Introduction

James 4:4-5 ESV  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.  (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”?

• Y’all I am going to preach hard today…
  • I’m going to bring it…
    • Because to preach this message other than hard would be to do a disservice to what James is writing.
  • Look at the first three words of James 4:4…

James 4:4a ESV  You adulterous people! …

• YOU ADULTEROUS PEOPLE!
  • How could I preach this message other than hard?
    • “Well… James is being a little bit harsh here… he doesn’t mean anything by it guys… he just wants you to know the world is just supper duper swell…”
  • What, NO! This is a you adulterous people kind of sermon.
    • Because as Christians we all have this tendency to want to be friends with the world.
      • To want what the world wants.
      • To be liked by everyone.
      • To fit in with the crowd.
      • To be one of the cool kids.
      • To have the cool things and watch the cool shows.
      • To be able to talk the talk around the water cooler.
    • James knows that as humans our flesh still wants fleshly things… and our flesh lies to our spirit and says “Why can’t you have the things of this world and the things of God? Why can’t you be a friend of God and a friend of the world… Everyone likes friends right?”
    • This is how our flesh operates… and James calls it adultery!
  • So this message is hard… because I don’t want you to be a cheater…

• The title of the message is simply this “Don’t Cheat on God”.

• Don’t cheat on God…. Don’t step out on your savior… don’t be unfaithful to your first love… don’t cheat on God.
  • And that sounds like such a simple concept… but it is something we do as Christians without even realizing…
    • And before we know it we are spending more time with our mistress the world then we are with our Savior.
    • You know the Bible constantly calls our relationship with Jesus a marriage relationship.
      • We are the bride and Jesus is the groom.
      • But I have seen far to many Christians cheat and cheat and cheat on God with the world and then they find themselves getting a divorce from Jesus and wondering “How did I even get here?!”
        • I don’t want that for you. I don’t want that for anyone… so let’s be a strong, faithful, effective church… a church that Doesn’t cheat on God. Amen?
• Ok, let’s get into it… Point One this Morning: Be in the World but not of the World.

Point One – Be in the World but not of the World

James 4:4 ESV  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.

• There was a prayer that Jesus prayed called the High Priestly Prayer, it is found in John 17:1 and it is Jesus’s conversation with the Father before He is arrested and betrayed.
  • In this prayer Jesus prays the following for the Christians of the earth… Jesus prays this to the Father for you and me church… here is what He prayed:

John 17:14-16 ESV  I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  (15)  I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.  (16)  They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

• Now to understand this prayer and to understand what James is saying… and to really understand anything at all in this sermon this morning you need to know what we mean when we say “The World”.
  • When the Bible says “the world”… when I say “the world” what we mean is “anything that is not of God”.
    • We mean “people who are not Christians”, including family, coworkers, classmates, politicians… whatever…
    • We mean Media that is not Christian. Music, TV, Movies, Books, Podcasts…
    • We mean thinking that is not Christian… Strategies on how to build wealth, how to raise your family, how to find joy and happiness…
  • When we say “The world” we mean the things outside of Christ. And this phrase, the world, is almost always used in a negative sense.
• And so we come to this phrase: Be in the world, but not of the world. What does that mean?
  • What was Jesus talking about?
    • Jesus is saying “I understand that my people have to live IN this world… but they are not a part of this world.”
      • To use hyperbole to make it clear, not everyone who lived in Nazi Germany was a Nazi.
      • Pastor Deitrich Bonhoeffer was one the most influential and important Christians of our time.
        • He lived in Nazi Germany.
        • He bought his food from Nazi grocers.
        • He paid his electricity bills to Nazi companies.
        • He paid his taxes to a Nazi government.
        • BUT HE WAS NOT A NAZI!
          • Though he was IN Nazi Germany he was not OF Nazi Germany.
          • In fact Bonhoeffer even tried to assassinate Hitler.
          • He actively encouraged the churches in Germany to resist the Nazi regime.
          • He preached truth to the Nazi’s knowing that it would get Him killed.
          • And it did get him killed. Bonhoeffer was executed on April 9^th 1945… just 14 days before members of the 358^th and 3596h US Infantry Regiments liberated the concentration camp that he was detained in.
      • Again I will say it… Deitrich Bonhoeffer was IN Nazi Germany was not OF Nazi Germany.
• As a Christian you are IN this world… but you should not be OF this world.
  • You may have to buy groceries from people who aren’t Christians.
    • You may have to taxes to a non-Christian government.
    • You may have to go to a job that is not Christian and work around a bunch of people that are not Christian…
      • But YOU ARE A CHRISTIAN! You are not like everyone else.
        • You have been saved, redeemed, delivered, set free, made righteous, sanctified…
        • Your goals are not their goals… your joy is not their joy… your battles are not their battles… your victory is not their victory.
• So when the world says “Do this”
  • Or when the world says “Think like this”
    • Or when the world says “You need to do this”
      • Or when the world says “You need to have this”
        • YOUR FIRST RESPONSE SHOULD ALWAYS BE “But what does God say I should do? How does God say I should think? What does God say I need to do? What does God say I need to have?”
• When we start to have that kind of mindset… that mindest that God really can speak into and direct every aspect of our lives… then we begin to be free from our mistress the world.
• Romans 12:2 puts it like this:

Romans 12:2 ESV  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

• Now finally I will finish this point with this warning, and it comes from John 15:19:

John 15:19 ESV  If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

• If the world loves you, THAT SHOULD BE A PROBLEM. Don’t celebrate that… this is your scriptural warning… if you were of the world, the world would love you… but because you were chosen out of the world the world hates you.
  • Were you chosen out of the world? Are you saved, redeemed, righteous and delivered… then the world should hate you…
    • And the way to fix that is not to be friends with the world… no that would make you an enemy of God… the way to fix that is to bring people to Jesus… bring them out of the world so that you can then begin to call them friends…
    • Want people to like you? Lead them to Jesus… that’s the biblical way!
      • This leads me to point two… some of y’all aren’t going to like point two… I don’t like it sometimes… but we all need to hear it… remember… this is a “You adulterous people” kind of sermon… it is supposed to hit hard…
      • So here is point two: STOP HAVING WORLDLY FRIENDS!

Point Two – Stop Having Worldly Friends

James 4:4 ESV  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.

• There is a great Spanish author who lived as a persecuted Christian in Spain in the late 1500’s and early 1600’s. His names is Miguel de Crevantes Saavedra, and he is most famous for writing the Windmill slaying novel “Don Quixoto”.
  • But he also really understood James 4:4. And I love this quote of his:

“Tell me what company you keep, and I will tell you what you are”  -Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

• This quote is sometimes translated as “Show me your friends and I will show you who you are.”
  • This means that according to Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra if your friends are Christians then you are probably a Christian… but if your friends are worldly then you are probably worldly.
    • But who cares what Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra says… what does the BIBLE say?
• Proverbs 13:20 says this:

Proverbs 13:20 ESV  Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.

• Well pastor, can’t someone who is not a Christian be wise? NO! What?! NO! A THOUSAND TIMES NO! THEY MIGHT HAVE A HIGH… BUT THEY ARE CERTAINLY NOT WISE…

Proverbs 9:10 ESV  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

• So if the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom… and whoever walks with the wise becomes wise…
• And now let’s add in Psalm 14:1

Psalms 14:1 ESV  To the choirmaster. Of David. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good.

• So it is fools who say there is no God and it is those who fear God who are considered wise… so we can understand Proverbs 13 20 to mean this:

Proverbs 13:20 CROSS-REFRENCED with Proverbs 9:10 and Psalm 14:1 Whoever walks with the wise [the Godly] becomes wise [more Godly], but the companion of fools [people who don’t believe in God] will suffer harm.

• “But PASSSSTOR… if my ungodly friends walk with ME they will become wise, right?”
  • NO! It doesn’t go both ways…

1 Corinthians 15:33 ESV  Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”

• It doesn’t say “Good morals positively effect bad company” no instead it says “Bad company ruins good morals”.
  • I have seen so many people think “I am going to pull my friend up”
    • But in reality your friends are just pulling you down. Stop being friends with sinners yall.
      • “Well that is not very nice pastor”
        • Well it is not nice to say “You adulterous people” but that is how James brings this up.
• And I am NOT saying you can’t be acquaintances with the world… YOU SHOULD have people in the world you are acquaintances to…
  • People you know, people you occasionally invite over to supper… people you preach the gospel to and invite to church.
    • OF COURSE! Jesus had aquantices in the world… but he used his relationship with them not to be their friends but to call them into repentance.
      • GO AND SIN NO MORE Jesus would tell his aquantices…
      • And when they repented… when they were saved… THEN he called them friends… we talked about that last week.
• So don’t hear me wrong… I am not saying you can’t have any relationships at all with people who are not Christians… but I am saying they should not be your friends…
  • People you cry with, and mourn with, and celebrate with, and war with.
  • People who you seek their advice and you cherish your time with them.
  • People you love like family, sometimes more than family… the Bible says a friend sticks closer than a brother!
  • Friends are people you share everything with… acquaintances are people you share Jesus with.
    • Let me say that again for those in the back… Friends are people you share everything with… acquaintances are people you share Jesus with.

2 Corinthians 6:14-18 ESV  Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?  (15)  What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?  (16)  What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  (17)  Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you,  (18)  and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”-Pull you down verse

• That brings me to my final point, point three… I will try to make it quick… God is a Jealous God… Don’t Cheat on Him with the World!

Point Three – God is a Jealous God – Don’t Cheat on Him with the World

Exodus 20:4-5a ESV  “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.  (5)  You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God…

Exodus 34:14 ESV (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),

Deuteronomy 4:24 ESV For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

Deuteronomy 6:15 ESVa For the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God…

Deuteronomy 32:16 ESV They stirred [God] to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger.

James 4:5 ESV 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”?

• That last verse there from James is part of our key text this morning… James starts by saying friendship with the world is enmity with God and continues on to say “God years jealously over the Holy Spirit that He has put inside us”.
  • What does that mean?
    • Well first remember that Jealousy is not the same thing as envy or covetousness.
      • In American English we sometimes use the word jealous to mean “I want that”
        • For example I might say “I am jealous of his six pack! I wish my abs looked like that”
          • Or I might say “Man I am so jealous of your 100 inch 8k TV!”
        • But in doing so we misuse the word Jealousy, at least Biblically speaking.
        • Because what we mean is envy or covet…
          • “I am envious of his six pack!”
          • “I am covetous of his TV!”
      • Jealous on the other hand, and we know this, jealous means to want to keep what is rightfully yours.
        • A jealous girlfriend doesn’t want to share her boyfriend with other girls.
        • I am a jealous husband, I don’t want to share my wife with other men.
        • I am a jealous father, I don’t want to share my children with evil people who want to harm them.
        • God is a jealous God, He doesn’t want to share His children with the devil.
        • God is a jealous God, He doesn’t want to share His bride with the evil one.
        • God is a jealous God, He doesn’t want to share His Holy Spirit with the world.

James 4:4-5 ESV  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.  (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”

• God has given you the Holy Spirit to live inside of you…
  • If you are born again, then you have the spirit of the living God living inside of you.
  • STOP TAKING THE HOLY SPIRIT TO THE STRIP CLUB.
    • Stop taking Him to the bars.
      • Stop taking him to watch filthy TV shows.
        • Stop bringing him with you read worldly books, and listen to worldly music.
    • Stop dragging along the Holy Spirit as you tell dirty jokes to your coworkers, or talk bad about your wife… or gossip about your neighbors… or whatever.
• God doesn’t want to share the Holy Spirit with the world.
• YOU ADULTUROUS PEOPLE!
  • Stop cheating on God while God is right there with you.
    • What kind of evil man doesn’t just cheat on his wife but cheats on his wife while his wife watches and sobs?
      • But that is what we do to Jesus when we take the Holy Spirit with us and we cheat on God.
        • Friendship with the world is Enmity with God.
• “But paassssstor!” Jesus hung out with sinners!
  • Yeah maybe… but Jesus did not hang out with sinners in their place of sin.
    • He called them out of sin. He talked to them not in the strip clubs and bars… but in homes, over dinner… where they could talk about the things of God.
• Man if you have acquaintances who love to sin, praise God, use that relationship to lead them to Jesus… and do it like Jesus did… don’t meet them in their place of sin… instead, invite them over to your house for dinner… feed them… and tell them about Jesus.
  • Or, invite them to church… tell them you want to hang out on Sunday, and that you want them to come to church. Then buy them lunch afterword and talk about the things of God.
    • THAT IS HOW I GOT SAVED.
      • Maybe you are recently saved and you still have friends from your old life…
      • Ok… invite them to church. They text you and say “let’s hang out” text back “Bet, you want to go to the 8:30 or 10:30 service?”.
• But whatever you do, don’t do what you used to do when you were in the world.
  • But pastor I have so many friends from my old life, and they don’t want to come to church, can’t I still be friends with them… whats the harm of going to see movies with my old friends… can’t I just be friends with my friends from my old life?
    • I don’t know… ask your wife if you can still go on dates with your old girl-friends… see how that goes over.
      • If your wife loves you she will be a jealous wife and not be ok with that.
      • How much more does God love you and not want to share you with the world.
        • Not because God doesn’t love your friends, HE DIED FOR THEM… but because God want’s them to be saved. God doesn’t want them to go to hell… and neither should you.
        • So someone needs to call them out of there sin and into salvation.
        • And that person MIGHT BE YOU! But it can’t happen if you are still pretending like you are not a Christian… if you are still being a friend of the world and an enemy of God.
          • You have to be strong enough to say NO to your exes and show them how madly in love you are with your new groom, Jesus!
• God is a jealous God… please don’t cheat on Him with the world.
• That brings me to my conclusion…

Conclusion

• Lets read these key verses one more time:

James 4:4-5 ESV  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.  (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”?

• Now the very next five words that we will talk about next week are this “but He gives more grace”.
  • I understand that this is a hard sermon…
  • And for some it is a very hard sermon…
    • BUT HE GIVES MORE GRACE.
      • There is so much grace here… I don’t want you to feel condemned or beat up… God has grace, grace for all of our past mistakes… even when we have cheated on God with the world… but He gives more Grace.
      • God is so good and so kind… He forgives, He helps, He redeems.
        • Let us allow the goodness of God to lead us to repentance this morning and to move forward in a faithful relationship with God… being in the world and not of the world.

Gospel Call

Aaronic Blessing