JAMES LESSON 6


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

     The strongest statement someone can make is usually in the form
of a question. It gets us to thinking about figuring out what the
problem is. James is speaking to them about the fightings being
caused, because of the worldliness they still have in their lives and
their walks. If we are dead in Christ, there should be no reason to
fight the brethren.

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

     James is speaking here, supposedly to believers in Christ. It is
unbelievable that Christians would be this caught up in the flesh.
Lust is of the flesh, and not of God. It seems they want things so
badly that are not their own, that they even kill to get them. The
real truth here, is these people may profess Christianity, but they
really are not Christians. They have not crucified the flesh and its
lust. He gives them the secret in the last few words of the verse.
Christians, do not fight to get the things you want, pray for them
instead. If they are good for you, the Lord will give them to you.
The answer is prayer. They do not have these things, because they have
not asked in prayer.

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

     Sometimes we, like these Christians, pray for things that would
not be for our own good, or the good of those around us. God will not
answer a prayer to fill our greed. He will, however, answer a prayer
for our needs.

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

     Adultery is one of the worst sins a Christian could commit,
because it is a sin of the body. The Christian, filled with the Holy
Spirit, would be involving the Holy Spirit in the sin. A person who is
still involved in adultery, is not a friend of God. They have chosen
the way of the flesh. The flesh, or the spirit, rules over our will.
If the flesh rules over your will, you are of the flesh.

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

     God will not share you with any other. You are either 100% His,
or you are not His at all. To lust with envy would not be Godly. We
must choose today whom we will serve. Is it God, or the fleshly lust,
that we serve?  II Corinthians 11:2 "For I am jealous over you with
godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may
present [you as] a chaste virgin to Christ."  If we are God's we will
not lust with envy.

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

     When we humble ourselves before God, we are in a place to receive
from Him. I Peter 5:6 "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty
hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:"  We are saved by the
grace of God, and we have nothing to be proud about. Salvation for us
is a free gift. His grace is sufficient for me.

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

     This is just saying that it is within the willpower of every man
to resist the devil and the temptations that he puts before him. We
have been given the power of attorney to use the name of Jesus to
defeat the devil. The temptations that the devil brings before us are
really temptations of the flesh. The temptation will leave, if we say
no to it. God will not over-rule our will. He gives us the power to
choose. We must decide right, or wrong, for ourselves. The minute you
emphatically say no to the devil and his temptations, he will go on to
someone else and leave you alone. Flee means leave in a hurry. A heart
and will controlled by God, will have no difficulty in saying no to
the devil and his temptations.

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

     To be double minded, means you cannot make up your mind just what
you want to do. We see from the following verse, that we cannot ride
the fence. We must decide who we will serve. God or man.  Luke 16:13
"No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one,
and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the
other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon."  Cleansing of the hands means
the work you put your hands to must be clean, as well as your heart
being pure, stayed upon God. When we make a step toward God, we will
find that He has been there to help us all along. He just wanted us to
reach out to Him.

     James 4:9 "Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter
be turned to mourning, and [your] joy to heaviness."

     This is speaking of true repentance from the heart. Worldly
laughter and worldly joy must change into a true repentance for sin.
The joy that comes later is from God, not worldly pleasures. To be a
sinner and truly sorry for the sin, means a grieving, and mourning,
and even crying for forgiveness. The new life that true repentance
brings is not a life of worldly pleasures, but of godly joy.

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

     When we are down, as far as we can go, we look up and see Jesus
who gave His body on the cross that we might be lifted up.  He will
lift us up from the depths of despair. Psalms 147:6 "The LORD lifteth
up the meek: he casteth the wicked down to the ground."

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

     Thank goodness, we are not the judge, Jesus is. How can we judge
another? We are free from sin ourselves, only because we are forgiven.
Judge not, that you be not judged. The very best thing we can do, is
live our own life as free from sin as we can, and leave the judgement
up to Jesus. We do not fully understand the law, or grace, how could
we judge fairly?

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

     When we pass judgement on someone else, it is as if we think we
are perfect ourselves, and we are not. I love what Jesus did when the
accusers had the woman caught in adultery, and were about to stone her
to death. I truly believe that Jesus wrote their sins in the sand, and
that is why they left. He had said, you without sin cast the first
stone. They all had to leave , because they were not without sin.
I John 1:8 "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and
the truth is not in us."  We, Christians, are justified {just as if we
had never sinned} in Jesus. Jesus, as Judge, decides who are saved and
who are lost. He is the just Judge.

     James 4:13 "Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will
go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and
get gain:"  James 4:14 "Whereas ye know not what [shall be] on the
morrow. For what [is] your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth
for a little time, and then vanisheth away."

     We see, from this, that we do not even know whether we will be
alive tomorrow or not. Our life is of God. We are born when and to
whom the Lord has planned for us to be. Our death is the same. There
is an allotted time for each of us to die. We leave this house of
flesh when the breath of life, that God put in it, leaves. We leave at
the time that God has chosen, and not at our own choosing. We leave
not one second before our allotted time. Man's days are numbered as
the hair on his head. Let me share what Jesus had to say about this
very thing.  This is about a rich man, who had no idea he was about to
die.  He had a very big harvest, and we will see what he did with his
abundance.  Luke 12:17 "And he thought within himself, saying, What
shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?"
Luke 12:18 "And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns,
and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my
goods."  Luke 12:19 "And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much
goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, [and] be
merry."  Luke 12:20 "But God said unto him, [Thou] fool, this night
thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be,
which thou hast provided?"  We do not have control of how long we
live, God does. Make good of today, it may be the only day you have.

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

     It is a very rash statement on our part to say what we will do
tomorrow. Only God knows if we will be alive tomorrow. The only
truthful statement we can make is, if it is the Lord's will, I will do
it.

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

     Why should we boast? We know that God has control over everything
and everyone. Then where is there room for boasting. We do not control
even our own life and death. Knowing this, we should be humble above
all men. To think of ourself too highly is sin. In fact, it is the
same sin that got Lucifer thrown out of heaven.

     James 4:17 "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth
[it] not, to him it is sin."

     This is saying that not only the bad things we do are sin, but we
can sin by omitting to do good. Sin is anything displeasing to God.
When we know to do good and do not do it, it is displeasing to God.
Then, it is sin. The sin, here, is in full knowledge, so that would
make it worse.






















                          James 6 Questions


1.  What caused the fightings among them?
2.  What is one of the strongest ways to make a point?
3.  If we are ______ in _________, there should be no reason to fight.
4.  Ye have not, because ye ______ ____.
5.  Who is James speaking to in this book?
6.  Lust is of the _______, and not of God.
7.  What is the extreme that they will go to, to fill their lust?
8.  Instead of fighting for what we want, we should do what?
9.  In verse 3, they ask _______.
10. God will not answer a prayer to fill our _______.
11. Friendship of the world is __________ with God.
12. Why is adultery such a terrible sin for a Christian.
13. The _______, or the _______, rules over the will.
14. What percentage of you must the Lord have?
15. God resisteth the ________, but giveth grace to the ________.
16. Quote 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 6.
17. _______ the devil and he will flee from you.
18. What have we been given power of attorney to do?
19. What will cause the devil to leave you alone?
20. What does being doubleminded mean?
21. What is the mourning in verse 9?
22. Quote James chapter 4 verse 10.
23. Who is the Judge of the world?
24. What did Jesus do when the woman caught in adultery was brought
    before Him?
25. Why should we not say for sure what we are going to do tomorrow?
26. What happened to the rich man, in chapter 12 of Luke, who thought
    he would live forever?
27. What should we say regarding the things we are going to do?
28. What got Lucifer thrown out of heaven?
29. What, besides the commission of sin, is sin?

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