you. We're gonna read James chapter number four, the first few verses here, if you're able to stand with us tonight in honor of the Holy Word of God. I'm glad this is God's Word. And we know when you read the book of James, it also reminds me of the first epistle of John, of which we're gonna be preaching in on Sunday night. And both of these men that wrote these, of course, we know they did on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but they don't hold nothing back. I mean, they just lay the hammer down, amen. And so James chapter four, verse one, from whence come wars and fightings among you, come they not hence, even of your lust that war in your members? You lust and have not, you kill and desire to have and cannot obtain, you fight and war, yet you have not because you ask not. Verse three says, you ask and receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lust. Verse number four will be my text verse tonight. And the Bible says here, you adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God. Now you ask a question. Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Now I had no intentions on preaching on that verse. I was gonna preach out of James chapter five on what is your life. I'd already preached that before, but the Lord gave me. This is a fresh message, amen. And so I don't know if I appreciate that or not, but we thank God. God's give us a word from heaven tonight for you, amen. And so 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. Thank you and you can be seated. Father, I pray now as we've entered this service to preach, we pray and ask Lord that you'd cleanse us and sanctify us and fill us with the Holy Ghost. We need boldness, we need courage, we need love, we need compassion. I pray, God, that you'll help us, Lord, to preach Lord Jesus in a manner that is pleasing unto the Holy Spirit. Help me not to grieve or quench him in any way. I pray, Lord, that you'll give your people a tender spirit, a tender heart to receive the Word of God. And I pray that some way, somehow, by the grace of God, that you'll help us to apply this to our lives as you will Give us the grace to do it. We'll love you in Jesus' name, amen. The Bible says here again, you adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship, notice that word, the friendship of the world is enmity with God. Whosoever there will be a friend, notice that word, friend of the world, James said, is the enemy of God. So I wanna preach on this subject tonight. we can no longer be friends. When you look at verse number four in your Bible tonight, it's a very powerful verse. It's a very plain verse. He makes it a very personal verse. He says, ye adulterers and adulteresses. It is a very pointed verse. He says that if you are a friend of the world, that you are an enemy of God. So this verse is a verse of position. It's where they have positioned themselves. It's a verse, no doubt, of pride. And you get on down in there to verse number 6 and 7, he talks about humbling yourself down. After he says that, he goes down through there and he talks about the proud and how they need to humble themselves. And it goes right along with verse number 4, amen. It's a verse of pride, it's a verse of passion. And so as James is writing, we can see that he's not playing games. This thought tonight is another, Brother James Stanchell used to tell me back in the 90s when I'd get done preaching on Sunday morning, he said, preacher, he said, that was another one of them old hard sermons. Well, this is what this is tonight. It's another one of them old hard sermons. And it's not the fact that it's necessarily hard. I think to you and I, it's just a difficult thing sometimes to accept and try to apply to our lives. So the Bible has much to say about friends and friendships. The Bible can talk positive about friends and friendships, and it also can talk negative about friends and friendship. Matter of fact, I think it's the book of Proverbs said, don't fellowship with an angry man. Don't go with an angry man. You know, so we got to be careful of our friendships, amen. We understand that a friend can help you out or hinder you depending on if the friend is true or not. I've sounded the warning many times over this very thing over the years against people having wrong friendships and getting involved with the wrong people. and some folk listen and some have not, amen. Everyone must be careful in whom they allow in their lives and those that they choose to be friends with, amen. As James is writing verse number four, we understand that he is using it, of course, in a spiritual sense. We notice to whom he is addressing this to. He says, you adulterers and adulteresses. James includes both men and women in this address, for both of them are capable of being adulterers and adulteresses. And so we notice not only that, but we notice his assumption. He says, no, you're not. He said, he's appealing to these people's consciences for the simple fact that they are not ignorant of this subject. I'm not gonna tell you nothing you don't already know tonight. We already know where our stance should be concerning the things of the world. We know where that should be at, and sometimes we just need to be reminded. And so not only we notice His address and His assumption, but we notice the accountability. whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Now we know this word world here is not actually necessary talking about the Greek word cosmos or humans. It's more of the fact that it's used different ways. Here in this verse, it's used the same way that it's used in 1 John 2.15. What's 1 John 2.15 say? Well, a lot of preachers don't never preach on 1 John 2.15. I don't harp on it, but I do preach on it, amen. I love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, The Bible says again, if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. So this word world, I believe is probably referring to what we would call the world system. This includes the world's styles, its fashions and dress, along with the world's philosophies, its ideas, its promotions, And for the most part, these things are pumped into our minds and our hearts on a daily basis. And so we have to be careful with that. If there was ever a verse that speaks against worldliness and encourages separations, it has to be James 4.4. The accountability is the fact that even though you are saved, you will be counted an enemy of God if you love the world. God is a jealous God and we do not understand sometimes how worldly we really are. There's no question in my mind that most people are not really aware of just how much they are being influenced by the world. We don't understand how the world influences us. And they do influence us. So let's look at a few words here. This word friendship has the idea of having a fondness for someone. He says right here that, no you're not, that the friendship of the world, having a fondness of the world. He says, he uses the word as enmity with God. That word enmity, it has the idea of hostility. by implication a reason for opposition or hatred. And so he says that, no you're not that the friendship of the world is an opposition with God. You are in opposition with God when you have a friendship with the world. I thought this was interesting. I looked up the word enmity and guess where the word enmity is found the first time it's used, amen. I done told Chris. It's found in Genesis 3.15. What's John 3.15, I mean Genesis 3.15 all about? Genesis 3.15 was the prophecy after Adam and Eve sinned in the garden and the Bible said this, God said, I will put enmity. He said, I'm gonna put this enmity, I'm gonna put this opposition, this hatred between thee and the woman. He's talking to Satan and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel. So there's been a battle going on ever since this prophecy was given between the Lord and Satan, and the Lord and Satan, Satan's sin, he introduced to the world. And so we see this enmity, we see this friendship, and then we see this word friend. Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God, a friend. What is a friend? It means to be friendly to one. It means to wish him well. It means an associate. He who associates familiarly with one, it can mean a companion. James said that if you are a friend of the world, you are an enemy of God. If you associate yourself with the world and you're friendly to the world system, that you are an enemy to God. Now, we shouldn't allow ourselves to be an enemy to God. Again, we were that before we were saved. We were enemies of God before we were saved. Every sinner outside of Christ is considered an enemy to God. And once we get saved, thank God that is broken down and taken away and we're no more enemies with God, but we make peace with God and we experience the peace of God, amen. And so thank God for that. And so we know about Gomer, for instance, in the book of Hosea. She was an unfaithful bride that committed physical adultery on Hosea. Her name represents the wholesale adultery and idolatry of the kingdom she represented. She symbolized God's grace in taking her out of the world, which had hoarsely departed from him, a church to be sanctified by communion with himself in Christ. As Gomer was sanctified by communion with the prophet, the Savior unites himself to the unholy to make it holy. In Hosea 3.1, then said the Lord unto me, go yet, love a woman, beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love flagons of wine. So I bought her to me for 15 pieces of silver, and for a homer of barley, and a half homer of barley, and I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days. Thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man, so will I also be for thee. And so we see that in Gomer and in Israel. What Hosea, was experiencing with Gomer in his own life was typical of Israel's unfaithfulness to God himself. In chapter 4 verses 1 and 2 of Hosea, Hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel. For the Lord had the controversy with the inhabitants of the land. But cause there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land, by swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood. And so on we go. Verse 12, my people ask counsel at their stocks, and their stamp declareth unto them, for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err. and they have gone a whoring from under their God. They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good. Therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom and your spouses shall commit adultery. So Hosea was experiencing firsthand what God himself was experiencing with the people of Israel. Hosea had to go through what he was going through to show the people what they were doing to God, amen. So I cannot begin to imagine the heartaches of God as he sees his people being unfaithful to him, committing spiritual adultery. Just as Gomer was committing physical adultery on Hosea, Israel, God's chosen people were committing spiritual adultery on God. Not only was Gomer an unfaithful bride, and not only was Israel an unfaithful bride, but we know who's next, the church. Do you understand that salvation is viewed as a marriage? 2 Corinthians 11, two, Paul said this to the Corinthians, for I'm jealous over you with godly jealousy. For I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. When you get saved, you made a commitment to Christ. I don't believe we preach that enough and hard enough. When you go to get saved, you are making a commitment to Christ. It's not just to stay out of hell. It's to live for Him and for Him to take over your life, and from there on out, for Him to be the Lord of your life, and by that, getting saved, He is given the authority and the rightful authority to command you and even demand you to obey His Word. So I think that we need to step back sometimes, especially when I'm preaching to sinners, and remind them that when you come to get saved, it's just not to stay out of hell. You're making a commitment to live for Christ, to get yourself out of the world, to quit looking like the world, to quit acting like the world, to quit talking like the world, to quit listening to the world, and become a Christian for the Lord Jesus Christ, amen. So, We notice in the book of James a broken commitment and a lack of faithfulness on the part of Christ's bride. We are the bride of Christ. I like this. Somebody said a good definition for the word faith. I like this, Brother Chris. Forsaking all, I take him. I believe that's what we say in our marriage vows, isn't it? I forsake it all and I'm taking him. I forsake it all and I'm taking her. So this is really what salvation is. We forsake all and go after Christ. Now there are three things that constitute a lack of unfaithfulness and spiritual adultery. Now this is, we're not gonna shout, but you can say amen or oh me or, you know, the altar's always open if you need to get here, amen. So in a bride, Here's one reason, here's something that brings about spiritual adultery. When the bride spends more time with someone else than her husband. Well, this could turn into something very dangerous on a physical part of a relationship. Husbands and wives need to spend some time with each other, and where there's a great neglect of that, that can be a strain on the relationship. When a person commits physical adultery, he or she has broken a serious and solemn vow to the Lord. When someone or someone draws your attention away from your spouse, you're saying you're not satisfied with them anymore. When we as the bride of Christ would rather spend more time with someone or something else, it could be that there's unfaithfulness in our lives and our heart. If we get more pleasure out of earthly things than I do from being with Jesus, then I am being a worthy and an unfaithful to the one that loved me so much he died to redeem me. How much time do we actually spend in his love letter? How much actual time do we actually spend talking to this wonderful God, this wonderful Savior of ours in prayer? 168 hours in a week. Would you say that you've given any of that back to the Lord? Besides about four and a half hours we spend at church each week, I wonder, do we spend any more time with our beloved Savior? Number two, when the bride loves someone or something more than she does her husband, that's gonna end up in spiritual adultery. Is there anything, anybody you love more than the Lord? You are an unfaithful bride. Some people love their families more than they love God. Some people love their husband or wife or children more than they love God. Some people love their job more than they love God. Some people love the things of the world more than they do love God. So if your love for the Lord is determined by how much time you spend with Him and His Word, how much do you love Him? If your love is determined on how much you spend in the Word and pray and fellowship with Him, if that determines how much you love Him, well how much is that sure you love Him? We might just be actually surprised if we knew how much spiritual adultery was going on this evening in the Temple Baptist Church. Can I say the Lord is not going to take it too kindly when we love on the things of the world all week long and try to come to the house of God and want to meet with Him. It don't work that way. If some of us would take a minute and examine our hearts, we would find that our hearts have gotten cold toward the Lord and our love has slowly been moved to something or someone else. What else constitutes unfaithfulness? When the bride spends more time with someone else besides her husband, when the bride loves someone or something else more than she does her husband. but when the bride commits adultery. Gomer did it to Hosea. Israel did it to God. And sad to say, but the church is stepping out on Jesus tonight. Physical adultery is devastating and many have lost their lives over that as well as their families because of it. I have set under pastors, two of my pastors committed adultery on their wives. Destroyed their ministry. Ended up destroying their wife and their family and their children. Well, one of them did. One of them didn't have no children. Him and his wife are still together as far as I know tonight. He's still trying to preach, but he's not qualified as far as I'm concerned. But the thing about it is, It goes on. Very few, if any, home survive the terrible sin of adultery. If physical adultery is devastating, spiritual adultery is detrimental. Think of the broken hearts that has resulted in a broken trust. Think of the broken heart of Christ and how much he has given and loved us for us not to be faithful to him. How it must grieve his heart so when we love the world more than we love God. We love pleasure more than we love God. Oh, it must break his heart. It must break his heart tonight. Oh, thank what spiritual adultery does to the cause of Christ. Oh, it not only hurts Christ, but it hurts the church. The church can't go forth with a bunch of members running around all the time, not being faithful to the house of God and doing things that they don't necessarily have to be doing. They're not committed to the things of God. Can we even begin to imagine how Jesus, our groom, feels when our affections are drawn to something or someone else beside him? Think about this for a moment, church. He gave his last blood for us. He sent His sweet Holy Ghost to convict us. He saved us from a burning hell. Oh, my friend, we ought to thank God that He did this for us, that our lives should show Him that we appreciate that He did that for us. Our wives or husbands could never do these things for us, yet many people do not even care how Jesus feels when they are being unfaithful to Him. I wanna say that Hosea still loved Gomer. And God still loved Israel. And yes, I believe even with a broken heart many times, Christ still loves the church. Hopefully any of us here that are married wouldn't give it a thought of being unfaithful to our spouse. But what about it when it comes to Jesus and our faithfulness to him? Let me say a conclusion tonight. This worldliness is first and foremost an attitude that is in our hearts. James is talking about our affections. He is speaking about our lust and desires and the things that we fuss and fight about. He is speaking about things that we give ourselves to do and go after in this world. Now, this is a hard say to those of us that are saved, but James is warning us to know the position that we put ourselves in when we become friendly with the world, we're making ourselves enemies of God. Folks, listen, we cannot love the world and be a friend to the world and love God at the same time. There's got to be a cutoff to some of this stuff somewhere, somehow. I don't know where that would be. All I know is, is the Bible says right here that if I'm a friend to the world, I'm an enemy to God. Now, I don't know whether all that might consist of in my life or your life, but whatever it is, we ought to take care of it. There is an animal that lives in the forests of the Northern Europe and Asia that is called an ermine. He is mostly known to us by his snow white fur, which is the most beautiful in the fur markets of the world. The ermine takes peculiar pride in his white fur coat. At all hazards, he protects it against anything that would spoil it. It is said that the hunters take a cruel advantage of the ermine's care to keep his coat clean. They do not set a snare at some unsuspected moment, but instead find his home a cleft in the rock or some hollow decaying tree and they smear and splatter the entrance and interior with filth. Then the dogs start their chase and the scared ermine flees to his home, his only place of refuge. He finds his home all messed up. Rather than going to an unclean place, he faces the yelping dogs and preserves his purity of his fur at the price of his life. Wouldn't it be something that if we as believers could get that concern about our cleanness and our purity, and take a stand at the world that desires to get us all dirty. That little animal called the ermine would rather die than get its white fur dirty. I believe it's the book of James here that talks about keeping ourselves, is it not, unspotted from the world? I believe that's what it is. Let me find the verse. Let me get to it. It's a new Bible here. I'm breaking it in, amen. Chapter one, James one, thank you brother Chris. James one, verse 27, pure religion and undefiled before God and the fathers is to visit the fatherless and witness their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world. That's James one, 27. I don't know many believers tonight that would rather die than be unfaithful to the Lord. I mean, we'll sell out the Lord and His house for anything. You'd be shocked at the people that profess to be saved at Super Bowl time. Well, if they don't have something in the church, they're not going to church that night, they're staying at home to watch a football game. But we got churches now that are accommodating this carnal crowd, and they're having a Super Bowl game, bringing the things in at the church, having halftime and having preaching during halftime, and then watching the rest of the football game, so everybody can be at church. I say hogwash, food on that, God helping me, we ain't doing that junk, amen. Some people love football more than they love Jesus, amen. It don't take much to get people out of church, amen. And it's sad, it really is sad. This Herman, he would rather die than get his little fur dirty. Can I say this lack of faithfulness to God or anything spiritual, a lack of faithfulness to the church and giving and witnessing, praying is a heart problem and not a heart condition, amen. I'm preaching tonight or we can no longer be friends. Of course, I've been in this way for almost 42 years. Some of you younger children in the Lord ain't been saved three or four years. You need to get ahold of us tonight. You're gonna have to quit being a friend to the world. If you're a friend to the world, you got friendship with the world, the things of the world, and your hands are tied up in the things of the world, you don't love God, you're an enemy to God. You're not being a witness for Christ and a light for Jesus, amen. The world can't be our friend. It's not possible to be right with God. It's a friendship we can't have. It's a friendship we shouldn't have. That's right. We shouldn't be a friend of the world. I'm talking about the world systems. I'm not talking about not being a friend of sinners. Jesus was a friend of sinners. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about all the things that the world has to offer. According to this verse right here in your Bible, in James chapter number four, at verse number four, according to this word, this friendship is a friendship that is forbidden. Now let me remind you who James is writing to. James 1 says, James is serving God and the Lord Jesus Christ to 12 tribes which are scattered. Why is these 12 tribes scattered? They're under persecution. Now think about this for a moment. James is writing to persecuted believers. He's not giving them a love letter. He's not putting no salve on their wounds. He's coming down and he's calling them a bunch of adulterers and adulteresses because they have a friendship with the world and they're being a friend to the world and he's wanting them to know that you are an enemy to God if you don't cut this friendship away and off of you, amen. I can't help it, folks, that's what the Bible said. I gotta preach the Bible, amen. And brother, I'm telling you, my dear sister, we got a lot to work on. 1 John 2, 15, if any man love the world, love the Father's not in, that's what the Bible said. We love the things of the world, we love pleasure more than we love God, we're in trouble, amen. If you'll be a friend of the world, he's the enemy of God. Do you think that the scripture saith in vain, the spirit dwelt in us and lusteth envy? And then he goes on, he said, he gives you grace, he'll give you more grace. He'll give you more grace to do right. Wherefore he said, God resisted the proud, but he gave grace to the humble. I wonder how these people reacted when they read this letter. Man, James just called us adulterers and adulteresses. He's telling us that the friendship of the world's enemy with God? He's telling us that if we're afraid of the world, we're enemy of God? He said, I just want you to know God resists at the proud. Give grace to the humble. Submit yourself therefore to God, resist the devil, he'll flee from you. Drawn out of God, he'll draw out of you. Cleanse your hands, your sins, purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be afflicted in the morning, we bless your life to be eternal in the morning, and your joy in the heavenlies. Humbly yourselves at the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up, amen. So we can't be friends anymore. We can't be friends anymore. I want to say tonight that there's nothing that's muddy about this is all. I believe the choice is clear tonight. We just got to make the right choices and we can't get hung up. with the world's affairs and all that's going on in the world. Our focus, listen folks, I know this sounds awful narrow-minded, but our focus, honey, I'm telling you, our focus ought to be the house of God, the things that are going on in the church, revival meetings, church services, amen. That should be our focal point of our lives. And I know all this other stuff's a part of our lives, but I tell you, brother, that shouldn't hold sway over our focus. Our focus should be on the Lord. Hey, when I look Him in the face, are we going to wish we'd have done more? Probably will. I will do my best not to be friends anymore with the world system. I'd really like to look Him in the eye and say, Lord, I never was the best. But Lord, I can say from a pure heart that I really sincerely did my best to be pleasing to you. It don't hurt you to ask the Lord, Lord, is this pleasing in your side or not? Is it okay if I do this? Is it okay if I do that? Is it okay if I go do this or go do that? He'll give you a clear answer. Yes or no? I mean, sometimes God's not gonna want you to do what you wanna do. And there'll be times that he'll let you do what you wanna do, but see, we don't have people living on that level of lordship with Christ, where they're asking the Lord, well, can I go do this or not though? People don't ask stuff like that. Most people live in their own lives, making their own decisions. They don't even think about praying about anything. Lord, is it okay if I go do this? We should ask those things. That's right. We should be conscious of our Lord Jesus tonight. He loves us. He loves us in spite of all of our failures and sins and shortcomings tonight. I'm glad He's a patient God, aren't you? I'm glad He's a very forgiving God. But I'm going to tell you, when it comes to His Word, He's stern with His Word. And it's not a bunch of suggestions. It's not whether you want to do it or not. He says, I'm telling you, if you love the world, if you have a friendship with the world, you're an enemy of God. So when you make up your mind, we just can't be friends anymore. It's friendships. Listen, there are friendships that you shouldn't have. Would anybody agree with that? They're friendships you shouldn't have, going out with an angry man. Bible said not do that. We know that Amnon had a friend named Jonadab. What'd Jonadab do? Jonadab come in Amnon's life, he was his friend, but he used him. and he caused a big ruckus in Amnon's life, ended up getting Amnon killed. Jonadab come in, started a mess, walked back out, and left a mess with Amnon. That's not a real friend. But we know the Bible tells us about Jonadab, said he was a very subtle man. So friendships are important. And he said, if we have friendship with the world, it's enmity of God. It brings opposition. If you're a friend of the world, James said, you are an enemy of God. James says to this crowd, you are committing spiritual adultery on God. It's all through the Bible, I talked about it. So may God help us to make the right choices.