After a short break we continue through our series in James. In this passage, James will talk about two types of friendships: with the world and with God. One will lead to a life of chaos. The other will lead to a life of spiritual fruitfulness. Which one will you choose? The key word is ONE because you can only be friends with one. So if you choose to be friends with the world, you will become an enemy of God.
You can’t be friends with both. A friendship with one excludes a friendship with the other. So which will you choose?
Sermon Clip
Full Service
MESSAGE Notes
James 4:1-12 – Who Is Your Friend?
Pastor Kyle Lewis
James 4:4 – 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
Friendship With The World (vv. 1-3)
- James 4:1-3 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
- “Passions” – Pursuing what feels good
Even Christians can become friends with the world, and consequently enemies of God.
- James 4:4 – You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
- James 4:5 – Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?
- James 4:6 – But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
How Can We Grow Our Friendship With God?
- James 4:7-12 – 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. 11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
1) Submit to God (v. 7, 10-12)
2) Resist the devil (v. 7)
- James 4:7 – Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
- Now how exactly do we do that?
- Withstanding (saying no) to temptation
- The sword of the Spirit (Word of God – Eph. 6)
3) Mourn over sin (v. 9)
- James 4:9 – Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
- You will not truly get that sin out of your life unless it bothers you.
- One way or the other, you will eventually grieve over your sins.
Island Pond Baptist Church is an SBC church in Hampstead, NH, just seconds from Derry, NH. We also have many people at our church from surrounding cities such as Chester, Sandown, Danville, Kingston, Fremont, Plaistow, Atkinson, Derry, Londonderry, Salem, and Haverhill. If you live in Southern New Hampshire, we would love for you to come and visit!