Now someone sent me an Easter greeting this morning. Now he sent a picture of a bunny with a basket of eggs with a caption “Happy Easter”. So, I was wondering how to respond. So, say thank you or to say sorry, Easter is not the birthday of bunnies alright. So as mentioned earlier on, we celebrate Easter every Sunday. Every Sunday we remember the risen Lord. We come and we worship Him. We come to church also to hear the Word of God. So, this morning, we are continuing our series on James’ epistle.

Now this morning, we’re going to look at James 4:4-6. So, if you would please turn in your Bible again and I will read the text. James 4:4-6. Alright this is the Word of the Lord. “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not 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. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”? But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”” Now, let us pray.

“Eternal God, our Father in heaven, we come together this morning as Your people to worship You. We want to draw near to You and seek Your blessing. We pray as we open up Your Word once again, we look to You for enlightenment and pray that the Spirit might grant us understanding. For these, we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Now if you are a friend of the world, you are an enemy of God alright. I think that is the truth that we see here in the Scripture that if you are a friend of the world, you are an enemy of God. And therefore, we have in the Bible this constant reminder that we are not to love the world. You might remember what John wrote in his epistle in First John chapter 2. And this is what John says. 1 John 2:15- “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves 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, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.”.

Now do not love the world. Do not be a friend of the world. That is what it means to be a friend of the world, that is to love the world. And the Bible says that if you are a friend of the world, you are not a friend of God or you are an enemy of God. And every one of us by nature, now we are the enemies of God. Every one of us by nature is an enemy of God. Paul, when he wrote to the Romans in Romans chapter 8, and that is what he writes. Romans 8:6-7- “For to be carnally minded (or to be fleshly) is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”.

And then he says: “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So (verse 8), those who are in the flesh (those who are carnel) cannot please God.”. So, in our natural state we are all enemies of God. We are all enemies of God. Does it really matter whether you are an enemy of God or you are a friend of God? You see, Paul noted this and he says in his letter to the Corinthians in his second letter. 2 Corinthians 5:10. Now 2 Corinthians 5:10, here’s a reminder in verse 10: “For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in his body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”.

There is a day of judgement where we all stand before the judgement seat of Christ. Then Paul writes in verse 11: “Knowing, therefore, (the fear or) the terror of the Lord, we persuade men”. Now you see, that is what the Bible is emphasising here or is trying to show to us that a day will come where all the enemies of God, all the people in the world will appear before the judgement seat of Christ. And that would be a terrible day if you remain an enemy of God because you will be condemned. You will receive His punishment. And so, Paul writes here knowing this: “Knowing (the fear or) the terror of the Lord, we persuade men”.

We plead with people that they might be what? To be reconciled back to God. And therefore, he writes same chapter here, 2 Corinthians 5:20. He said: “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ (we are representing Christ), as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.”. So, if you have yet to be reconciled to God, now that is our plea to you. Be reconciled to God. Be friends with God and not remain His enemy. That is the message of the Bible. That is the Christian message to the world that we who are in rebellions against God, we who are enemies of God, we face the wrath of God and we need to be reconciled back to God.

Now you see Christians, some of you or most of you. In fact, I hope all of you or all of us are Christians, are believers. Now you see, Christians are redeemed enemies. Now we are redeemed enemies. We are people who have been reconciled to God. And so, when Paul writing to the Christians in Ephesus, now this is what he wrote in Ephesians chapter 2. In Ephesians chapter 2 beginning in verse 1, he writes and he said this. And you therefore, referring to the believers to the Christians. He says: “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins”. So, we were once in this state of trespasses and sin. What is that state like?

Verse 2: “in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the prince who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of thr flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.”. So, you see Christians are redeemed enemies. We were once like the others, just like the others, living like them.

When you look out of your window to the world, you see a humanity that is in rebellions against God, a humanity that live their lives like Paul describes here in verses 2 and 3 that they walk in the course of this world, that they walk according to the prince of the power of the air, that they conducted themselves in the lusts of the flesh and the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Now that is what we will see when we look up in the world. And Paul is reminding us who are Christians, who are believers, look at them. And that is what we once were. But we are no longer because we have been redeemed. We are redeemed enemies.

Paul said the same thing when he wrote to the Romans alright in Romans 5:10. And here Paul says: “For if when we were enemies”. Yes, we were enemies. Christians were the enemies of God. But “if we were enemies, we were reconciled to God”. We were reconciled. We are people, enemies who have been reconciled back to God. How did that happen? Well it says here “through the death of His Son. Much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”. We Christians, we have been reconciled back to God through the Lord Jesus Christ by His life and by His death on the cross. When we repent of our sin and come to trust in Him, we have been made right with God. We are now friends of God.

Now that is an amazing truth in the Bible. And as I have shown you from different parts of the New Testament, you see that is one of the key themes of the Bible. It is to constantly remind us that we were once rebels, that we were once against God. We were once enemies of God. We once lived in a certain way that we ought not live that way anymore. I just show you one more passage on this in First Peter. First Peter chapter 4, and you can see that almost like all these different New Testament writers, whether it was Paul or John or James or Peter that this is a constant theme alright.

1 Peter 4:2-3, Peter writes that he should no longer live the rest of his time in the flesh. We don’t live in the flesh according to the desire of the flesh, our this fleshly human nature. We don’t live according to that sinful nature. He writes that he should no longer live the rest of his time in the flesh: “for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. For (verse 3) we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles”. In our past life we have lived long enough to do those kinds of things.

We have turned our back on those kinds of things already, on that kind of a lie. He says: “we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles— when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries.”. That was our past. That was our life, living as a rebel, living as an enemy of God. Now you see, when we come to James chapter 4, now James is having that in mind. James has that in mind. And so let me read James 4 again. James says we are redeemed enemies. So, when James 4:4 when James writes: “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not 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 these two things, they’re on opposing sides. Friends of the world, they are the enemies of God. Now you see, we are redeemed enemies, and we ought not live our old lives again. We have been reconciled. Now that then begs the questions: Why is James now writing to Christians and then charging them as enemies of God? Now remember, James 4:4, James is addressing the believers. He is not writing to a group of unbelievers and say you adulterer and adulteresses, you who are friends of the world, do you not realise that you’re all enemies of God? Now I say James here is not writing to unbelievers. We know that all unbelievers are the enemies of God and they face the wrath of God and they need to be reconciled back to God through the Lord Jesus Christ.

But here like I said, James is writing to believers. And we know that he’s writing to believers because this whole letter was written to believers. He calls them what? He calls them in chapter 1 and verse 2 my brethren. He calls them in chapter 2 and verse 1 my brethren or my brothers and sisters. He calls them in chapter 3 and verse 1 my brethren. Now you see, he was writing to his brother and sisters in Christ. He’s writing to believers. And he says that there is a problem with believers here. The problem he already stated in verses 1, 2, 3 of chapter 4.

Now what was the problem with believers in chapter 4 verses 1 to 3? It is the self-seeking, pleasure-seeking kind of life that these believers were demonstrating. And that’s why in verse 1 of chapter 4 he said: “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from the desires for pleasure that war in your members?”. He says is it not true that even as Christians that there’s this conflict inside, there’s this desire you know that fight inside, that struggle inside, that we are still yearning, we are still desiring, there’s this still lustful desire in our hearts, in our lives? He writes in verse 2: “You lust and do not have”.

Do you still have lust? And this lust is so powerful in our Christian life such that we are prepared to murder. We are prepared to fight. We are prepared to do sinful things or things that we ought not do in order to get what we want or what we desire in our hearts. And then he writes in verse 3: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your lusts.”. Now you see, the word ’lust’ or ’desires’ or ’passion’ and whatever translation being repeatedly mentioned in the first three verses. And James is saying that here is a problem with believers. We have these worldly desires, this fleshly lust in us that is so controlling our life, and that make us live like an unbeliever again.

And therefore, in verse 4 he’s addressing these people- addressing these people who become friends of the world again. Who become friends of the world again. So how is it that we can be enemies of God again? Because we love the world. Because we love the world. Now the question then is: How does God relate to Christians who love the world? How does God relate to Christians who love the world? Have you ever asked yourself that question? How does God relate or respond to me who still love the world? Now this passage here supplies the answer. And as I apply the answer in three parts, now there are three words to help us understand the way God relates to believers who still love the world and thereby becomes His enemies again.

First, verse 4. When James says: “Adulterers and adulteresses! (Or in your translation, ESV: “You adulterous people”)”. Remember we’re speaking to Christians. You adulterous people, “Don’t you realise that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever loves the world makes himself an enemy of God.”. Now what is James saying here? Now this is the first thing about God’s response to worldly Christians- hostility. Hostility. God relates to them with hostility. Enmity with God. You become an enemy of God. You see, a Christian who has been reconciled, a person who has been reconciled can become an enemy of God not positionally but they are the practical enemies of God.

Now remember, it’s not positionally but practically they are an enemy of God. That means in their practice, in their life they are at odds with the will of God. They are different from the non-Christians. The non-Christians as we learn from Romans 8 that they will not and they cannot. We can. You see, we are given the power of the Holy Spirit. We can do the will of the Lord. But in practice, you don’t. You don’t. Now that is the problem here that James is talking about. You don’t, and thereby make yourself enemies of God again. I want to ask you: Have you become a practical enemy of God? Now that is what James is challenging us to think about. Have we become enemies of God by becoming friends of the world? Now how does a person, a Christian become an enemy of God?

You see, when we begin to set our minds on things on the earth rather than on things above, when we are drawn by the world rather than by the things of God, we become friends of the world. And so, Paul writing to the Colossians pleaded with them with this word in Colossians 3:1-2- “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. (Verse 2) Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.”. There is a constant reminder in the Scripture to Christians to learn to pull themselves away from the world, to learn not to be fixated on the things of this world but to set their minds on things above. Now Jesus said the same thing in His sermon in Matthew chapter 6.

Now listen to what Jesus says here in Matthew 6:19. Now Jesus says: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”. Now Jesus is speaking to His disciples and He said this is how we should live our Christian life, not fixing our hearts and our minds on the things of this world. Now that is what it means to be friends with the world and thereby become a practical enemy of God.

Listen again to Jesus when He says here in verse 24: “No one can serve two masters; for he will either hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”. It is folly. It is, we are deceiving ourselves to think that as redeemed people, as Christians we can still put one leg on one boat and the other leg on the other boat. Now a lot of Christian is trying to juggle that kind of life. They think that that is okay. But in the Bible, that is not okay. Friendship with the world, James says, is enmity against God. If you are a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.

So, in your life practically if you live your life that way, then you become a practical enemy of God. And therefore, Jesus says: “Seek you first the kingdom of God and His righteousness”. Now that is the mindset of a true believer. A believer. That’s how we ought to live our lives. So, are you still seeking after the world? That is how we examine ourselves to see whether we are a practical enemy of God. Remember, you Christians, we Christians, we all can still be enemies of God by the way we live our lives. We still can be at enmity with God when we become friends of the world, when we seek after the things of the world, when our treasure is on this earth.

You see, Mary was making a statement in Luke chapter 10 when she pulled herself away from the cares and the concern and the business of this life and sat at the feet of Jesus. And Jesus said to Martha that Mary had chosen the good thing. Now that is how we pull ourselves away from the world. We must learn to pull ourselves because there is this still nature in us as it were that pull us in that direction. It is still a conflict within our lives that we have to deal with as Christians. There is this strong pull. Remember, that’s the reason why we find so many Christians who are so worldly because there is still this strong pull to pull believers, whether you are a man or a woman, a boy or a girl. We all know that.

We hear of Paul speaking of that struggle in Romans chapter 7, that strong pull in the direction of the world that we have to deal with in our lives. Are we still craving for things or pleasures that are sinful? Have we not made up our mind like Moses where we are told about him in Hebrews 11:25 that Moses, “choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasure of sin”. Moses has made up his mind. It is not that he doesn’t have any feeling or any desire in that direction, but he has made up his mind that I will not do that. I will pull myself away from that.

Now it is a fight that we have to fight every day in our life as Christians that we might not end up being practical enemies of God. So is there still that lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life that is controlling us. So, what is James’ issue here? He says that if you are a practical enemy of God, if you are living that kind of life, if you are still a lover of the world, be honest with yourself. Now are you still a lover of the world? Then James says then God relates to you with hostility because you are at enmity with God. With hostility. Now if you perceive in living as a friend of the world, now here’s the warning. Philippians chapter 3.

Philippians 3:17-19, again Paul speaking of the same matter in verse 17 of Philippians 3: “Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern.”. Now Paul says look at me. How I live my life as a Christian. Then he writes in verse 18: “For many walk (or lead), of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ”. Paul is writing and he says I observe that there are these people, they live as enemies of Christ. Verse 19: “whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, whose glory is their shame—who set their mind on earthly things.”.

Now you see, Paul says here’s the warning that if you persist to be the friend of the world, then it might only show that you were never a friend of God. You’ve never be reconciled to God because there is no indication that you feel sorry about it. Do you feel remorseful? Do you feel a sense of contrition in your heart that you are now a practical enemy of God? If not, alright Paul says here is the warning that it only proves that you were never a friend of God. Secondly, how does God relate to those who love the world? I say firstly, with hostility. Secondly, with jealousy. Verse 5 of James 4, with jealousy. Now listen to what James writes here in verse 5: “Do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?”.

Now this is noted to be the most difficult verse in the whole of this letter. And so, if you’re reading different translation, you may be trying to figure out what James is saying here. So let me mention a few things here. First, who is jealous for whom when James writes in verse 5: “yearns jealously”? Who is yearning jealously for whom? Now if you are using an ESV (I suppose most of you are doing), now it’s translated this way that “He yearns jealously over the spirit”. I think in some of your ESV the spirit is in small capital alright small letters. Small spirit, referring to our human spirit. Over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us. Or some in the capital letter, the capital S, referring to the Holy Spirit.

And therefore, the ’He’ refers to God yearning over the Holy Spirit. Or in the NASB, “He jealously desires the spirit whom he has set or made to dwell in us”. Now I believe that here is where the King James version alright or the New King James seems to be the best rendering of this. And it says this that “the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously for us”. The Spirit of God that God has given to us as believers. When we sin against Him, when we become lovers of the world, the Spirit is jealous. So, God relates to believers who love the world with jealousy. With jealousy. And so to answer the first question: Who is jealous for whom? The Holy Spirit is jealous when we become lovers of the world.

Now but James says here: “Or do you think that the Scripture says (for no purpose or) in vain”. Now James seems to be saying that there is a Scripture that state this truth. But scholars have studied and realised that there is no particular verse or specific verse in the Bible that actually says this. So, you can’t find anywhere else in the Bible that says this. So, what then does James mean here when he says: “Do you think that the Scripture says (for nothing or) in vain”. Or this statement that the Spirit yields jealously when we become lovers of the world or when we love the world? Probably then that James was not thinking of a specific verse or text in the Bible that speak or that has this statement here.

But rather, James is saying that the Scripture. It is a scriptural theme. It is a biblical theme that the Spirit, that God is jealous when we turn to other gods. Now that is confirmed at least by Exodus chapter 20 alright, and this we will read here. Exodus 20:4-5, where Moses writes here: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or whatever is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God”. God is jealous when we turn to other gods, when we turn to the idols, when we become lovers of the world. God is a jealous God.

And why is He jealous? Why is God jealous when you who are His turn to the world? Answer? I think it’s supplied by James himself here in the passage alright in James 4 when in verse 4 he writes. Now this is how he begins in verse 4: “Adulterers and adulteresses! (Or in their translation: “You adulterous people”)”. But in the original, the literal word is this. I think it’s translated in the NASB that says: “Adulteresses”. That is in the original. Just one word: “adulteresses” in the feminine form alright like a feminine noun. And therefore, in James’ mind, and that is what He’s thinking about.

He’s looking at the believers, he’s looking at the church, they have turned away from God and to become lovers of the world and he charged them as adulteresses in the feminine noun because we the church, we are the bride of Christ. We are the bride of Christ and God is our husband as it were. And we, His wife have prostituted ourselves when we turn to the world. Now that is the picture in the Bible, and that is the picture that James is showing here. And that is the picture we see all over the Scriptures. And that is the theme of the book of Hosea when Hosea’s wife prostituted herself and turned away. And so, what did God tell Hosea to do? To forsake her? To neglect her? No, but to pursue her. She is still your wife.

We are the bride of Jesus Christ bought by the blood of Christ. God loves us with an eternal love, with an everlasting love. It is a love that pursue us all the way, a love that will not let us go. That is the amazing love of God. That is the amazing love of God. Now how is it that we still want to live that kind of a life? And that’s because we don’t understand our relationship with God. We do not understand how much God loves us, how He is so jealous of us when we turn to other lovers, when we become lovers of the world. Every time you live in your lusts according to your lust, you pursue sinful pleasures in your life in different, different forms. Could be through books, through visuals or through your pursuit in life.

You pursue other things rather than God or through putting other things first in your life rather than putting God first in your life. God is jealous. God says that I should be first. You should be seeking Me. I should be your treasure. I should be the one that you are seeking every day. But you know what? Many, many Christians are not living that kind of life that God wants. But we are living the kind of life that James is describing here that we are adulteresses. We are prostituting ourselves every day. So how does God relate to us who are His people? Jealously. God is jealous.

Now you see in the Bible we know that we e read again and again of the love of God. And I say this love is intense because James puts here: “the Spirit who dwells in us yearns”. Yearns is a longing jealousy. He’s longing. He yearns. He’s like the husband waiting in a home, in the house for the wife to come back. Yes, He knows what the wife is doing, but His love for her has no end. He yearns. There’s this longing for us. Don’t you feel that? Don’t we even understand something of the amazing love of God, that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ?

Now as I say that in the Bible, we read much about the love of God, the love of God for us. Oh, what manner of love the Father. We read of the love of the Father. “What manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God”. We read of the amazing love of our Lord Jesus Christ in Romans 8 that says that “nothing shall separate us from the love of Christ”. Shall persecution, shall anything separate us from the love of Christ? But here- but here in James, we are also told concerning the love of the Spirit of God. So, God. The Trinity God- the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, they love us. They love us with an eternal love.

So do not grieve the Spirit. Do not grieve the Spirit Do not- do not turn away from Him into the world because He grieves. He yearns for us. We are therefore to walk in step with the Spirit, to be led by the Spirit, to be filled with the Spirit. Thirdly and finally, how does God relate to Christians who love the world? Back to James chapter 4, and the word is ’grace’. Grace. Hostility, jealousy, grace. Verse 6: “But He gives more grace”. But He gives more grace. Now that’s the amazing thing here. That is the amazing thing we see again and again in the Bible. Like I said earlier on when we were looking at Ephesians chapter 2, you see the same thing, the same truth there.

Let me just read again. He says that “in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. (But, verse 4) but God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, He made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), You see, we have been saved. That is the saving grace of God that we once were enemies of God have now been reconciled. How did it happen? The saving grace of God.

But when James writes in James 4:6, he’s not thinking of the saving grace of God. Now sometimes we think that we need the grace of God at the beginning of our Christian life when we needed to be saved. And after that, we can live on our own. But we see ourselves turning away from God and we need the grace of God. That is what James says here. And here’s the good news: He gives more grace. This is a sustaining grace of God. This is the empowering grace of God. You see, we need God’s grace if we were to live out our Christian life in a manner that is pleasing to God. We need more grace. I think in some translation the word ’more’ is greater, but there is “but He gives greater grace or abundant grace”.

Now that’s what more means, that is it is full, it is greater, and it’s abundant. When sin increase, grace increase all the more, and that is the idea here. The more sin, the more we see the grace of God. He gives more grace. This is a plentiful surprise. Grace indeed is greater than all our sin. And so, what do we do now that we understand this that as believers when we turn away from God and to become friends of the world, we are at odds with God. We become practical enemies of God. And the Spirit of God is jealous because He loves us. He wants us back. We should turn back to Him. And there is hope because there is grace. You can come back. You can turn back to Him because there is more grace.

You say oh, you don’t understand. You know my life. Although I become a Christian, I live worse like some non-Christians, but there is more grace. There is grace for you. And God is holding out. Jesus is always holding out. “Come unto Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I’ll give you rest”. There’s more grace for you. Or as the writer to the Hebrews writes in Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews 4:16- “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”.

Now that is what we should do. Perhaps when you read what James is writing here, you say yeah, I’m one of those. I’m an adulteresses. I’m a bride that have turned away from the groom. I’m a wife that had prostituted myself, and my husband is jealous. He wants me back, and there is more grace. Come to the throne of grace to find help in time of need. Or as the hymn writer writes: “Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come; ’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.”. We need that grace to persevere and to finally arrive home.

But is there a condition? Is there a condition? James 4:6- “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”. Yes, you must humble yourself. You must acknowledge your sin. You must see your waywardness. You must come with a contrite spirit and a broken heart in humility, for God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Let us pray.

“Eternal God, our Father in heaven, we indeed thank You each week as we open up Your Word, we see this precious truth. We thank You for the Spirit to help us understand. We thank You for Your precious truth to guide and instruct us in our life. And this morning, we’re reminded that even as Your people so often we become Your practical enemies that in our life, we do not do Your will, that in our lives we turn to the world. And so often our pursuits are the things of this world that our treasures are on earth. Lord, forgive us and help us indeed to turn back to You, to come to the throne of grace that we might receive mercy in time of need. For we pray all these in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.