That part of God's Word that we want to consider with you, with God's help, is James, Chapter 4. The book of James, Chapter 4. From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust and have not. ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. Ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do you think that the scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy, but he giveth more grace? Wherefore, he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. Speak not evil one of another, brethren, He that speaketh evil of his brother and judgeth his brother speaketh evil of the law and judgeth the law. But if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy. Who art thou that judgest another? Go to now ye that say today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain, whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings. All such rejoicing is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Who can forget the history of Jacob in Genesis when he wrestled with God all night? and how later on the Lord directed Jacob to return to the land of Canaan, how he had to face his brother again, and then afterward he would settle in the land of Canaan with his family. In Genesis 35, in obedience to God's command, Jacob returned to Bethel. Bethel was a place where the Lord had met him at first, years before. And as Jacob and his family prepared to make that journey to Bethel, he said to them all, put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments, and let us arise and go up to Bethel. So clearly, Jacob was aware that at least some in his family had brought with them the idols of Padanaram, where they had lived before. And in Jacob's mind, the idols and the worship of the Lord cannot go together. And so he commanded to put those false gods away. The Lord Jesus, in fact, used very similar language. In Matthew 6, 24, he said, no man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. And, of course, mammon is a word for wealth or earthly possessions. But no matter what it is that we crave, no matter what it is that we hold fast to and so value, an idol is something we embrace in our heart that stands in opposition to God. That's exactly what James says in chapter 4, verse 4, that we read a moment ago. Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. So what we want to do with God's help tonight is we want to take a look into our own hearts and lives, and we want to see if God will show us our own idols, so that we might have them not only identified, but also cleared away in the right way, so that our fellowship with Him would be unimpaired, and we might serve Him with a clear conscience and with an undivided heart. So what we want to consider is James chapter four, the first 10 verses. And if it's not your normal habit to have your Bible open, this would be a good time to have it open because the, you know, James letter is very compact. He puts a lot into very little space. So I would recommend you have that open if you don't mind. I'm just going to read again to get us started the first verse. From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? The warfare of heart idolatry. Winning that warfare. In the first place, we need to know our enemy. So we want to look at the character and the cause of this warfare. In the second place, we want to look at the effects of this warfare. How does it affect me? How does it affect others? How does it affect God? And in the third place, is there a victory? Is there a way to win such a battle, such a war? As I mentioned a moment ago, the book of James is quite unique, it is very compact, and it is a very practical epistle. At the same time, it is a very searching one. James wastes no time to get right to the heart of his reader. In the fourth chapter, which includes our text verses, it begins to speak about strife among the brethren. So it's talking about also this chapter judging one another and about the need for caution when we talk about future events and plans. We're going to focus on the first part, the first 10 verses that speak about strife among the brethren. We want to look at the character and cause of this strife, which he calls warfare. From whence or from where do these wars and fightings come from? And notice he says, among you. So the apostle tonight is not addressing the world. He is not talking about where literal wars and battles come from. why people in the world are at enmity with each other. That's not the focus of what he's saying here. He's talking about us. He's talking about the church. He's talking about Christians. So the first question we need to ask to even begin to relate to this passage is, is there any strife in our lives? Is there anger in our heart, in our home, Are our voices ever raised? Are we ever arguing between us and other family members or friends? Do we become impatient with other people? Children, do you ever argue or become impatient with your brother and sister if you have one? Do you ever make unloving remarks? Do you ever talk back to your parents? Do you ever disobey them? Do you perhaps slowly obey them or in your heart you're not obeying them even though you do what they say? Are you ever grumbling? If we're married, do we ever make unloving or cutting remarks to our spouse? Do we show impatience with him or her, or anger? Do we ever, perhaps, go to the other end of that spectrum that we're learning about on Wednesday nights, where we give them the silent treatment, or the cold shoulder, as it's called? Is there differences between young people and parents? Whether it's disrespect, or it's pent-up frustration, or it's unloving comments, or impatience with one another. The Apostle James, you'll notice, doesn't ask if there are these things. He assumes them. He doesn't say if there are wars and fightings. He says, where do they come from? Where does this strife originate? If you were to be asked that question, what would your answer be? We might be tempted to say, well, it's my wife, or it's my husband, or it's my son, or my daughter, or my parents, my brother and sister. That's just to blame. It's that person at work that just gets to me. It's that student at school that just is difficult. James says, it's none of the above. None of the above. You might think, well, just spend five minutes in my home. Spend 20 minutes around my spouse. Spend a half an hour in my workplace, and you wouldn't say that. But before we hastily conclude that James is incorrect, let's remind ourselves. Our text is not the opinion of a man who lived a couple thousand years ago. It is, may I say, the opinion of God, who made us, who sees and knows all things, who knows everything going on inside of us. So it is the inspired truth of God. The wars and the fightings don't come from outside of us. So where does it come from? James answers that question. Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? They come, says the Lord, these fightings, these quarrels, this impatience, this anger, this frustration. It comes from within us. And he pinpoints that place within us. He says, lusts. Lusts that war. So, the fighting and the war outside of us comes from a warfare on the inside of us. And the word lusts here simply means strongly held desires, passionate desires. That which we so want. Now, we realize right away that desires, even strong desires, are not necessarily sinful in themselves. In fact, God created us capable of desiring, and that's a gift. So, for example, what a wonderful thing if we desire the Word of God, if we desire to spend meaningful time with our spouse and with our children, with our friends. So the desiring in and of itself is not the problem. Nor is James actually talking about what we desire here in this passage. Now it's true, we should only want that which is good and right in the sight of God, but that's simply not what he's saying. What he's writing about, what we want to think about tonight, what do we do with our desires? In other words, what place, what importance do our desires have in us? In other words, what is happening with these desires? Well, James tells us. They're fighting. Our desires are warring in our members. Literally, the Greek says they are engaged in conflict. They are wrestling. Our desires are wrestling. Fighting. Fighting against what? Fighting against God. I want to borrow an illustration from someone who described this. I'm going to use my watch because I find that that seems to help people understand. Let's say I have a desire that's actually a good desire. Maybe I'm single and I'm praying for a spouse. So, just pretend for a moment this watch represents whatever the desire may be. So, a right desire ought to be held in an open hand, uplifted to God. What does that mean? That means we acknowledge that all good things come from God but that we're willing to offer all things, including what we desire to God, that He would decide what I should have. Isn't that exactly the attitude of Job? The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. So when our hand of desire is open, We're leaving that desire, as it were, in God's hands. We are trusting Him to give us what we need, when we need it, and how much we need of it. He knows what's best for us. But what James is describing is this, the closing of our hand around our desire. It is our heart gripping what we are desiring, and what happens is we are now in a competition of sorts in our heart. And the competition is who has the greatest claim on our heart. Who has that claim? Is God or our desire for other things going to take precedence? If our greatest desire was God, then we could more easily open our hand and trust that his providence and his mercy and his grace will guide us. But warfare breaks out, James says, against God and against others when this desire is threatened. when someone either doesn't fulfill that desire or when they threaten to take away what I am desiring. And we should realize, as I'm sure we all do, that this warthird doesn't reach a fever pitch overnight, right away. Again, desires are not necessarily evil unless, of course, the object of desire is sinful. But as desires, James is saying we must leave whatever we are wanting in His hands. And when we don't, and I want us to listen carefully, because James will describe this progression, if we don't leave them open-handed with God, then we begin to cultivate a sense of need. So instead of just asking God if I may, the more I focus on that desire, I begin to turn it into something I convince myself I need. So instead of desiring to be married, over time I need to be married. And if I continue to foster those desires and begin to turn them into expectations, Then I begin to face the danger of treating ill whoever doesn't meet that expectation or who threatens the thing I desire. So let me give you a practical example. Let's just say you get home from work and you want to relax after work. That's a legitimate desire. If there was nothing else that was calling you away from that rest. But we can convince ourselves, I've worked really hard today. I need to rest. I expect to rest. And I expect those around me to provide that rest. And you can see, beloved, that expectations can easily change into demands. I will have it or else. And when those expectations become demands, and those demands are not met, whatever they be, however good they might be, that leads to disappointment, that leads to disillusionment. And then our relationship with God and with others can turn into something as base as this. I love someone because they meet my expectation and they supply my demand. I'm disappointed or even resent someone if they don't supply. And you can see, going back to that example, that if I reach that stage, what just happened to my hand? It became a fist. And that's exactly what James is saying. He's talking about wars among us, fightings among us. And so my demands can lead to threats if you don't. And they could be unspoken demands, simply expectations that I believe you ought to know and will fulfill or else. There'll be results. if you don't meet this need. And as we've been learning on Wednesday nights, that can go anywhere from over anger and violence all the way across the spectrum to silent treatment, cold shoulder, pent-up frustrations. James 1 verse 15 actually gives an abbreviated description of this entire process. He writes there, but every man is tempted When, and notice the wording, he is drawn away of his own lust. Tempted, when he's drawn away, that would be away from the right place, from God. By what? By his desires, by his passions. And he's enticed by them. And then, when lust hath conceived, when we've fed it, when we've accommodated it, especially if it's evil, it brings forth sin. And sin, when it's finished, brings forth death. And that death could be the ultimate death, eternal death, but it could also be the fighting and the warfare and the broken relationships. And you notice, please, that this whole wretched process is happening inside of us. Imagine, beloved, if the Apostle Paul, who was given by the Lord those thorns in his flesh, had not received them with the grace of God, but instead of learning to adjust his expectations to God's wise plan, He could have built up resentment. Why isn't the Lord answering my prayer? Why are these thorns still here? Doesn't the Lord know that it's interfering with ministry? And it could have turned into overt rebellion against God's ways. And he would have missed the huge blessing of learning that God's grace is sufficient for him even with the trial. Now, what is it What do we call it when we elevate our desires in this manner? And James Mintz has no words. It's idolatry. Simply put, idolatry is worshiping the creature, whether it's a person or a thing or a condition, over God, submitting ourselves to Him. Idolatry can be simply favoring what I will over what God wills. It is closing our hand around our desires and desired things instead of opening our hand upward and having God decide. And we know, beloved, don't we, from the Old and New Testament, God hates idolatry. He will have no other gods before Him. And even for ourselves, idolatry perverts the very reason that we were created in the first place. Jesus Christ came into this world, suffered and died to restore that initial purpose, which is that we would yield all that we are and all that we have to God and His glory. Now, What are the results of holding on to whatever it is we need in our mind? Warfare. But warfare without and warfare within. What does that look like in daily life? So going back to the example from before, let's go deeper with it. Let's say I have this overarching bent to want to have ease and comfort. I just don't like to be bothered or hindered or... We get the idea. So that means when it comes to scheduling, when it comes to my daily itinerary, so to speak, my workload, instead of yielding it to God's direction to see how his providence and his word directs me, I seek to close my hand around my desire for comfort. I'm not willing to part with that desire without a fight, even though God might seem fit to take it from me for my good for a time. Now, what would that do internally and externally? Well, let's look. If I am tightly holding on to, let's say, my love of comfort and ease, What are some of the ramifications? Well, first of all, I'm going to avoid as many situations as I can that threaten that desired ease. So, for example, I would probably avoid evangelistic opportunities, because encountering someone I don't know, well, that might cause unease, and I don't want that. Or, I might have a tendency to bury myself in the workplace so that I don't have to deal with disciplining my children at home. I'll let my wife take care of that because I'm doing important work at the office, even though I'm really staying there late because it's easier for me. Maybe that love of ease means I have less meaningful interactions with my wife or with my children. Because when I keep things at the surface level, when I keep things with small talk and interactions, when I insulate myself from those deep conversations, I'm not so vulnerable. I'm not so uncomfortable. I don't have to get so involved. It's way easier to just skate through life with shallow relationships. Do you see how insidious this can be? It's like something that has tentacles. It just works its way into every facet of my life. And I just named one thing that we can elevate to idolatry status. Maybe my very work is what disturbs my peace, so I avoid my work. I excuse myself for doing poorly. I excuse myself for being lazy. I might delegate more of my work than I should to other people, because I simply don't want to do it. And then I start living for weekends, and I start living for vacations, and I start living for time off. The minimum required is what I want to do simply because I love my ease and comfort. So who would I want to have around me? People who enable me. Those who help me be at ease and stay at ease. I don't want people around me who warn me. I don't want people around me who criticize me or my work. I want people to leave me alone, or do my work for me, or let my wife take over all of the things I don't want to do. And I love her when she does that, and I am upset with her when she reminds me of my responsibility. But beloved, that's all on the horizontal plane. What is this kind of life doing to my relationship with God? We said idolatry. Following the same example, my love of ease affects directly my relationship with God. How? Prayer becomes laborious. So what do I do to make it easy? I make it mechanical. Or I minimize my time in prayer. I become slothful to any religious exercise but the bare necessities. So, yeah, I'll come to church once and I'll, you know, put something in the collection plate because I ought to. And I'll have devotions, but they'll all be mechanical. I'll avoid the hard work of wrestling with temptations or mortifying indwelling sin or evangelism, because that would just cost too much effort. And I become more interested and more absorbed, even unconsciously, with my desire for this than God's glory and the extension of God's kingdom. I would rather sit in my self-imposed ease than show compassion or get the least involved in the life of a sinner who I know is going to hell. That's how awful it becomes, completely warped and unbalanced, because I've elevated a simple desire to the status of a god. and I'm willing to fight to retain it. Now that's just one example how many there are in our lives. the desire to control. Which means, if I'm not in control, I'm anxious and I'm worried. Or if I can't trust God to control, it gives me worries and anxieties too. Or, on the other hand, if I elevate the need, the felt need to control, I'm going to manipulate others so that I'm in control at all time. And the end of that road is independence toward God. I can do it myself. I have to do it myself. because I can't trust him. Fear of man, the desire to please others, gluttony lays in his sensuality. It's all on the list. The list is endless. We can make anything into a rival God. And God tonight is calling us to examine our hearts, each one of us ourselves, praying that God's Spirit would shine light in there that we might see what those idols are and renounce them. And ask the Lord, because we're going to need the Lord to open up that fist. Don't think I'm just going to go home and unwind that tightly wrapped ball of idolatry. No, we need the Lord to free us. His name will be Jesus. He shall save his people from their sins. In the second place, what are some of the effects of this warfare? Not only are there these battles, but look at the way we set ourselves up for frustration. James goes on to say, Ye lust, so you desire, and have not. And then look at the words he used next. You kill. and desire to have and cannot obtain. Ye fight and war, yet ye have not because ye ask not." You don't pray. You pray and receive not because you ask amiss. How amiss? That you may consume what you're asking God for upon your desires. Is the Lord exaggerating here? When He chooses words like war, like kill, like fight? He's not exaggerating. He never exaggerates. Wars and fightings, so strife and quarreling and disputing, those are telltale signs something's wrong. Not out there. Something's wrong in here. The wars between nations, beloved, are simply grand extensions, outward manifestations, of what took place in someone's heart. But he's not addressing national leaders. He's addressing church-going Christians. Lusts that war in your members. Literally it reads, pleasures that do military service. Pleasures that lead the army. Pleasures that go out to fight. You lust and you have not. So here's a person, they've got those desires as tight as a drum wrapped up in their heart, but God doesn't give it to them. Mercifully give it to them. The word lust here is to crave, to covet. He says, literally, you murder in your desire. And again, it's not the desire itself that kills, but it's us insisting that we are going to control that idol. And Jesus says exactly the same thing. In Matthew 5, remember what he said about murder. An angry look, angry words, even angry thoughts about others. And why do we have them? You won't enable me, you won't assist me to serve my idols. Beloved, I have had, I'm sure some of you have too. I know my elders have. Do you ever talk to someone, I mean really talk to someone, who has left the service of God? If you can get through the surfacy talk, nine times out of 10, they're gonna pin the blame on God. God didn't do this. I tried praying and nothing happened. I tried doing what I was supposed to do and it didn't work. It is a heart touched by grace that says, no, it wasn't God, it was me. And James talks about people who pray and don't get what they want because they're praying for the wrong reason. So instead of desiring to have a spouse so that together we may serve and glorify God, I might desire a spouse because I'm lonely, or I want to have my needs met, or I want to have somebody take care of my things so I can have more time to do what I want to do. What a mercy if God doesn't answer our prayer like that. You kill, he says, and desire to have. You're zealous. I found it remarkable. And I know that some addictions are very hard to break. My father died of one of them. But what's so interesting, there are these addictions that people say they cannot overcome. But I've seen it, I don't know how many times, when the grace and power of God come to bear. It may be a fight, but it's a fight that can be won. We can justify our idols all we want. We can make every excuse in the book. We convince everybody around us it's legitimate. I deserve it. Scripture says it. I must have it. And you have to give it to me. And we can do that all day long, but God is not going to bow to our will. He's not going to be manipulated by our prayers. He's searching our heart, and he's showing us what's in them. And I want you to notice, not once does James say what it is we're fighting for, lusting after, or craving. The object is not the point here. It is what we do with our desires. Any desire that rivals our desire for God, God hates. Thou shalt worship no other God, for the Lord whose name is Jealous is a jealous God. This epistle of James, this part of chapter four, when rightly understood, will help us understand what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 6, 12. All things are lawful unto me. Now, he's not calling sin lawful, but he's saying among all the lawful things I can have, all things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient, meaning I may do it, but it's not good for me to do it or have it. All things are lawful unto me," he goes on to say, but I will not be brought under the power of any. So even something that's lawful, that's all right to desire, can have such a hold on us that it, Paul says, it has a power on us. It begins to control us. And this is the folly of idolatry from the very beginning of time. Man thinks, I control my idols. God says, your idols control you. Again in 1 Corinthians 9, three chapters later, I keep under my body, Paul writes, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. What's he talking about? Literally, in the Greek, it's a wrestling match. With whom? With himself. In this case, with his body. He's saying, I have to fight with my own body, because if I don't, I may be a wonderful minister, but I'm going to hell myself." So what happens when we try to protect and to feed and to foster this? Thank God that the Lord doesn't give us all that we fight for. What a blessing when God thwarts our idolatrous hearts so that we're never quite satisfied long-term. Imagine what it would be like if you gave us what we wanted every time. For as long as we wanted, we'd all be in hell. You have not. You have not. You receive not. Jacob said, search your stuff and leave whatever you find that doesn't belong in Bethel under that tree. I'm digging the hole, you put it in there. Beloved, tonight God is digging the hole. And he's saying, whatever you've got in your heart that's rivaling me, that's controlling you, that you can't let go of without a fight, there's the hole. Don't leave here tonight. Don't go to sleep tonight. I'm talking to myself as well. Bury it with God's help. God created all things, not for our glory, beloved, but for his own. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. For thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." Not for our pleasure. And then the greatest danger couched in this text you can actually find in verses four and five, surprisingly. You adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do you think that the scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? Paul is not now switching to a different commandment. He's still talking about coveting, but he's now couching it in terms of marriage. You, with your idolatrous obsession, are unfaithful to me. You have run after other lovers. You are not mine as you ought to be mine. Your tightly held dreams, however legitimate they may be, is spiritual adultery. It's interesting, the word friendship, translated friendship here, is the word that Peter used when he answered Jesus' question, do you love me? It's kind of a love that's not the deepest, it's more of the love of friend to friend. He's saying, God is saying, this friendship of the world, this infatuation with the world is not consistent with godliness. You can't have both. Either the world is your home, or God is your home, and if you love the world, you hate the Lord. You are his enemy. You can't sort of find this middle path where you're not as worldly as other people. You may not be as godly as other people. You'll do your religious duties, but you can't help but have a foot in the world, too, because it's just so... Well, you can't. God says, I won't have it. That would be like me going home and saying, well, dear, I'll live with you half of the time, but there's this other lady I met. Do you think she would stand for that? Do you think she should? Well, why should God, who made us, why should God, who provides for us, why should God, who gives us what we need, but not always what we want? You adulterer, you adulteress, how could you? This is what Romans 1 refers to as changing the truth of God into a lie. How? By worshiping and serving the creature or created thing more than the Creator. So in other words, we're holding someone else close to our bosom and we're letting God go. So are there any desires ruling your life? Are there any fears ruling your life? Is there anything causing strife in your life, enmity between you and someone? These things must be brought into the light. They cannot remain in darkness. They must be dealt with. They must be mortified. They must be uprooted. They must be killed or else. God says, you have made your choice. You have chosen whatever it is over me. And we may not give any place to idols in our heart. That is to give place to the devil. Now, that's a pretty deep ditch. How does one get out of it? Is there a way to win this war. We saw earlier how James can say so much in such a little place. So too with the solution. He writes, but He, that is God, giveth more grace. What is grace? It's unearned favor. Unearned by us, but earned by Christ. It didn't say we earn more grace. It didn't say we asked for more grace. It didn't say we deserve more grace. He's just said you're an adulterer, you're an adulteress, you're guilty. But I'm going to give you more grace. Romans 5 verse 20, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. And as hard as it is for us to fathom, seeing how deep a pit we can dig for ourselves, God's free favor and power are well able to combat internal idolatry. Now, just look at the key words that follow that are the solution. First, let me just list them. Humble, submit yourselves to God, Resist the devil. Draw near to God. Cleanse your hands. Purify your hearts. Be afflicted. Mourn and weep. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord. Did you notice not a single thing in that list has anything to do with anyone outside of you? He didn't say anything to your spouse. He didn't say anything to your child. He didn't say anything to your boss or your teacher or anyone else. He said, here's what I would have you to do. And what a precious instruction it is. What is humility in a practical sense? Isn't humility the grace of God that causes us to take our rightful place before God? In other words, He knows better for me than I do. And so, submit yourselves to Him is the flip side of humility. If I begin to understand who I am, and who God is, and what I deserve, and how infinitely wise and good He is, submission will become easy. But as long as I'm holding the steering wheel, so to speak, as long as I know what's best for me, and I insist on what I have to have, that's not submission. He says, draw near to God. So in other words, God is not saying, be a stoic, just kind of stuff all those desires in a closet somewhere and just forget about them. No, come to me. Bring the whole panoply of your desires and your woes and your frustrations, bring the whole business to me, but this way, not this way. Open-handed, submitting to my discretion, not closed-fisted, because I won't answer that prayer. And then when he says, cleanse your hands, why would you cleanse your hands? In natural life, children, well, they're dirty. Unless there's something wrong with us, we don't go around washing our hands 20 times in a day just to do it. What's James saying? Take a good look at what you're holding on to. Take a good look at what your fist has closed around. Take a good look what it is you're craving, desiring, insisting on, and elevating to the point where it is now idolatry. Cleanse your hands. Wash them out. Desires you may have, leave it at that. And then purify your hearts. James knows well enough, we're not talking about a change in lifestyle. We're talking about a change of heart. Purify your hearts. We just sang it, how many Wednesdays already? What can wash away your sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. It's the same thing here. What can purify our heart? What can wash out this world of insistence and desires and coveting and jealousy and bitterness and warfare? How can I ever escape that? It needs to be cleansed. It needs to be purified by Him. So then where is James leading us? What has the power to, and I'm going to use the word, displace those desires? What is so big and so beautiful and so powerful and so attractive that it makes everything else small? the one on the center cross, the one at God's right hand, the one whose beauty is extolled throughout the scriptures. It's only when Christ is beautiful enough will sin ever be ugly enough, will our desires ever be downsized and put in their place and submitted to God. And Beloved, if you think that God's just wagging his finger at us tonight, look at what Jesus did. I say this with the utmost reverence. He wrestled his will to the garden floor. with strong crying and tears, Hebrews says, to him that was able to deliver him from death. And what was the answer? Was it no cross for you, my son? No. Hebrews says he feared, meaning the son, the fear of God displaced his aversion to crucifixion, his aversion to hellish agonies. Jesus did it. He'll do it for you. He'll take you through what He Himself went through. And if you want to, if I want to learn humility, there's no place on earth like the foot of the cross. to think that he hung there and suffered the pains of hell because of my idolatrous heart. If you want to deflate the balloon of your untoward desires, let the nails that pierced him do it. And they will. So, not independent, but more dependent. not more anxious and less trusting, but more submission, Lord. We must know what God would have us to be like. And what God would have us to be like is Jesus. And Jesus did not come to do his own will, but the will of his Father would send him. And that, beloved, is your calling, and it's my calling. Verses 9 and 10 means a total surrender of our hearts and agendas and desires to God. Verses 9 and 10 means we're coming off the throne and we beseech God to ascend it. We stop feeding our desires, our craven images within, and we delight ourselves in God, our Maker and Savior. And if you don't, if I don't do battle at the heart level, don't be at all surprised if you are back in the same slew of despond and sin that you have always been in. We cannot please our bridegroom if our heart is bent on others. So we approach him as our husband. We approach him as our king. Protect me, Lord. Deliver me, Lord. Empower me, Lord. Enrich me, Lord. Let thy blood be my plea. Let thy grace be my strength. Let thy love be that which displaces all others. and then a promise. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord. He shall lift you up. And so may the temple of our heart be thoroughly cleansed, our lives purified by his grace, so that the King may take his rightful place on the throne of our heart and we may rejoice with Him in His abiding presence. Amen.