The War Within and the Battle Without | James 4:1-12 | Faith That Works

In the mid-1860s, the medical world began to document the phenomenon of the "phantom limb"—where amputees felt pain or an itch in a limb that was no longer there. As believers, we experience a spiritual version of this. Though our "old man" was crucified with Christ, we still feel the persistent, nagging itch to return to our old sins.

In James 4:1-12, the apostle James argues that our external conflicts are actually manifestations of this internal war. When we covet, envy, or seek the approval of the world, we set ourselves in opposition to God.

However, we are not left to fight this battle alone. God provides "more grace" to those who humble themselves. By resisting the devil and drawing near to God, we find the strength to put our faith into practice and grow in holiness.

 

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Thank you for joining us for this week's sermon from First Reformed Church in Edgerton, Minnesota. Each week, we dig into God's word, trusting that the Holy spirit will continue the good work of sanctification in us. If you spend any time studying the American Civil War, you come into contact with the reports about the many amputations that had to take place. These took place because of the many injuries involved with war and complications that came about because of gangrene. Amputation during the American Civil War was a very common practice. As a result of these substantial number of limbs being removed in a relatively short period of time in a condensed area, we came to a deeper understanding of a phenomenon that became known as phantom limb. Now, this was obviously not something that came about in the 1860s. It had always been something that people had experienced, but it was the first time that it had been significantly documented. So phantom limb is something that really doesn't make sense. Your arm or your foot is gone, but it still feels as though it's there. People experiencing phantom limb will feel an itch or even experience pain in a part of their body that is no longer there.

When we are in Christ, scripture tells us that we are our new creations. Yet we know very well that the old man, the flesh that has been put to death, still feels the itch to sin. While the occurrence of the Civil War caused us to learn more about phantom limb, for us, the old man being crucified with Christ is actually the cause of our own personal internal Civil War. We find that the flesh is at war with our spirit. The old nature is in conflict with our renewed minds. These internal battles that we experience each day are more than just minor skirmishes. Each time we resist temptation, we are growing in Holiness, and we are bringing glory to God. As we've made our way through the Book of James so far, the primary theme has been this idea of putting faith into practice, to be doers of the word and not just hearers. We all know that it's one thing to hear the word of God, and it's another thing to put it into practice, to actually do it. At the center of this is the struggle of the old nature versus the new. As we arrive in chapter 4, James doesn't let up.

He keeps pushing us as his readers to strive for wholeness. And so what we see here is that while each one of us is struggling with battles against sin within us, we find, James acknowledging, that it leads to struggles outside of us. And we know this to be true. We are well aware of how our personal battles get manifested in our relationships with other people. Here in verse one, James gets to the root of the conflicts that were occurring in the church that he's writing to. And notice that he doesn't ask about the different quarals and fights and then say, Let's sort about who has the best claim to the truth or who has the right idea that he agrees with. Instead, he wants to get down to the root of the conflicts that are happening. James states that the disturbances between people are coming from the war that is actually happening within each individual. He's suggesting here that the problems are deep, sinful desires that are not dealt with. And as his thought continues, James says something that takes us by surprise here. He says, You desire and do not have, so you murder.

Okay, I've seen conflicts in churches, but none of them have led to the taking of life, at least not as far as I know. Well, there are some commentators who believe that perhaps maybe there was literal murder that happened in a church. But most commentators are not thinking that what he's talking about here is premeditated taking of life going on in Christian congregations. From my inquiry into what this is saying here, that was a pretty minority option that actual murder was happening. Most likely, what James is doing here is drawing out how the sin of envy leads to anger and hatred. You know where this is going. The thought is that this is along the lines of the teaching of Jesus in the sermon on the mount, where he says that being angry with a brother is a violation of the commandment against murder. This does seem like the most likely interpretation or understanding, because if the taking of life was actually going on in the churches that are receiving this letter, I'm guessing the letter probably would have been more deliberate in speaking against murder and would have had a much more harsh tone, encouraging them to stop.

Don't kill each other. That would have been the tone of the letter. He would have been a little bit beyond be doers of the word and not just hearers. He probably would have been saying, Stop killing each other. The idea here that James is expressing is a point that rings true. We desire and we covert, and when we don't get our way, what happens? We find ourselves in conflict. We become angry. We have conflicts between us. We'll even conspire to get our way. James says that these sinful desires are down in us, and they're at the root of the conflicts that take place in our lives. We can see how this is the case, because we know that this is how humans are wired. We know that so many of the conflicts that we experience are often not about the issue that's taking place in front of us. Whatever is at hand in that moment, so often the conflicts are about what's going on deeper inside of each of us, the personal issues that we're struggling with. And what is happening in the conflicts we have is a manifestation of those struggles and those desires and those passions in us.

And so we see here in this passage that at the root of all of this is ultimately, covetousness. There are problems in the church because people have selfish desires. All of these things are because of bad motives of individuals. Even when they pray, James says, they're praying for selfish reasons. They are not concerned with the things of God. They are concerned with the things of the world. We know that this is always a problem with sinful humans. We desire, and we go after that which we can't have. Even if we get what we are desiring and what we're going after, it is rarely enough. We want more. We're always after something bigger and better. And rarely does what we receive put an end to the desires that we have. James wants us to understand that this is going to continually be a problem because it's going after the things of the world. It's pursuing the things of the flesh. If we are pursuing the things of God, we're not going to be going after those passions that control how we treat others. If we're pursuing the things of God, we're going to love our neighbor as ourselves.

As we slide down to verse 4, we find that James uses some strong language here. He says, You adulterous people. It calls back to that theme that we find in scripture over and over, that God is the faithful husband, and in their sin and rebellion, the people are the unfaithful spouse. This language calls us back to the false worship and idolatry of the people in the Old Testament. One generation would be faithful. The king would stop idolatry. But then what would happen with the next generation? After one generation pursued the things of God, the next few generations would be mired in idolatry and sin. I recently read through the books of first and second Kings. As I got to At the end of second Kings, I actually wrote in the margins of my Bible that you can feel this tension building in the text. There's an escalation of unbelief and idolatry over and over. I wrote that it felt like it was building to something. Because it was. It was building to God coming and punishing them, sending them into exile as a punishment for their idolatry. This theme throughout the Old Testament, this one king following the ways and the things of God and the others, the next king going after the things of the world.

And certainly Secondly, James is intending us to feel like we're being rebuked in the same way that the prophets rebuked the people in the Old Testament to return to God. We're to feel here our deep need to pursue the things of God, to be faithful to him. This is clear in the way that he says that friendship with the world makes us an enemy and that enmity with God. He's not implying here that we can't be in the world and be faithful to God. That's not what he's saying. In recent months, I think that I have heard more people say to me that they just want to move someplace and live off the grid to get away from the 24-hour news cycle and the algorithm that makes us so discontent. Never in my life have I heard so many people suggest that the lifestyle of the Amish is appealing. I've heard this more, again, in the last few months than I've heard in my entire life. James isn't suggesting here that we need to denounce everything in the world. Instead, he is talking about the fleshly desires of the world. We could all move into a commune.

We could shut off our smartphones, get rid of our TVs, get rid of our computers, and we would still have conflicts that would arise among us due to our covetous desires. That's the way fallen humans work. James sees the desires of the flesh as the issue, not the material possessions of the world. It's our desires for them. He's talking about the quest for power and influence that stands in opposition to God. If we go after those things, he says that we have chosen to be friends with the world, and in doing so, we are lying ourselves in opposition to God. When we desire the things of the flesh, that focus makes us an enemy of God. Let's stop for a moment and think about where we are. These four verses that we've looked at so far today are heavy. They're convicting. We realize that we are guilty of these problems that are being drawn out by James. We know the sinful desires of our hearts, and we know that we often desire the approval of the world over the things of God. But James doesn't leave us there. He doesn't tell us that we're all lost causes.

Instead, what he does is he pulls out a scriptural principle to remind us that God God grants his people grace for this battle. James isn't quoting a specific verse here. Instead, he's quoting or giving us a principle of Scripture that reminds us that God desires his people to seek after him. God not save us and leave us to our own devices to flounder. God persistently calls us to himself. The grace we are blessed with extends beyond the saving grace that brings us to faith, that causes us to trust in Christ for our salvation. The grace that we have includes the grace that he gives us through his word and spirit That word in spirit that is at work in our lives. That word in spirit that brings us to repentance. James wants us to understand that we need a spirit of repentance when he says that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. That is what repentance looks like. If we think we are wise, if we think that we do not need the wisdom of God, we are resistant to him. But when we humbly rely on him instead of ourselves, we are told that he blesses us with grace for our battles.

We are told why we desperately need that grace. We are not just at war with ourselves. We are not just at war with the world. We have an enemy that is in opposition to us as well. We are called to submit to God and resist Is the devil, the other one who is at war with us. The grace that God gives to us is not just something here that is passive. As we submit to God, we are blessed to have the grace to resist Resist. Resistance is active. We need to actively stand against the temptations that come against us. When we do this, we are told that the devil will flee. Satan is not an irresistible force. We are told that God gives us grace to stand our ground in the battle against the evil one. Chances are, at some point in your life, I know I've done this, we've made the joke excuse after we've done something that the devil made me do it. But the fact is, the devil can't make you do anything. When temptation comes, No one is going to force you to give in. God gives grace to his people to stand firm and resist, and in doing so, pursue wholeness.

No one is saying it's easy. But God is with you through the battle when we humbly acknowledge our need for his help. James tells us that when we draw near to God, he draws near to us. He calls us to genuine repentance. We need to not wallow in sin or feel as though we are stuck in our sin. God calls us to cleanse our hands and purify our hearts. And by this, James doesn't mean that we earn our forgiveness by our works, but that we submit ourselves to the mercy of God. And instead of being double-minded about ourselves, believing one thing about sin but doing another, we own up to what we've done. We admit that we have acted against God, and we ask for forgiveness. And once again, It's time to think about where we are. Let's be honest about this. Genuine repentance is hard. When we realize that we violated God's law, our natural response is to justify it, make excuses. To genuinely be repentant requires humility. That's exactly what James is calling us to here. James isn't suggesting that it's easy by any stretch of the imagination. But he says instead of laughing off our sin, that we need to grieve over it.

When he says that our joy should become gloom, James isn't saying that we shouldn't have joy, that the Lord is our strength and our salvation. That's not what he's saying. He's saying that if we are in sin, we should feel sorrow about how we have stood in opposition to God, how we've disobeyed his law. James tells us then that when we do this, there is great benefit for us. When we humble ourselves in true repentance, we're told that God exalts us. This doesn't mean that this is a formula. In order to get what you want, that position of power or those things that we desire, all we need to do is be humble, and then God will give us earthly recognition. This isn't a formula. The idea here is that when we are humbled, God lifts us up. That doesn't mean advancement in the world. It means advancement in his kingdom and the things that really matter. Remember, again, those ideas of the Beatitude, that upside down kingdom where the meek inherit the earth. That's the idea that's being expressed here. That we would have status not in the world, but where it really matters in the Kingdom of God.

We will be content then with what God purposes for us. Instead of going after what we selfishly think we deserve. He builds us up and we find our contentment in Him It is commands instead of the emptyness of worldliness and the desires of the flesh. It is with these godly desires in mind that James lets us know what this looks like so that we can know what peace between sisters and brothers look like. In our desire for influence and positions of power, we are prone to speaking evil against others. But James tells us that we are not to do that because we ultimately then bring judgment on ourselves. We end up slandering someone else and exposing the fact that we are violating the ninth commandment ourselves. Essentially, when we do that, we bring the judgment of God and man upon us because we expose our sin. We break God's law, and he judges us for our sin, and other people can see what we've done. They know that we have not kept God's law. So James tells us that there is just one law giver and judge, that we should let God judge others because he can show us mercy or he can judge us for our hypocrisy.

And these final words that are in this passage here, Bring it all home for us. Who are we to judge our neighbor? And James isn't saying that We should just approve of any sinful action we see and think it's fine because we're not the judge. That's not what he's saying. He's saying that in humility, we acknowledge that we are capable, incapable of being a judge because we are fallen humans ourselves. We'll likely, if we see those things, we will seize the judgment that we make as an opportunity to elevate ourselves. When we see someone in sin, we are prone to seeing it as a way for us to have an advantage, as opposed to a way to bring them to repentance. When we see someone else in sin, instead of seeing it as an opportunity, it should be something that causes us to repent because we know we have sin within ourselves as well. This whole passage is one that is very convicting because it exposes the biggest problem that we have, the war within and the battle without. We are persistently at war with our desires. The pull of the flesh that is within us, it manifestsests in our lives in battles that we create in our relationships because we covet things that we cannot have.

We desire the approval of the world, and we give in to the temptations that the devil puts before us. This is the reality of what is happening in us each and every day. But the blessing here is that we know that we have not been left alone. Every day, we fail to love God perfectly, and we fail to love our neighbor as ourselves. But because we have been saved by grace through faith, we know that we have forgiveness for our sins. In the truth of God's mercy, we are able to move forward with the humility that James is talking about here, knowing that God is working in us to make us holy. And in that process, he is glorified and he exalts us. When I started out, I mentioned the phenomenon on a phantom limb. That even though a limb can be gone, there can be a persistent, nagging itch. Even though our old nature has been put to death by the grace of God, the old man still feels the itch to return to our sin. James has shown us that the way that we deal with that persistent itch is to humble ourselves in submission to God.

Before we scratch that itch by lashing out at our neighbor, pursuing the approval of the world, or believing the lies of the devil, we have to turn to God. That's how we deal with these issues. We know they're going to come up in our lives each and every day. Temptations like this are probably going to come up before you leave this building today. One way that we can resist this, that we can do what James is talking about here, is by identifying the itch. When you are feeling that urge to cause conflict with someone, ask yourself a question similar to what James asks in verse one. What is the passion within me that is causing me to want to create this conflict? What is it that I am coveting that is causing me to treat others this way? So often, we aren't fighting with the other person as much as we are dealing with the fact that we're not getting something that we pivot, power, recognition, or even the comfort of being in control. If we desire to grow in Holiness, we need to acknowledge the things that we pivot, the things that we desire, and find ways that we can be content with the blessings that God has given us.

One of the ways that we can find our contentment and put to death that Covetous desire that we have. We find a way to do this in verse 8. Growth in Holiness is not a do it yourself project. It's something that God does in us. So this week, when the phantom pain of the old nature rises up in you, don't just try to push the feelings aside. Instead, draw near to God, acknowledge the struggle, and pray that he would make the pull towards him stronger than the pull you feel towards the things of the world in that moment. Choose friendship with God over friendship with the world. The best part of all of this is that you can know that he will supply you with what you need. He gives grace to the humble. And because of the grace that we know in the Lord Jesus Christ, we know that his hand is upon us, not only for the salvation of our souls, but for our growing in Holiness. The American Civil War ended when the south surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse. There's a civil war that is going to go on in you until the end.

The old nature is going to be at war against your spirit. The civil war within you is not going to end, but there is victory. Christ has put to death the old man. He is dead. An army would never surrender to an opponent that's been defeated. So don't you surrender to the old nature. God empowers you to live a life of Holiness. Do what James calls us to here. Draw near to God. Don't give in. Continue to fight that civil war, knowing that the old flesh, the man that lives within you, the old nature is dead. It is gone. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you, and he will be glorified in the work that he is doing in your life, making you holy. Let us pray. Great and merciful God, we thank you for the blessing that we have in your word. That we have this promise that if we draw near to you, you will come near to us. We pray, oh Lord, that as we face the circumstances of our life in this coming week, that we would consistently be aware of what is going on within us, that we would desire to put the old man away, that we would resist the old nature and lean into the new, knowing that you draw near to us and you provide us ways to resist the devil, to resist the temptation that we feel, and to resist the pull of the world.

Grant us this grace in the coming week and throughout our lives, knowing that you have victory over sin, death, and hell, that we are your children, and you build us up to be holy for your glory. It's in the name of Jesus that we pray. Amen. Thank you for joining us for this week's sermon. For more information about First Reformed Church, head to our Facebook page or website, edgertonfrc.org.

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