Living Faith: Separating from Worldliness - Part II

(To download an MP3 file of this sermon, click on the title above. To listen online, click on the play button of the audio player here.)

This is the eighth sermon in a series of messages on the New Testament book of James. This sermon is based on verses 13-17 of chapter four and verses 1-6 of chapter five. The sermon speaks about separating from the worldly traits of arrogant planning and living for luxury. 

Written Excerpts:

James 4:17 ^(NKJV) Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

Introduction:

Today we are going to resume our topic of separating from worldliness which we started in the last sermon in James 4. Today we plan to finish chapter 4 and the first 6 verses of chapter 5.

Because of James’ statements in 4:4 (“friendship with the world is enmity with God. Whoever is a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”), we have concluded that the different topics James addresses in chapter 4 and first part of chapter 5 are all related to the subject of worldliness. In the last sermon we talked about worldly strife and conflict. I think we can all agree that these are typical conditions in the world and spirit of this age.

What is worldliness? 

I think I would define worldliness as a pattern of thinking and conduct that is shaped and influenced by the values and practices of the present age contrary to God and heaven. Here are some definitions of worldliness from a few others:

C. H. Dodd, (Commentary on the Johannine Epistles, quoted in Tyndale NT Commentary) …the life of human society as organized under the power of evil.

John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life ― “I am wired by nature to love the same toys that the world loves. I start to fit in. I start to love what others love. I start to call earth "home." Before you know it, I am calling luxuries "needs" and using my money just the way unbelievers do. I begin to forget the war. I don't think much about people perishing. Missions and unreached people drop out of my mind. I stop dreaming about the triumphs of grace. I sink into a secular mind-set that looks first to what man can do, not what God can do. It is a terrible sickness. And I thank God for those who have forced me again and again toward a wartime mind-set.” (www.goodreads.com/quotes)

Jerry Bridges, Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate ― “The sin of worldliness is a preoccupation with the things of this temporal life. It's accepting and going along with the views and practices of society around us without discerning if they are biblical. I believe that the key to our tendencies toward worldliness lies primarily in the two words "going along". We simply go along with the values and practices of society.” (www.goodreads.com/quotes)

There are two more topics that James discusses in connection with the subject of worldliness. These are also areas from which we need to separate ourselves in order to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord. The first one is...

Worldliness includes arrogant planning. (4:13-17)

In these verses, James addresses the problem of living life without considering the future, which only God knows.

1. Arrogant plans ignore key factors. (13-14)

v.13 – describes the attitude of people who make plans for improving their lives as if they are completely in control. This is the normal thought pattern of those who do not believe in God – they plan and live as if everything depends and revolves around them. Sadly, many “Christians” live and act the same way.

v. 14 – Two key factors that have been ignored by those who make such plans.

a. First, No one knows the future.

“You do not know what will happen tomorrow.” (lit. "what is on the next day")

Only God knows the future, and when we make our plans without any consideration of our need for His direction, His will, and His aid, then we essentially set ourselves up to usurp His authority and position. 

b. Secondly, Human life is brief. “…it is a vapor.”

A person living with a worldly mindset makes all kinds of plans for the future to improve his/her life, but doesn’t consider factors from a spiritual, eternal point of view.

Luke 12:15-21 ^(KJV) And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. ¹⁶ And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: ¹⁷ And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? ¹⁸ And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. ¹⁹ And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. ²⁰ But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? ²¹ So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. 

Worldliness blinds us to the fact that life is unpredictable and brief. It is just like a mist or cloud that vanishes into thin air. No matter how long life is for anyone, when we look back at any point, it always seems like the years have flown by and opportunities have slipped away.

Since no one knows the future, and since life is brief and fragile, then none of us should be acting as if we are in control of all our plans and our future. We certainly need to keep our focus on God and what His will is in every area of our lives.

2. Arrogant plans can be corrected. (15-17)

James does not simply condemn the attitude or behavior, but he offers an alternative way of thinking and behaving that is compatible with God’s Word and God’s will.

a. An example of humble planning (15)

In contrast to a worldly mindset which doesn’t take God into account when making plans, the proper way to plan does involve contingency for God’s will and God’s plan.

I sometimes find myself almost absent-mindedly saying, “…the Lord willing.” But, James is talking about more than simply repeating a few words. He is urging his readers to count God into their plans.

b. A condemnation of arrogance (16)

Boasting about what we have planned and what we are going to accomplish is evil. Why is it evil? Because it does not give credit to the Lord, who made everything possible in the first place. It is evil because it essentially credits self for past and future accomplishments without giving credit/ praise to God who provided all the knowledge, the strength and the time to do what was done.

Some of us might have been critical of former President Obama when he made the (in)famous statement, “You didn’t build that…” Many people felt that he didn’t give adequate acknowledgement for the hard work and ingenuity people put into their companies and businesses. However, he was pointing out the fact that every successful person or company has had advantages of other people’s hard work that provided the foundation for which they built their own company upon.

James is basically warning against the same arrogant attitude that people exhibit when they act as if they are not dependent upon God every single second of life in order to accomplish what they accomplish. So they ought to include God and His will into their plans for the future.

c. A description of sin (17)

There has been some debate about the interpretation of this verse and whether it really fits in with the rest of the chapter because James changes from 2^nd person pronouns to 3^rd person pronouns. However, the word “therefore” at the beginning of the verse does indicate that it is tied it in with what has already been said. 

He seems to be urging his readers to follow the instructions he has just provided in verse 15 for the right way to think and plan for the future. (Tyndale NT Commentary) i.e. if you know you should consider God’s will and His control over the future before you make any plans, then whenever you don’t do that, it is sinful.

Even though the meaning of the verse should be connected with the context in verse 15, the principle has a broader application to the Christian understanding of sin. Sin = omission of what one ought to do. Jesus has given believers instructions about what we are to be doing in the world (make disciples), so if we do not obey, we have committed sin.

Jesus also gave other examples of sins of omission: “Just as you did not do it to the least of these my brothers, you did not do it to me.”

Sin also includes the assumption that knowledge was present. This brings some theologians to define sin as the “willful transgression of the known law of God.”

The second topic James discusses in connection with worldliness is...

Worldliness includes the love of luxury. (5:1-6)

One area of worldliness that has always been a trap and snare to all people, including Christians, is the area of wealth, materialism, and luxury. All the finer things of life have an alluring affect upon every person, which we must intentionally resist in order to keep our affections on things above and not on things of the earth. The whole problem with materialism and luxury stems from the fact that our list of “daily needs” keeps on getting longer and longer.

(Dale Yocum, This Present World, p.79, 1972) G. Ernest Thomas, in his splendid book on stewardship, entitled To Whom Much Is Given, declares that slightly over 100 years ago in the United States, approximately 6000 different articles were being manufactured. The average individual had 72 different wants, but only 16 needs. Standing in sharp contrast to this in one recent year, 400,000 articles were being manufactured, while the average individual had 484 wants and 94 needs! Undoubtedly the latter figures have risen much higher since the publication of his book.

As more products became available, the number of items “needed” rose also. I found out that Thomas’ book was published in 1946. Can you imagine how large the list of “wants” and “needs” for the “average individual” has grown today?

I am quite certain that all of us here today would not consider ourselves wealthy and living in luxury. Probably most of the things we have we can cite good reasons why we “need” them. Yet, I am also confident that everyone one of us here today would be considered “filthy rich” by people of other countries.

       1. Love of luxury produces disappointing results. (1-3)

James warns his readers of pending ruin to all the material wealth they have been relying on. There will be wailing and weeping due to the worthlessness of all they had trusted in and invested in. The condition described by James in these verses shows the futility of “laying up treasures on earth” rather than “laying up treasures in heaven.”

2. Love of luxury causes injustice. (4-6)

In all probability, James would acknowledge that riches and wealth do not affect everyone the same and certainly not to the extent as he describes here. However, he describes the natural tendencies of the human heart to take extreme advantage over our fellowman when a person is completely motivated by the love of money and the things money can buy.

James describes: Cheating on wages; poor treatment of employees; and even killing (or abusing) the innocent. – Greed. It can affect even the most pious.

“murder” or “killing” may not be intended literally, since such crimes would be handled by civil authorities. However, as one author points out, wealth has been used to pervert justice and influence the legal system against others who are not so affluent. (Terry Pollard, 24/7 Living: Hard Truths from James)

“The love of money is the root of all evil.” People have done and will do unbelievably horrible things if there is money in it.

Conclusion:

The story is dark and depressing. There have been many people who have ended up doing some very evil things because they did not guard their hearts and minds from the influences of this ungodly world. Instead, they caved to the world’s values and allowed them to change them.

As I said earlier, there are many, many expressions of worldliness. James only gives a few examples here. The only answer against the lure of worldliness is for every believer to be constantly cleansed in our minds and hearts by the purging, purifying fire of the Holy Spirit.

One of the Scriptures that was read earlier came from Romans 12:2 – “Be not conformed… but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

I want to close the service today by singing the hymn: Cleanse Me (O God)   

Living Faith: Separating from Worldliness - Part I

(To download an MP3 file of this sermon, click on the title above. To listen online, click on the play button of the audio player here.)

This is the 7th sermon in a series of messages through the New Testament book of James. This sermon covers verses 1-12 in chapter 4 of James and speaks about the worldly trait of conflict and strife.

Written Excerpts:

James 4:4 ^(NKJV) Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Introduction:

Today we are continuing a sermon series that I started 7 weeks ago on the book of James in the New Testament. I titled the series Living Faith for two main reasons:

1. In the entire letter, James provides “down-to-earth,” practical advice on how to live out our faith. Faith clearly applies to real life in the real world.

2. In the 2^nd chapter, James tells us that there is such a thing as “faith that is dead.” Therefore, we conclude that genuine faith is a “living faith” when it is backed up by works of faith that confirm it.

So today we continue the series by studying chapter 4, and we learn that Living Faith means…

Separating from Worldliness (4:1-5:6)

If you have a copy of the outline I have created for this study, you will notice the 6^th main point of the outline shows that the section on separating from worldliness includes all of chapter 4 and up to v.6 of chapter 5. I am sure we will not have time to cover the entire section today, so I plan to just focus on part of chapter four.

Paul wrote to the Romans and admonished them:

Romans 12:2 ^(NKJV) Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind….

In one of His prayers, Jesus described his disciples like this: John 17:14 ^(NKJV) … they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

There is a phrase we hear often that probably originated from this verse: They were in the world, but not of the world. These are just a couple examples of what the Bible teaches concerning the need to separate ourselves from the influences and values of the ungodly world we live in.

Erwin Lutzer, former pastor of Moody Church in Chicago, said: “Worldliness twists values by rearranging their price tags.”

The primary reason we conclude that James is addressing the issue of worldliness comes from verse 4. James 4:4 ^(NKJV) Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

If worldliness means adopting the value system and moral standards of the ungodly environment we live in, then it certainly applies to numerous topics that James doesn’t even talk about. But, he does address 3 different issues in this letter and we will look at one of those today with the help of the Holy Spirit. 

A.  Worldliness includes conflict and strife. (4:1-12)

The first matter James addresses relating to worldliness is the problem of conflict and strife. He uses the words, “wars” and “fighting.” Other translations use the words, “quarrels and conflicts.” Any “list” of traits of worldliness certainly should include fighting/conflict/strife.

1. The source and result of strife is revealed. (1-2)

James identifies the source of all the strife – it is the inward lusts, passions and desires that people have inside their hearts.

“wars/fighting” – first word indicates broader and bigger conflicts while the second word refers more to smaller or single disputes. (Overall war vs. individual battles.)

(Tyndale N. T. Commentaries) In a metaphorical sense, however, both words could describe violent verbal disputes…. And since disputes of this sort are almost always accompanied by harsh words, criticism and slander, the misuse of the tongue that James castigates (cf. 3:1-12; 4:11-12; 5:9) probably arose from these disputes.

“lusts that …” – lusts = pleasures; same word that our English word “hedonism” stems from.

“war in your members” – they go “on the warpath” in our lives resulting in fights with others.

(Lenski New Testament Commentary) He is dealing with the personal animosities, quarrels, factions, etc., that disgrace the Jewish Christian membership itself.… when passions are given free rein in Christian congregations, we see the members tearing each other in all manner of fights, each person or each faction seeking only its own ἡδοναί [pleasures].

v. 2 - James is probably not literally talking about murder, but equating anger, hatred, etc. with murder much like Jesus did and like we also find in: 1 John 3:15 (NKJV) Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 

Result? “You have not because you ask not.” In spite of all the conflict, these people still do not have what they seek, and the reason is because they haven’t asked the main one that can satisfy our longings – God.

While Chapter 3 directly addresses the misuse of the tongue, here in chapter 4 James digs deeper and speaks to the motivation behind such verbal wars and fighting that was taking place.

2. The cause of strife is described. (3-5)

With language that compares their passions to the kinds of lusts that bring about infidelity in a marriage, James describes their worldly pleasure-seeking. In v. 2 he says they haven’t asked, so they don’t have. Now in v. 3 he goes on to identify why they haven’t received what they may have asked for – it is because they asked for the wrong reasons.

This is part of growing up spiritually – understanding that God is not just some benevolent Santa Clause in heaven ready to just give us whatever we want and ask for. There is a spiritual maturity that brings us to the awareness that we ought to ask God for things that are in agreement with His will.

v. 4 “adulterers / adulteresses” - James’ use of ‘adulteresses’ thus serves to characterize his readers as the unfaithful people of God. (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries)

In the OT God’s prophets often described Israel’s unfaithfulness and departure from His commands as spiritual adultery.

“friendship / enmity;” “friend / enemy” These words remind us that we cannot serve two masters, as Jesus stated. We can’t love God with all our hearts and still crave the pleasures of the world.

See the quote in the bulletin today? “We worship our work, work at our play, and play at our worship.”

I shared a few minutes ago a quote from Dr. Erwin Lutzer, “Worldliness is all about twisting our values and priorities.”

v. 5 “Spirit yearns to jealousy” – a reminder that God will not tolerate competing “lovers” in our hearts. The Bible tells us that God is a jealous God. Just like a truly devoted husband cannot tolerate competition for the love of his wife, neither can God tolerate competing affections for our hearts. It is either the “world” or God. It can’t be both.

3. The remedy for strife is explained. (6-10)

I’m so glad that James doesn’t just end with the sordid description of the problems that they were having. But he continues by defining what the remedy is. It can be summed up in one word – “grace.” What can be done about all the conflict, quarreling and strife? Grace! What is the solution to the problem that the Spirit jealously yearns for all of our affection when we are divided in our love? Grace! How much grace?
MORE! 

However…. God only gives grace to certain people. He freely gives grace to the humble, but He firmly resists the proud.

v. 7 – So, what should we do in light of this fact?

James promptly gives 10 imperative verbs in the next four verses. Yes, God gives grace, but He expects us to do something with it. We need to use His grace to do the things that promote deliverance.

(Imperative verbs underlined)
We need to resist the devil, submit to God and draw near to God.

v. 8 – We also need to cleanse our hands and purify our hearts.

Psalm 24:3-4 ^(KJV) Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? ⁴ He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.

“double-minded” – wavering between world and God. (v.4)

v. 9 – We need to be afflicted (lament), mourn, weep and turn our laughter into mourning over the condition of our hearts that leads us to such behavior as he has been describing in verses 1-5.

Paul says, “Godly sorrow produces repentance or change. (2 Cor. 7:10)

v. 10 – We need to humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord. (A repeat of the command in v.7)

A total of 10 imperative verbs from vv.7-10. They admonish us to see our sins of worldly strife as God sees them and feel the sorrow and remorse that we should feel when we truly understand.

4. Admonitions to avoid strife are offered. (11-12)

James begins v.11 with another imperative command. 

“Do not speak evil” – (Lenski) All ten of the previous commands are positive; this one is negative.

These two verses seem to hearken back to the theme of chapter 3 – the misuse of the tongue, but he is still specifically dealing with the problems cited in the earlier verses of this chapter. As we said earlier, chapter 4 deals with the inner heart motivations that prompt the misuse of the tongue that is addressed in chapter 3. Here in verse 11, James is briefly restating the emphasis of chapter 3.

One author (Lenski) points out that in this context James is not appealing to the matter of love, which also would keep us from speaking evil of a brother, but he is appealing to the matter of law. Whenever any of us speaks evil of a brother [or sister], we are setting ourselves up as judges. We are not only judging the brother, but we are judging the law, because we are acting as though we are superior to God’s law which is there to protect both of us. (Lenski)

Conclusion:

In closing I want to emphasize the fact that we have been speaking about separating ourselves from worldliness. Worldly attitudes and actions are expressed in numerous ways, and this passage of Scripture has focused on the specific problem of dissention and fighting. In our next message we will be looking at two additional examples of worldliness that James addresses.

Let us not lose sight of the fact that this is just one expression. The expression is wrong and needs to be corrected, but the inherent problem in our hearts must be addressed or there will still be problems. The only way to truly separate from worldliness in our daily lives is to experience the grace of God that was mentioned in verse 6. 

When God’s grace is applied by the Holy Spirit in our hearts, it confronts the heart problems of selfish pleasure seeking, self-centeredness, and the like. His Spirit can cleanse our hearts and make us whole-heartedly devoted to Him and His will. However, it requires our earnest seeking and cooperation with God’s probing work in removing everything that is contrary to His heart.

The closing song I’ve chosen for today emphasizes the need to be holy. To be holy means to be separated from the unholy, the worldly, and the ordinary; set apart for God’s purpose.

Let us sing Take Time to Be Holy