer to you, in a sense.
So James mentions additional steps that one can take in order to draw closer to God.
First, he says, cleanse your hands. Of course, this is a metaphor that
represents a spiritual cleansing. In other words, stop sinning.
Work at stop sinning.
Ask God to help you deal with the ones you know about and
reveal to you the ones you are not aware of. You want a prayer that God will answer?
Ask him, Lord please reveal to me the sins that I do that I don't even know about.
Or, dear God, reveal to me what I'm really like.
How You see me.
Not how You see me in Christ.
He sees you perfect in Christ.
But how You are able to see my deficiencies, and my failings. Show me that, so that I can be aware of
myself. Nothing creates more humility in a person
than when God exposes that person to themselves.
That's a prayer God will answer.
Every sin, as I said, we discard and overcome,
enables us to be one step closer to God. You want to draw closer to God? Start working on the sin quota in
your life.
Secondly, he said, purify your hearts.
He's dealt with the impurity that sin causes.
Now in this particular passage,
he's talking about purity, not sexual purity, although that is included in the idea of repentance.
Now he's talking about wholeness or integrity of one's heart. In other words,
make up your mind once and for all, your heart is pure. It's not divided with two things.
Who will you serve? God or the world?
Don't be double-minded. If you're going to be a Christian, then don't hold back. Go all out.
Don't change your mind in midstream. Purify your heart.
And then thirdly, sincere repentance.
This is how to draw closer, you want to draw closer to God.
Cleanse your hands. Deal with sin. Purify your heart. Make up your mind and
sincere repentance.
Realize that it is your sins that caused Christ's death and your own condemnation. Wake up to its danger.
Because sometimes we regret more letting go the sin,
than the damage that it has caused in our lives and in the sufferings of Christ.
Do you understand what I'm saying? In other words,
it's killing us to let go this bad habit or this sin you like.
We're more in pain, and we mourn more the loss of this sin or getting rid of it.
I'm so sorry I can't do that anymore. Whatever that is. We're more sorry about that,
than sorry about what it has caused God's Son to suffer, or sorry
for the trouble that it has caused in our lives.
If God calls it sin, then we are wise to get rid and stay rid of it.
No matter what we think about that thing. So in verse 10, he
summarizes the cure for worldliness in our lives and in the church. What does he say?
Draw near to God through faith, repentance, and obedience.
Why? Well, He will draw near to you.
And He will draw near to you by giving you
pardon for your sins, because of your faith. And this pardon will create joy in your heart.
If you have faith, the idea is, if you have faith,
and you respond with faith, meaning you confess Christ and are baptized,
and you live the Christian life through faith,
well, God will forgive you your sins. Right? And with the forgiveness of your sins comes joy.
How joyful it is to know that you're forgiven. You know when you're a little kid
and you do something wrong. Your parents, they ground you or something like that,
they punish you. And after everything is over,
your dad comes, and he sits you on his lap, and he gives you a hug.
He says, now, daddy didn't want you to do that and you can't play your, whatever, video games
tonight. Tomorrow you can do that again, but I still love you.
You ever see how little kids, once the punishment is over and once there's
reassurance that, well, you've been punished, but we love you anyways, how they squeeze - oh, thank you.
I love you daddy.
Thank you. It's that joy that comes from knowing that we're forgiven.
It's the same thing, the Heavenly Father forgives us and then reassures us that He loves us.
That brings joy into our heart.
And then He will draw near to you by giving you protection
from the evil one, which will give you peace of mind.
Repentance is not a one-time thing.
Baptism is the one, if you're baptized in the right way,
through immersion in water, and baptized for the right reason, because of Christ, because your faith in Christ,
well, then you're protected.
You're protected. Your sins are forgiven.
But repentance, that repentance is an ongoing thing in your life.
I repent every day. I'm always looking for ways to repent before God.
Get rid of stuff. And because of that, God protects me and that protection gives me peace.
Protects me in the sense that I understand I'm not perfect, I'm working on that,
but I'm not condemned because of my imperfection. See what I'm saying?
I have that protection of God's grace over me as I live my imperfect life, doing my best.
I know that God's grace is over me, and what does that give me? Peace.
I'm at peace. I can go to bed at night knowing no matter what happens, if I die in my sleep,
I'm going to wake up and be with the Lord.
That brings peace.
Then of course,
He will draw near to you by restoring His relationship with you as you become His child and He your father.
And this will create zeal in your spirit to serve Him. When we're doing the right thing, when we're obeying
God and doing our best to do that, the Father will
infuse us with enthusiasm for our faith and for our religion.
Such are the rewards given to those who draw near to God: joy, peace, zeal.
Those are the things from above. The things from below, the reward from below: power;
who gets to boss everybody around; who gets the honor of man; who gets the applause?
Those are worldly things? Joy and peace and zeal, those are things from above.
So James teaches that the cause of conflicts within ourselves and our families and the church is
excessive worldliness and the desire for the satisfaction of fleshly things, like pride and power and
recognition and selfish ambition.
Christians, therefore, need to be careful because friendliness to the world is a sign that one is
gradually becoming an enemy of God.
That's the danger. And the cure that James proposes for this malady is threefold:
take your position with God, once and for all; make your choice; two, stand firm against the devil,
like that old saying, just say no; and three,
continually do those things that will serve to draw you nearer to God and further away from the world.
One last point I want to make. If you feel that God is far away from you,
it's usually because you have drifted away from Him.
He doesn't drift away from you, you drift away from Him.
He's always there, and He never moves away.
And He's always calling all of us to draw near to Him through the ways and methods that I've talked about tonight, okay?
So there's the
Prescription for Worldliness. We're going to continue with this series in James next time.
Thank you for your attention.