[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Sunday morning, the 28th of January, 2024, at Pilgrim Reformed Church. A recording of our service should be available on our YouTube streaming channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]
Family, I want you to think for a moment, imagine that you’ve just recently started learning about Jesus. You’ve heard enough to believe in Him as the Son of the one true God, and you’ve joined together with other believers to study and worship Him, even though you usually have to meet in secret, in people’s homes or back rooms of stores. Every now and then one of His disciples from Jerusalem comes by and tells your group more, and sometimes you get to read letters from the Apostles that are passed around from church to church.
But really, this whole New Way, this Christian faith, is all fairly new, maybe only 45 or 50 years old. Everything is still evolving, with slight changes here and there, and new folks bring in new ideas - some good and some not so good. How are you supposed to know which is which? How can you tell what is expected of you, or required of you?
This is the situation that James and the other Apostles are trying to address with their letters. There may be a very few second generation Christians at this point, but the faith is mostly made up of new believers, both Jewish converts and Gentiles. The Gentiles carry baggage from their old Pagan ways, and many of the Jews are laden with their own traditions, some of which run counter to what Jesus preached. And here they are trying to learn something new, trying to feel their way around a new way of living that has no traditions yet.
Most of these new Christians are clustered in small groups spread out across the known world. In some cases, the Apostolic letters are their only source of information about Jesus and what He taught. James, in particular, offers good, sound advice to these folks as to how they should live their day to day lives as Christians, about how they should interact with others, both believers and non-believers alike. And James, being a brother of Jesus, can speak with special authority as to how Jesus wants us to live.
In our reading this morning, James continues speaking to these early Christians in a way they can understand, looking at the problems they face and telling them how they should react. Sometimes he seems to get a bit impatient with his audience, almost fussing at them. But you know, every now and then we need to be fussed at, if for no other reason than to get our attention.
So with all that being said, please listen and follow along as we begin the 4th chapter of James’ letter to the early Christian church with verses 1 through 10, and I’ll be reading from the New Living Translation of our Holy Bible this morning…
1 What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? 2 You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. 3 And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong — you want only what will give you pleasure.4 You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. 5 Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit He has placed within us should be faithful to Him. 6 And He gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say,“God opposes the proudbut gives grace to the humble.”7 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. 9 Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up in honor.
--James 4:1-10 (NLT)
Let us pray… Heavenly Father, again we thank You for preserving the Apostolic letters for us, for through them we can learn how we should live from those who were closest to Your Son Jesus. Like the early church family, we all carry our own traditions, values, and habits into our faith life – some good, some harmful. Thank You, Father, for showing us what is good and right. Please help us rid ourselves of the harmful baggage we hesitate to let go of. Please forgive us, Father, when we accept the world’s ways, even knowing they are not Your ways. Help us take these words James wrote to heart to aid us in growing our relationship with You.
Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand Your message today. Help us be truly humble in Your presence, and in our interactions with others. This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Journalist Malcolm Muggeridge once wrote in the Christian Medical Society Journal that... "G.K. Chesterton once said that it is often supposed that when people stop believing in God, they believe in nothing. Alas, it is worse than that," Muggeridge added. "When they stop believing in God, they believe in anything."
Does God exist? Does the being that we call God - capital 'G' - really exist? It would be awfully hard to draw closer to God if you don't believe He even exists.
Well, He does exist, whether we believe it or not. And if we don't believe, it's because we chose not to believe. We go merrily about our lives - we live, we play, we make other little human beings, we govern, we grow, we shrink, we die - and all as though there is no God, or that even if there is, His existence doesn't matter a bit to us.
Does God exist? Too many people just don't seem to care anymore.
James starts out chapter 4 asking questions of the church family. It’s almost like he knows what is going on, even though we’ve had no indication so far that he has received any communications from any of the churches who might be reading this letter.
But James has special insight, and the first question he asks has more to do with understanding human nature than knowing exactly what is going on where. Let’s face it… quarrels, fights, and spats go on all the time among us humans, even within a church of like-minded believers. James is merely stating what should be obvious if we stop long enough to think about it.
Our spats all come from evil desires of the heart. Maybe not from our heart as an individual, but from someone’s inner desire to try to force an issue. Pride is a frequent instigator of arguments, and we know pride is a deadly sin. Jealousies and covetousness and lust fuel our fights. We want something we can’t have, or shouldn’t have, and we’ll do anything to get it.
And the church certainly isn’t excluded in this. Sometimes we even let the little things, like what color to paint the walls, blow up into all-out war.
James says that we don’t get what we want because we don’t ask God for it, but even if we do think to ask, we’re asking for the wrong reasons. If we’re only asking for something that will be to our benefit alone, that will give us pleasure, especially if it is at someone else’s expense, or that will satisfy our lusts for the moment, then those are all wrong reasons and God will not answer that request. For James is associating all those with the world and worldly desires.
It’s our ties to the world and the world’s ways that keep us from making a complete and full relationship with God. When we put the world before anything else, when we want what the world offers, when we focus on worldly things rather than the things of heaven, we are effectively turning our back on God. And as Jesus said, if we’re not for Him, for God, then we’re against Him. Or as James puts it, we’re acting as enemies of God.
James uses the word “adulterers” to describe those who put their worldly desires above all else. Now, this use could indeed include actual adulterers, those who enjoy physical, sexual relationships outside the bonds of marriage, those who are unfaithful to their spouse. But here, James also means those who are unfaithful to God. When we refuse to let go of the world, when we let our pride or jealousy or wants and desires take precedence in our life, we are being unfaithful to God.
So James has once again pointed out a problem with our conduct. And we can see things haven’t changed all that much in the last 2000 years when it comes to human behavior. As before, though, James also gives us a solution. He reminds us of what our Bible tells us, that God will reject prideful people but will be ever graceful to the humble. To receive God’s grace we need to humble ourselves. This isn’t a natural attitude for most folks. We have to work at it. But if we wash our spiritual hands, purify our hearts, and focus our loyalty solely on God, He will lift us up in His grace and mercy.
All this follows very closely to what the Apostle Paul wrote in one of his own letters, when he encouraged us to give ourselves to God physically and spiritually, not doing everything the way the world does, but instead becoming the new person God has made us into. Hear what Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans, from the first two verses of chapter 12…
1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice — the kind He will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship Him. 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
--Romans 12:1-2 (NLT)
I love the imagery of giving ourselves to God as a living sacrifice. Jesus gave of Himself as a blood sacrifice for the atonement of our sin. God doesn’t ask this of us, just that we serve Him while we live, giving our all to Him and for Him. We have been sanctified, set apart from the rest of the world to do the work of God, so we must let go of the world and embrace our mission, for it is good and pleasing to God, and perfect in His eyes.
Paul repeats this call to separate ourselves from worldly desires in his letter to one of his brother evangelists. In the 2nd chapter of his letter to Titus, verses 11 through 13, Paul tells us…
11 God has shown us undeserved grace by coming to save all people. 12 He taught us to give up our wicked ways and our worldly desires and to live decent and honest lives in this world. 13 We are filled with hope, as we wait for the glorious return of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
--Titus 2:11-13 (NLT)
God came to us in the person of Jesus to offer salvation to all people. Sadly, not everyone believes. But those of us who do have been taught, by Jesus Himself, to give up our sinful lives and set aside all worldly desires. Just because we have to live in this world doesn’t mean we have to be part of the world. For we are filled with a hope that the world cannot know, as we anxiously await the return of Jesus, whom the world rejects.
Twice in the short span of four verses of our reading this morning, James tells us to be humble, to humble ourselves before God. He says if we do, God will lift us up.
One day, long ago, Jesus was invited to dinner at the home of a leader of the Pharisees. All those in attendance were watching Him closely. The Apostle Luke recorded some of what happened that evening, in chapter 14 of his Gospel account, verses 7 through 11…
7 When Jesus noticed that all who had come to the dinner were trying to sit in the seats of honor near the head of the table, He gave them this advice: 8 “When you are invited to a wedding feast, don’t sit in the seat of honor. What if someone who is more distinguished than you has also been invited? 9 The host will come and say, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then you will be embarrassed, and you will have to take whatever seat is left at the foot of the table!10 “Instead, take the lowest place at the foot of the table. Then when your host sees you, he will come and say, ‘Friend, we have a better place for you!’ Then you will be honored in front of all the other guests. 11 For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
--Luke 14:7-11 (NLT)
Jesus says if we humble ourselves, if we take on a truly humble attitude, we will be exalted before God, while the prideful will be humbled. James says if we humble ourselves, God will lift us up. To be exalted is to be lifted up, to be elevated in rank, in position, in honor, physically and spiritually.
This is how we come closer to God. This is how we become more righteous in His eyes. If we want to build and grow our relationship with the Most High God, we start by being humble. And I’m not talking about giving lip service or putting on an act – God will see through all that. We humble ourselves by putting others ahead of ourselves, by putting their needs first, by doing the service God commands of us, and by remembering that we owe everything to God.
So family, let’s be humble and grow ever closer in our personal relationship with our Father in heaven. And let’s not forget that His Son died for us, just so we can come close to God. In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord, the Son of God, who came to us to redeem us and to give us new life. Amen.
Let us pray… Almighty God, thank You for allowing us to come into Your presence in our prayer and in our worship. We pray that our worship is pleasing to You. We know and acknowledge that everything we have comes from You, and that without You we would have nothing, we would be nothing. Thank You, Father, for all Your many blessings. Too often, Father, we struggle to separate ourselves from the world. We let the world offer something that we desire, and our desire can easily lead to lust, to pride, to quarreling, and to sin. Forgive us those times, please Father. Please help us be humble. Help us release our grasp on the world and all its charms. Help us grow and nourish our relationship with You, drawing ever closer to You. And please help us do a better job of sharing our Lord Jesus with others so that they too may be saved by Your mercy and His sacrifice.
Father, please shield us from Satan as he attacks our faith, trying to make us his own. Help us be better servants, glorifying You in all we do so that the world can see You in us, through our deeds, in how we live. And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what the world throws at us or holds out before us.
Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…
Lord Jesus, during Your short ministry on earth, You tried to teach us everything we need to know about the kingdom of heaven and how we should live this life to prepare for the next. And You taught us how to come close to Your Father God. Thank You, Jesus for sharing the secrets of heaven, for not only telling us how to live but also by showing us in how You lived. Please help us be more like You in our actions and in our reactions to what goes on around us. Help us be more humble and help us rid ourselves of worldly desires. And Lord, please help us reach out to the non-believing world, sharing the Gospel message, showing Your love through our love. Give us the words to say, show us what to do to help bring the lost to You.
Lord Jesus, please shield our minds and our hearts from Satan’s lies and the world’s empty promises. Guide us around all the devil’s traps and snares. Help us see though his temptations. Please help us be faithful and true to You, putting all our trust in You, all our hope in You. Heal the hurts that separate and divide us one from another. Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this life might offer. This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior. Amen.
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