Book of James Chapter 4 - Bible Study | Encounter 2020 Men's Retreat

[Music] i'm so glad to have the privilege you know one of the the benefits of and hard things of coming up after lunch is firstly there's a tendency to fall asleep but the the glad part of it is i'm not afraid of you throwing food at me because you've edited all so um but anyway i'm glad to be here and as as a minister this afternoon to share with you and let me leave it open as a conversation too if there's a question or something that rattles your cage or a bit of pushback or something and you don't understand it please raise up a hand and i'll have them throw you out and now raise up a hand you can shut up a question and if i can answer it or deal with it i'll be glad to do so let me just say this is at the onset in proverbs the fourth chapter and the seventh verse and solomon makes a statement and he says a wisdom is the principal thing therefore get wisdom is the principal thing what every christian when every believer needs desires and wants is wisdom wisdom is the correct application of knowledge it's it's taking knowledge and applying it to life correctly that's called wisdom so he said the principal thing that we as believers are after is wisdom we want to take what what god's word says and apply it to our life so wisdom is the principle thing but he doesn't finish it just there he says wisdom is the principle thing therefore get wisdom but in all you're getting or in all you're getting of wisdom get understanding you see there's three things you get knowledge at the beginning knowledge we get that in this book here knowledge you all have access to knowledge so you can go get the knowledge but we got to know how to get that knowledge and apply it to our everyday life correctly that's called wisdom so what's missing many times in the body of christ is we have access to the knowledge we desire the wisdom but we miss the understanding in the middle and that's what we're here to do we're here to help bring understanding because the thing about understanding is if you get that knowledge and understand how it works you can apply it to your life yourself you don't need to come back to see me next week or anybody else for that matter you can do it yourself and jesus also over in matthew in chapter 13 when he was speaking there about the parable of the of the soil he made a statement there in verse 19 that was very powerful when he talked about the seed and he said in in the 19th verse of the 13th chapter he said um speaking about the seed hitting the ground he says and these are there by the wayside where the word is sown and they understand it not and the devil comes immediately to steal away that which was sold so the reality of it is when you come to a service or you come to a gathering and somebody ministers and you don't understand what's just been said you can't take it and and know know how to apply it to your life then by the time you hit the car park the devil will take it from you so i always greatly admire when i see these men coming up and and adding to and contributing to and bringing understanding to the word of god and you know they've done an awesome job this morning this book of james is your head explodes when you when you think about it and and so i wanted i want to do my part and contribute to what has already preceded me and add if i may some understanding to what the book of james is all about so let me pre empt everything by asking you a question if i may and that is this who are the happiest people in the world you don't know cheekers look at the faces on these let me ask it again who are the happiest people in the world gosh wow and these are all believers huh the joy of the lord is your strength all right why don't we try it again who are the happiest people in the world i am just playing around with you and i don't know if any of you are going back long enough to the full gospel of businessmen and there was a book out there that used to pass out all the time the happiest people on earth and the the intent of that book was to show that christians are the happiest people on earth who are the most miserable people on earth i mean come on guys now we're after finding out who the happiest people on the earth are who are the happiest people on earth who are the most miserable people on earth that's what we're going to look at that's what we're going to find out from the word of god who are the most miserable people on earth [Laughter] well it started already i just don't know if he's demon possessed or whatever but anyway we cast the devil out of him whatever it takes at the end of the service but we work on it all right and i put this particular individual you all know who he is you know what that is no it's not mark goodman it's not it's a chameleon and basically you know you understand what it does it just has the ability to blend into wherever it is it'll adapt or adopt it'll change its colors it just blends into the point where you just don't see it anymore that's what it does so as we read james the fourth chapter and you'll you'll understand what i'm getting at when we when we get to so let's let's read the the text involved and so james writes this and what causes fights and quarrels among you don't they come from your desires that battle within you your desire to do ah sorry your desire you desire but you do not have and it says you kill and you covet and you but you cannot get what you want you quarrel and fight you do not have because you don't ask god and when you ask you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives that you misspend what you get on your pleasures you adulterous people don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity against god therefore anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of god or do you think scripture says without reason that he is jealous that he that is jealously longs for that sorry yeah for the spirit of him who has caused us to dwell and cause it to dwell in us it says but he gives us more grace this is which the scriptures say god opposes the proud but he shows favor to the humble submit yourselves therefore unto god resist the devil he will flee from you come near to god and he will come near to you wash your hands you sinners purify your heart you double-minded grieve mourn well change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom humble yourselves therefore before the lord and he will lift you up who are the happiest people in the world believers who are the most miserable people in the world well we read on let's look and let me summarize the book of james for you in chapter one as we look at these believers it says here or i've summarized each chapter into uh what's going on okay they're joyless miserable confused faithless double-minded blaming god blaming the devil complaining gossips slow to listen unteachable hear what they do not or they don't do they're religious in chapter two they respect money they look down on the poor they're judgmental they're loveless they're unproductive in their faith they're all talk and no action they won't submit to oversight chapter three they speak out of both sides of their mouth they're hypocrites salt and fresh water fountains foolish listening to worldly sense and demonic driven counsel in chapter four we just read fighting quarreling driven by desire covetous prayerless no quality time with god and no more time spend more time and interest in temporal worldly issues prideful condescending of others presumptuous in chapter five same bunch of people what's that word i have can't see it from there all right corrupted they're stealing they uh sorry social climbers they're unjust they're impatient they're begrudging they say anything to advance themselves sick guilty heading in the wrong direction sin ridden that's a summary of the book of james that's what it's all about so who's the happiest people in the world who's the most miserable people in the world the carnal christian the carnal christian is the most miserable person on the planet at least with a sinner they don't really know what they're doing they just sinners sin dogs bar cats meow cows moo sinners sin they just that's what they do but when you become a believer you have to in order to be all of this you got to override god's witness the the sons witness the the word the prompting of the spirit of god and and your conviction and your your conscience and the witness of others you've got to override a whole bunch of stuff to be carnal to be sinning so to speak because you know better and many times what happens when when christians become carnal they're the worst people in the world they're the they're the angriest and you say well you don't there's no such a thing as a carnal christian you're wrong you haven't been done until you've been done by a christian you haven't been robbed until you've been robbed by a christian these don't know whether the smile or whatever you know you're thinking gosh here's an eye rob but anyway carnal christians a lot of people push back on this and they say you can't have a carnal christian james here is writing to a church and their problem is they are in carnality they're just carnal and and because of their carnality they haven't grown up and this is what's going on with them they don't know whether to blame god for it or the devil for it they don't know whether they're coming don't know whether they're going they don't understand what they're going through they don't know how to bridle their mouth they're talking about the leaders all sorts of stuff's going on and james unlike the other epistles that the epistles that and paul wrote to timothy and to titus they're called pastoral epistles and they're written to a pastor to explain to the pastor how to how to shepherd the flock but this epistle is the pastor to the flock so it's more direct it's more straight up he just doesn't pull punches he reveals it as it is and this is what james is writing into and what they are are carnal believers carnal christians and a lot of people say you can't have both you can't put carnal and believer together but that's not true so there's a pushback normally and the pushback is there's no such thing as a carnal christian what i'm going to show you there is in fact the book of james is a book to a church or a bunch of people that are carnal believers and so they say well there's no such thing as a carnal christian then other people say christians don't sin i said oh really no no christians don't sin you can't be a christian and sin well that's not true either but then people say well look if a christian sins the reason he sins is because he's never been born again that's the reason he's doing it or they would go one further and say well look at he he he may have been if if he if he did get born again but now he's lost his salvation and that's why he's in it and so there's pushback to these different concepts as to whether there's a carnal or carnality in christians or not and that's wrong because there is such a thing there are such people as carnal christians and and they end up quarreling and they end up fighting and they end up blaming and they end up very worldly and just like the chameleon we saw at the beginning you can't tell them many times from the marketplace where they're supposed to be salt and light in they're just hard to describe because they carry on like they're not even though they are so i got to take you to the scriptures and show you this because there's a reason for it and and there's a way to get out of it and this particular issue of carnal christianity is probably i mean the important thing in the in the body of christ is to get born again and and and have the infill and dwelling of the spirit of god in your life but this is one of the major problems in the body of christ and a lot of ministries won't deal with it they won't talk about it because they really don't know how to deal with it but it is prevalent it is one of the reasons that the body of christ many times becomes ineffectual is because of carnality in the believer and a lot of times many ministries won't touch it because they just don't know what to do with it or how to address it so this is what james is speaking into and it's why james has given so many directions do this do this because he's trying to fix what's going on in these believers you're all with me so far you get my alabama accent you all have it you got it by now okay all right so carnality in the christian these verses of scripture are taken from the book of first corinthians and paul is writing to the corinthian church which was a very carnal church and so paul writes these words and i highlighted some of them to um to draw your attention to them okay so he says and i brethren and brethren means he's talking to christians i brethren could not speak on to you as on to spiritual but as onto carnal so he's calling these believers what carnal he says i can't talk to you as spiritual but as unto even as babes in christ i have fed you with milk and not with meat for hitherto you're not able to bear it neither ye now are able for you are yet carnal for whereas there is among you envian and strife and divisions are you not carnal and you walk just like everybody else down in alpharetta that's what he's saying paul has drawn a direct comparison here to brethren who he can't deal spiritually with because they're carnal here's the thing about spirituality and carnality there is no in between you either are one or you are the other but you're not either either or either either i couldn't say that again if you ask me so and their problem was they were babies they never grew up they never advanced they never matured and so they're still acting like where they came from even though they're now believers and so that's what he describes them at he describes him as brethren babes in christ and he says you're carnal you're not spiritual now here's what's going on we are made up of three parts you are a spirit you have a personality and you live in a physical body that's that's why you're able to carry out life as a spirit being on the planet you are a spirit you have a soul which is your mind will and an emotion and you have your body your five senses when we were sinners are we were dead in our spirit to god and so we weren't really aware that it was there in fact people are so unaware that their spirit beings they think we evolved from apes or something that's how out of touch they are but we actually are spirit beings and before we were christians we got most of our information from the blue into the red we got most of our information from our five senses what we could see what we could smell what we could hear what we could taste what we could touch and we lived our life that way until we got born again and when we got born again we got regenerated in our in inner man our new our spirit became new we became aware of an inner voice the spirit of god took up residence within us and we now have a voice coming from inside and we have to learn to listen to that and we have to learn to yield to it and that's where the struggle goes on because we were more used to living out of the blue carnality that we are out of the yellow spirituality but really all spirituality is is allowing our mind will and emotion be governed by or driven by or directed by or counseled by our newborn spirit and acting it out carnality is even though we're born again we still gravitate to our five senses even though there's a voice on the inside even though we're born again even though we we are part of the body of christ and accepted in the beloved we still act out of habit and that's called carnality now again i put this in in the niv i put it this way it says brothers and sisters i could not address you as people who live by the spirit or what that means is take information from their newborn spirit i can't address you because that's what spirituality is it's taken information from your newborn spirit i can't address you as people who live by the spirit but as people who are stilled worldly mere infants in christ and i give you milk not solid food for you're not ready for it indeed you're still not ready you are still worldly or you're just acting like you were before you came to christ are you a christian yes are you are you saved yes but what's the problem instead of listening to your newborn spirit you're still acting infantile or chuckling as a child and and you're worthy there's just there's very little difference when you never grow up you're you're child-like i mean when you see a a one-year-old or an 18 month or a or a a two-year-old and you know do the things that they do it doesn't surprise you because they are children so if they drop the bottle or you put them standing up and they fall over and or whatever they make a mess i mean you you give to that because they are children so they're childlike however if you turn 18 years of age and and and your mom and dad still have to spoon feed you and clean up after you and dress you in the morning you've got a major problem you've made your problem because at this stage you're acting childish all with me so you can be childlike and a baby never grow up and never mature or you can be somebody who has grown up and has matured but for whatever reason you regress back to being childish and it happens to us when we maybe are in the body of christ in the move of god a long time and we we we get sidetracked or waylaid by something in our lives that we take our focus off of god we spend more time in this arena more time doing that more interest in it and you don't realize it but before too long you start to regress and instead of acting spiritual you start acting carnal and as you do that although it's expected more of you you now start acting childish understand the difference let me go to the book of hebrews and show it to you in the book of hebrews the writer of the book of hebrews writes to them and says in fact though by the time though by this time you ought to be teachers you're in it long enough you're saved long enough you've been around long enough though at this time you ought to be teachers you need someone to teach you again the elementary truths of god's word all over again you need milk and not solid food these people should have been further on they've been in the body of christ a long time they may have made progress but now something happened to them and they've got way led or sidetracked they got out of fellowship out of the word out of community out of whatever and and you think that that you know because i was a mature christian or a believer you know i still have it i'll always have it you won't you lose it and here's what happens he says anyone who who lives on milk being still an infant is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness solid food belongs to the mature it says who being who constant jews have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil so here's a bunch of believers who have regressed into carnality the other bunch just never got out of it one of them were child like and this crowd now became childish how many of you have ever seen one of them you have how many of you have ever had kids that when they see one of them the first thing they do is they run to the down escalator you always see them the escalator is going down so the kid decides i'm going to run up and down escalator i've done it after chasing after the kids but how many have ever done how many of you have ever run up a down escalator here's the thing about running up a down escalator if you don't keep moving and you stop what happens you're automatically going down and it's the same with this christian life that we're in sometimes we think you know we've progressed so far god has done so much we've achieved so much we've learned so much i don't need church like i used to my business is prospering everything's going great heart the herald angels hallelujah praise the lord things are great and then before you know it you're not where you used to be you're not as spiritual as you used to be you're now more childlike or childish and and you're upset over this and upset over that i knew a minister many years ago great guy and uh anyway he he he had a great church great ministry very anointed very gifted and i've been i've been at his church a few times and ministered for him and but when i had been away for a while and i had heard that his ministry collapsed i had heard he he he fell into sin and he ended up quitting the ministry quitting his marriage and quitting everything and um i never heard of him then for years never heard of him for years but um i had heard that he phoned a friend of mine another minister one evening years later and and crying and said i need to talk to you not to me to him and he says hey i haven't heard from you in years what's the deal where are you no one knows where you went he said i'm in florida he said i lost my family lost my kids lost the ministry lost everything and he goes yeah i heard so what's the deal so they spent some time talking and he says so he should have rang me three four years ago when this all happened he says why are you ringing now he says i'll tell you why i'm ringing he said with all the moving around from place to place and my packages were everywhere he said last night i found a box of stuff that i had taken from the house when when i left years ago and when i when i took it out my bible was in it and a whole bunch of cassettes of minister ministry that i had done he said i just took it out he says i'm sitting here on my own and i opened the bible and i looked at the notes that i had written and he said i had no idea what they meant and i had no idea why i wrote them he said i took the tape and i put it on and when i put the tape on he said i couldn't believe that the man i was listening to was me i couldn't believe that what he said and the way he talked and the way he revealed and the way he expounded it and the knowledge and the understanding and the information that he was given was me and he said i realized how far i have regressed because of the state that i'm in and so you cannot there is no in between you've got to move with god and progress with god and grow in god and if you're not growing in god you're regressing in god and it's where carnality comes in and god doesn't want us to to regress but god doesn't want us to stay infantile god wants us to grow so paul wrote to the church in ephesus and he made this statement he said have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them he's talking to believers for it's a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret he's talking about people in the world and the dark side of of life but all these things that are approved are made manifest by the life for whatsoever that make the light make manifest his light he continues wherefore he saith and he's speaking to believers arise thou that sleepest awake now that sleepless and arise from the dead and christ shall give you light he's talking to believers here he says hey wake up wake up and arise from the dead somebody says well there you were they were dead no they weren't dead the word there arise from the verb there means arise from among the dead he says you're out there in the middle of them and and they can't tell you from them because your light doesn't shine anymore you are so like them you are so carnal you you are so out of touch with what you should be and where you should be here's what you need to do you need to wake up and arrive out from among the dead and christ shall give you light and see that you walk circumspectly or in a straight line and not as fools but as wise redeeming the time because the days are evil and and be not unwise but understand what the will of the lord is he's talking to believers that that are in carnality and paul says you need to snap out of it wake up out of it and christ will rejuvenate you and illuminate you paul himself dealt with carnality paul the apostle the great paul apostle made this statement for we know that the law is spiritual and then paul says but i am carnal sold under sin for that which i do i allow not and that which i would not that i do not but what i hate that i do and it just sounds like a riddle but what he's basically saying is i'm having great trouble right now because there's something going on on the inside of me and i want to be spiritual but but there's this other thing that's trying to make me stay where i was and i battle with it in fact he goes on to call it a law let me just describe this paul says in verse 14 for we know that the law is spiritual but i am carnal then in verse 21 he says i find then a law that when i would do good evil is present with me for i delight in the law of god after the inward man but i see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind bringing me into captivity to the law which is in my members paul realized i i have a problem i have two laws working in me i have a law working in my spirit from my spirit and i have a law working in my members in my physiology and and the one that's in my physiology makes me do what i don't want to do or encourages me to do what i don't want to do and yet in my inner man i want to do what's right and i struggle i wonder if i was going to say i wonder how many of us all of us have been here carnality runs throughout scriptures elijah was calling down fire i mean the people in the old testament prophet priest and king they were anointed with the spirit so they had access to direction counsel and guidance and elijah calls on fire and he burns up all of the the offering and then he gets a letter from jezebel saying i'm going to kill you and he goes he becomes carnal straight away and he runs away solomon was a great king full of wisdom and solomon became carnal and married 300 wives and had 600 concubines david himself david at a time when he should have been out battling the business was going well everything was going great money was in the bank he was at the top of the he was the ceo he got where he wanted to be got what he needed to have and he's standing there on the balcony one night when everybody else is off in the season of war he's in his carnality looking at bathsheba and before too long not alone does he commit adultery he commits murder a great king being led by the spirit but also is easily led in carnality and it runs right through the word of god and paul says these are laws and we've got to understand it as believers that there are two laws working in us there's the law inside and the law how many of you know what a law is a law is a principle that when the conditions of that principle are met you always get that result you always get that result you always get that result so water boils that degrees water freezes at zero degrees these are laws they're just laws if the conditions are met you get the same result and here's the thing about you being a christian how many of you know you have a physical body and there's a law in it here's the law if you look at what you shouldn't look at you're going to be interested because if the conditions are met it's going to kick into it because it works it works because it's a it's a law they're just laws if you meet the conditions that law will work and here's what we do we have a physical body and we think because we're christians we forget that this thing has its own law that works in it and paul struggled when he says i see another law working in my members this law was carnality and if you if you lean to it it'll work but if you lean to spirituality it's a law as well it'll work if you lean to spirituality it'll stop you doing some stuff it'll take you away from what would be natural to do so to speak romans 8 1 there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in christ jesus who walked not after the flesh which is carnality but after the spirit for the law these are laws what is a law a law is something that once the conditions are met always work for the law of the spirit of life in christ jesus makes me free from the law of sin and death so how do you get out of the law of sin and death it's not it's not a trick question we just have to read it see this is this after dinner slot for the law of the spirit of life sets me free from the law of sin and death there are two laws one liberates me from the other if if the law of sin and death is carnality how do i get out of carnality i'll go over to this crowd over here if the law of the spirit of life listening to your spirit is one law and listening to your flesh is another law but one law is greater than the other and the lesser law being the law of the spirit of death how do i deliver myself from carnality awesome you become spiritual you just become spiritual you just kick over to spirituality now for some people that sounds very difficult in fact it's not it is so simple it's wonderful he goes on to say for they that are after the flesh this is carnality mind the things of the flesh but then there are after the spirit the things of the spirit for to be carnally minded what does it produce death so if you want to run that at that that area as a believer it leads to one death i mean it's just it's just a bad road it's no different than the people out there you say well i'm a believer and because i'm a believer you know all this will work for me no it won't that's why by what paul said in galatians in chapter six don't be deceived when you sow to the flesh you'll sow corruption when you sow to the spirit your soul everlasting life i mean it's a law so if you're going to be a christian and be carnal you can be just as miserable and die just as quickly as anybody else out there and you can be singing be poured in the oil and the wine while you're doing it you understand it's just it's because the carnal mind is enmity against god it is not subject to the law of god neither indeed can be so then there that are in the flesh cannot please god two laws there's the law of thrust and lift the law of thrust and lift supersedes the law of gravity thank god for gravity if we didn't have gravity we'd all be floating around here thank god for it it's it's great when it works but there is a law that supersedes it and if you activate the the conditions of it you can supersede it and here you are you know just going home from work in the spirit living in that arenas just but then here's the thing if you operate in the law of the spirit of life it it it'll take you somewhere that you can't go naturally but even when you're walking on the plane how many of you know gravity's still working even when you're on the plane because you're not floating around on the plane you can still walk up and down and you're still rooted to the floor of it gravity's still there but you're operating in a higher law carnality is still with you but when you when you're spiritual you operate a higher law the thing about it is if you turn off the engines of the jet gravity will just kick in and it is the difference between being spiritual and being carnal and it's where god wants to take all of us a christian becomes carnal by yielding to the flesh which leads them to sin a christian becomes spiritual by confessing sin and yielding to your newborn spirit within let me tell you what god gave us to make us spiritual you ready for it it's not hard it says that this then is the message with god sorry which we have heard of him and declare unto you that god that god is light and in him is no darkness at all if we say we have fellowship with him which has been spiritual but we're walking in carnality we're lying that's not true if you see your fellowship with god who's in the light and you're carnal that's not true you're not you're not spiritual you're not walking with god see carnality doesn't separate us from god relationally but it separates us from god in fellowship sin doesn't the sin issue is death for us in the sense that we're born again and our relationship with god is secure but can we sing yes and if we sing what does it do it hinders our fellowship with god that's all are we still children of god yes have we still got eternal life yes but we're walking in carnality and we're out of fellowship with god not out of a relationship how many of you have ever had in your family an issue with one of the kids and and it boils up and it gets boisterous and there's a bit of an argument and whatever and then all of a sudden there's tension the kid won't do it or said no and there's push back and then in the house there's a level of tension and everybody's waiting for those two words to fix it other than that there's tension in the house and you can cut it with a knife and then you hear two words and those two words fix it what are the two words i'm sorry are they out of relationship with you because of what happened no but we're all quiet because it's broken it's done something to our communication our fellowship and until we say i'm sorry we're just going to stay until it's realized that's what carnal carnality is when we sin we don't we don't we don't change our our relationship with god but we change our fellowship with him and that's what he's saying if you say that we that we have fellowship not relationship fellowship with god and yet we walk in carnality we do not the truth but if we walk in the light spiritually as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of jesus christ his son cleanses us from all sin and here's here's here's the one it says and if we claim and john includes himself in this if we claim to be without sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us you know what we all miss it i i didn't get born again and become an adult next week i i became born again and i made a lot of mistakes as i grew up in christ i've made a lot of mistakes but you pick yourself up you dust yourself down and and and the distance between mistakes gets further and further and further apart like a child who drops a bottle when they drop the bottle of milk you don't cut his two hands off and say they're useless they don't work you turn around and say listen if we work with him he'll be he gets strong enough and they're going to be very handy later on and likewise with walking and so on and so forth so it says if we claim to be without sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us but if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness if we claim that we have not sinned it says we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us how do we go from carnality to spirituality first john 1 9. we confess what's between us we confess where we sh where we're not we confess where we are and if we confess our sin he's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness that actual that there takes us out of carnality and puts us back over in fellowship with god acknowledging just acknowledging among acknowledging where i'm at do you remember that time when when god called adam and eve in the garden in genesis chapter three and and the bible says and he cried out to adam and he said adam where are you he wasn't playing hide and seek you know then he's omniscient god knew exactly where he was he wasn't hiding some part of the garden and god i wonder where he is he knew exactly where he was the question he was asking was adam why are you where you are at back behind that bush with a fig leaf and totally embarrassed and guilty tell me why you are where you are or in other words own up adam walked out and the first thing adam said was it's her fault i'm gonna say pal you just you you could have just said here's what i've done and it would have kicked you right back into where you should have been because if we confess our sin he's faithful and just always to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness and and this is the key now a lot of times people say this is a license to sin no this is our license to serve people say what you know hassan and peter said to me in ireland pastor of sand if you preach this you're giving people a license to sin and i used to say you know what they don't need a license they don't need one this sin fine without me giving them permission they're doing great without me this is not a license to sin this is your license to get back in when and if you miss it so that we can keep on growing up and going in the right direction and stay spiritual he goes on to say in chapter two my little children these things right eye on to you that you sin not first john 1 9 is not so we can sin so we won't sin but if we sin if any man's sin we have an advocate with the father jesus christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins and not just for ours but the sins of the whole world first john 1 9 takes us from carnality to spirituality right there you see how do i become spiritual confess our sin what we know to be wrong what we're doing wrong or what we're not doing that we're supposed to be doing for time's sake i'm not going to get into this but by saying this to you unbelievers only have a sin issue they don't have a sins issue unbelievers have one sin do you know what that one sin is rejection or belief in jesus christ that's it when they come to god they don't have to run through a whole pile of what we used to do what we used to be what we did last summer that is not what it's about you just accept or reject and they go to hell for accepting or for rejecting or accepting that that's it but christians have the sins issue christians do christians are the ones that have the habit sin is the nature of rebellion against god sins is the habitual production of having or of having had a sin nature and the only way out of it is first john 109 and discipleship there are several examples of this in the word of god that i want to point you to over if you don't you can write it down over in the book of first corinthians chapter 10 and verse six four sorry first corinthians 10 and verse four it talks there about jesus being the rock that followed the children of israel and the making reference to the time when they struck the rock and they got water out of the rock many of you remember that story back over in the book of exodus in the 15th chapter it starts in the 15th chapter they get delivered out of egypt and they come along and and and they find little water or bitter water and there's several experiences and all they're doing is griping and complaining griping and complaining griping and complaining in chapter 17 they find themselves in a place where they've just got no water at all and moses is about to do something and it's a type to teach and and and a shadow of something that was going to happen later on it's actually a type and shadow of first john 1 9. and here's how it worked it said and the lord said unto moses go before the people and take with thee the elders of israel and thy rod watch wherewith you smote the river take in thine hand and go and behold i will stand before thee on upon this rock and the word there rock means a a jagged uh sharp rock it says and i'll stand upon the rock and hareb and you shall smite the rock and there shall come water out of it and that the people may drink and moses did so in the sight of all the elders and many of you know what happened you don't know what happened water came out of the rock just in case you didn't know and this is a type of anybody tell me what that's a type of it's a type of salvation you you jesus was smitten jesus was struck remember that pierced his sight and the bible says and water came out it's all this is all the to paul typology of it so this is jesus this is a type of um of um the sacrifice for salvation and he came to the rock with the the staff of judgment and he smote the rock and what happened deliverance water and salvation poured out of the rock you remember the story okay 40 years later as they come around this area again this next crowd experience the same thing no water none and we have the same instant incident all over again and it says here and the lord spake unto moses saying take the rod and gather thou the assembly together thou and aaron and your brother now it's different this time because aaron is now a high priest the priesthood is all set up the tabernacle's all set up it says and now take the rod and gather the assembly together thou and aaron thy brother and speak onto the rock before their eyes and it shall give of her water and thou shall bring the water out of the rock and the congregation and your beast will drink now here we have the same rock except the word for rock here is high elevated and smooth rock it's a different word and again it's a type of jesus risen and exalted so here to come around now the second time and he says this time don't strike the rock he says speak to it no need to strike it once it's been smitten that's was all that was necessary from now on all you do with the rock is talk to it which is a type of jesus now that you're saved now that the he's been smitten now that we have a relate now that he's provided his salvation we don't need to come around and might him again we just come round now and we talk and if we need anything from him first john 109 is really all we need so if you know the story it says moses took the rod from before the lord as he had commanded him the the rod here is not the rod of judgment it's the rod of the priesthood it was aaron's rod that budded it was a different rod and it was a priesthood rod and this time with the priesthood priesthood rod he was to speak to not smite but you know the story he turned around and he smoked the rock twice and because he smoked the rock twice god give them water because god is faithful but what did he do to moses he said pal you ain't leading them in anymore you were not supposed to do that i was setting up an analogy for the for everybody to see and understand when the rock is smitten the water comes out but when you come back round to the rock with the rod of a priesthood it's a different relationship and now you don't smite the rock you talk to the rock now that i'm born again listen jesus was smitten for me and i'm now in relationship with him now when i go back around if it never happens to me and i need something from god i don't go and smite he doesn't have to die again for me i now speak to the rock and first john 109 is that speaking let me show you one more here's a story over in john the 13th chapter where jesus is going to wash the disciples feet remember that story the bible says here and he poured water into a base and he began to wash the disciples feet and he grabbed the tower with he was girded and he came over to simon peter and said unto him lord dost i wash my feet and jesus said on him what i do you will not understand no but you will understand later you have no idea what i'm at but let me do what i'm doing so peter said well hold on then he says peter said him he says thou shalt not wash my feet and jesus answered but if i wash not your feet you've not part with me then simon peter said on him but then okay lord wash not just my feet but also my hands and my head and jesus said unto him he that is washed needed only to wash his feet but is clean every with and you are clean but not all for he knew that one of their judas would betray him so what's the scenario what's going on jesus is carrying out a a ritual here to explain or show something again he's shown first john 109 in the old testament the priests would wash themselves before they went to work they would wash themselves they'd walk out of their tent they'd walk to the tabernacle wherever that was and by the time they got to the tabernacle having washed all they had to wash when they got to the tabernacle was what their feet so when they went inside the gate there was a lever there the brazen lever and they would wash their feet and it was a type of once you're clean the only thing that ever needs cleaned after that is your walk so jesus said let me wash your feet and this well you can't wash our feet because you don't understand what i'm doing you'll understand later he said no wash me all over he goes no no if you're already clean the only thing that needs to be clean is your feet if you're already born again the only thing that needs to be done is make sure first john 1 and 9 is activated in your life so that you keep your walk with me clean on a daily basis because that confession that acknowledgement that telling you where i'm at and why i'm at it it takes you from spiritual from carnality to spirituality so as we wind this down forms of carnality and this was all going on in this church with these people in james that james was writing to the solution he says it in chapter four submit resist come near repent humble yourself or let me summarize it for you first john 1 9. if you confess your sin he's faithful and just to forgive your sin and cleanse you from all righteousness and then you start walking in spirit again start yielding to your inner man this is what happens here's the benefits of what happens when it happens so if we confess our sin he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness although we read what was going on with all these people in the book of james the answer for them chapter one two three four and five this was really what he was getting at because these are carnal believers let me pray for you and then i'll let you guys work away father we thank you for first john 109 the happiest people on earth are believers for sure the most miserable people on earth are carnal believers for sure help us lord god to understand the laws that are working us help us when we read the book of james to understand what they were struggling with really why james was so demanding of them because of where they were at and how they got to where they were at help us not go there help us keep our relationship with you clear at all times never let a day go by lord when we will come before you and acknowledge where we are at i pray god our life will soar and we grow and mature and we'll be everything you need us and want us to be in jesus name and everyone said amen thank you guys [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you

Channel: One Thing for Men

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Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Men's Bible Study Topics, Men's Group Bible Study, Spiritual Growth, bible study, bible study with me, book of james bible study, james bible study, men's bible study, men's retreat, spiritual maturity, book of james chapter 4 bible study, book of james sermon series, bible study fellowship, men's ministry, live bible study, practical wisdom, faith in action, bible studies for life, bible study for men, james 4 bible study, small group bible study ideas, james 4 sermon

Id: 2RYQ9SWoWQk

Length: 57min 20sec (3440 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 04 2020