As we face the trials and temptations in this life, we are all too often finding ourselves yielding and doing wrong. So, in this passage tonight, James is giving us some instructions about how to overcome and conquer these temptations. But before we can conquer temptations and trials, we have to understand what causes them. Just what is it that causes temptation and wrongdoing? This passage gives us four things that we will discuss this evening.
READ verse 1. There’s the first of four things that causes temptation and wrongdoing. It is lust or evil desire—to crave pleasure; to crave gratification. The Scripture says that the desire for pleasure and gratification fights within our bodies—whatever will gratify our pleasure. We want and want, and the battle of wanting and desiring rages on and on within our bodies.
Everyone knows what it is to experience this warfare. Desire is strong and difficult to control. A few people may control their desire in what are called the gross and visible sins like vengeance and murder, but they gratify their desire in acceptable things like over eating and selfishness, in buying and hoarding more than what is needed, or in looking when they shouldn’t look.
For instance, when Y2K was coming around. That’s the turn of the century when the year 2000 was upon us. Everyone thought there was going to be a tremendous chaotic situation because the computers wouldn’t trip over to the new century and everything would just shut down. People started buying food and water and hoarding it in underground bunkers. It was a tense situation until nothing happened. But the desire was to protect your own. And all of these didn’t depend upon God.
Now note the result of our desire or lust: it is fights and quarrels. Just imagine what the world would be like if men lived in peace with each other and with God. The greatest need man has is for peace. Yet, when we look at the world, what we see is anything by peace.
So, the question James asks is where do these fights and quarrels come from? What causes them? Unless we know, we can never deal with them or conquer them. So, we must heed Scripture: they come from desire or lust—the passion for pleasure and gratification that rages within the human body. So, there’s one thing that causes these fights and quarrels.
READ verse 2. The second thing that causes this chaos is distrust. The statement in this verse, “You do not have, because you do not ask God,” means that man doesn’t trust God nor call upon God. He just doesn’t know God in a personal way, know Him to the point that he can ask and call upon God to meet his needs. In that, man basically distrusts God.
The word lust or desire is a different word meaning want. It’s different than the word for lust or desire in verse 1 & 3. That word means a yearning desire or passion. Sometimes the desire is good; sometimes it’s bad. For example, to desire food is good, but to desire food and more food is bad. This is the point of this verse.
We don’t have our desires met because we don’t trust and depend upon God to fulfill our desires. There’s nothing wrong with our basic desires; they are to be met. But they are to be met by our trusting and depending upon God, acknowledging Him as the Source and Provider of every good and perfect gift. When we ignore God, our desires run loose and wild. It’s when God is shoved aside that we begin to desire to the point that we lie, steal, cheat, fight, kill, and quarrel.
READ verse 3. The third thing that causes these fights and quarrels is praying amiss, praying with the wrong motive. And I feel that this is the major point of this passage and that we can get the most from this verse and topic. Even when a person trusts God, he can ask God for help in the wrong way. He can pray amiss, and when he prays amiss, God is unable to help him.
What does it mean to pray amiss? What is a wrong prayer? Scripture tells us, and this is the reason our prayers are so often not answered, at least not in the way that we expect. Here’s the answer; we ask for things so that we gratify our lust and pleasure. We ask for the wrong reasons, with the wrong motives. We ask for:
? Health just so we can be more comfortable.
? Healing and a longer life just so we can continue a comfortable life.
? Money just so that we have more.
? Success so we can be recognized.
? Position just so we can be in authority.
? The family to be blessed just so we can enjoy their presence.
At first glance, asking for these things doesn’t seem to be wrong, but when we ask for these things simply to gratify our own desires then we are asking amiss. We seek God’s blessings so that we can have more comfort, enjoyment, better food and clothes, and be accepted and recognized more.
So then, what is the right motive for prayer? How can we pray and know that God will give the desires of our heart? By asking for the glory of God. When a person wants something from God, he must want it so that he can glorify God. We must always remember that what God is after is communion and fellowship with us, for us to draw closer to Him, learning more about Him and worshipping and serving Him more.
This is the way God is glorified, by our walking closely to Him and honoring and praising His name. So, if we want anything from God, we must want it so that we can glorify Him—so that we can draw closer to Him and make Him better known to others.
1. If we want health, life, strength, or a strong testimony, it must be so that we can glorify God.
2. If we want to bear fruit in our life and work, or in our church and in our community, it must be so that we can glorify God.
3. If we want the basic necessities of life—food, clothing, shelter, or a purpose in life, or meaning in life, and significance, or assurance, and confidence and security—or if we want a position, or authority, or money, it must be so that we can glorify God in our life and with our testimony.
READ verse 4. The fourth thing that causes these quarrels is worldliness. James uses strong language. He calls them adulterous people. He means 2 things by saying this:
1. Being adulterous means that a person is guilty of spiritual adultery. The relationship between a believer and Christ is like that of a marriage. That is why the church is called the bride of Christ. Our bond with Christ is so close that when we turn away from Him to the world, it’s like committing spiritual adultery. Spiritual adultery means that we turn away from God to the world—that we break our commitment to God and turn to other things whatever that might be.
The picture of spiritual adultery shows us just how meaningful God counts our relationship with Christ: it’s a relationship of love, a bond of love that can be the closest bond in all the world. If we turn away from Christ to the world, it cuts his heart with the deepest of pain. We should never forget that our Lord gave His life and died for us. He has done everything He can to save us and to create a relationship with us. And it cost Him unbelievable pain.
So, we shouldn’t hurt Him anymore. We must not crucify Christ anymore. We shouldn’t forsake Him for the world. We shouldn’t commit spiritual adultery against Him by turning to the world.
What comprises spiritual adultery?
- Spiritual adultery is not obeying the commandment of the Lord
- It’s idolatry, the worshipping of other gods.
- It’s unclean deeds and sinful behavior.
- Spiritual adultery is giving oneself to detestable and vile things,
- It’s continually slapping God in the face by committing the same sin over and over again because the world says it’s OK.
- It’s forgetting God and turning one’s back on Him.
- It’s refusing to return to God and not acknowledging the Lord.
- It’s forsaking God, disbelieving in Christ, being ashamed of Jesus and His Words.
Note a third thing, the question asked in verse 4: “Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hated toward God?” What does this mean? It means just what it says, “the person who is a friend of the world is the enemy of God. I don’t think I need to give more examples of what being a friend of the world means.
Everything in this world passes away. This world is physical and material so it has the seed of corruption in it. Because of this, it stands against God. It’s not eternal nor holy and righteous like God. So, any person who is a friend of this world stands against God. He stands against all that God is.
READ verses 5-6. So, what is the cause of temptation and wrongdoing? This passage has told us there are 4 causes:
1. Desires
2. Distrust
3. Praying amiss
4. Worldliness
These are the causes of temptation and wrongdoing. Now, what is the cure for it. There are two cures:
1. Our God is jealous God. Note the question: “Do you think?” The point is something that we must think about and know.
The Holy Spirit yearns over us with jealousy all the time. But, if we turn away from Christ and become a friend of the world, the Spirit of God doesn’t cast us off and turn away from us. That is such good news. He loves us and cares for us and wants to save us. He yearns and longs for us with deep, intense jealousy for us to return to Christ and give Him our full devotion.
The point is this: the believer is to know that the Spirit of God is exactly like this. When the believer is heavily tempted and does wrong, he isn’t cast off and rejected and forsaken by God. God still loves the believer no matter what he does.
When the believer knows this, then he knows the first great cure for temptation and wrongdoing. Then he is far more able to repent and return to God. Why? Because he is so deeply loved by God and love attracts and pulls the believer back to God.
2. The second cure is that God gives the humble believer grace and mercy. We should thank God for that. But God opposes the proud. When the believer faces temptation or does wrong, God meets the believer’s need, no matter what it is: his need for strength, or wisdom, perseverance, patience, or forgiveness. The believer doesn’t deserve God’s grace and blessing, but God loves him. So, God gives him whatever he needs. In fact, God gives more grace than we can imagine.
But we have to note a critical fact: not every believer and not every person receives God’s grace. That’s hard for us to believe but there are those believers who won’t accept God’s grace. I guess they feel that they don’t want to be obligated to God which is sad considering all that God has done for us.
God meeting our needs is not an automatic thing. Not everyone’s needs are met. In fact, the opposite is true. If a person is proud—if he is stiff-necked and stubborn or rebellious against God—God opposes that person. God wants to pour His grace out upon that person, but if that person hardens himself and rebels against God and continues to live on in his sin, God has no choice.
God is shut out of the person’s life so grace is rejected. If that person rejects God’s grace, God can do nothing for that person. But note something else as well. God has to oppose the person. God is the one who has to consider that person a rebel, a curser, a traitor, an enemy, or a sinner.
God has to stand against the sinner and his evil. God has to oppose and set Himself against and eventually put him to shame. But the good news of the Gospel message is that God gives grace to the humble. The person who turns to God away from the world and his wrongdoing will receive all the grace from God he will ever need and then some. God will look after and care for him just like a child, forever and ever.
CLOSE: (With two passages of Scripture, Luke 14:11 & Hebrews 4:16)
“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 14:11
“Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16
