A Daily Walk

Guest (Male): There is a war going on every day within us. Maybe you've noticed. It's a battle between the spirit and the flesh. James in a no-nonsense way gives us a strong warning about this war within in the epistle that bears his name. We'll take a look at it today on A Daily Walk, and I'm happy to say you can win the war through humility and by God's grace. Here is Pastor John Randall in James chapter 4.

John Randall: The natural man apart from Jesus who walks in the flesh is always thirsting for more. I just need to make more money. I just need to have a bigger house. I need to have a larger ministry. I need to have a faster car. I need to have a better vacation. I need to have a younger husband. Whatever your thing is, you keep going through all of these things trying to satisfy yourself. On and on and on it goes.

Someone said the best cure for hedonism is an attempt to practice it because it will leave you empty. We pursue every avenue to try to find satisfaction that only eludes us. And we get frustrated, we get irritable, we get irrational, illogical, self-centered, and miserable.

And then we don't gain the upper hand in this war until we surrender to Jesus. And that is when the battle begins to change and the tide is turned and where satisfaction can be found. We come to the only one who can meet the deepest longings and provide contentment. I think of that quotation from Augustine when he said, "Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee."

Our hearts are restless. It was C.S. Lewis that said if I can't find something in this world to satisfy me, then I must be made for another world. And the truth is we are. The world and its evil system competes with God. It offers pleasure apart from God contrary to God's word. The Bible says that sin is pleasurable for a season or no one would be involved with it. It is pleasurable for a time, but in the end, it brings pain and destruction and suffering and heartache.

Maybe you're in that kind of a conflict tonight. You're in a conflict with others, but the truth is your conflict is actually with God. That's where the conflict lies. You're upset because God isn't acquiescing to your sinful desires and he won't bless it. And so you're taking it out on those around you. God's so mean. Why? He won't bless my sin.

The cause of the conflict comes from a carnal pursuit of pleasure, which in turn makes for an ineffective prayer life. If you'll notice James says, you don't have because you don't ask. And you don't ask and you don't receive because you ask amiss that you might spend it on your own pleasures. There's a problem there. Again, living after the flesh, living after these fleshly desires, James says you don't bring these desires to the Lord.

And you're not praying about them at all. And if you did ask or you do ask, it's only because you want your pleasures fulfilled and therefore it's like God's a genie. You rub your Bible—God, I need three wishes. It doesn't work that way. We'd like it to, but that's not the way that it is. That's a fantasy.

The general idea is that if we're seeking to pray according to God's will instead of our own, the continual cravings for worldly pleasure that would destroy us or our sinful become less desirable and lose their grip on our heart. And what happens is we realize that the proper needs and wants are supplied and we're no longer asking for those things that only increase and intensify the war within. I don't need that. That just creates war within. I have to turn from that.

I think of what John said in 1 John chapter 5 verse 14 when he said, "Now this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us." It doesn't say according to your will or mine, but his because he knows what's best. And I do believe that when you are caught in this battle between the spirit and the flesh and you're giving in to it and yet still asking God to bless what you're doing, but you're living that separate life—I wish I didn't know about this—but there's this common misunderstanding that we can have in praying for God to bless what we're doing while we're living the exact opposite way of what God has revealed for us to live. It's deception really.

God, bless my marriage, someone says, while you live in pornography. God, bless my relationship with my boyfriend, while we sleep together unmarried. God, bless my business, while I do what is unethical and misleading to my customers and rip them off. God, bless what I want even though it goes directly against what you said. It's asking amiss. It's asking with the impure motive.

And so I realize that if that's the case, something needs to change. I need to present my members no longer to the flesh because as I present them to the flesh, that leads me to pray and seek things amiss that only cause war and turmoil in my life and with everybody else who's connected to me.

I love what Charles Spurgeon says concerning this. He said when a man so prays amiss, in essence, what he does is he's asking God to be his servant to gratify his desires. And Spurgeon said it's actually worse than that. The man that prays amiss wants God to join him in the service of his lusts. He will gratify his lusts and God shall come and help him do it. Such prayer, he said, is blasphemy, but a large quantity of it is offered, and it must be one of the most God-provoking things that heaven ever hears.

Imagine those prayers coming up like, "Did he just pray that one? Really? He wants you to bless that? Doesn't he know, doesn't she realize that's going to destroy her? Lord, don't answer that one." James takes it a step further and he spells out in straightforward language by citing that this type of living and praying leads to unfaithfulness to God. So if I yield to the flesh and I give into these things and I pursue them, it affects my prayer life for sure and it affects everybody around me.

And it leads to this, but it also leads me to become unfaithful to God. It says here in verse 4, James says rather bluntly, "Adulterers and adulteresses, don't you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." Now let me first of all explain. When he talks about being a friend of the world, he's talking about the world system. He's talking about everything that is governed by the flesh, for the flesh, that the devil's behind.

You want to connect to that and you want to be in that and live that way, listen, by doing that, you're aligning yourself. It's light with darkness. You're still living in darkness when God called you to live in light. You can't do that anymore as a Christian. I have to come out of darkness. He's called me out of that life. To be in that world system and very comfortable in it and live in it and pretend like nothing ever happened to me, that my salvation was just a prayer I prayed but it never changed my life, something is wrong.

I'm still in darkness. I feel comfortable in the shadows. Listen, the longer you walk with Jesus in the light, the less you feel comfortable in darkness. Because suddenly your eyes are open. When you're in darkness, it's just darkness. This is cool. I'm cool with darkness. I don't mind darkness. Until you come into the light, you're like, "Whoa, I didn't see that. That is dark." And now you don't want to be there anymore.

James says listen, he calls them adulterers and adulteresses. And why would he say that? James is charging the church with unfaithfulness and infidelity to God when he refers to them as adulterers. Here's the amplified version. Here's what he says. "You are like unfaithful wives having illicit love affairs with the world and breaking your marriage vow to God. Don't you know that being the world's friend is being God's enemy? So whoever chooses to be a friend of the world takes his stand as an enemy against God."

You're siding with a world system that is completely opposed and hateful and antichrist. He's saying there's something wrong with that picture, Christian. He calls them adulterers or adulteresses. Why is that? Because in the Old Testament we find a similar picture that is used for the nation of Israel and her relationship to God. For you ladies that have been studying through the book of Hosea, you know this to be true, where the idolatry of the people was compared to adultery.

And being unfaithful to God was pictured in Hosea's life. And God allowed his life to be a living illustration of that. The idols had robbed the Lord of his people's love and devotion. It's like they were going out on the Lord. They had a relationship with God, but they were going out on God, cheating as it were on God under every green tree with every little idol worshipping whatever. And it's like they had all of these different lovers in the form of idols that they worshipped instead of their one bridegroom who was God.

In the New Testament it's the same way. It's the same picture because the Bible pictures the church as the bride of Christ. And who's the bridegroom? Jesus. So when the church begins to go down this path and begins to become fleshly and carnal and pursues these things of darkness once again, it's as if we are going out on—that's the way that James presents it—going out on spiritually adulterizing with the things of this world. We're the bride of Christ. We want to be faithful to our bridegroom.

And so when we become involved in and get back to what he died to save us from and we go back into it, it's like there's that unfaithfulness, that infidelity that breaks the heart of God is what James is saying here. And he asks the question, don't you know? Don't you understand what I'm saying? Do you not realize this? It's like he's asking the question like you would think they would know. These are God's people. God's people don't realize this?

Don't you perceive where your unfaithfulness will lead you, where your friendship with the world system, where this pursuit chokes out the work of the spirit? You don't really come to maturity, you just kind of get stuck. And if you're not careful, you get sucked right back into the way things always were. There has to be this break. There has to be this severing of all that used to be so destructive. And sometimes that's difficult because these things get their hooks in us.

And it is painful, but there's a cost to following Christ. There really is. And some people they don't want to count that cost. They don't—that's too painful. I can't do that. Lord, I will follow you but not that. I said that to the Lord for so long. I think of an example in the Old Testament who made this mistake, who started going down that path. His name was Lot. Lot was the nephew of Abraham. Lot was blessed because of his connection to Abraham. Abraham had all these promises and Lot went along for the ride. And he was blessed.

However, when they came back into the land, Abraham had his herds and Lot has his herds of sheep and everything else livestock, and there was a conflict. And so Abraham said, "You know what, Lot, there's a problem." It wasn't going well. So Abraham said, "Lot, why don't you just go wherever you want? You choose." And it's interesting because it says concerning Lot that he looked towards Sodom. And when he looked towards Sodom, he says in the scriptures in Genesis that it was like Egypt.

Egypt, of course, is a picture or type of the world. He looked towards Sodom. "Man, that looks good. You know what that reminds me of? Egypt. I think I want to go over there. See ya, Abe." And so he not only looked towards Sodom, but the next step says he pitched his tent towards Sodom. I'm not in Sodom, folks. Come on. I just pitch my tent over there. I'm not in it. I looked at it, pitched my tent toward it. The next time you see him, he has a position of leadership in Sodom. He's running the gate. He's the gatekeeper of Sodom. What happened?

And he just loses all moral bearings and compass and suddenly he barely escapes Sodom. He loses everything, including his witness and his wife. It was a mess. What happened? He presented his members to the flesh. He started looking that direction and then he moved in that direction, felt comfortable in that direction, camped in that direction, and before long he was in it and he barely made it out alive and lost everything in the process. It's so tragic.

I read at one point they said that some people want only as much of God's salvation as will keep them out of hell, and they measure out with unconscious precision how much worldliness and sin they can still hang onto without jeopardizing their chances. And so James says here in verse 5, "Do you think that the scripture says in vain, the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously?" Now when it says that the jealous—sometimes we immediately think in the negative. God is jealous? How can God be jealous?

That doesn't seem right because we think of jealousy in terms of what we know it to be in our fallen nature. When the Bible speaks of the jealousy of God, it speaks of his love for us, his concern for us. He doesn't want to share us with somebody else. If we're the bride of Christ, he doesn't want to share his bride. We're his. He's concerned for them. There's no room for double occupancy in the Christian's heart.

The spirit of God dwells within us. And when we start going that way, the spirit of God within us grieves over the direction we're going and tries to warn us along the way. Like don't go that way. Don't you know where that's going to lead? Don't you know that that leads to a prayerless, faithless life of destruction that Jesus died to bring you out of? Don't go back to that. There's nothing there for you.

And so James gives a strong warning about this war that goes on within. But he does tell us here thankfully, and I'm so grateful for this grace that God gives in look at verse 6: "But he, that is the Lord, gives more grace." Don't you ever just feel like I need more grace? God's riches at Christ's expense, someone said. God's unmerited favor. We are saved by grace, we stand by grace, we serve by grace. The Bible has so much to say about the grace of God.

At the same time, the Bible encourages us not to take the grace of God for granted. Not to take the grace of God like it is this card that I use when I go out and sin and say just put it on my grace card, would you? Swipe it twice, please. What do you mean it's out? No, it doesn't run out. But that's how we look at it. But you'll notice here that he does say in the rest of that verse: "God resists the proud." Oh, he's gracious, but he resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

I could read this passage of scripture tonight and say, "Whatever. That doesn't apply to me. I don't know about that." That's a very proud approach. Or I could allow the spirit of God who right now is just kind of like, "Hey, I'm talking to you." Why are you looking at me, Pastor John? I'm not looking at you. I'm not looking at you. You may feel that way. I feel like the Lord's looking at me. I look at this passage of scripture, I look at my own life.

Lord, where am I still warring with you? Where am I still resisting you? Where am I still putting up this and saying, "Lord, you can come this far in my life but not that far. I'm going to draw some boundaries for you, God." So you can come here but not here. What are we yielding to tonight? Are we yielding to the lust of the flesh? Do we find ourselves gravitating back towards that? Doing things that we know God's not into? God's not going to bless that.

And we're just kind of going along like he will, but he's just long-suffering. He's just gracious like that. Or we can approach this passage and humble ourselves and say, "God, this is something that needs to change tonight. Not later, not when I get around to it, but now." And I trust that the Holy Spirit is so faithful in moments like this. When you read passages like this, I know studying through it God was speaking to my heart. And even now just speaking to my heart, and I trust that the spirit of God is speaking to everybody here tonight.

Just ministering to you, pointing these things out, bringing them to the surface. Not because he is a condemning God, but he's a loving God. And he graciously shines light of the word on whatever that is and says, "All right, there it is. And what will I do with it?" Prayfully tonight you'll humble yourself and I'll humble myself. Is there anything going on right now? Just ask yourself the question. Where you'd say, "I'm at war with God over that." It's important to surrender that to the Lord.

Is there any area tonight where you'd say, "I've been asking God to bless, but I've been doing the exact opposite of what he says he blesses"? I've been duped. Or maybe I've been choked out by the things of this world. They've just got such a grip on my heart. Lord, please root that out of my heart. And that's a process. He does that. But he does it when I yield to him.

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us today for A Daily Walk. To catch a replay of today's message from Pastor John Randall, simply go online to adailywalk.org. You can also listen to studies from John on our free mobile app. Do a search for Calvary South OC in the App Store or Google Play. You know, we light up around here when a listener shares what God is doing in their life and how they're helped through the teaching of God's word.

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John Randall: Heavenly Father, this evening as we look at your word, we realize there is a real war that goes on within us. And Lord, there's a lot of things externally going on in this world that could easily set us off or take us down a direction or a path that is destructive. But Lord, you've called us to peace. Lord, you've called us to light. Lord, you've called us to humility.

And Lord, I pray if there's any wars going on within marriages tonight, Lord, that there would be white flags raised tonight in surrender to you but also to one another. Forgiveness, reconciliation. Lord, where harsh words have been spoken, that there would be repentance and forgiveness. Lord, where there has been cares of this world that have wrapped themselves around the divided heart, I pray that you would uproot those things, Lord, so that all would remain is a passion for you, Lord, that is pure and undefiled and set on serving you, Lord.

Father, just search us tonight. Search our hearts, God. I think of where the psalmist said, "Search me, try me, know me, Lord. See if there be any wicked way in me and then lead me in the way everlasting." He said, "Purge me with hyssop, wash me clean." Lord, just shower over us tonight, Lord, with that grace as we humble ourselves. If you find yourself stiffening your neck or resisting the spirit right now, I just encourage you to humble yourself before the Lord.

And there's such freedom in surrender. There's such joy that comes and times of refreshing that come when there is repentance. And if that's what you desire, I encourage you to do that even right now. And so Father, thank you for speaking to us tonight. We receive this word. Help us to be faithful, Lord, to you. In Jesus' name, amen.

Guest (Male): Next time on A Daily Walk, we're encouraged to submit to God as our study in James resumes with Pastor John. This program is brought to you by Calvary South OC and made possible through your generous support.