Well, let's once again seek God in prayer and ask for his Holy Spirit's presence with us as we study his word. So let's pray. Lord, our gracious God and our heavenly Father, we come before you this morning once again, and we ask, we plead for the presence of your Holy Spirit to rest upon this congregation. that he would take your truth and write it upon each one of our hearts, that the Holy Spirit would use your truth for the conversion of sinners, for the sanctification of your people, for the exaltation of Jesus Christ. We pray that even now, again, you would forgive us for all of our sins. Thank you that you have promised that if we confess our sins, you are faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So wash us as your people, even now in the blood of Christ, that we may rightly receive your holy word, that we would feed upon your word and upon Christ. So come, our God, come and help us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. We use a variety of ways to get the attention of individuals, especially when we have something very important to say. For example, we may raise the volume of our voice and yell out the word fire, of course, to get people's attention that there's a big problem. Or we may choose to speak a startling but legitimate phrase in order to arrest the attention of our listeners. The Lord Jesus Christ did this on various occasions. For example, in Matthew 3 we read, But when Jesus saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said unto them, you offspring of vipers. Excuse me, that wasn't the Lord Jesus, but you see the point. You offspring of vipers. Now this was not an insult for the Pharisees or the Sadducees, but rather it was speaking the truth purposefully. in order to grab the ears, and then the minds, and then the hearts, and the wills, so that those Pharisees and Sadducees would turn away from their sins. Well, similarly, James does this in verse 4 of chapter 4 of his letter. And I would have you turn to James chapter 4 and we'll begin reading that passage at verse four. James does this in this passage that we will read and study this morning. James chapter four, beginning with verse four. You adulteresses, Do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the scripture speaks in vain? Does the spirit which he made to dwell in us long unto envying? But he gives more grace Therefore, the scripture says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And there we stop our reading of God's word. So notice with me three major points from this passage. First of all, a shocking address. Secondly, searching questions. And then thirdly, a display of God's heart, a display of God's heart. So first of all, a shocking address. In chapter one and verse two of this very letter, James warmly and lovingly called those who would hear or read his letter, my brothers. But now, however, in verse 4 of chapter 4, he jolts and grabs their attention by addressing them as adulteresses. Now, some English translations of the Bible will have adulterers and adulteresses. The New King James does that. Some translations have you adulterous people. The ESV does that. And the reason for these differences is due to the fact that James used the feminine word adulteresses in verse 4. And translators find this a bit puzzling and realize that this raises a legitimate question. Why does James use the feminine word adulteresses? It was a shocking way, you see, to address his hearers, who would have been both male and female, and all of them probably professing disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. Clearly, James, as a godly pastor, was not intending to offend his readers. Rather, he wanted their undivided attention, and he achieved that by addressing them in this way. But more importantly, by addressing them as adulteresses, and knowing that many, if not most of those who heard this letter read, were familiar with the Old Testament, James wanted their minds And God through James this morning wants your mind to recall many passages from the Old Testament in which the prophets frequently compared the relationship between Jehovah and his people to a marriage. And whenever the people of Israel in the Old Testament era committed idolatry, departing from Jehovah to worship false gods. Whenever they did this, departing from Jehovah, it was a sin of spiritual adultery. Jehovah was likened unto their husband, and they were charged with that sin of spiritual adultery. They were like a wife who goes astray, you see. So Israel was, on those occasions of idolatry, a spiritual adulteress. For example, in Psalm 73 verse 27, we read, you have destroyed all them that play the harlot. departing from you. Or in Jeremiah 3 verse 20, surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so you have dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, says Jehovah. And this imagery of spiritual adultery is especially intense in the book of the prophet Hosea in the Old Testament. God compared Israel's idolatry to the unjustifiable unfaithfulness of an adulterous wife. Now, although the Lord Jesus Christ did not use the feminine word adulterous, he also asserted that the Pharisees were often like an adulterous wife. When they refused to believe the scriptures and instead craved for miraculous signs, Jesus said in Matthew 12, he answered and said unto them, an evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign. So with that historical background, you see, James addressed his readers as adulteresses in order to get their attention and to convict them of the sin of unfaithfulness to their Savior. Now I don't mean by this that James thought all of his hearers of this epistle were indeed unfaithful to the Savior, that they were indeed adulteresses, but of course that was always a possibility because of the reality of remaining sin in the hearts of believers. Even a believer with remaining sin can at times, sadly, sinfully, grievously, depart temporarily from Jehovah, go after some idol, and thus commit such spiritual adultery. So that's the shocking address here, you see, with James. Again, he was not foolish, he was very wise. But now notice, secondly, from our passage, searching questions from James, the pastor. Notice, first of all, in verse four, James asked these believers his first soul-searching question. Do you not know that friendship of the world is enmity with God? We need to understand that in the Greek culture of the Roman Empire, in the days of the Apostle James, friendships were regarded as a very important and weighty reality. They were not like the friendships of social media today, when on Facebook, for example, one can easily have over 350 friends, so-called. And you all know this is true with Facebook. But are they really friends? Friendships in James Day were regarded as a serious privilege. which involved commitment and a sharing of all things in both a spiritual and practical way. And with this understanding of friendship in James' mind and in the minds of his readers, the gravity of James' words in his first question becomes very clear. Do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Any Christian who chooses to be a friend of this world, who transfers his or her affections to this world, violates the professed friendship that he or she has with God. and chooses in that alignment with the world to become an enemy of God. Now, of course, James' words should raise a question in your mind. What does he mean by this term world? World, do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? We should be asking the question, What does James mean when he uses that term world? The word that James used is a form of the ordinary Greek word kosmos. This word is used in different ways in the New Testament. And it must always be understood in the light of the context in which it is used. And just as an aside, dear people, this is a very important point in understanding the Bible when you read the Bible or when you listen to the Bible proclaimed. You need to be looking at the context of the passage in the larger context. You need to not be simplistic. So we need to look here. For example, in John 3.16, I don't need to even quote that verse to any of you. The apostle John used this word in order to refer to the entirety of humanity on this earth. For God so loved the world, cosmos. He used that word in John 3.16 to refer to the entirety of humanity on this earth. However, in 1 John 2, verses 15 and 16, the same apostle John also used this same word, kosmos, translated world, five times, and in that passage in 1 John, its meaning is different from that in John 3, 16. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the vain glory of life is not of the father, but is of the world. So John's use of the word world five times in 1 John chapter 2 is actually in line with James' use of the word world here in James chapter 4 and verse 4. Clearly, the world in its negative usage in the Bible includes the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the empty, pompous boasting of men. James had these and additional realities in view when he wrote that the friendship of the world makes you an enemy of God in James 4 verse 4. Do you not know, James searchly inquires of his readers, you should know, do you not know that when any professing Christian surrenders himself or herself to the sins and corruptions of this world in which they live, they become an enemy of God? In this very letter, James already identified such worldly sins and corruptions. In chapter 2, verses 1 through 13, James addressed the sinful discrimination against people. That's worldliness. In chapter 3, verses 1 through 12, James addressed sinful speaking of others. That's worldliness. In James 3, verses 14 to 16, he addressed the harboring of sinful, bitter envy in one's heart. You see, that's in the heart, not always seen outwardly, but that inward sinful bitterness and envy in the heart is, James wants us to know, worldliness. Promoting sinful, selfish divisions and confusion among the brethren is worldliness, James 3, verse 16. Sinful fighting, lusting, and coveting within and without the church, James 4, verses 1 through 3, is worldliness. professing Christians become friends of the world when they indulge such sins. So are you this morning, any of you sitting here, and you say, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I'm not denying the truthfulness of that declaration. But I'm asking you, if you declare yourself to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, are you indulging or committing any of these worldly ways in your life? Professing Christians who are friends of the world, who indulge such sins, they in such worldly friendship, are now manifesting blatant hostility and opposition toward God. And to practice such sins as a pattern of life, as a professing Christian, is to commit spiritual adultery. James concludes verse four by pronouncing an indictment. That is, he formally charges such adulteresses of a serious crime against God, their maker and redeemer. He says that whosoever would be a friend of the world makes, that is, he constitutes himself, he establishes himself as a determined, hostile enemy of God. Is that you? Hopefully it is not. But notice, a question or questions can be seen also in verse 5. And I'd like you to look there in your Bibles at James 4 verse 5. I say, a question or questions can be seen in verse 5. And I'm giving you these technical things because you do need to understand them. Not to distract you, but to understand. Verse five in the New American Standard Bible states, or do you think that the scripture speaks to no purpose? He jealously desires the spirit which he has made to dwell in us. Verse five in the New King James Bible states, or do you think that the scripture says in vain the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously? Verse five in the American Standard Version says, or do you think that the scripture speaks in vain? Does the spirit which he made to dwell in us long unto envying? So you see, you have three different, slightly different translations. And I give that to you so you're not sitting there saying, what is Pastor Smith talking about? I'm looking at the New American Standard Bible. You know, it's a little bit different from what he's saying. No. The translators struggle with what James wrote here because it's very complicated Greek. But whether we regard verse 5 as having one question or two questions, the truths in verse 5 are clearly connected. Do you think that the scriptures speak in vain? That really is James' question, whether it's written as one question in verse five or two questions. Do you think that the scriptures speak in vain? And the clear answer to that rhetorical question is no. The scriptures do not speak in vain. That is, the scriptures have a clear purpose. Your Bible that you have, whether on your phone or in your lap, it has a purpose given to it, as it were, by God himself. The scriptures have a clear purpose, and that is to reveal the one true and living God to us in all of his glorious attributes, in all of his works and ways. And as a physician of souls, James wanted these Christians to remember numerous scriptures which purposefully make plain that God, as the husband of his people, is righteously jealous He yearns jealously, he's righteously jealous for the hearts and the lives of his people. The Holy Spirit, whom God has given to dwell within every believer, yearns jealously for God's glory and for their good. For example, consider Exodus 20, verses one and following, the giving of the moral law by God on Mount Sinai. And in Exodus 20, verse one, we read, God spoke all these words saying, I am Jehovah, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. But why? Why should the people of God have no other gods in the place of Jehovah? Well, the scripture's purposeful answer is given to us in Exodus 20, verse 5. The Lord himself says, because I, Jehovah, your God, am a jealous God. I brought you out of your slavery in Egypt. I brought you here to worship me. I am a jealous God. And you need to understand that. Now, we must understand from our Bibles that there is such a thing as sinful jealousy. And the scriptures clearly condemn sinful jealousy. Such sinful jealousy is self-centered envy of what others possess. but which we do not possess. We want it, it's not ours, and we're jealous that he has that position in his work and I don't. Or she has that large house and I don't. Or he is wealthy and I'm poor. And I'm jealous, you see, that's sinful jealousy. But that's not what James is referring to when he speaks of God's jealousy. The scriptures make plain that God's jealousy is totally different. It is not sinful. God's jealousy is a proper holy and pure jealousy and zeal to possess, protect and care for what rightly belongs to him. What rightly belongs to him, namely his bride, his people, his church. God's righteous jealousy for his people, for true disciples of Jesus Christ, for his church springs from his covenant love for his people. His covenant love by its very nature is willing and able to remove anything that prevents or inhibits his blessings from being enjoyed by his chosen ones who are the object of his love. I know I'm giving you a lot of truth there, but you need to think about this truth. God's covenant love is willing to remove anything that prevents or inhibits His blessing from being enjoyed by His chosen ones, His elect, His people, His disciples, who are the object of His love. We must remember that God's pure, jealous, covenant love for his people is such that he did what was absolutely and righteously necessary for them to experience his love. Because you and I are sinners. God is thrice holy. And so God sent his only begotten son into the world to live a holy life in the place of his people, to die as a sacrifice for their sins in his death on the cross. Laden with all of the sins of all of his people through all of the ages, Jesus Christ, the son of God, hung on the cross and experienced being punished righteously punished, as though he had committed those sins, but he had not done so. He was punished and forsaken by God for those sins, so that his believing people could be righteously pardoned and received into God's presence for eternity. And therefore, to be a friend of the world in the face of such astounding, humbling, and overwhelming love is the height of ingratitude and selfishness. To be a friend of the world in the face of God's astounding, humbling, and overwhelming love is the height of ingratitude and selfishness. So James continues with his searching pastoral work in verse 5. And although this portion of verse 5 can be understood in different ways, I believe that the correct understanding is this. God has given his Holy Spirit to dwell within each truly born-again, genuine disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the indwelling of the Spirit of God greatly longs, the Spirit dwelling within you as a disciple of Jesus Christ, that Spirit of God greatly longs with a holy jealousy his people be 100% without any reservation, wholly his for this life and for the life to come, eternity. God claims his people entirely for himself. No alien relationship such as friendship with the world will be tolerated by God. Jehovah wants the undivided love, devotion, worship, and service of every one of his disciples. Dear Christian, God, the triune God, three in one, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. God wants your undivided love, devotion, worship and service all your days. So those are the searching questions. But now let's notice thirdly, a display of God's heart. a display of God's heart in verse six. Look there in your Bibles. In verse six, James sets before us a crystal clear display of two realities of God's heart. First, he tells us that God gives grace, that giving of grace is the outward manifestation of the inward reality of God's heart. Secondly, in verse 6, James tells us God resists the proud. That's an outward manifestation of his inward heart where God hates the sin of pride. So James wrote both of these truths in order to exhort and admonish Christians to persevere in their faith. He begins verse six with the encouraging, simple statement that God gives more grace. He doesn't just give grace, God gives more grace. In other words, God gives lavishly, abundantly grace to you, his needy child, his disciple. And James concludes verse six by stating that God gives grace to the humble. The difficulties of living in a wicked and tempting world are many. You all know that. The difficulties of living in such a wicked world are also very challenging. They're not only many, they're challenging. His undeserved, unmerited favor and mercy is given to the helpless disciple in the face of many and difficult temptations and challenges. Every Christian must persevere through this life in order to end up in glory. You have to persevere in your faith in Jesus Christ, in your daily turning away from your sins, trusting in Christ alone. You must persevere. But how are you to do that in the light of the many challenges, the many temptations, the difficult challenges and temptations? Well, you're going to be able to do that because God gives abundant grace. But to whom does he give it? He gives it to the humble. And who are the humble? The humble are those who readily acknowledge I am still a sinner. By God's mercy, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. By God's sovereign, gracious power and work, I have been transformed. From the kingdom of darkness, I've been brought into the kingdom of light, and God has saved me and made me one of his. It is all of God's sovereign grace. To be humble is to recognize those realities. To be humble is to recognize that I still, as a disciple, have many, many sins, many, many black sins in my heart. To be humble is to recognize I have nothing to bring to God but my unworthiness and sin. To be humble is to recognize that apart from God's keeping power, I would be lost. So Christians sincerely confess with humility that God has saved them and God owes them only his wrath. but in gracious mercy he has saved them. And they also acknowledge their total dependence upon God for life and breath in all things. And they confess his sovereign right to rule them according to the word of God. According to the word of God, not according to the world's standards. So notice, sandwiched between these two statements which proclaim God's graciousness in verse six is the scriptural declaration that God resists the proud. James did not want the recipients of his letters to overlook this truth regarding God's heart. Because of God's character and God's being, because of God's holiness and righteousness, God resists the proud. And the word resist, which James used here, was a military term. It was a term that was used to describe what soldiers were to do in battle. They were to beat down and destroy their enemies in war. And James wants us to understand that this is precisely what God does with the proud. He resists them. He beats them down to destroy them, as it were. But really, of course, not to destroy them, but to humble them. Those who by reason of the gifts that God has given them should never lift themselves up and say, I've done this. I've got this. I can do this. No problem. Now, what do you have that you have not received? The only thing you can claim as your own This is mine, I got it, is your sin. But as Paul said to the Corinthians, what do you have that you have not received? And if you've received it, whether it's money, fame, a good position at work, a spouse, children, a house, or various gifts, spiritual gifts, usefulness. What do you have that you've not received? If you've received it, why do you boast and act as though you did not receive it? You see, God defies, beats down, as it were, exposes to contempt and takes away from the proud what they have. even as a victor in a war takes the spoils of the war to himself. James wanted the recipients of his letter to be sobered and humbled by this truth of God's opposition to the proud. And where necessary, James wanted such proud people to repent. to turn away from their pride, to call upon the Lord for mercy and grace. Because God delights in mercy and God freely forgives sin whenever any sinner calls upon the Lord Jesus Christ for pardon. So which are you this morning here? Are you clothed by God's grace with humility? Or are you proud and self-sufficient and self-confident? Which are you? Turn away from your pride, as I've already said. Call upon the Lord for forgiveness, cleansing salvation from that sinful pride. So we have a shocking address here, adulteresses searching questions concerning the way we are living in this world and the display of God's heart. He gives abundant grace and he also resists the proud. So what are some concluding practical lessons? I've already really said this, but I'll say it again. God tolerates no rival. He righteously tolerates no rival. His intolerance of any rival is not any sort of carnal sinfulness of God. When we have a rival here on earth, we in our hearts sometimes say, I don't like the fact that he is clearly better in soccer than me. He's my rival. Well, I'm going to prove that I'm better than him. I mean, that's so carnal and sinful and prideful. That is not what I mean when I say God tolerates no rival. because of his salvation of sinners in Christ, because of his sovereign grace in that salvation, because of his covenant love, he wants every disciple's heart and life 100%. He righteously commands the disciples' exclusive allegiance. So is God your sovereign king in every area of your heart and life? Or are you presently flirting with or indulging any pattern of sin that is contrary to God's holy law? It may be pride. It may be covetousness. It may be envy. It may be lying. It may be bitterness. Are you flirting with or indulging any sin? Judas was a thief. a disciple of Christ, not a true disciple, not born again. I understand that. But it was that holding on to the sin of covetousness for money. He was a thief. An outward disciple, but inwardly a covetous thief. So I'm asking you, is there a sin in your life, in your heart, that you are flirting with, indulging, that you are not giving up, not turning away from, not repenting? Don't hold onto it any longer. Go to God through Christ and say, Lord, I want to be sold out 100% to you. I see this sin, whatever that sin may be, I know it is sin in my heart, but I still held onto it. I know I shouldn't, but Lord, I want to relinquish it totally to you. I want you to grab hold of my heart and soul and life totally, that I will be devoted to you 100%. Don't wait until you leave this auditorium. After the pianist plays the concluding music, You get up, you start chatting with others, and soon that conviction is gone. Right now, where you're seated, cry out to God, Lord, have mercy upon me in this specific area of my heart and life. Kill the sin, Lord, and help me to kill it, to truly turn from it. But another lesson is this, really I've already alluded to it, stated it, but it needs to be said again. God is truly gracious to sinners who come to him through the Lord Jesus Christ. God, the living God, who sees you perfectly, Your friends, your parents, your spouses, they cannot see into your heart, but God does. He knows the blackness that is there, the iniquities, the transgressions. He knows the covetousness that's there. But when you turn to him through Christ and say, God, be merciful to me, the sinner in this area of my life. God is truly gracious to such sinners who come to him through Jesus Christ. James, in writing these words to these folks in this letter, his purpose in calling them adulteresses, et cetera, was not to leave them discouraged, but was to admonish and exhort them to go back to Jesus Christ for forgiveness. But lastly, when you know you are a Christian, Your response should be one of love for Jesus Christ. You know, love, I think I've said this in the past, probably from this pulpit, we know the word, we know its meaning, but we need to experience the reality of such love. True Christianity is not just in the head, True biblical Christianity must use the mind. We're to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, strength, and mind. Truth from the Bible must come into our minds. We must think about it, meditate upon it, and it must come down, sink down into our hearts, and affect our affections, and affect our wills, our very lives. so that we know and understand and experience God's love. It is the most powerful weapon against temptation, not the only weapon, but a powerful, probably the most, in our battle against remaining sin and corruption, to know experientially and intellectually the reality of God's love for me in Jesus Christ. But you know, you can go, I think it's in Chicago or Philadelphia, I don't remember which city it is. There's this famous sculpture with L-O-V-E. Big sculpture in a plaza, red letters, love. People talk about love all the time. People sing about love all the time. But the Christian is the only one who can really know and understand and experience what genuine love is. And it's found in union with Jesus Christ by faith. It's found in confessing our sins to God through Christ. And the reception of God's gracious love by any sinner demands the response of love. We are to love God in return, and we are to love his people as well, and we are to love sinners who are around us, as Christ himself did when he was here on this earth. So, dear brethren, God tolerates no rival. He righteously commands our exclusive allegiance. God is truly gracious to sinners who come to him through the Lord Jesus Christ. And the reception of God's grace by any sinner demands the response of love as well as humility. May God work this in all of our hearts and lives to the praise of the glory of his grace in Jesus Christ. So let's close in prayer. Father, we come to you and confess that left to ourselves, we are nothing but a mess of sin, but you are the God who sorts out our hearts and lives. You are the God who changes sinners into saints. You are the God who, once you begin a good work in any individual sinner, you will complete it. We thank you for these realities, these truths, and pray that you would so work in all of our hearts and lives that none of us would be covetous of the things of this world, that none of us would be adulterous friends of this world, but rather that we would be totally wedded to you through faith in Jesus Christ, your son. So deliver us, we pray, from these sins and make us to be holy and godly and faithful as disciples here in this earth. We ask that you would answer our prayers as we come in Jesus' name, amen.