God versus the World
Introduction:
1. The relationship Christians have
with God can be described as a marriage.
2. Every Christian is the bride of
Christ.
3. John 3:29
He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the
bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the
bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled.
4. This picture of a marriage with
God indicates the intimacy one should have with God.
5. Because of this type of
reference to an intimate relationship, the one who relapses into idolatry
commits adultery or plays the harlot against God.
6. It is the purpose of these
verses to show that adultery against God is friendship with the world, or
unfaithfulness.
I)
Adultery is Friendship with the
World.
A)
Christians are espoused to God.
1.
2 Corinthians 11:2 - For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you
to one husband, that I may present you
as a chaste virgin to Christ.
2.
Jesus purchased us as his bride
with a dowry that is His life. ( Acts 20:28)
3.
God relishes the opportunity to
bring his bride home on the day of judgment.
B)
Adultery perverts one's sense of
morality in relationships.
1.
Adultery here is figurative.
a.
It represents the references to
that earthly, sensual, devilish wisdom that creates fighting, wars, strife, and
murder.
b.
It represents the attitude that one
will throw away the wisdom given from above to submit their lives to that
wisdom which comes from below.
2.
James appeals to a Christians sense
of perception when he asks, "know ye not"
a.
The word know means knowing by
reflection rather than observation.
(i)
Proper discernment of sin does not
require one to participate in sin to know its effects.
(ii)
Rather perception of the nature of
God and reflection upon the examples of the past provide true knowledge of sin
and its consequences.
(iii)
For one is able to recognize both
logically and unerringly that the nature of God is directly opposed to the
nature of the world.
b.
James reveals the obliviousness of
sinners to this fact of perception and attributes their sin to failure to
perceive.
(i)
Sinners, both foreign and fallen,
frequenting their lusts insist by their actions that they see no harm in
befriending the world.
(ii)
The continued practice of sin
blinds one to the true perception between right and wrong creating a life
without moral values.
3.
This common interest with sin is
adultery to God.
a.
Friendship is a reciprocal love.
(i)
A friend is one who loves because
of the relationship he has with someone else.
(ii)
Therefore, one who loves a
relationship with the world is a friend of the world.
b.
The world has what the sinner
seeks.
(i)
The friendship one has with the
world denotes that satisfaction one gains from his friend.
(ii)
The friend becomes the source of
knowledge and wisdom from which this friendship grows and blossoms.
c.
This disposition is offensive to
God
(i)
Just as a wife or husband would be
offended by the unrestrained friendships their spouse has with people of the
opposite sex, God is offended by his bride's relationship with the world which
has the opposite source of wisdom.
(ii)
The world here is moral and ethical
way of life grounded in wisdom that is earthly, sensual, and devilish.
(iii)
Any wife or husband who found that
their spouse had their needs meet by someone else would be outraged.
(iv)
So too is God.
II)
Friendship with the World is Enmity
with God.
A)
Friendship with the world is a
choice.
1.
"Would be" represents a purpose to
befriend the world.
a.
Essentially to be a friend of the
world one need not actually participate in worldly things.
b.
Simply, one who has the desire to
participate in worldly things, whether he realizes it or not, is a friend of
the world.
c.
The purpose of their heart will
show in their actions.
(i)
One may believe he is a Christian, faithful
to God, and ask why temptations so easily cause him to stumble.
(ii)
The answer is that his heart is
befriending something in the world.
2.
To be engrossed in the ways of the
world in action or desire is to be a friend of the world.
a.
Associations with sinful friends
instead of with Christian friends reveal a friendship with the world.
(i)
(Hanging out with them, Hunting
with them, The desire to be with them rather than with Christians)
b.
Pleasure found in places of sin as
in opposition to the places of Christian fellowship present one's friendship
with the world to God and man.
(i)
(Desire to be in Las Vegas, Desire
to be hunting rather than worshipping God, being upset that you can't go
shopping because of the worship service or fellowship you have with
Christians.)
c.
The blatant promotion of sinful
things rather than godly things establishes one's friendship with the world.
(i)
(Selling of alcohol and tobacco,
Promoting the prom or dancing, Desiring to see the church change in a liberal
or legalistic manner)
B)
An enemy of God is one that wars
with God.
1.
Enmity with God is a state of
hostility towards God.
a.
Inordinate love with the world puts
on in conflict with the spiritual.
b.
One begins to seek more and more
from the world eventually leading to conflict and strife.
c.
Anyone, therefore, who befriends
the world, starts down a path ending in conflict and strife with God.
2.
Those who war with God are enemies
of God.
a.
It is a simple move to say that
decision to fix one's affection on worldly things makes one an enemy of God.
b.
It is necessary for us to examine
the depths of our hearts evaluating our motives and to determine our loyalties
to God or loyalties to the world.
c.
If we should find such affection
for worldly things then we must rapidly purge it from our hearts.
d.
Who wants to be an enemy of God?
C)
Friends of the world hope in the vanity of the
scriptures.
1.
Verse 5 tells us that the
Christians to whom James wrote did not trust the scriptures.
a.
Evidently, these Christians had
felt that it was not man's fault sin was upon him.
b.
They believed that any such
teachings were idle threats or empty warning from God.
c.
They believed that God really would
not punish anyone.
d.
Does this sound familiar
today?
(i)
Post-modernists teach that one's
conscience determines what is right or wrong for him not God.
(ii)
Liberals in the church teach that
we should include the denominational world because they want to do what is
right.
(iii)
The foundation of this thought is
in the vanity one places in the authority of the scriptures.
2.
The one who becomes friend with the
world is the one who is held responsible.
a.
You may notice the word "spirit" in
you Bible in verse 5.
(i)
Some versions have that word
capitalized.
(ii)
The problem is that a capital "S"
would indicate that the reference is to the Holy Spirit.
(iii)
If this was the case then the Holy Spirit
would be lusting to envy against God.
(iv)
Certainly we cannot believe such
ridiculousness.
b.
Therefore, we must understand that
the word "spirit" represents the human spirit.
(i)
Since it is the human spirit, by
action not heredity, lusts to envy then the human spirit is guilty of sin by
means of friendship with the world.
(ii)
For the envious man is one who
desires to have what the world offers.
(iii)
Thus he becomes the enemy of God
through his adulterous desires.
III)
Your Adulterous Situation is Not
Hopeless.
A)
God gives grace to assist you.
1.
Verse 6 anticipates a response to
the fact that friendship to the world is enmity with God.
a.
It mainly asks whether or not being
and adulterer or adulteress is a hopeless and helpless situation.
(i)
James says, "NO."
(ii)
James turns to the attention to
desires of the heart and states that there is no reason for someone to yield to
their desires.
b.
The reason is that there is
sufficient grace to meet your needs.
(i)
What a wonderful theme to envision
that God will both need our needs and by that obtaining we are provided for.
(ii)
Romans 5:20 - Moreover the law
entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much
more abound:
2.
Grace always outdistances your
needs.
a.
God's grace is sufficient for
whatever situation it is given.
(i)
The implication is that God gives
grace continually.
(ii)
When God gives it then it is
sufficient for whatever may come about in one's life.
b.
James contrasts by implication envy
and grace.
(i)
The heart gripped by envy has no
foundation to wavering men.
(ii)
All the while God's grace is ever
able to assist these unsteady men to triumph over temptations and trials.
(iii)
God keeps on giving grace to help
us resist the allurements of Satan all of our lives.
B)
James finds confirmation in the
hope of Christ with Proverbs 3:34.
1.
Prov. 3:34 - Surely he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly.
2.
We know God is against all those
who conceitedly show themselves above others.
3.
Their conceit challenges God who
accepting it enters the field of battle already knowing of victory.
4.
God gives His unmerited favor and
thus we must be humble enough to accept what he gives us.
5.
For what we give up is far less
than what God gives us.
6.
Mark 10:27-30 - And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not
with God: for with God all things are possible. Then Peter began to say unto
him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee. And Jesus answered and said,
Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or
sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and
the gospel's, But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and
brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions;
and in the world to come eternal life. But many that are first shall be last;
and the last first.
Conclusion:
1. Does your actions indicate an
adulterous heart against God?
2. Are you by your hidden desires
of the heart at war against God?
3. Jesus told us that the first
shall be last and the last first.
4. Meaning those that take their
reward on earth will fail to enter the kingdom of Heaven; while those who take
their reward in Heaven will live with God eternally.
5. God desires you to be with Him
and hopingly sent His Only Begotten Son so that you will not be last.
6. Your belief must develop into
repentance recognizing your lustful, envious, war-like past is an enemy of God.
7. Repenting of that life style you
must confess your obedience to the rewarder of grace to all mankind publically.
8. Finally, renewing your life in
baptism securing the forgiveness offered by God through being washed by the
Blood of Christ by immersing yourself in the watery grave called Baptism.
Posted in: Book of James, Sermon Outlines