Looking in the book of James, and of course last week we saw that what a little, what a great fire is kindled by the tongue which is set on the fire of hell, the scripture says. and we are warned about it. And he closes the chapter three with this verse. Well, let me read, let me start in verse 14, actually. And then we're gonna read chapter four. But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. From whence come wars and fighting among you? Come they not hence? Even of your lust that war in your members? You lust and you have not, you kill and desire to have and cannot obtain, you fight and war and yet you have not because you ask not. You ask and receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lusts. You adulterers and adulteresses know you 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. For 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 while, 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. You know, I believe that a true thing is this, and James certainly, I believe, understood this and declared it, is that while we don't take any delight in being told that we are great sinners, in other words, we're not looking forward to somebody pointing out our sin, It's never a thing that we want to do. We don't want to point it out to someone, nor do we want our sins pointed out to us. But I believe this is true, that when those things are brought to our awareness, we have to confess, well, that is right. You know, a man who's been convinced of his sin by the Spirit of God, he doesn't have any excuse. I mean, he doesn't have anything he can say. He might not like what he hears and wishes he could hear something else, but the fact remains that he knows that what he's hearing is indeed true. And, you know, as we read what James, I mean, he says some pretty strong things here. And some people, you know, would take issue with this. I mean, the modern day view of things that would kind of look at this and say, wow, that was pretty strong, wasn't it, James? I mean, couldn't you kind of lighten up a little bit, you know, be a little bit more positive and, you know, you can get more flies with honey than you can with vinegar and all that kind of stuff, you know. But the truth of the matter is what James does is he describes the truth of what we are by nature and he knows the nature of men and he knows the way we will always go unless the Lord restrains us. And our desire is that the Lord might show grace to us and keep us back from this description here that we know to be true. We know we're headed in that direction if the Lord doesn't hold us back. And that's the only thing that makes a difference in us. And so he said here, this wisdom descendeth not from above. We wouldn't really consider that to be wisdom, what he's talking about, envy and strife. But he's saying that's the wisdom of the world. Because the world believes the law. The Lord said that the law was written in the heart of men. Now, a lot of people think, well, wait a minute. No, that's not true because men hate the law. No, men love the law. What are we talking about? Well, the essence of the law is this. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. In other words, if you do this, this is gonna happen. That's what the law says. It brings out threatenings and slaughters. And men like that. Because when somebody does something to us, we want something to happen to them. Just something as simple as you're driving along and some guy whips over in front of you in a car and puts on brakes. And what's your immediate thought? You know, you just wanna, you wanna run into him, but you know, well, I don't wanna mess my car up, you know. I mean, those thoughts rise up within us. Now, by the grace of God, you know, we don't necessarily carry through with that, but we do think it. Because that's just the way we are. That's the wisdom of the world. And this wisdom, he says, descendeth not from above. In other words, it's in us. You know, as old Flip Wilson used to say, the devil made me do it. Because that's a good excuse, is it not? But the devil doesn't make us do stuff. He might present us some things from time to time, but he doesn't make us do anything. You see, the desire for sin is right here. Nobody has to stir it up within us or anything. It's right there at all times. For where there's envy and strife, there's confusion and every evil work. envy and strife, and that's born out of the concept that we have that's wrought in us by nature that we have a right to not be bothered by other people. Don't you believe that? What are you doing? I mean, you shouldn't do that. If you wouldn't do that, I wouldn't do this. No, we don't have the right not to be bothered by other people. The Lord put other people in the world to bother you. We don't like to think of it that way, but that's the truth. See, he puts people into our lives that cause us great grief. Now, why does he do that? Well, if we belong to him, he does it to help us. Now, we don't look at it like that a lot of times because we think, well, it'd be easier. See, one of the ideas that the Catholic Church promoted and promotes, I guess, still, is that, you know, that of, say, being a monk or a, you know, if you take a guy and you put him over here and you just put him where he's all by himself and he's totally away from all other influence on that, well, he'll just live, he can just, then he can live a holy life. But, you know, just like Martin Luther found out, I mean, it doesn't make any difference where you're at. You are your own worst enemy. You don't have to have anybody else to bother you to be bothered. You know, that's just nature, and that's what he's talking about here. But see, envy and strife is born in us, and confusion and every evil work, and that's the way we want it. Now, no, we don't want strife against us, but we want strife when we don't get our way or when things aren't going like we are. I mean, that's the way children are, isn't it? They want everything to go their way. That's just the way we are. And unfortunately, we don't grow out of it. We just learn other ways to manipulate it and work it as we get older to get our way. But the wisdom that's from above is pure. First pure, and then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. The Lord Jesus Christ, he had no desire for strife. No, he had no desire. He sought peace. He walked among men as a peaceful man. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. God's people blessed are the peacemakers. Oh, that we might be men of peace. Not seeking something from other men. See, not seeking comfort from them, not seeking anything. Our comfort comes from the Lord. And surely the Lord has given us one another to bring comfort to one another, but see, we can't demand that somebody else give us something that only the Lord can provide. He's the one who can give us peace. He's the one who gives us satisfaction in the world in which we walk. And without Him, we're never gonna be satisfied. There's nothing in the world that can ever be given to the children of God in this world that will bring them peace, satisfaction, and happiness but the presence of the Lord. I mean, that's the one thing they desire. And he alone can apply that. And it doesn't make a difference what else you might have in this world if you belong to Him and He's given you His Spirit to dwell within you, you'll never be satisfied except to be in communion and fellowship with Him. From whence come wars and fighting among you? Come they not hence even of your lusts that warn your members? That's where strife comes from, it comes right here. It doesn't come from without, it comes here. You lust and you have not, you kill and desire to have. Now you can kill somebody without taking out a knife and stabbing them or a gun and shooting them. You can kill them in your heart, in your mind, through hate. You know, men, We're so foolish, you know, quite often we hold a grudge against somebody. And who does that affect? You ever had a grudge that you held against somebody? You know, somebody you just, every time you saw them, you just, you know, something just was ticked off within you. And they was just going about life. But every time you saw them, you couldn't stand it. It's all that his brother Al's been teaching us about. I mean, here was a man that was eating up with envy. And he had a grudge against David. Why? David didn't do anything to Saul. David was Saul's best subject. I mean, he would have done anything for Saul. And yet, Saul was eaten up inside with his hatred for David. That's what James is talking about here. You fight in war, yet you have not because you ask not. You ask and receive not because you ask in the midst that you might consume it upon your lust. And you know, it's quite a common thing today as men talk about prayer. I mean, there's just been volumes and volumes of people that's written books on prayer about going out here, buddy, you ask God, you just get anything you want. You know, if you just meet the conditions and everything, I mean, you know, God'll open up the windows of heaven and He'll pour out blessings on you, and if you want a new house, He'll give you a new house, or if you want a jet airplane, He'll give it to you, and all this kind of stuff. That's exactly what James is writing about here, about asking amiss. Brethren, the Lord said He would give us the desires of our heart. And he will. But you see, the thing that the Lord does is he works in his people to give them a desire after those things that are useful to them. Now in the flesh, we want many things. But God is not a vending machine. You know, I mean, isn't that the picture that men have? Well, if you've got these faith coins here, and you'll drop enough of them in the slot, then the vending machine in heaven, it'll just give you, just pick out what you want and you'll get it. How foolish. Because you see, when men seek the Lord, how do they pray? Father, not my will, but thine be done. Now you see, the man that receives everything that he always asks for is the man that seeks the will of God. I mean, if you seek the will of God, you're gonna be blessed. You know why? Because the will of God is gonna be done. He's gonna do that. See, the purpose of prayer is not to get what we want. The purpose of prayer is to bring us into conformity with the will of God. That's why he brings us to prayer. Because you know, when we pray for somebody that's sick, and we desire, Lord, would you heal them? Or would you heal us? He may or may not do that because it may or may not be in keeping in consult with his will and purpose of how things are going to go in the earth. But he will bring his people by his grace to the place where they rejoice that his will is done. Even if the result, if you want to call it that, winds up being the death. of the person who's ill, we can be satisfied and be at peace because it's not asked to miss. Lord, there's only one thing on earth that's gonna satisfy me and it's gotta be that this is gonna be the way it is. More than likely, you're gonna be saddened. Because if you belong to the Lord, he's probably not gonna give you that thing that you desire. The Lord Jesus Christ gave us the example. He taught us how to pray. May thy will be done in the earth as it is in the heavens. Now you look at that language. May thy will be done in the earth as it is in the heavens. See, the will of God is set forth. I mean, you're not going to change it. And you can fight against it or you can desire that the Lord will be done. And he will bless his people that pray in such fashion as that. I believe that. It's what he says here. Ye adulterers and adulteresses. No, we don't like to be called such things as that. No, you're not. Friendship of the world's enmity with God, but is that not what he's talking about, about having fellowship? Didn't Paul say to the church at Corinth, you know, what fellowship hath light and darkness? What fellowship hath people of God in the world, the ways of the world? See, men, men adopt the ways of the world in many ways. And pretty soon after a while that they've adopted the ways of the world, they become to think that these things are the ways of God, or that it doesn't make any difference. But the ways of the world are never the ways of God. There's only one way, and that is the way of Christ. He said, I'm the truth, the way, the truth, and the life. And so that is the way that we desire to go. Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. That's pretty simple language, is it not? I mean, if you wanna be a friend of God, you gotta be an enemy of the world. That's the way it is. Now that doesn't mean we go out here and fight against people. or become those that do everything we can to destroy society. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about we don't adopt those ways of the world and the mindset of the world. We desire purity of mind, spirit. We desire that the name of Christ be exalted. And we can't take any delight when it's not. We can't take it lightly when God's blasphemed. I mean, you know, if we hear somebody preaching something that is contrary to the Word of God, we can't adopt it and say, well, that's great. No. We want that truth which belongs to Him and Him alone. Do you think that the scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? I mean, is that not an apt description? Do you think that's wrong? But he gives more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. That's a principle of truth. The Lord is going to humble his people, and they are going to be manifested by that humility. He giveth grace to the humble. He doesn't see an humble man and gives him grace, but a man's humble because the Lord gives him grace. See, men try to get the cart ahead of the horse. They say, well, if you go out here and be humble, you know, and some people are so proud of being humble. I mean, isn't that the way of the flesh? Be proud to be humble. Oh, you know, we're just the poor, afflicted people of God. We're walking through the earth. No, dear brother, the Lord said when you fast, don't put sackcloth and ashes on so that men know that you fast. He said, wash your face. Put on some cologne. I mean, you know, be happy. Now we're not talking about fake happiness, but dear brethren, the point is that our happiness is contrary to the way of the world. We're not happy in the things the world's happy in, but we're not miserable in the world. You know, this world's not my home, and I long to be set free from the bonds of sin, but I'm not miserable in the world because I have a savior. and he has promised to go with us through the valley of the shadow of death. This is the valley of the shadow of death. I mean, you know, and the older you get, the longer those shadows are, and the harder it is to get, you can't get out of them. You know, when the shadows lengthen, and you keep going, you can't outrun your shadow. You know, if your shadow's out in front of you and you are going towards it, it'll always be a little bit further ahead of you. You can't miss it. But see, the blessing of the people of God is that He is with us in the midst of these things. God resisteth the proud, but he giveth grace to the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he shall flee from you. Didn't the Lord give us that example? He said, get thee behind me, Satan. Resist the devil and he'll flee from you. And we know that to be true. Do we not? You know, when the tempter comes and we start having a conversation with him, we're already in trouble. Is that right? I mean, Eve was in trouble from the get-go, wasn't she? When the devil came to her and he said, you know what the Lord said, if she'd have resisted the devil, she'd have ran away. She said, I ain't listening. But she said, hmm. And isn't that the way of all temptation? I mean, it's when we say, hmm, that sounds like that might be, but maybe I need to think about that for a minute. Of course, we get, you know, we have the example of Joseph in a very practical sense. When he was at Potiphar's wife, when she tempted him, she said, come lay with me. And he ran. He didn't stop because he wasn't going to wait around to see what was going to happen because he knew what would happen. So he ran. It was the only thing he could do. Resist the devil and he'll flee from you. Draw an eye to God and he will draw an eye to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners. Purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Now he's not prescribing the notion that we can somehow purify ourselves, is he? No, how are the sons of God purified? By fleeing to Christ. I mean, we're not purified by something we do or something we don't do. See a man doesn't become pure because he avoided something. He's given a desire to avoid the pitfalls of the world because he's been given a pure mind. I mean, it's not vice versa. He doesn't gain a pure mind by avoiding these things, but it's that the Lord works in him and gives him a desire to run from them. Purifying your heart, you're double-minded. Of course, what are we? We are double-minded, are we not? I mean, the flesh wars against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. Paul said, you know, the good that I would, I do not, and that which I would not, that's what I do. I mean, we know that, see? He doesn't tell us that so we can just relax. He tells us that so we can be mindful of it, and that we can war and enter into that warfare. And not just be carried, as we sang there a moment ago, must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease while others fought to win the prize and sail through bloody seas. I mean, our daily life is, there are many bloody seas around us. The unfortunate thing is sometimes we get kind of satisfied with the bloody seas. I mean, we kind of just, We give up fighting. And what I'm talking about, I'm talking about the internal conflicts that we have. May the Lord give us grace. And see, that's why we come together, is to encourage one another in the fight. Because we all are weak, dear brethren. There's not one of us in here that can stand the onslaughts of Satan. Not one in here that can resist the devil. It's impossible. He has far more power and ability over you. See, he had no power at all with Christ. See, when he said, you know, I'll give you all these kingdoms in the world if you'll fall down and worship. There was never even a moment's thought in the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ to take him up on that. Now, every one of us, by contrast, that would, we'd have had to thought about that for a minute. You know, well, maybe, you know, I mean, that sounds pretty good. I mean, can I really get away with that? Who would ever know? You know, I mean, isn't that how our mind works? Let's be double-minded, dear brethren, but that's the way we are. Now, knowing that, He encourages us to stand in those things that we know. And we exhort brethren. You know, I've been around brethren that said, well, you shouldn't ever exhort sons of God because you know, God's gonna work in them. If he's going to, if he's not, he's not. Well, how does he work in his people? Through exhortation. That's how the Spirit of God works. That's why He brings us together, that we might build one another up in the most holy faith. So it is the work of God to exhort one another through the people of God. And that's what James is doing here. He's not telling them what they can do and how much power and ability they have. He's saying this is where you need to be. Humble yourselves. in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up. You know the people of God as they walk through this world are exalted but not in their pride. The Lord will never lift up a man in his pride. He'll lift up a man in his humility. He said that let him that is the greatest among you be the servant of all. See that's what it is to be exalted in the kingdom of God is to be a servant. Now that doesn't make sense to the world is that's not the way of the world. I mean the way of the world is to gain power and then you'll be great. The Lord said the way to gain power is to be humble. And only he can work that in us, because that is the work of God. 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. The Lord never called us to be judges, did he? Now, God's people are to be judges of all things. We are to judge all things, but not to judge men. He didn't send us into the world to judge men, he sent us into the world to be circumspect, to look around ourselves, and to look for those things that may cause us or others to stumble, but he never told us to go out here and condemn other men. Because who makes us to differ from another? What makes us any different than somebody else? It's not our place to condemn men. Now, can we condemn the things men do? Most assuredly. I mean, the Lord condemned the things that men did. He never approved of adultery. But He didn't condemn the woman that was taken in adultery, did He? He never approved the wickedness of the Roman tax collector system. He never said this is great. But he didn't condemn the tax collector. You know, oh, may the Lord give us a mind, the mind of Christ. All of these things, It doesn't make any difference where you go in the scripture. If you want to find the proper conduct of the people of God, look at Christ. I mean, you always find it. He's our example. If you would be perfect, then you must be like Christ. I mean, that's the only way to be perfect. He is the perfect one. Now, will you ever achieve that in this life? No. But you see, you don't have to because He has done it for you. He is our righteousness. He is our justification. He is our sanctification. We're not trying to be sanctified. And you know, a lot of people are. They think this is somehow their effort in the world is to be sanctified. Well, dear brethren, if you're not sanctified by the blood of Jesus Christ, you'll never be sanctified by anything that's performed in you, through you, or by you. Can't happen. Christ is our sanctification. He set us apart. And that's why we're not friends of the world. We can't be. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Old things will become new. And sometimes it takes us a while to realize that. But the peace that passes understanding is given to the people of God as he works in them and brings them in the way of Christ. What a glorious thing. What a glorious Savior. some other stuff here, but we don't have time really to get into it. But I would like for you to think on this, and we'll talk about it next time that we look at this, speaking about if the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that. Now you often hear people say, it's pretty common, Somebody'll say, well, I'll do this if the Lord's willing, and the creek don't rise. Now, usually, when somebody starts saying, well, I'll do it if the Lord's willing, what they mean is, I probably am not gonna do it, because the Lord probably won't be willing. That's not what James is saying here. He said, this is what you ought to say, if the Lord wills that we should live. Now there's a big difference in telling somebody, I will do something if the Lord wills that I should live, than it is to say, well, I'll do it if the Lord's willing. Because if you say, I'll do it if the Lord's willing, what you're really saying is you're giving yourself an out. Isn't that true? I mean, I've had people say it, and really what they meant to say, what they really wanted to say, well, I ain't gonna do it, but, you know, I'll tell you that, and then I can say, well, I guess it wasn't the Lord's will. Well, we know that, you know, we don't know what the Lord's will is. But by His grace, we can be men of commitment. And we can say, I will do this, unless the Lord takes my life before I can do it. See, that's what James is saying. You should say, rather than saying, we're gonna do this. I don't know if I'm gonna do it or not, but I can tell you this, I will commit myself. See, that's what marriage is, is it not? I mean, you know, we don't know if we will do something or not, but we can commit to this. If the Lord wills that I should live, I will. to commit myself unto you. That's what the marriage is. It's not until death do us part. I mean, that ain't always a simple thing, is it? But may the Lord give us a mind to be trusting him because that's all we can do, brethren. And by the grace of God, that's all he calls us to do. Cast all your care upon Him, for He careth for you. What a glorious Savior He is.