Brother Gyme Sunday School 7/20/14

Brother Gyme Sunday School 7/20/14

Some of James 4 was at a time when the Jews were trying to proselyte those that were not Jews.  They started a crusade type thing.  They, in the name of the law, were taking property and crucifying and so on.

Jas 4:1  From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?

There are literal wars and there are spiritual wars.  The spiritual wars come from lust also.  Maybe it is the lust of preeminence.  Wanting to be in charge and not letting God be in charge. 

When you see wars in churches then it comes from lust.  If there were not desires outside of what the Word of God teaches then there wouldn’t be these wars.

Why are there so many denominations?  They leave something for maybe a good reason, but do not follow what the Word of God teaches.  We must follow the Word of God and let Christ be the head.

Psa 140:2  Which imagine mischiefs in their heart; continually are they gathered together for war.

Pro 17:19  He loveth transgression that loveth strife: and he that exalteth his gate seeketh destruction.

Pro 18:6  A fool's lips enter into contention, and his mouth calleth for strokes.

Pro 26:21  As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire; so is a contentious man to kindle strife.

We have seen this haven’t we?  As coal keeps getting hotter and hotter, so with a little there comes more strife and more contention.  We don’t want to go there do we?

Jas 4:2  Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.

Adam Clark – Ye lust, and have not - Ye are ever covetous, and ever poor.

Ye kill, and, desire to have - Ye are constantly engaged in insurrections and predatory wars, and never gain any advantage.

Ye have not, because ye ask not - Ye get no especial blessing from God as your fathers did, because ye do not pray. Worldly good is your god; ye leave no stone unturned in order to get it; and as ye ask nothing from God but to consume it upon your evil desires and propensities, your prayers are not heard.

The true warfare of pulling down strong holds is not a fleshly war.  Here is unsatisfied, strife, rapacity, aggressive greed, prayerlessness. 

Sister Dorothy: The meaning of lust is that you have to have it right now and you don’t have time to pray about it.

Jas 4:3  Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

God wants to give us every good thing.  He will not give us anything that is not good for us.  We need to stay rightly related to Him and only ask according to the will of God.  We see the present but God sees the end result.  We have to accept, “I don’t know why, but God says no.” 

If you have children then you experience this, they see only what they want and don’t know why you are saying no. 

Jas 4:4  Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

The friendship of the world is hostility with God.

1Ch 5:25  And they transgressed against the God of their fathers, and went a whoring after the gods of the people of the land, whom God destroyed before them.

There are a lot of gods to follow after.  For some people money is their God.  It could be anything that we put ahead of God.

1Jn 2:15  Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Jas 4:5  Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?

Adam Clark – “Do ye think that concerning these things the Scripture speaks falsely, or that the Holy Spirit which dwells in us can excite us to envy others instead of being contented with the state in which the providence of God has placed us?

The Holy Spirit will only bring peace.  It will not cause us to envy others.  We must treasure the experience that God give us and not envy someone else’s experience.  Sometimes with the natural eye it looks like things fall into place for others, life is the same for all of us.  Everyone will have struggles.  It is just how we go through them and are we going to go through them with God. 

The Holy Spirit helps us to be in a contented state with where God’s providence has put us.

Jas 4:6  But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.

The grace of God will help us to not lust after those things that are not in God’s providence.  How many times have we lusted after something and gotten it and then it didn’t satisfy.  If we are content and take things as God allows us to have them then we are happy and satisfied.

Psa 138:6  Though the LORD be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.

1Pe 4:10  As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

Manifold: multiple, much; God has a lot of grace.  It even speaks to different types of grace: grace for the good times and the bad times.  He has grace for whatever challenge we might have.

Isa 66:2  For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

Luk 14:11  For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

When we set ourselves on a pedestal, then someone will knock us off.  If God sets us up then that is how it will be, not that we want to be set up,

1Pe 5:5  Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.

We can learn from our elders and we can also learn from the younger.  Be subject one to another, be humble and able to take a lesson.  Children are honest and will tell you just how it is.  They will see something and say, “What about that?”  We need to be able to take that and say, “You are right.”

1Pe 5:6  Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:

1Pe 5:7  Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

1Pe 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

1Pe 5:9  Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

1Pe 5:10  But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

That is what God wants, He wants us to be strengthened, established, and settled.

There is only one way and that is through Christ.  There is no other way to enter into that grace, to be made perfect, established, strengthened, and settled.

In practice, the religious that say, “I love Jesus,” don’t bear that out, they don’t walk in His ways.  The scripture says, “If you love me you will keep my commandments.”

We don’t tell God what to do when we pray.  It says here, “You don’t ask.”  I wonder how many people tell God instead of asking, they are striving for their own way.  How can there be any striving or warring going on if we walk according to 1 Peter 5 “Submit to one another and to God”?

I was thinking of children: when they want their way they may ask me for something and then they will come ask Timberly for the same thing.  They want their own way. 

We see this spiritually: God tells us something but then we go and confer with someone else and say, “What do you think about this?”  We can be led astray because we get someone else’s opinion.  We want to be careful that we don’t give our opinion too freely.  I have said, “Go ask your pastor.”

I like to ask the saints, “Am I thinking about this right?”  There is a difference between trying to find the wisdom of God and trying to get your own way.

Jas 4:7  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

All we have to do is resist and victory is ours.  The enemy cannot overtake us in anything if we just hold fast. 

Rom 6:16  Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

Jas 4:8  Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

We learned this earlier; we cannot serve God and mammon.  We cannot be double minded.

Purify your hearts is talking of sanctification.  Wars are going on in a person’s heart because they are wanting their own way. 

They lust and have not… they cannot ever appease that and satisfy that.  For us to want our own way contrary to God’s way we cannot ever satisfy that.  God has victory.

We draw nigh to God by getting the need met, getting rid of the war inside.  To draw nigh to God includes getting saved or getting sanctified if you are not.

Psa 73:28  But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.

Heb 10:22  Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

Heb 10:23  Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)

1Jn 3:1  Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

1Jn 3:2  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

1Jn 3:3  And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

Jas 4:9  Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.

This references even repentance. 

Jas 4:10  Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

Jas 4:11  Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.

1Pe 2:1  Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,

1Pe 2:2  As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:

Jas 4:12  There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

Jas 4:13  Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:

Jas 4:14  Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

Jas 4:15  For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.

He is telling us not to boast in what we are going to do, but say, “If God will.”  The instruction is for us to seek what God wants us to do.  We don’t know what the morrow will bring.  We want to be where God wants us to be.

Jas 4:16  But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.

Jas 4:17  Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.