Grace for Adulterers

Resurrection Wisdom in a Perishing World – Part 7
God’s Abundant Grace for Spiritual Adulterers
(James 4:1-10, Preaching: Pastor Nathan Snyder, April 27, 2014)

[4:1] What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?  [2] You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.  [3] You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.  [4] You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.  [5] Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, "He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us"?  [6] But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble."  [7] Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  [8] Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  [9] Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.  [10] Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Why do we quarrel and fight with one another?  James says the reason is the sinful passions in our hearts.  We don’t have what we want and so we resent and envy and slander and fight with one another.  The reason we don’t have is because we don’t ask God.  And when we ask, we don’t receive because we are asking with the wrong motives, in order to spend his gifts on our own passions.  We are like an adulterous wife who takes her husband’s gifts and uses them to run after another man.  Our heart is drawn after something other than God.  We want to be friends with the world, meaning the sinful world of greed, lust, and covetousness.  By doing so we make ourselves enemies of God.  You can either have God as your god or something else can be your god.  But to try to have God while still living as if he is not enough for you is adultery.  So the root cause of our quarrels with one another is a spiritual problem in our relationship with God.

God made us for himself.  He alone can satisfy our deepest longings.  God yearns over our souls like a jealous husband, and he is not happy when we belittle him.  Yet he gives greater grace.  He opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.  Indeed, if we will humble ourselves before the Lord, he will lift us up.  James gives specific directions on how to humble ourselves before the Lord.  He says: Submit to God.  This refers to obedience.  What has God commanded you to do?  Do it!  Resist the devil.  When he tempts you with the bogus promises of false gods, fight back.  Don’t just say a few prayers, vaguely call to mind some Scripture, and then give in because the temptation is too much.  Fight back with every means God has given us, and keep fighting until the devil goes away.  God promises Satan will eventually flee.  Draw near to God.  Draw near in prayer, in the Scriptures, in fellowship with other believers, in worship.  God promises he will in turn draw near to you.  He will more and more satisfy your heart with his goodness, which in turn will lead you to greater love and peace toward others.  Cleanse your hands and hearts.  Devote your actions and your affections to God.  Repent of your double-mindedness that calls upon God and at the same time clings to idols.  Weep over your sin.  Not just over its consequences.  Not just because you would like to think better of yourself.  Rather weep because God has done nothing but good to you and you have committed adultery against him who deserves nothing less than your utter devotion and trust.  If we will thus humble ourselves before God, he will exalt us and fill us with his own joy.

Put the Word to Work:  When you find envy or resentment in your heart toward others, trace it back to your failure to trust and delight fully in God.  Then humble yourself before him, expecting him to lift you up.