Aligning Faith and Actions: A Call to Repentance

### Bible Study Discussion Guide

#### Bible Reading
- James 4:1-10
- Hosea 2:16-23
- Matthew 6:24

#### Observation Questions
1. What does James identify as the root cause of quarrels and fights among Christians? ([41:30])
2. How does James describe the relationship between friendship with the world and enmity with God? ([48:20])
3. What are the five steps of genuine repentance according to James 4:7-9? ([01:05:01])
4. How does the story of Hosea and Gomer illustrate God's willingness to restore us despite our unfaithfulness? ([01:20:49])

#### Interpretation Questions
1. Why does James use such strong language, calling his readers "adulterous people," and how does this relate to the concept of spiritual adultery? ([48:20])
2. How does the internal battle between our desires for worldly things and our desire for God manifest in our external relationships? ([43:08])
3. What does it mean to humble oneself before God, and why is this necessary for receiving His grace? ([01:03:22])
4. How does the illustration of Hosea buying back Gomer reflect the message of redemption and grace in the New Testament? ([01:20:49])

#### Application Questions
1. Reflect on a recent conflict you had with another Christian. Can you identify any internal struggles or desires that may have contributed to this conflict? How can you address these internal issues to prevent future conflicts? ([43:08])
2. James warns against friendship with the world. Are there specific areas in your life where you feel you might be compromising your devotion to God for worldly desires? How can you realign your priorities? ([48:20])
3. Genuine repentance involves submitting to God and resisting the devil. What practical steps can you take this week to submit more fully to God and resist temptations? ([01:05:01])
4. The sermon mentioned that God is a jealous lover who yearns for our exclusive devotion. How does this understanding of God's love impact your relationship with Him? ([59:39])
5. The story of Hosea and Gomer is a powerful illustration of God's willingness to restore us. Is there an area in your life where you need to seek God's restoration? How can you take the first step towards repentance and restoration? ([01:20:49])
6. James emphasizes the importance of humility in receiving God's grace. Can you think of a situation where pride has hindered your relationship with God or others? How can you practice humility in that situation? ([01:03:22])
7. Reflect on the concept of spiritual adultery. Are there any "false gods" or idols in your life that you need to let go of to fully devote yourself to God? What steps can you take to remove these idols? ([48:20])

Day 1: Internal Conflicts Lead to External Strife
Description: James highlights that the quarrels and fights among Christians are symptoms of deeper internal conflicts. Our desires for worldly things often clash with our desire for God, causing turmoil both within and around us. Addressing these internal battles is crucial for resolving external conflicts. James points out that these external conflicts are symptoms of internal struggles. He identifies the root cause as the passions at war within us—our desires for worldly things conflicting with our desire for God. This internal battle spills over into our relationships, causing strife and even leading to extreme actions like murder, whether literal or metaphorical. [43:08]

James 4:1-2 (ESV): "What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask."

Reflection: Think about a recent conflict you had with someone. What internal desires or struggles might have contributed to this conflict? How can you address these internal issues to prevent future strife?


Day 2: Spiritual Adultery and Friendship with the World
Description: James uses the term "adulterous people" to describe Christians who have become friends with the world, thereby making themselves enemies of God. This strong language serves as a wake-up call to examine our loyalties and ensure that our love for God surpasses our love for worldly things. James explains that friendship with the world is enmity with God, making it impossible to serve both. This spiritual adultery is akin to cheating on God, who is described as a jealous lover yearning for our exclusive devotion. [48:20]

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."

Reflection: Reflect on areas of your life where you might be prioritizing worldly desires over your relationship with God. What steps can you take to realign your loyalties and deepen your devotion to God?


Day 3: The Necessity of Genuine Repentance
Description: Genuine repentance involves more than just feeling sorry for our sins. It requires submitting to God, resisting the devil, cleansing our hands, purifying our hearts, and mourning over our sins. This process of humility and repentance is essential for drawing closer to God and receiving His grace. James reminds us that God gives more grace, but this grace is available only to the humble. Genuine repentance involves submitting to God, resisting the devil, cleansing our hands, purifying our hearts, and mourning over our sins. This process of humility and repentance draws us closer to God, who in turn draws near to us, offering comfort and restoration. [01:05:01]

James 4:7-10 (ESV): "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you."

Reflection: Identify a specific sin or area of your life where you need to repent. What practical steps can you take today to submit to God, resist the devil, and purify your heart?


Day 4: God's Jealous Love and Grace
Description: God is described as a jealous lover who yearns for our exclusive devotion. Despite our spiritual infidelity, He offers more grace to those who humble themselves. This grace is not automatic but is given in response to our genuine repentance and humility. James emphasizes that God gives more grace, but this grace is available only to the humble. Genuine repentance involves submitting to God, resisting the devil, cleansing our hands, purifying our hearts, and mourning over our sins. This process of humility and repentance draws us closer to God, who in turn draws near to us, offering comfort and restoration. [59:39]

James 4:5-6 (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'? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, 'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.'"

Reflection: Consider how you can humble yourself before God today. What specific actions or attitudes can you change to receive more of His grace and draw closer to Him?


Day 5: Restoration Through Repentance
Description: The story of Hosea and Gomer illustrates God's willingness to restore us despite our unfaithfulness. Just as Hosea bought back his unfaithful wife, God is willing to pay the price to bring us back to Him. This powerful message of restoration and grace is available to all who repent and turn back to God. James' message is echoed in the Old Testament book of Hosea, where God instructs the prophet Hosea to marry a prostitute to symbolize Israel's unfaithfulness. Despite Israel's spiritual adultery, God promises to restore them if they repent. This powerful illustration underscores God's willingness to forgive and restore us, no matter how far we've strayed. [01:20:49]

Hosea 3:1-2 (ESV): "And the Lord said to me, 'Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.' So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley."

Reflection: Reflect on God's willingness to restore you despite your unfaithfulness. How can you embrace His grace and take steps toward repentance and restoration in your relationship with Him today?

All right, so here we go. All month long, we've been taking a chapter-by-chapter walkthrough of the Book of James. And here we are in week number four. And I don't know if you've been enjoying this or not, but we've been planning on doing this more in the future, as I mentioned last week, where we'll just take kind of a slow walk through a book of the Bible together.

And why are we doing that? Well, because the Bible's awesome. Thank you. I was about to say, I need a stronger amen, and then you showed up. Thank you. But the Bible is awesome. And it doesn't just tell us that we need to be saved. It doesn't even just show us how to be saved. But it actually tells us what to do after we're saved, right? And that's really important for our lives.

And so we chose the Book of James as this first kind of walk through a book of the Bible, honestly, because of the 66 books in your Bible, James is just the most direct. Like, he doesn't pull punches. He doesn't play around. He just gets right to business. And he's like, this is what you're supposed to be doing. This is what you're not supposed to be doing. Make sure you do it. And then he moves on. Like, it's just beautiful.

And over the course of the five chapters that make up the Book of James, he has kind of one central theme or message, really to all five chapters, where he's kind of making an accusation or maybe a challenge against the reader that they are not living out the faith that they claim to have. And so as we read the Book of James, we have to ask ourselves, are we guilty of it too? Like, are we? Are you actually living out the faith that you claim to have?

And really this idea is, it's this idea that the audio and the video don't match. Have you ever been watching something and the audio is just a little bit out of sync? And it's like, at first you're kind of like, there's something just off about this. Like, what's wrong with this? And then the more you watch and the more drastic it becomes, like, the worse you feel. And you're just like, this is annoying. This is awful. And eventually you're gonna get to the point where you just shut it off, right?

Anybody ever been there before? The audio and the video, they just don't match up. Well, James is saying this is what's happening, that there's some Christians who are giving that feeling off into the world around them because they're saying one thing, but they're living a different way. The audio and the video is not matching up, right?

And so here's the problem. Apparently the church has not changed all that much in 2000 years. Because I think there's still a lot of Christians today who say one thing and live another. That say they're following Jesus, but then their actions don't back up the claim. And we've gotta address this thing.

And so we've covered some of those issues over the last three weeks, the first three chapters of the book of James. And today we're moving on to James chapter four. Who's ready for James chapter four? You got excited, but you don't even know what is coming your way. Because if you had read James chapter four recently, you would not be cheering and laughing and clapping and getting excited.

Because here's the problem. If you thought that James was in your face direct and didn't mess around in James one through three, that was actually James being nice. James chapter four is where he takes the gloves off and he gets a little violent with his words in James chapter four. He's got some very unpleasant, very challenging things to say to us.

And so here's what I need you to do. I need you to buckle up and brace yourself because James is about to get all up in your business. But remember, it's James doing it, not Brent. I know I'm standing on the stage, but y'all need to love me and recognize that there's a difference between what Brent is saying and what James was inspired by the Holy Spirit to say. He's the one you got issue with. I'm just the messenger today. I'm just repeating to you what he said way back when.

And some of you are looking at me like, yeah, uh-huh. So here we go. I know you're not ready, but well, before we jump in, I do have to make another disclaimer that we're actually gonna only cover James chapter four, one through 10, the first 10 verses. There are 17 verses in James chapter four. We're not gonna, because of time, we're not gonna be able to address all of it, but I do highly encourage you, read through the rest of James chapter four this week because there's some brilliant, amazing wisdom that he gives, some great challenges that he has there.

In fact, the very last verse of James chapter four, verse 17, he says something absolutely incredible about sin in our lives that is so good, I hate to skip it. But guess what? Next month, we're gonna do a whole series on sin. Who's excited for that, right? You're like, that's what I came to church for. But we're gonna talk about what sin is and what it does in our lives and how we can overcome it. It's gonna be great. It's gonna be uplifting, I promise. And we're gonna definitely come back to James chapter four, verse 17 for that series. So you're not gonna miss it.

All right, with that out of the way, I was about to ask if you're ready for James chapter four, but I know you're not, so we're gonna do it anyways. Here we go, James chapter four, verse one. He says, what causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Okay, now remember, we've already talked about this before, but James is talking to Christians. Like the book of James wasn't written for outsiders. It was written for insiders. So when he says what's causing fights among you, he's not talking about when the world fights against the world. He's not talking about when non-Christians fight with Christians. He's talking about what causes Christians to fight with other Christians.

Now I know this is not a problem we would ever have at CLC, right? Christians fighting other Christians, never. Not when Jesus so clearly said to love one another, right? Right? Why are you laughing? Okay, show of hands. Time for honesty, transparency, vulnerability. How many of you in the room, at some point in your life, you have fought, maybe verbally or even physically, with another Christian? Anybody in the room in that category? Carlton, your hand went so low. Your arms are way too long for you to raise your hand like this, okay?

If it makes you feel better, your pastor's hand is in the air. Although that actually probably makes you feel worse about the church you go to, and I apologize for that, but this is just, this is an honest place. And the reality is, yes, Christians, we fight a lot. We fight in the parking lot. We fight in the front row when we're like, you're sitting in my seat. And we fight on social media. We fight in front of people's faces. We fight behind their backs. Like we, right? Don't get quiet on me yet. You're gonna get real quiet in a little bit. So I need you to be vocal right now.

Okay, so we've got this issue. Sadly, Christians, we do fight. And so James is pointing it out, and he says, you know, what's causing the fight? And then he gives the answer. He says, is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? So he's basically saying that you've got a fight happening out there because there's a fight going on in here. And when you lose the fight in here, you start fighting out there.

And it's this idea he alludes to throughout the chapter that there's two passions at war within you. It's a passion for God and a passion for the world. And when those two things conflict, Paul talks about it too, about this war between the flesh and the spirit, right? And so what James is doing is he's pointing out this idea that your exterior issues actually have an interior cause. And so James is coming along, and he's trying to bring a treatment, not to the symptom, right? The symptom is you're fighting over who's sitting in whose seat. And James isn't coming in here to kind of be the arbitrator of who gets the chair. He wants to deal with what's going on in here, the interior issue, because if we can fix what's in here, it takes care of what's out there.

And let me tell you, you can work all day long trying to fix the problems out there, but if you don't address the problem in here, ain't nothing gonna happen, okay? So James is saying the issue is what's going on on the inside of you. And then he continues. He says, you desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.

Now, when James says you murder, it's possible he was being literal. Like there was an actual moment in the church where one guy killed another guy and he's now addressing it. It's very possible that that was what was taking place and it wouldn't be that crazy. Even just this year on Easter Sunday in Dallas, Texas, a member of a church shot and killed another member of the church right after Easter service because of a love triangle that was happening, okay? The world is a dark place. And when Christians don't fix what's going on in here, it will spill out of us and cause horrific things to happen out there.

So James is like, hey, we gotta fix this thing. Now, so it could be a literal murder. More likely though, he's actually doing a callback to the Sermon on the Mount because that's what James does all throughout. I don't know if you've noticed this yet or not, but in all five chapters, James quotes the book of Proverbs and Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, like repeatedly, constantly. It's where he takes his greatest inspiration is the wisdom of Proverbs and the wisdom of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.

And on the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, if you hate your brother, you are subject to the same judgment as if you had killed him, right? In the eyes of God, you hating them is just like killing them because there's a heart issue going on, okay? And so James is addressing this heart issue. And then he says, you covet. And what it means to covet is to want something that isn't yours. And so you're wanting something that isn't yours because there's this passion inside of you for the wrong things. And now you're coveting that thing. And now you're getting angry at your fellow Christian because they have something that you don't have and you want it.

And then he ties this coveting issue into a parallel issue. There's an overlap between their heart issue when it comes to how they're talking to people and how they're talking to God. And so he ties this covetousness issue into a statement about prayer. He says, you do not have because you do not ask. It's kind of interesting that a lot of times when you see this scripture quote, it's only the second half of the verse, right? But he's tying those ideas together because it's a heart issue that when you're not dealing with these wrong passions inside of you, then you're talking to your fellow Christians in the wrong way, but you're also talking to God in the wrong way.

He says, you do not have because you do not ask. Instead of asking for the things you need from God, you're just trying to take them from the people around you or just getting angry that they have it and you don't when all you gotta do is ask. And then he goes on to say, you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. Again, he's talking about this heart issue and how we're approaching God and you're asking for things out of the wrong motives.

You've allowed the wrong passion inside of you to spill out and now you're asking for things based on that passion instead of submission to God. And so you're not getting it and now you're getting angrier because you asked God for it and he didn't give it to you. So now you're still trying to take it from your brother. You see how he's not just veering off track to talk about prayer in the middle of this conversation. He's actually showing us that there's an overlap that when we don't allow, when we don't fix the passion problem, it spills out into every other area of our lives.

So this is James 4 verse 3. Now, brace yourselves because what comes next is, so James gives the old one thing, the one-two punch, okay? Verse 4, he gives you the one and then he's gonna give you the two, okay? So just, it's coming, prepare yourself. James 4 verse 4, you adulterous people. Now, for a lot of you, you're like, that wasn't that bad. But that's because you're too far disconnected from the text.

See, this is a letter from James to his friends, to his fellow Christians, to his fellow former Jews who now put their faith in Jesus just like he has. And now he's writing them a letter as their pastor. Can you imagine if this afternoon you got home and there was a letter waiting for you from CLC? CLC envelope, nice CLC letterhead. You're like, oh, my pastor has something to say to me. Isn't that great?

And you open it up and you start reading and your pastor's like, you know what? There's trials and tribulations, but we can find joy even in the midst of it. And you're like, wow, pastor, thanks for that encouragement. Then you keep reading and your pastor's like, hey, you know what? I need you to be hearers of the word, but also doers of the word. You gotta put your faith in action. You're like, yeah, I should do that. Thanks for that encouragement.

And then he goes on to talk about your tongue and the venomous words are coming out of your mouth. And you're like, okay, that's a little personal, but all right, all right, we're doing good. And you get like two thirds of the way down the page and then you just come across a sentence where your pastor just says, you adulterous people. You would probably be really offended by that unless you're in the act of adultery and then you're just wondering how your pastor found out. That's a whole different sermon, okay?

But this, can you feel it now? Like when James with an exclamation point at the end of it, like you adulterous people, that's not good. And the interesting thing that James does here is he's actually using language from the Old Testament. And so as much as we feel a little bit uncomfortable hearing somebody call you an adulterer when you haven't been committing adultery, when the Jewish audience he's writing to reads that, they know he's referencing the Old Testament prophets.

Because when Israel was in its greatest level of sin ever, the worst they've ever been, the prophets would come along and we see this in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and Hosea. When they come around, they say you adulterous people because you have been committing spiritual adultery. You've been cheating. You've been cheating on God with some false gods. It's the biggest issue that Israel ever faced.

And so when James writes this, and remember James is a very intelligent man. He chooses words very carefully. The word he actually chooses for adulterous is the feminine noun instead of the masculine. And so literally he doesn't call them adulterers. He calls them adulteresses. Which part of that is just to wake them up. There's a jarringness to that. Because all throughout his entire letter, he keeps saying my brothers, my brothers, my brothers. Brothers, brothers, brothers, brothers. This is what we gotta do. Brothers, brothers, I need you to do this.

And it's masculine, masculine, masculine. Then he slaps them with this feminine noun. It wakes them up. But there's also kind of a double purpose to it. Because what is the church represented as in scripture? The bride of Christ. And so the claim that James is making when he says you adulterous people is that the bride has been cheating on the groom. Are you feeling the issue here?

That was the one. You ready for the two? Because the answer to how you've been doing this is important. He says, 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. So the spiritual adultery that they are committing is that they have become friends with the world. And that should be alarming because we might be guilty of that too.

Something you gotta think about is who have you been befriending? Because what he says here is that friendship with the world is enmity. Enmity is not a word we use very regularly. At least I don't. Maybe you're more linguistically advanced than I am. But enmity means to be in open hostility against. That friendship with the world is enmity. Friendship with the world creates an open hostility in your life against God.

Why would that exist? Why would that be a problem? Why would that be a thing? The Bible also says that the God of this world is who? Satan. Scripture says Satan is the God of this world. So if we put it in that context, do you think that you can be friends with Satan and friends with God at the same time? No. That's pretty obvious. And yet a lot of us try and live our lives in a way where like, the friendship with the world is not that big of a deal. It's not that big of a problem. We've got it under control and it's not an issue. But it is.

In fact, friendship with one automatically makes you an enemy of the other. Automatically. And the issue is that when you're friends with somebody, it's because you have mutual interests and passions. Should believers in Jesus Christ share passions and interests with one another? The fallen world? No. We shouldn't. But we do. That's a problem.

And the more time you spend with friends, you know what happens? You all start to act alike, right? You've got inside jokes, right? You've got language phrases that only your friends say. You start sounding like them. You start looking like them. You start acting like them. And when we start blending in with a world that God created us to stand out from, that's an issue. Okay?

And so we get into this place where we've become friends with the world. And we're not supposed to. Now, does that mean that we're supposed to just go live on a mountain somewhere and wait until Jesus comes back? No. No. Because the Bible also tells us we're supposed to be salt and light in the earth. The Bible also tells us that we're supposed to bring the hope of Jesus to the people around us. The Bible also tells us to go into all the world and make disciples.

So we're not supposed to isolate from the world, but we do have a very specific instruction in the world. And that is to be ambassadors, not friends. And we keep trying to be friends when God actually called us to be ambassadors, to represent Him in the world. And so we've got a job to do. But we commit spiritual adultery when we stop doing the job, when we love the world more than we love God.

And love for God and love for the world are mutually exclusive. You cannot do both. And that's not Brent. And that's not James. That's Jesus. Jesus said in Matthew 6, 24, no one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You know what this no one means? It means no one. Like it means there's no exceptions.

And yet a lot of Christians try and live life as if we're the exception to the rule. That it's okay because we found the right balance. I can have 45% of the world and 55% of God. And I'm all good. It doesn't work that way. Now, a lot of people would never say, especially if you came to church today. It's a cloudy, rainy day. And you're here, right? So you would never say with your words, I love the world more than I love God, right? At least I don't think anybody in the room would.

But remember we're in James. The book of James. What is James concerned about? Your actions. The audio and video got to match. And so it's not what you say. It's what you do. And you can't say you love God if your actions are betraying the truth. If your actions don't reflect the statement, then we're in danger.

So how do we know who we love? Well, does your behavior match the world? Or does your behavior match the Bible? Like where are you on that? And so a little bit of a test for you. I'll step on your toes a little bit. When you're behind on your daily Bible reading, but you're all caught up on your favorite TV show, who does that say you love?

When you can sing along with every Beyonce or Taylor Swift song on the radio, but you need the words on the screen to follow along in worship on Sunday, who does that say you love? When you are more passionate about politics than you are about preaching Jesus, who does that say you love? When you choose to complain before you choose to pray, who does that say you love?

You're not going to like this one. When you read your horoscope every day, but you only get the Bible on Sunday, who does that say that you love? When you are mixing new age practices in with your faith in Jesus, who does that say you love? When you are unwilling to let go of the world when God tells you to, who does that say you love?

Who does that say you love? When you choose sinful gratification over submission to your Savior, who does that say you love? When you choose selfish ambition over selfless generosity, who does that say you love? When your life revolves around entertainment and joy and pleasure instead of submission to God's will, who does that say, who you living for?

Are you friends with the world or are you friends with God? Because you can't do both. You can't straddle the fence and hold on to the world while trying to hold on to God. It doesn't work that way. And remember, James' ultimate message is show your faith with your actions. And your actions, they're going to show who your master is. Your actions are going to show who you love.

Now, I know it got real heavy in here, kind of sucked the air out of the room, right? Please know, I did not come here today to make you feel bad about yourself. I didn't come here to wag my finger at you and say, shame on you for loving the world. No, no, no. But we do have to address the elephant in the room. If we claim to love Jesus, does our life, does our behavior, the things that we're engaged in, does it reflect that love? Or have we been mixing in too much of the world?

Is James in a place where he'd be writing a letter to this church saying, you adulterous people? So James continues. He says, 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? Do you know that God is jealous? It's actually in Exodus 34, 14. It says, the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God. You know that's one of his names?

We're doing a series in December on the names of God. I don't think that's on the list, but maybe it should be. That's one of the actual names of the God you serve. Maybe that should cause us to think a little bit harder on the things that we're doing if our God is jealous. But it makes sense that he's jealous, right? Because his bride has been stepping out on him. The one he died for is in love with another person. And no man with any moral fiber to their being would ever be okay with sharing his wife with another. Neither does God.

God expects exclusive devotion. So what are we going to do about it? James says, you adulterous people. Your friendship with the world. Here's what's interesting. Did you catch that? The one who wishes to be friends with the world makes himself an enemy of God. Did you notice it didn't even say the person who is a friend of the world? It just said wishes to be. It's just the desire.

When the pull of the world on your life is stronger than the pull of God on your life, that's where the problem lies. It's the passions at war within you. We've got to win that battle. And I'm really grateful that James chapter four does not end in verse five. Because if it ended on verse five, we'd all go home and depressed. We'd just be like, well, we suck. See you next week.

But no, James four verse five is followed by James four verse six. Isn't that amazing how the numbers work? Here's what he says in verse six. But I've told you before, this is probably my favorite word in the Bible. It always seems to show up right on time in the right place. It's like everything is hopeless and helpless and we feel just defeated and like there's nothing we can do about it. And then the Holy Spirit just drops a but right there in the text. And it just shows up right on time.

And here it is. But what does he do? He gives more grace. So thankful for that. Because when there's a heaviness in the room, when you feel the weight of the guilt and you were listening to me, you were laughing at some of the things I was saying, but you were laughing on the outside because you were crying on the inside because you're like, that's me. I've been doing that. And you start to feel the weight and the shame and the guilt and you're just starting to beat yourself up. Then all of a sudden the Holy Spirit comes in and says, there's grace.

There's grace. Yes, we have cheated on him. Yes, we have failed to fight the battle within us. Yes, we have become friends with the world and enemies of God. We are an adulterous people. But there is grace. Romans 5:20 says that where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more. And we don't deserve it. But God's response to our sin is he pours out more grace on us.

And this is what James says next. He says, therefore, and the therefore is there to point us to the solution to the problem. He's laid out this problem. We've been fighting a battle and we ain't been winning. The battle within us is causing problems outside of us. We've become an adulterous people. We've fallen in love with the world. We've become enemies with God. But he gives more grace.

Therefore, it says, this is what we do in response. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to who? To the humble. See, there is grace available even to the people James calls adulterous. But here's the thing that you have to grasp today. You don't get grace just because God has it. You get grace in response to an action you take. Grace isn't yours just because it exists in the universe. According to James, he gives grace to the humble.

See, grace is given in response to humility. So when we recognize this is me that James is talking, James 4:4 was written for me that I'm the adulterous one. In humility, we come back to God. In humility, we go to God. And that's when grace is poured out. Not before, but after.

So the million-dollar question today that you should be asking is, how do we do that? How do we humble ourselves? If we're all guilty of this spiritual adultery, and the solution is humility, then how do we humble ourselves? It's a great question. So glad you asked. Here's the answer. James 4, verses 7 through 9, he walks through it. It says, submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he'll flee from you. Draw near to God, he'll draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

Isn't James just a ray of sunshine today? But you know what that is, that five things that we just looked at that I highlighted in yellow for you real quickly? You know what that is? That's called genuine repentance. But Brent, isn't repentance the thing you're supposed to do after you've sinned? That's James' point, is that you have sinned, that you have committed spiritual adultery, and adultery is sin. And if you're guilty of sin, then the response is to humble ourselves.

And so James walks us through five elements of genuine repentance. We're going to look at them real quickly. First of all, this is all coming from verses 7 through 9. They're just in a different order, but we're going to look at all five of them. He says to submit yourselves, therefore, to God. And I think that this really is the first step, that you can't genuinely repent until you have actually submitted.

Have you ever had a kid tell you they're sorry? When you knew they weren't really sorry? It's because they didn't submit. They just apologized. But submission to God is saying, you're right, I'm wrong. I am sorry, and I am submitting myself to you. You are the Lord of my life, not me. You're Lord, not my desires.

And if there's two passions fighting within me, I'm going to make sure that the passion for you wins, because I'm submitted to your will, not my own will. And after we fully submit to his authority, then we cleanse our hands and purify our hearts. Because here's the thing, genuine repentance is a turning away from sin. We've got to get rid of the sin in our lives. Cleansing our hands, purifying our hearts.

And then he calls them the double-minded, right? There's not just a change in behavior in genuine repentance, there's a change in thought in genuine repentance. That I used to think this thing wasn't a big deal. And some of you at the start of this message didn't think that some of the stuff you do with the world was a big deal. After this message, you've had a change of mind about some of those things. That's genuine repentance.

When we're no longer double-minded, where we're thinking, I love Jesus, but I also love this stuff that he tells me not to love, right? That's double-mindedness. But genuine repentance is when we have a change of mind. And then what happens next is, we need to resist the devil so he'll flee from us. Because with the change in behavior and the change of mind, it isn't just the temporary, it's the long-term, right?

So we're going to turn away from sin, and that means we need to actually reject sin in the future, right? It's not genuine repentance if you just go right back to the thing. And look, I'm not talking about when there's a struggle and you're fighting and you're winning and you're failing and you're winning and you're failing. Look, that's all well and good. But when you repent at the altar on Sunday, with every intention to go right back to that thing again, or you go right back to the same temptations and you don't resist them in any way, shape, or form, then genuine repentance never took place.

Because there should be a change in behavior, there should be a resistance to the temptation, resistance to the sin, resistance to the devil. And then, what comes after that? And actually, I don't know where this falls in that process. But at some point in this, we should be wretched and mourn and weep. And this is kind of a weird idea, I think, for kind of the American Christians. But there should be a grief over sin.

Because the danger of an unrepentant Christian is that instead of killing our sin, we're feeding our sin. That instead of loathing our sin, we're loving our sin. That instead of destroying our sin, we're just desiring more of that sin. There should be a grief associated with sin. And that's not just being sorry that you got caught doing something you shouldn't do. It is a deep, genuine mourning because you have offended, you have hurt the one who died for you.

And there's a grief that takes in in that moment. And in a world where sin is celebrated, followers of Jesus, we should be heartbroken by sin. But here's the thing, that was four. The fifth one. And it is important because we shouldn't just walk around with, you know, what they do in the Old Testament, sackcloth and ashes on our head, like just in constant mourning over our sin. No, no, no. Splash some water on your face, put some oil on your head, and then draw near to God.

And He'll draw near to you. See, this is another callback to Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. He said, blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted, right? And so as we turn from sin, you know what we're doing? We're turning to God. We're drawing near to Him so that He can draw near to us to comfort us. And as we draw near to Him in humility, He draws near to us in love.

And what we have to understand is that God isn't there to shame you, right? When you come back to Him, when you draw near to Him with the sin in your life, He's not waiting for you going, yeah, here you come. Crawling back to me. You're so filthy. I can't even believe what you've done. That's not God. No. He's waiting with open arms.

In fact, an issue that we have is a lot of times because we've sinned, we try and hide from God. It's the oldest trick in Genesis, right? We sin, we lie about it, and then we hide from it, right? And so we feel like because of the sin in our lives, we can't approach God. We're too unclean. And so we have to fix some things in our lives, and then we can come to God. But the Bible tells us that's never going to work, right? You come to Him to get cleaned. You don't try and get cleaned before coming to Him.

And so we draw near to God so that He will draw near to us and bring the comfort that we need. And what's amazing is what happens next in this process. James 4 verse 10 says to humble yourselves, which is that process we just walked through, before the Lord. And what's He going to do? He'll exalt you. This is God's grace in action, that as we come to Him in genuine repentance, in humility, He lifts us back up. He dusts you off. He puts you back in the right place.

And so we throw ourselves at His mercy, and His response is grace. He makes us right again. Now, there's actually an incredible illustration of all of this in the Old Testament. And I know we're doing a walk through James, but most scholars actually think that when James said, you adulterous people, he was referencing the book of Hosea. That if you haven't read the Old Testament book of Hosea in a while, you really should, because it is, let's just say, wild.

Okay? And so when James calls them adulterous people, he's thinking about Hosea, specifically the first three chapters of Hosea. You should read it this week. It is, it's juicy. It's wild. Because what happens is God tells the prophet Hosea that he wants to create a prophetic image, a prophetic message for the people. And in order to do that, he needs the prophet Hosea to go and marry a prostitute. Like not figuratively, but literally. Go marry a prostitute, because I'm going to show the people of Israel what I'm going to do through your marriage.

And some of you have really wanted to become prophets. And now maybe you'll have second thoughts, because sometimes God says, go marry a prostitute. It's wild stuff in the Bible. Okay? And so Hosea does, he goes and marries a wonderful woman by the name of Gomer. I wish I was making that up. That sounds like a lovely woman. If anybody in the room is named Gomer, I apologize for any negative thoughts I have about the name Gomer.

But that's, so yeah, he marries a prostitute named Gomer. And they have three kids together. Because this is a long prophetic message. Some of you want like a short on-time word. And God's like, sometimes it takes time to get the message across. So he tells them, marry this prostitute. He marries Gomer. They have three kids together. And then Gomer goes back into prostitution. She leaves Hosea, which I guess is kind of to be expected. You marry a prostitute, you should probably expect that kind of thing.

And so, so I feel really bad for Hosea. He's just following God. He's just trying to be a good prophet. And his life is kind of a mess. Marries a prostitute, has three kids. She abandons him. I feel really bad for him. I actually though, I feel worse for the kids. And not just because their mom's a prostitute, they ran out on their dad. But I feel bad for him because as part of the prophetic message, God chose their names. And he didn't choose nicely.

So the, you thought Gomer was a bad name? So these are the three names of Hosea's kids. He names the first one Jezreel, which actually doesn't sound that bad. Like some of you are like, you know what? I could get down with a Jezreel. Put that in the list for boy names. And Jezreel means God will sow, which even sounds pretty good. The problem is, it's a prophetic message about God's going to sow devastation to the land.

So his name represents the fact that God is bringing destruction through the Assyrians on Israel, like because of their sinfulness, because of their spiritual idolatry. And then on top of that, this word Jezreel is actually the name of a place. It's actually the name of the place where Israel is defeated, like the location of the battle. And so it's a prophetic message of the battle that's going to come.

And so everywhere this kid goes, he's reminding the people of their biggest defeat. The only like modern day example I could come up with for that would be like, if a German couple decided to name their child Normandy. If you're not laughing at that, you need to brush up on your world history. Okay, so this one's not good. It gets worse.

Okay, they have a little girl. They named the little girl Lo-Ruhamah, which sounds kind of pretty. Like it's not that bad. Problem is it means no mercy. How would you like to walk into every room for the rest of your life? And people are like, hey, no mercy. And know that it's not just your parents being weird, but it's actually God saying, because of your sin, I, the merciful God, is no longer going to have mercy on you. I'm removing my mercy from you.

And we see Lo-Ruhamah and we're like, oh, that's pretty. But every Jewish person she met, all they saw was no mercy. All they heard was no mercy. And that could be kind of cool if you're a guy fighting in the UFC, like your title card just comes up, no mercy like that. But this is their destiny. This is their daughter.

Can you imagine the life a little girl lives walking around with no mercy as their name? And then they get the third kid. The third kid's name is Lo-Ami, which means not my people. Because God is so sick and tired of the spiritual adultery that he tells them, if I'm not really your God anymore, then you're not my people anymore either. He's pulling away a promise that he had made for them because of their spiritual adultery.

How many of you think spiritual adultery is a big deal? It's a problem. And God is so fed up with it that he says, I'm gonna sow devastation into your land. I'm going to remove my mercy from you. And you are no longer my people. And I am no longer your God. That's heavy in chapter one.

But then God says in chapter two of Hosea, that even as angry as I am with you, Israel, that if you will just repent, here's what I will do. And so I know we're walking through James, but now we're walking through Hosea. It's a two for one Sunday. He says, and in that day, so the day that they repent, here's what's gonna happen. Declares the Lord, you will call me my husband and no longer will you call me my Baal. Baal is the little G God of the area. The God that the people around them were worshiping.

In other words, this is a similar, a parallel to being in love with the world. You catch the connection now to James chapter four, right? And so I'm gonna be your husband again. You've been committing spiritual adultery with Baal, but I'm going to be your husband again, for I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth and they shall be remembered by name no more.

And I will make for them a covenant. So he's gonna make a new promise with Israel. On that day with the beast of the field, the birds of the heavens and the creeping things of the ground. And I will, as part of this promise, I will abolish the bow, the sword and the war from the land. So the punishment for your spiritual adultery is the Assyrian armies coming in to conquer you. Okay, and they're still coming and they're still gonna fight you and you're still gonna lose.

But the day that you repent, I'll remove that war from your land and I will make you lie down in safety. He's saying, I'm gonna be your good shepherd again. Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. I'll make you lie down in safety and I will betroth you to me forever. This is a promise that even though you've been adulterous, you are going to be my bride forever.

I will betroth you to me in, and he lists his own qualities, the own characteristics of God. He says, I'm gonna betroth you to me in righteousness, in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. And I'll betroth you to me in faithfulness. You've been unfaithful to me. I'm gonna be faithful to you if you'll just repent. And he says, and you shall know the Lord.

In that day, I will answer, declares the Lord. I will answer the heavens. This idea is that if you'll just call out to me in repentance, I'll respond. And here's the response. And they shall answer the earth and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine and the oil. And they shall answer who? Jezreel. Remember the firstborn. And I will sow her for myself in the land.

He's making a change here. Not sowing the devastation. Now I'm gonna sow you. You're gonna be taken into captivity, but I'm gonna sow you back into Israel if you'll repent. And I will have mercy on who? No mercy. And I will say to not my people, you are my people. And he shall say, you are my God.

This is beautiful. That all you have to do is repent and I'll put you back where you belong. Just repent. Just repent and I'll have mercy on you. Just repent and I'll be your God again and you'll be my people again. Just repent. Beautiful illustration. It's amazing. It blows my mind.

And yet it's not even done yet. It's James chapter two. If you'll repent, I'm gonna do all these things. And then he takes it a step further in Hosea chapter three. He tells Hosea to go back and love Gomer again. The prostitute wife who ran out on him and became a prostitute again. He says, go love her again. Because I need you to show Israel that I still love her.

That even though they have committed spiritual adultery against me, I still love them. In fact, he tells Hosea to go and buy her back. So she's got a pimp. And he has to go pay the pimp to bring her back in his own wife. He has to pay for her. So that she'd be free. And you know what that message is? That message is that God loves his people so much that even when we commit spiritual adultery, he is willing to pay the price to bring us back home.

And that right there is why I tell you all the time, you need to read your Old Testament because you miss it when you don't. But this message in Hosea is reflected in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Where God did that same very thing for every single one of us. That yes, we were guilty of spiritual adultery. That yes, we are guilty of this war within us where we've been letting the wrong side win.

We have been guilty of becoming friends with the world and enemies with God. Yes, we are guilty. And yet, because of God's great love for us, he's willing to pay the price for our sin with his own blood on the cross. And the message in Hosea is a message of Jesus on the cross for us that he bought us back.

And so this message today, it might have felt heavy. But it is the most hope-filled message I could preach. Because regardless of the sin, of the issues, of the adultery, of all of that, there is grace if we will just humble ourselves and repent.

So that's what we're gonna do collectively right now. We're gonna pray two prayers together. The first prayer is for those of you in the room that you know you've never been right with God. That he's never really been right with you. You haven't been cheating on him because you never married him to begin with. But maybe a friend has been telling you about the gospel. Maybe somebody invited you to come to church. Maybe the Holy Spirit's just been talking to you all through worship and all through the day.

And you're recognizing today that Jesus is real and that you need to make your life right with him. So scripture says it's a lot like that grace thing. You don't get grace until you humble yourself and repent. Same thing with our salvation. Our salvation comes because Jesus paid the price for us. The Bible says that all of us are guilty of sin and the wages of sin, the thing you earn for what you do, that's a wage. The wages of sin is death.

And so the thing that we deserve because of sin in our life is death. But then Jesus paid that price for us. But just like grace, there's our part in the process. You're not saved just because Jesus died on the cross. You're saved when, as scripture says, you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead.

These two things, this is submission. This is saying, Jesus, you are Lord, not me. You're the one in charge, not me. I've been living my life my way, but no longer. And then it's a statement of faith, saying I'm putting my faith, my belief, my trust in you. I believe that God, you raised him from the dead and the same way you're gonna raise me to new life as well.

And so in a moment, I'm gonna lead a prayer. I want you to repeat it after me. If that's you and you just, you know that you're not right with God. And after we pray that prayer, I'm gonna pray another prayer for every single person in the room that has recognized throughout this message that you've fallen in love with the world, that you've let that friendship get a little out of control. There's been a desire for more of the world than there is desire for God.

And collectively, all together, we're gonna humble ourselves and repent. So right now, every head bowed, every eye closed. If you're in the room, if you're in that first group and you recognize that you need to make Jesus Lord of your life for the first time today, I want you to repeat after me or you can put this in your own words, but say something like this.

Dear Jesus, I need you. I've been doing life my way, but I recognize that that's not right. Today, I make you Lord of my life. I put you in control and I believe in my heart. God, you are real. Jesus, you really did die for me. And God, you really did raise him to new life. And I know today that you're gonna do the same for me.

So I repent of my sins. I submit myself to you. In Jesus' name. Now, for everyone else in the room, you can pray this prayer with me or you can just talk to God in this moment. But if you felt the Holy Spirit poking you, saying, that's you, he's talking about you, he's talking about you, then it's time for us to respond in humility.

So Father, right now, we repent. We come to you and we recognize the sin in our lives. We recognize that we are the adulterous people that James was talking about. We've become friends with the world and it's made us enemies of you, God. And we are so sorry. And we are grieved that we have broken your heart, that we've been cheating on you with the world.

Forgive us and help us to resist the devil, to resist those temptations, to resist the pull of the world in our lives. We change our hearts. We change our behaviors. We even change our thoughts. We fall into full submission to you. Father, we draw near to you today in humility. Draw near to us. We need your grace today. In Jesus' name, amen, amen.

As we close the service today, I'm gonna invite you to stand to your feet. We're gonna close out with a song of worship. And I just encourage you to let the Holy Spirit speak to you in this moment as you make this commitment to live for him.

### Quotes for Outreach

1. "But the Bible is awesome. And it doesn't just tell us that we need to be saved. It doesn't even just show us how to be saved. But it actually tells us what to do after we're saved. Right? And that's really important for our lives." [36:28] (12 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




2. "And so we get into this place where we've become friends with the world. And we're not supposed to. Now, does that mean that we're supposed to just go live on a mountain somewhere and wait until Jesus comes back? No. No. Because the Bible also tells us we're supposed to be salt and light in the earth." [54:30] (15 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




3. "And so we throw ourselves at His mercy, and His response is grace. He makes us right again. Now, there's actually an incredible illustration of all of this in the Old Testament. And I know we're doing a walk through James, but most scholars actually think that when James said, you adulterous people, he was referencing the book of Hosea." [01:11:19] (20 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




4. "And yet, because of God's great love for us, he's willing to pay the price for our sin with his own blood on the cross. And the message in Hosea is a message of Jesus on the cross for us that he bought us back. And so this message today, it might have felt heavy. But it is the most hope-filled message I could preach." [01:21:43] (26 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




5. "So Father, right now, we repent. We come to you and we recognize the sin in our lives. We recognize that we are the adulterous people that James was talking about. We've become friends with the world and it's made us enemies of you, God. And we are so sorry. And we are grieved that we have broken your heart, that we've been cheating on you with the world. Forgive us and help us to resist the devil, to resist those temptations, to resist the pull of the world in our lives." [01:26:52] (46 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




### Quotes for Members

1. "And so as we read the Book of James, we have to ask ourselves, are we guilty of it too? Like, are we? Are you actually living out the faith that you claim to have? And really this idea is, it's this idea that the audio and the video don't match." [37:26] (14 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




2. "And so James is pointing it out, and he says, you know, what's causing the fight? And then he gives the answer. He says, is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? So he's basically saying that you've got a fight happening out there because there's a fight going on in here. And when you lose the fight in here, you start fighting out there." [43:08] (19 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




3. "And so James walks us through five elements of genuine repentance. We're going to look at them real quickly. First of all, this is all coming from verses 7 through 9. They're just in a different order, but we're going to look at all five of them. He says to submit yourselves, therefore, to God. And I think that this really is the first step, that you can't genuinely repent until you have actually submitted." [01:05:51] (24 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




4. "And so we get into this place where we've become friends with the world. And we're not supposed to. Now, does that mean that we're supposed to just go live on a mountain somewhere and wait until Jesus comes back? No. No. Because the Bible also tells us we're supposed to be salt and light in the earth. The Bible also tells us that we're supposed to bring the hope of Jesus to the people around us. The Bible also tells us to go into all the world and make disciples." [54:30] (22 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




5. "And so we throw ourselves at His mercy, and His response is grace. He makes us right again. Now, there's actually an incredible illustration of all of this in the Old Testament. And I know we're doing a walk through James, but most scholars actually think that when James said, you adulterous people, he was referencing the book of Hosea. That if you haven't read the Old Testament book of Hosea in a while, you really should, because it is, let's just say is wild." [01:11:19] (28 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)