Cork Free Presbyterian Church, 10 Briarscourt
(Annex) Shanakiel, Cork, Ireland
Pastor: Colin Maxwell. Email: colin.maxwell@fpcmission.org
mp3 recording here
READ: JAMES 4:1-10 TEXT: v4 FRIENDSHIP/WORLD ETC.,
Ye adulterers and
adulteresses, know ye 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.
Worldliness has always proved itself to the greatest enemy of the Christian as he sets his face towards Zion and heads for home
It is a thousand times easier to resist doctrinal and ecclesiastical
compromise, but worldliness is a harder foe to face and resist
Doctrinal and ecclesiastical compromise is an outward thing
Such rise quickly to the surface and can be spotted and therefore challenged and dealt with quickly
Worldliness can be much more deceitful and harder to shift
Worldliness invades your mind and your thoughts in a way which the other great foes cannot manage
Worldliness is a mindset…not necessarily a series/actions and we
could be worldly in the heart, while outwardly all seems pure and holy
A worrying trend in church affairs is the Seeker Friendly policy of
many churches whereby a worldly spirit has become official policy for
the purposes of evangelising the lost
We are all for bright services and friendliness etc., and we want
people to come to the meetings and feel welcome and want to return
But we do not become worldly so as to get people in through the doors
If people want worldly music etc., then we have nothing to offer them
We are a church (a called out assembly of people) and not an entertainment centre
We cannot even afford to compromise on this matter
We refuse to do so for two reasons:
[i] Pragmatic: We can never compete with the world in entertainment
Those in church circles who do have to keep going further/further
People "won" by entertainment need more/more of it to "stay"
The world will always put on a better show than you
Compromise is unending
Entire churches have totally evolved into night clubs
[ii] Principle: The Bible says that worldliness is wrong
Our text is a key text in this regard; 4 main thoughts
1) THE ILLUSTRATION THAT IS STARTLING:
Ye adulterers and adulteresses
A/ Highly unlikely that he is accusing them of the physical act of
infidelity to their marriage vows, hence my use of the term Illustration
The epistle is too general and the sin named is too uncommon to bear the idea that he is to be taken literal
B/ If the original readers were Jews (1:1) then they would be most familiar with two religious concepts:
[i] That faith in God is likened/Scripture to a marriage
Cannot understand a whole OT Book (Song/Solomon) without this
For thy Maker is thine husband; the
LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The
God of the whole earth shall he be called. (Isaiah 54:5)
[ii] In the OT, the departure of the Jewish church was often likened to
adultery, when the professing believers ran off with other gods:
Surely as a wife treacherously
departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O
house of Israel, saith the LORD. (Jeremiah 3:20)
And the Lord's appeal at this time is this:
Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you…(Jeremiah 3:14)
C/ The force/charge seen also in the pretty straight terms of address
God is not talking about them but to them as adulterers etc.,
It is (excuse pun) as brazen as that - Direct speech with a vengeance
It is not an insult, but (sadly) an indictment against them
Reminds us of that horrible chapter in Ezekiel 16 where a similar theme is taken up and God addresses Judah like this:
Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD: (v35)
So if we are tempted to dismiss James as an OTT preacher, yet we should
remember (apart from his inspiration) that he stands in familiar ground
- ground that God Himself occupied in similar circumstances
D/ We must leave some of the implications/charge to your own thoughts,
but we may mention: The vows of faithfulness which was given when
we were first converted to God - Days of faithfulness on our part when
we sought to walk with Him - The honour we owed Him as our Husband -
The grief/vexation caused to God when we crossed this line into
spiritual adultery and became victims of our own unfaithfulness
2) THE IGNORANCE THAT IS WORRYING:
Know ye not…
A/ Words: likely rhetorical, but this only heightens the matter more
Ignorance is bad enough, but when words like these are used to suggest
that such knowledge did exist but was disregarded, then the case is bad
B/ Let's run with the idea that there was true ignorance and that we
have people professing faith/Christ and yet ignorant of what
worldliness really is i.e. enmity with God and spiritual adultery
If we have many churches now advocating evangelism/worldly methods,
then we are bound to meet people professing faith/Christ but still
wedded to the world
What chaos must prevail in such a case (Satan's masterpiece)
We need the grace/wisdom of God to discern between false and empty
professors and weak believers who have not been properly taught
What a nightmare!
We are miles away from the old days when a Christian knew that he was doing wrong when flirting with the world
He dare not bring it into the church because he knew that it would be
rejected and that he would be lovingly rebuked, if not disciplined
Now, his off limits ideas are likely to be taken up and used
C/ Can see why it is essential to have the Bible central to our services
Even though we are a regenerate people, yet there is still the flesh hankering after the world within us
We all know those things that appeal so much to the flesh
Any repulsion towards them is not the work/nature, but the evidence of the Spirit/God working His sanctifying work within us
Yet we may ask: How does the Spirit/God so work?
Answer: Through the Scriptures
Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. (John 17:17)
James himself has already alluded to this:
Wherefore lay apart all filthiness
and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted
word, which is able to save your souls. (1:21)
When we would be sanctified, we turn to the word/God
We learn of the work of Jesus Christ on the Cross
We learn that He conquered sin by his death and that we, as His people,
may expect to overcome sin as well, because we are united to Him
D/ But if there is ignorance of what the Bible says, then you can see why problems are going to arise:
We will greatly err because we know not the scriptures:
We will not know what constitutes sin and worldliness
We will not know that it is inherently wrong
We will not know what is expected of us
We will not know how to attain it (through Christ and the means/grace)
We will not know to maintain it
We will not know the wiles/Devil in seeking to take it from us
E/ Yet even with many warnings/Bible (written for our admonition)
and even in the full day of grace as seen in the NT, this charge still
had to be laid at the door of professing Believers in Jesus Christ
Yet, how many warnings does it take?
Think of those church growth guru's who have purposely removed pulpits
from churches/purposely installed flashing lights, drum kits, dry
ice smoke machines etc., and done everything to put Las Vegas/shade
Can they honestly say that they have made their decisions in the light of serious Bible study and prayerful guidance?
If so, they certainly missed this and other verses/Scripture
3) THE INTIMACY THAT IS COMPROMISING:
Friendship with the world is enmity with God
A/ The term "world" carries several meanings in the Bible
[i] Sometimes it refers to the planet:
His lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw, and trembled. (Psalm 97:4)
[ii] Sometimes it refers to the people who inhabit it: John 3:16
(Definitely not this meaning in our text. We are to love what God loves)
[iii] But sometimes, it refers to the sinful, godless philosophy and
behaviour which the ungodly embrace and propagate i.e. worldliness
Such is the meaning here
Yes, we are to love the unsaved and befriend them as true friends, but
we must reject their wicked way/thinking - as alien to the Bible
B/ The readers/James' epistle evidently hadn't done so
Whether in the name of evangelism, or through ignorance or disdain/Bible, they had embraced it in a friendly fashion
They lived for themselves and for their present scene/time
They minded earthly things (Philippians 3:19)
No laying up for themselves treasure/Heaven
No desire to live a separated life unto God as required/Bible:
2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1 is a key passage here (Quote) with similar verses
C/ Again, we must emphasise that there is no rebuke for a man to love
sinners (Christ did) or to be involved in any interaction/business
etc.,
But we are not to love the worldly spirit that is abroad and we are not
to be so entangled in this world as to warrant this rebuke
No man that warreth entangleth
himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath
chosen him to be a soldier. (2 Timothy 2:4)
These words are strong words, but they are most needful:
For if after they have escaped the
pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the
latter end is worse with them than the beginning. (2 Peter 2:20)
4) THE INCONSISTENCY THAT IS APPALLING:
Whosoever therefore will be a friend with the world is the enemy of God
A/ James just keeps piling it on, doesn't he? He repeats his charge
Not a matter of opinion/taste… a spiritual principle in the whole Bible
I think it was the cause of the fall out between Cain/Abel
It is the reason why Balaam got on the way he did and is branded as the
mad prophet - His heart's fond love was in the world and not with God
B/ A worldly Christian is a complete contradiction
He became a Christian, did he not, to escape from the doom/this world?
Much more than escape from the penalty/sin…but also its chains/power
Why does he love that which he professes to have escaped? Appalling!
Let's ask God to preserve us from this woe and to live as overcomers
THE END