The War Within
THE BATTLE FOR YOUR HEART
Read: James 4:4-6
1. DO I REALIZE WHAT LOVING THE WORLD DOES TO MY HEART?
James 4:4 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.
1 John 2:15-16 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.
Loving the world means letting what feels good, looks good, or makes you look good govern your life.
Proverbs 4:23 Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.
Do I Love the World? — A Heart Test
(1) Is my happiness tied to approval, success, comfort, physical pleasure, or reputation?
(2) What shapes my daily conversations?
2. DO I REALIZE HOW DEEPLY GOD WANTS MY HEART?
James 4:5 “Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, ‘The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously’?
Exodus 34:14 The Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
2 Cor 11:2, “I am jealous for you with godly jealousy… that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”
Dale Ralph Davis – God’s love is not sentimental – it is stubborn.
God isn’t jealous of you. He’s jealous for you.
3. DO I REALIZE HOW PRIDE IS SHAPING MY HEART?
James 4:6 “But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’”
Andrew Murray – Pride must die in you or nothing of heaven can live in you.
A.W. Tozer – God will not be used as a convenience and then set aside.
Loving the world pulls your heart away.
God’s jealousy calls your heart back.
Humility opens your heart to grace.
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Find James Chapter four in your Bibles today.
We're going to be in James 4 for the next several weeks. Next few weeks and if you're new, we usually alternate our teaching series from verse by verse through a book in the Bible to some topical Christian doctrine that we need. And for the last year and a half or so we've been systematically teaching through the book of James in between other series and we've come to James Chapter four. I think I have it in my Bible marked somewhere.
This series is called the War within and my sermon today is the Battle for the Heart.
I'm going to ask you a question. Whose side are you on? Because sometimes the most important decisions in life don't feel like decisions at all let me tell you what I mean by that. I don't think I've ever met anybody who woke up consciously one day and said, today I'm going to drift away from God. That's my goal.
But it does happen, and it happens quietly. It happens through small compromises. It happens through subtle alliances. It happens through unspoken loyalties that slowly shift your heart. James, chapter four, verses four through six, is our text today.
It's just three verses, and I want you to know that it wasn't written to atheists, to those who don't believe in God. And James, chapter four, verses four through six, wasn't written to those who are obviously rebellious. Instead, it's written to believers who claim to follow Jesus, yet cozy up to the world.
We'll read our text now.
James 4. 4:6. Adulterers and adulteresses. Have you ever addressed the letter that way?
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. Let's bow for prayer today.
Father, would you bless the public reading of your word? And would you open the ears and the hearts of the preacher and everybody who can hear my voice? Speak to us today, Lord, through your word and through this strange medium of preaching. This time is yours, Lord. We give it to you in Jesus name.
Amen. So look, I have three verses of scripture from James today. And these three verses ask us three questions. So question number one. Do I realize what loving the world does to my heart?
That's the question that James 4:4 asks us. 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. God.
Now, I would like to put that verse squarely in the category of serious, kind of stern, a little bit scoldy. James does not tiptoe around this issue, does he? He kicks the door down with a shocking accusation. Adulterers and adulteresses. This is not how you win friends and influence people.
And he's not just being dramatic. He's speaking like a wounded husband confronting a cheating spouse.
It's personal to God. Let me say it this way. To love the world is to cheat on God.
But Pastor, what does loving the world mean? Well, John defines this for us. In his first letter, First John 2, 15, 16. 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. Did you hear the list in that verse? Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life. This is way near the end of your Bible in first John. But those three things have shown up in so many places earlier.
He says that the world operates on three driving forces. Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And some eagle eyed Bible scholars have noted for us that all three of those categories show up in the most. The two most familiar and famous temptation passages in all the Bible. You know the first one, Eve and the serpent in the garden.
Yes. Well, let's just run it through the grid. Lust of the flesh. You know what Genesis chapter three says that when Eve saw the forbidden fruit first, she said, it's good for food.
The other famous temptation story is Jesus was Satan in the wilderness. He'd been fasting 40 days. If you go without food for 40 days, you are hungry. The tempter comes to him and he says, if you're the son of God, tell these stones to become bread, good for food and feed yourself. The lust of the flesh tells you to indulge yourself, feed your cravings.
Let's do the second one. Lust of the eyes. In Genesis 3, Eve looked at the forbidden fruit. And our new king James says, it was pleasant to the eyes.
And the tempter takes Jesus to the highest point of the temple. And the Bible says, let me quote it. He showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. He says, look at all of that. I'll give it all to you if you'll bow down and worship me.
The lust of the eyes says, enrich yourselves.
Add to your collection, Jesus, you seem to have power and authority. There's some that you may not have that I can give to you. Let me show it to you. Pleasant to the eyes. Well, let's run it through the third part of the grid.
The pride of life. Eve looked at that forbidden fruit and she says, it's desirable to make one wise.
The tempter says to the Lord Jesus, throw yourself down from the temple, because doesn't the Bible say that he'll give his angels charge of you and they shall bear you up and you won't strike your foot against a Stone, the pride of life, says, prove yourself. Make yourself wise.
Exalt your identity.
Show everybody what God put in your back pocket. It the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life are the categories of worldliness. In other words, loving the world means letting what feels good, letting what looks good, or letting what makes you look good govern your life.
Let me illustrate it to you from the Bible. In Genesis, chapter 13, Abram, Abraham and his nephew Lot. Their families are growing. It's too much. They need to separate.
Abraham gives Lot the first draft pick. He says, all the world is in front of us. You choose where you want to take your family. I'll go the other direction. Do you remember the story?
Lot didn't choose Sodom and Gomorrah because it was wicked. He chose that place because it looked smart.
Genesis 13:10 says he saw that the plain of the Jordan was well watered everywhere. You understand that the great cities of the world always were planted by a body of water. Water, rivers, and oceans. In other words, the plain of the Jordan where Sodom and Gomorrah were made sense financially for Lot. He was no dummy.
It made sense strategically for Lot. He could move around faster. It made sense for his future and his family. But listen to me. What began as a smart decision slowly reshaped his heart.
And here's how we know, because there's a clear digression in the book of Genesis in this story. First, Lot set up all his tents toward Sodom. Everybody say, toward Sodom. And then we read that he lived in Sodom. Everybody say, in.
And then he sat at the gate of Sodom. Everybody say, at the gate. You see, the men who sat in the city gate, they had authority and influence, and they were leaders, and they were considered the wise men and the decision makers. He went from toward to end at the gate, which means that eventually Lot is fully integrated, he's fully assimilated. He speaks the dialect, and he knows how it works there.
And that also means, friends, that he's fully compromised. This was the Las Vegas of the ancient world. You know what's sad? By the time Judgment came and God began to rain literal hell down from heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah, fire and brimstone. By the time that happened, Lot couldn't even persuade his own family to leave Sodom.
It all started in Genesis 13:11, where the Bible says, lot chose for himself.
You know, Lot never said, give me an I love Sodom bumper sticker for my chariot. You know what did happen? Everybody look at me. His heart followed his choices. That's how worldliness happens.
That's what loving the world does. It seems reasonable at first, but it slowly relocates your heart until compromise feels normal and holiness feels weird.
I'll give you another example from the Old Testament. Solomon. Solomon loved God, but he also loved what God forbade. Scripture says plainly his wives turned his heart after other gods. Do you understand?
That means that the wisest man who ever lived, not named Jesus, slowly let his affection become his allegiance.
Loving the world never begins with cutting God off and abandoning him. It begins with apportioning your heart.
There is no clearer evidence that divided affection becomes divided allegiance than Solomon.
But, Pastor, does God mean when he says, don't love the world, that we cannot soak in the outdoors, can't love a good sunset, or appreciate fine art or. Or enjoy artisan coffee? Is that what he means? Pastor, are you telling us that we shouldn't take pleasure in the activities our children and grandchildren are involved in? Look at me.
No, that's not what I'm saying. That's not what loving the world means. It's worse than that. And some of you already do it. Loving the world means adopting a value system that operates independently of God.
Let me say that again. Loving the world means adopting a value system that operates independently of God. It just means that you live your life every day as a functional atheist, that you don't think about God. You don't ask if these decisions you're making please him and if it's okay to do it. You go to church on Sundays, but you're calling all the shots on the other days.
That's worldliness. The world says, satisfy yourself. God says, deny yourself. Which one will you do? The world says, promote yourself.
God says, humble yourselves. Which one will you do? The world says you only live once. God says, prepare for the next life. Which one will you do?
It's a matter of the heart. Proverbs 4:23. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. Jesus says, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks speaks. The prophet Jeremiah says that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
And who can know it, friends? Your heart. I don't mean the muscle that pumps blood. We're not talking physical here. It's not anatomy and physiology.
Your heart is the control center of your life. In the Bible, it's where your desires live. It's where your decisions are formed in your heart. It's where your loyalties are. Chosen.
So when James writes about loving the world, he means a heart issue, a heart problem. Do you understand that loving the world slowly retrains your heart and it does so by dulling your conscience. So that when you sin, you no longer feel it and you don't stop and repent.
Loving the world replaces covenant loyalty with spiritual adultery. All my illustrations today are from the Bible. Is that a good thing?
I don't have a verse for that, but whatever. Let me tell you about Hosea the prophet.
First three chapters of his prophecy in the Old Testament, Hosea gives us a living picture of what James means by spiritual adultery. Do you know this story? God tells Hosea to marry a woman named Gomer, okay?
Knowing from the very beginning that she will be unfaithful, she will cheat on him. This is not a surprise twist. God sends Hosea into a marriage with his eyes wide open. And wouldn't you know it? Just as God said, Gomer chases other lovers.
And I don't mean that she slips up one time in a one night stand, she lives a pattern of promiscuity. Hosea's prophecy calls her a harlot. She walks away from her husband, she gives her affection to other men, and eventually she ends up so broken that she's sold into slavery and treated like property. That's the end of her promiscuity. That's where she hits rock bottom.
And check this out. Along the way, God makes the message even clearer through the children that Gomer bears. Their names are sermons. The first child is named Jezreel. Jezreel is a is an idea and a place in the Bible that is connected to judgment.
So every time Hosea calls the name of his firstborn, he hears God saying, sin has consequences. The second child is named Lo Ruhama. If you're having a baby and trying to figure out a good name, there are some in the Bible, this is not one of them. Lo Ruhama means no mercy.
It's a painful reminder that Israel had depleted God's grace by chasing other gods. The third child is named Lo Ami. Lo Ami means not my people. As if God is saying, you are living as if you don't belong to me anymore. I want you to put those together.
Every time Hosea called his kids inside for dinner, he was preaching God's heartbreak out loud. Judgment, no mercy. Not my people.
Okay, I'm going to say it. Since Hosea married a promiscuous woman and there were no DNA tests back then, Hosea could never be sure that the Children in his own home were his.
Hosea, like the Lord, would have a wayward wife and a broken heart.
But here's what's surprising. God never tells Hosea to cut his losses and move on. He had biblical grounds for divorce over and over. You know what God tells Hosea to do? Go after her.
Oh, this is such the grace of God. Love her again, Hosea. Pay the price to bring her back to your house. Hosea buys his own wife back and restores her. You see what God is doing?
You live out what I do. The marriage was a sermon that God was preaching to his people. This is what you've done to me, and this is how I still love you.
Israel had chased other gods the way Gomer had chased other men. And yet God remained faithful when his people had not. That's the weight behind James calling believers adulterers and adulteresses. Do you see it? That's why James looks at believers and he doesn't say confused people, and he doesn't say, oh, struggling ones.
Instead, he says adulterers and adulteresses. Because divided hearts have always broken God's heart.
There's a little test. You want to take the test to see if you love the world or not? Are you sure? Have you met me?
I don't offend on purpose, but I do teach the Bible. Okay, you talk me into it. All right, here we go. Do I love the world? A heart test.
Let's make this practical. Ask yourself these questions honestly and look not to feel condemned, but to see where your heart is leaning. Question number one. Is my happiness tied to approval, success, comfort, physical pleasure, or reputation?
Do you constantly refresh social media to be affirmed by all the likes and the hearts you get? And if you don't get them, does it ruin your day?
Do you measure your worth by likes and titles and influence? Is your goal to climb the organizational ladder and not be looked over for the promotion anymore?
Do you choose screens instead of scripture?
Have you organized your schedule around comfort instead of holiness? Does God ever get your best time and moments? Is my happiness tied to approval, success, comfort, physical pleasure, or reputation? How'd you do that? Hurt a little bit.
The next one's worse. It's only two. Only two shots today from Dr. Trevor. Number two. What shapes my daily conversations?
That's no big deal, Pastor. I hadn't started talking yet.
Do I think about and talk about sports, politics, and entertainment more than Jesus? Let's just pray and be dismissed right on that. How about that?
Am I more passionate about cultural issues than Christ likeness. Let me just give you an honest confession. I'm done with politics.
Now. I'm going to vote and I'm going to tell you that you can't vote for godless parties that take God out and kill babies and are for perversion and all that. I'm not going to tell you that the other party's much better. I'm going to vote on policy, but I'm going to talk about Jesus.
Let me tell you why I'm getting rid of politics in my life. Because it's causing me to hate my enemies and despise my mission field.
Hey, the person on the other side of the political aisle than you that you hate the most. And I've got some names. Do you have some that you despise the most? Do you understand that the early church felt that way about Saul of Tarsus. And in a moment God saved that man and made him, the Apostle Paul, think about the worst Democrat or the worst Republican on earth and see him or her as someone who God would have no trouble changing their heart.
And then get out of politics and get into the Word.
Do you receive that Word today? Even if you don't? I do. I need it.
There's no room for the believer who has Jesus inside of them to hate anyone.
That's some good preaching, man. Because I needed it. Because it was my sin. You confess your own, leave mine. Okay.
Am I. Do I let consumerism quietly guide my decisions? Do I make my decisions about what I'm going to buy and acquire next? Is my life built around that? Now, look.
Okay, that's the end of the test. If several of those hit close to home, that doesn't mean that God's done with you. It means he's calling your heart back.
Do I realize what loving the world does to my heart now? Two more quick sermon points and I'm done. I spent the most of the time on the worldliness today. Number two, Question number two, verse number two. Do I realize how deeply God wants my heart?
Listen to James 4. 5. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain the Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously? Did you know that God is not passive? He yearns.
The Word means that he aches, he longs, he pulls. And friends, that's not petty jealousy either. That's covenant passion. It's the jealousy of a God who's bound himself to his people in love. You should thank God for this.
He's always told us this was his name. Exodus 34:14. The Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God. Paul says to believers in 2nd Corinthians 11:2, I'm jealous for you. With godly jealousy, there's a godly jealousy that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
You see, guys, God doesn't want part of your heart. He demands all of it. Isn't that true? The Bible scholar and theologian from Mississippi? How do I know?
Because his name is Dale Ralph Davis. Amen. I don't mean to make fun of him. He is extraordinary. Pastor Dale Ralph Davis wrote, God's love is not sentimental, it is stubborn.
He's not feeling it. He's doing something with it for you. Even after betrayal, God yearns.
Even after unfaithfulness, God pursues. God's jealousy means that your wandering heart still matters to him.
He doesn't cancel you. He comes after you.
Let me clarify something. It's gonna be on the screen. God isn't jealous of you the way I'm jealous of my wife. And I am. God's jealous for you to pull you back out of worldliness and back out of chasing other gods into loving him.
He knows that the world's promises end in slavery and bondage and prisons.
And since we're talking about this imagery, let me say this to you. God's not signing up to be your side piece. And he doesn't do open relationships. He won't share you.
Do I realize how deeply God wants my heart? Question number three. Do I realize how pride is shaping my heart?
This is James 4:6.
But he gives more grace.
Heaven knows I don't need more law.
He gives more grace. Therefore he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. I want you to consider that just for a second, after betrayal, after heartbreak, after jealousy, God gives more grace. When we've wandered away and when we need it the most, God gives us what we do not deserve. He gives us another chance.
That's grace. It's not too late. You can return to him. He gives it more, but he resists the proud. What about that word resists?
Interesting word. In my Word study, that word Resist in James 4:6 is a military term. And it means that God has set himself in battle formation against human pride. It puts you on the wrong side of God. He is going to deal with all of our pride.
He opposes it. And pride doesn't just affect your attitude. It shapes your heart. It hardens your heart. It closes your heart, and it puts God in opposition to you.
Let me illustrate it from the Bible. King Uzziah didn't begin rebellious. He started faithful to God. Scripture says as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper. 2nd Chronicles 26:5.
King Uzziah. But you know what happened when he became king? He started believing that he did it. Success began shaping his heart. And the more he accomplished, the more he presumed access.
I'm the king. There's not a room I can't go into. And so here's what he did. Eventually, the king Uzziah entered the temple to burn incense. That sounds spiritual.
It was rebellious because God had explicitly forbade kings from burning incense. Only the priesthood could do that. So when the priest with trembling knees confronted their king, said, hey, you can't go in that room. You can't light that fire. God said it.
Uzziah didn't repent. He didn't change his mind. He raged. Pride had trained his heart to reject correction. Can I say that again?
Pride had trained his heart to reject correction. Hey, look at me. You might be a business owner. You might be the principal, the president, the CEO, the dad who can tell you no when you'll pump the brakes. Because if you don't have names that populate that list, these verses are about you.
God resists the proud. The proud are those who say, no one can tell me what to do. Do. That's the voice of Satan. When he was strong, his heart was lifted up.
2nd Chronicles 26:16. You don't want a lifted up heart in opposition to God. And so what happened to King Uzziah for refusing to repent? God struck that dude with leprosy on his forehead. His forehead began to ooze and rot away.
Amen. How would you like to look like that going on a date? There's no cure for leprosy. God gives it. He takes it away, and you get to deal with God.
Leprosy breaks out on his forehead. It was a visible sign that his heart condition had gone public.
And Uzziah spent the rest of his life isolated, having to say, unclean, unclean. Unable to ever enter the temple again, a place he had defiled. And he was cut off from public leadership. His pride cost him everything.
Uzziah fell because success convinced him that he no longer needed any boundaries. And you know your heart's filled with pride when you color outside every line. Andrew Murray wrote, pride must die in you, or nothing of heaven can live.
Pride says, I've got this humility, says God, I can't fix this without you.
Tozer wrote, God will not be used as a convenience and then set aside that instinct to use God and set him aside is called pride. And James says that God stands against it. Okay, that's all the preaching I have on my notes today.
In conclusion, let me just wrap this up. Loving the world pulls your heart away.
God jealously calls your heart back and humility opens your heart to grace. Now you understand James four, four, six. Let's pray together.
Prayer ministry partners, if you'll come forward, we'll open these prayer lines. After I get finished praying, there's some next steps that you need to take and they are on your ministry card. Some of you are not in Christian community because of your pride. I don't need other Christians. I don't need to give my time to that.
You need to repent of that. You need to mark on your card, help me find a small group. Others of you told me recently I haven't been born again. I don't really know what that means. I need to become a Christian.
You need to mark the box that says I'm ready to trust Jesus or rediscover my faith. Listen, you need to do something on this card to do. I want to be baptized. Some of you believe, but you haven't put on the team jersey of Jesus. You haven't been baptized yet.
I'm curious about church membership. Look, in the Bible, there are no Christians that are lone ranger mavericks that never connect to a local church. That's kind of first grade right there. You kind of do that quickly. I'm ready to serve.
I want to join a team. Look, your church needs your help. Needs your spiritual gifting, needs you mark those cards today. Let's pray together. Let's stand and pray.
Father, would you give us grace to win the battle within?
We give you our hearts back today, Lord, for Jesus glory and a faith filled church said Amen. Prayer lines are open. Go to the mission field too. Bye, guys. See you next week.
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