Faith and Sovereignty

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Well, amen, everybody. You may be seated. Let me add my greetings to those who have already greeted you. My name is James Sutton. I am the associate pastor here at CTK. This morning we are returning to our series on the book of James. I love what Danny said about worship, that it's a preview, in many ways of heaven, as we turn to God's word. It is meant to be a time when we see Jesus.

So we've talked about how this is James on James, the sermon series. But in old reform pulpits, there's a little quote from scripture that says, "Sir, we would see Jesus." So even though this is a sermon from the book of James by a person named James, it is really about the Lord Jesus Christ. And since we aren't going consecutively through James, it's just like we interrupt our regularly scheduled sermon series to bring you James on James.

I've been trying to review with you a little bit of where we've been, and so I want to do that this morning because we're into chapter four and we're going to read it in just a second. But it didn't exist in a vacuum. We've been going through this book and James is doing something very intentional. He is talking to believers and trying to fill them with wisdom that will allow them to live out the gospel in their life.

It began in chapter one by saying, "Hey, look. All of the things that are happening to you in this life, the hard things, the good things, all of them are meant to make you more like Christ, to make you reflect him more in this world, and to bring you closer to him." And he said that sometimes people falsely understand what the Christian faith is about. He says, "True religion is this: being doers of the word and in our speech and keeping yourself pure and care for the vulnerable."

Now those are things that make sense. Keeping yourself pure and being doers of the word, caring for the vulnerable—a lot of that makes sense. But we've been talking about how the word might not have made sense, but that is the purpose for which we are here: to represent the living word. And so therefore, our words ought to reflect his word.

Then in chapter two through the beginning of chapter three, he launches into a series of warnings kind of born out of that. Like, "Hey, if you think you're a Christian but then you might not." It's almost like Jeff Foxworthy. Remember those jokes? "You might be a redneck if"—remember that? Well, James is going, "You might not be a Christian if." He's saying, "Hey, if you think you have faith but have no works, you might not be a Christian. If you care about what the rich think and you show favoritism to them but not to all image bearers of God, then you might not be a Christian. The way you talk—if you talk in a way that sets the world on fire and reflects the sin in your heart instead of the hope of the gospel, then you might not be a Christian."

His goal isn't so much to get us in line as much as it is to bring us to the cross and remind us of who we are. At the end of chapter three, the last time we were together, I said this is the centerpiece. He says, "Focus on the wisdom from above, not the wisdom of the world," which is another way of saying build your life on Christ and the gospel. That is a refrain throughout the entire book, but he really hammers that at the end of chapter three.

That brings us to our passage this morning at the beginning of chapter four. I want to read it together. So if you would, read with me James chapter four verses one through 12.

What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don't they come from your passions that wage war within you? You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and don't receive because you ask with wrong motives so that you may spend it on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hostility towards God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God. Or do you think it's without reason that the scripture says, the spirit he made to dwell in us envies intensely, but he gives greater grace? Therefore, he says, God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, submit 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, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep. — James 4:1-12

Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. Don't criticize one another, brothers and sisters. Anyone who defames or judges a fellow believer defames and judges the law. If you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? — James 4:9-12

Oh Lord Jesus, we do pray that we would see you clearly in this our time in your word. Lord, I pray that I would fade and you would be at the forefront of even what I see as I speak. Lord, may we grow closer to you. May we draw closer to you. May we be more enthralled with you as we sang, Lord, it is so sweet to trust in you. Lord, would you help us to do that as a result of our time in your word? And, Lord, as we go forth from this place, would you help us to reflect you accurately? We pray all this in your name. Amen.

Big Dogs and Little Dogs

As a kind of overarching illustration for this sermon, I want to give you this: a stereotype about dogs. I do this with great trembling because I know there are a lot of dog lovers in here, and I'm probably going to hear something about this. But here's the stereotype that exists in my mind. There are big dogs and little dogs. Some of you have big dogs. Some of you have little dogs. I'm kind of a big dog person. My wife is kind of a little dog person. So I'm aware that some people love each. But understand I'm just operating off of a stereotype to make a point about human beings. I'm comparing all of us to dogs. So just relax.

Here's the stereotype. I want you to imagine a big dog—a big dog that has been loved and cared for by its master who's older and oftentimes like, you see these big dogs on front porches and people walk by, all kinds of people walk by. What do big dogs do? They just sit there. It's kind of like concerning. People can go by, a fire truck can go by, someone can set something on fire maybe, and a big dog will just sit there and go, "I wonder what time my master's gonna feed me." They just don't seem to care.

Now I know that's a stereotype. Younger big dogs, right, they tend to be a little bit more involved. They're just real energetic and vivacious and their involvement in things oftentimes seems to just be excitement—like I just want to do it.

And then stick with me on the stereotype. There are little dogs. My mom has a little dog. That little dog is upset by everything. Anything can happen and that dog is upset. And more than that, that dog comes into contact with a big dog, which it has no business fighting and should be scared of. That dog acts like it's a big dog. And the big dog just kind of looks at it like, really?

Now I want you to think about this. James wants you to be a big dog. James wants you to be my stereotype of the big dog. Why? Because James wants us to be rooted and grounded in something that is not our circumstances. He wants us to understand that we got that right from chapter one. Consider all things that happen like good for you, that God's using them. He doesn't want us to be little dogs tossed and turned by various different things.

In this passage, what he's turning to is the subject of conflict. We've been talking about the tongue and maybe it's a subset of that or maybe it's a continuation of his thought, or maybe it's a reflection of that and an expansion of it. But oftentimes we see this, don't we? There are some people who when it comes to conflict, they approach it very calmly, very regulated. They seem very comfortable with it. And then there are some people who are just tossed and turned by it. It seems like the conflict itself is like the centerpiece of all of their world. And if it doesn't come out the way that they want it to, then they're gonna be very upset.

Big dogs and little dogs.

James begins with a picture of what a little dog looks like. Verses one through four is where we get this. Let me read it again.

What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don't they come from your passions that wage war within you? You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and don't receive because you ask with wrong motives so that you may spend it on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God. — James 4:1-4

Alright. So here's the heart of the issue, and he explains it very clearly. Our internal desires for earthly things that cannot satisfy lead to this destructive form of conflict and competition. Essentially, it is because you are tied to these worldly things that are contradictory in the kinds of things that they want that leads you to act like a little dog.

C.S. Lewis said this. He said that we often are people who just want mud pies when God has offered us a holiday by the sea, and we become satisfied with our mud pies. What James is saying is we not only become satisfied with our mud pies, we fight each other for our mud pies. We want each other's mud pies. We see a mud pie, and we're like, that's a better mud pie than mine. I want that mud pie. I'm gonna fight you for that mud pie. Give me that mud pie.

And James is saying, no. Look. We should look different from the world. And this applies to all sorts of different things that we find in this life. It applies to earthly and material desires, which is perhaps the way that occurs to us at first when we read this. James is saying, don't be so tossed and turned and upset about getting the things that you need for this life. Remember that you have a heavenly Father that is giving you all things. They all come from above, every good and perfect gift. And even the things that are scarcities, he's using for your good. So stop biting and fighting each other for the things that you think you need in this life. Trust in God's sovereignty and be satisfied and content with the things that you have. Be a big dog. Remember that your master loves you.

It also applies to relationships. Sometimes we bite and fight each other over relationships. Like, I want you to like me, so I'm gonna fight you until you like me. Sometimes we do that, don't we? It's like someone is mad at us and we feel the need to really defend ourselves. How dare you get mad at me? I've done nothing wrong. Let me tell you what I've done. Right? And it goes both ways and we fight and we bicker and we look, James says, like the world. We're being little dogs. We're acting like we're not sufficient in ourselves and that our master won't take care of us and that it's up to us to achieve better relationships as well as things that we need.

Doctrine, Theology, and Politics

And now here's where I'm really gonna get into trouble. It also applies to how we approach doctrinal, theological, and political issues. Now this is quite a time to say that, isn't it? Heading into an election year. And I'm very excited that Jeff is gonna be teaching this class on Thanksgiving. It's on Thanksgiving. Right? In our adult education because this is something that is very hard to do. When we start to talk about things that matter—theological, political, doctrinal issues—it's very easy for us to attach personal need to those things. We need to be right. We need to win. And oftentimes, we disguise that by the value or appropriateness of the cause itself.

Now notice what I'm not saying. I'm not saying don't engage politically. I'm not saying don't care about important issues. I'm not saying doctrinal issues don't matter. Did you hear me say all of that? Those things matter, and they're important, and there are appropriate ways and right ways, and we should be engaged in them. Other places in Scripture call us to very clearly. But what James is saying is exactly what Jeff hopes to accomplish in his class. It's not about the what here as much as we're talking about the how. We should engage these issues as big dogs, not as little dogs. Do you see?

Because the how we approach reflects the status that we believe that we have, and how we engage in these topics reflects the hope that we have in Christ. And that's why we're here, brothers and sisters. We're here not to win the battle. The battle has already been won. We're here to reflect that. And yes, that means engaging the issues and speaking truth, but we speak it in love. And we engage from a place of security. I don't need to win. Christ has already won. Do you see? James is saying we need to be big dogs, not little dogs in how we engage.

Now I'm a history guy. I taught history for over a decade. I studied history. And so the examples of Christians behaving like little dogs, there's a lot of them throughout history. But I could think of none better and more illustrative than the one that non-Christians always bring up to me when I try to tell them, hey, this gospel thing is really good, and it's a really great thing, and it's really a blessing to the whole world. You know what they say? They say, oh, yeah? Well, what about the Crusades? Do you guys know about the Crusades? Have your non-Christian friends reminded you of the Crusades?

A period of several hundred years in which Christians behaved like little dogs. And worse than that, they disguised their need by this sanctified kind of language that actually had nothing to do with the gospel. It was actually the opposite, and yet they felt like they had to fight and die for this.

Here's a little detail on the Crusades just so I can satisfy my history teacher club card or whatever I have. The Crusades were initiated by Pope Urban the Second in October out of a desire to consolidate his power within the church. It further divided Christians, culminating in the Fourth Crusade, where the Crusaders actually sacked and destroyed Constantinople, which was a city held by other Christians. It was Christians fighting with Christians in order so that they could be more powerful Christians. It was using the name of Christ in order to gain power. Urban's fervor, and others like him from the eleventh to thirteenth centuries, similarly wanted wealth, land, and power. Ultimately, millions died.

Now, don't get me wrong. It's much more complicated than that. We could talk about how some came in with different motives, but here's what Urban said to those who would go and fight in the Crusade. He said, "All who die by the way, whether by land or by sea or in battle against the pagans, shall have immediate remission of sin." Do you see what he did? He told a bunch of people who were already supposed to understand that they had remission of sin through Jesus Christ, and said you have to go fight and die in order to get that. He said you're little dogs. Let's go. If we die, we'll become big dogs. It was a terrible chapter in Christian history. It is the example that we should not follow. It is what James is talking about at the beginning of this. Crusade Christianity is not something that is meant to be emulated.

Now, again, I'm not saying that you don't engage in causes. But when you are trying to consolidate power for yourself in the name of Christ and you're inviting others to fight and die and it's causing destruction all around you, you might not be doing it right.

James was trying to prevent things like the Crusades. It's easy for us to point back in history and see people in the past and say, "Hey, they did it wrong." But what about us? Are you reflective, as James instructs us, on your own motives, your own passions, your own desires? Oftentimes you can engage in very important discussions that you should engage in, but you can do it with the wrong motives. It's not so much the what, but the how that you engage. And unintentionally, rather than actually promoting Christianity, you're destroying it, just like Urban and the other Crusaders.

We need to be reflective of the how and not just the what. We need to think about what God has called us to, and we need to think about how he has called us to it. Do my conflicts look like the world's, or do they look like Christ? That's what James is inviting us to consider.

Moving from Pride to Humility

And he moves on in verses five through ten, and he's trying to help us move from the little dog mindset to the big dog mindset. Listen:

Or do you think it's without reason that the Scripture says, "The spirit he made to dwell in us envies intensely, but he gives greater grace. Therefore, he says, God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you."

The centerpiece, the foundation of this entire section is verses five and six where he says the spirit he made to dwell in us envies intensely. You know what he's saying there? He's saying you've got a spirit, the Spirit of God living within you, and he wants all of you. He doesn't want any of you to belong to the world. He's a jealous spirit. He wants your heart to belong entirely to God.

Now that's grace. You know why? Because you're a dirty rotten sinner. You are an ugly, mangy little dog—maybe some of you love Chihuahuas, I'm sorry. Whatever you are, it's not good. And yet God was gracious enough to not only want you but to want all of you. What grace? That's the gospel. Jesus came to die for you but sent his spirit so he could have all of you, not just a part of you.

And that's important when you're engaging in these topics, right? Because we always have mixed motives and we're always coming at it. And James is saying, examine yourself. Look at those mixed motives. Don't just say, "Well, everybody has mixed motives so it's fine. Some of my motives are good." The spirit doesn't do that.

The spirit says, I want all of you. I want all of you. And then he says something amazing. James says something so beautiful here. He says, but he gives even greater grace. Oh, what's the greater grace? The greater grace is that he's gonna accomplish it. He's gonna take you. He's gonna win your heart over. It's not just that he has envied you and wanted you. It's that he's acquired you and is acquiring you through the sanctifying work of the spirit.

Why would you reject that? Why would you dismiss that? Why would you say, well, doesn't matter. Some of my motives are good. No. Be that big dog. Lean into the master's love for you. Remember all that you have in Christ—that he not only died for you, but he sent his spirit and every day he sends all kinds of events in his sovereignty that are for your good to reclaim parts of your heart that you never even knew were dirty and filthy.

Do you see the greater grace? That's the platform. That's what James wants you to remember. That's what he says is key if you're going to actually do this.

And then he tells you how to do it. Humble yourself. Stop thinking it's up to you. Stop being the little dog. Stop wringing your hands about, I've got to win the arguments. I got to win this person. I got to do this. I got to get this person in power. I got to figure out how this works. No. You have grace and greater grace. You have everything that you need in Christ. Stop thinking it's about you, little dog. You ain't a big dog. Right? God has done it for you. Relax. Humble yourself. Chill out.

I wish I could get my mom's dog to believe that. Any of it. Like it's gonna be okay. God has done everything. Humble yourself. Resist the devil, he'll flee. Why will he flee? Because he's already been defeated. I love what Danny said. It's already done. All you have to do is resist him. You don't have to fight him. He's already been defeated by the Lord.

Draw near to God. Ask for the right thing. In the earlier verses, he says you ask for the wrong things or you don't ask at all. You think you've gotta achieve it. And then you're like, give me all the stuff that's not God. And James is saying, stop that. Instead, draw near to God. He wants you. He wants to give himself to you. He wants all of you, and he wants you to have all of him. Draw near to him, and he'll draw near to you.

It's not like God is hiding somewhere going, I'm just not going to give myself more to the people that I already sent my son to die for and whom I've sent the spirit. It is true that the Bible does talk about sometimes God hiding his face. And there is sometimes that he withdraws in order to discipline us, but he is always using all of that in order to lead us to a place ultimately where we will have all of him for eternity.

He wants to give you himself. And James says, drop the double-mindedness, mixed motives. We can't use that to justify things. Stop it. Stop it. We're acting as though the spirit can't conquer all of our hearts when we say, well, we all have mixed motives. It's fine. Engage with your motives. Allow and pray and ask for God to invade your heart in the places where you are wrong. Do that at least as fervently as you're engaging others on the places you think they're wrong. Right?

God wants to change you. He wants to transform you. In short, you ask God for more of him and you'll get more of him. James says. Just ask. Just engage.

Historical Examples: Colosseum Christianity vs. Crusade Christianity

It's easy to think of a historical example of this from my history training. I think of the Crusades when I think of the negative example, but I think of the Colosseum when I think of the positive example. There was a man by the name of Ignatius of Antioch who was arrested and transported to Rome under Trajan around 107 AD. He was condemned to die in the Colosseum. Do you know how they killed him? They fed him to lions. Here's what he said:

Let fire and the cross. Let the crowd of wild beasts. Let all the dreadful torments of the devil come upon me. Just let me keep Jesus Christ.

That's what he said as he was going to the Colosseum. Is that our attitude? If we have Christ we have everything that we need. We don't need any of the other things. We don't have to fight for them. We don't have to fight each other for them. We have everything.

And there were hundreds of Christians that were killed this way. There are other examples of others that went to the Colosseum and they, rather than trying to consolidate power in the name of Christ for themselves, they recognized they had all the power in the universe because they had Christ, and they said, bring it on world. You got nothing.

That's Colosseum Christianity as opposed to Crusade Christianity. That's what we need to be. We need to think more like Colosseum Christians and less like Crusade Christians.

And here's the recipe. Remember that you already have Christ. Resist the world and its lures—self-importance, power, and pride.

You know I've told this story before, but I showed up at a bonfire once and I met this total stranger and I said, "Hi, I'm James Sutton." And they said, "Oh, James Sutton, the Presbyterian legend." I love telling that story because I love to think of myself as the Presbyterian legend. It's the geekiest, weirdest thing ever. You guys are all like, "Why would you want to be that?" Well, I do. It feels important and powerful and meaningful. Like maybe I've won enough arguments that people are finally recognizing my incredibleness. Maybe I've preached good enough sermons or maybe I know my polity—whatever Presbyterians what I don't know. But at night, sometimes I comfort myself with that moment. That's wrong. That is a temptation of the devil. That's not what this is about. I need to resist that. Probably should stop using it as an illustration. My only comfort is that now I have 400 people who are gonna tell me, "You ain't that great."

When I was in seminary, my Greek professor began our Greek class by translating John 1. He went through and was explaining all the grammar and he said, "Now listen, all of you at some time in your life you're gonna get a knock on the door and it's gonna be some Jehovah's Witnesses and they're gonna try and translate Greek and say that because of this particular translation item, that Jesus isn't God. I'm gonna show you why they're wrong." And he did for like half an hour and we were all like, "Wow, awesome. We're ready for the JWs when they come." We were all kind of geared up, ready for war. We couldn't wait until they came.

And then he turned and he put down the chalk and he turned to us and he said, "And if you ever use any of this in any kind of argument with a Jehovah's Witness without spending at least as much time praying for them, if you don't learn to care for them and you use this argument and you don't pray for them, I'm ashamed to call you my students."

He got it. And he got all of us. We were like, "Oh, we're all Crusade Christians. We need to be Colosseum Christians." We were convicted. I mean, here's a crazy idea. Maybe when Jesus told us that we should love our enemies, he was serious. Maybe that's how we should engage them. Again, not saying we don't engage. I'm saying we engage them differently.

On Judging Others

Now there's one more thing that I need to cover in this verse, in this passage, that I'm gonna do very quickly because I wanna be mindful of our time. The last couple of verses in this passage are incredibly important. It says this:

"Don't criticize one another, brothers and sisters. Anyone who defames or judges a fellow believer defames and judges the law. If you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?" — James 4

Now here's the thing with this. What is he saying here? It is a huge mantra in our society to not judge. Never judge. You should never judge anything. Don't judge. Hey, you who are judging—I'm not really judging you, but I'm judging you as a judger, so stop. That's kinda the posture of our culture, isn't it?

He's not saying don't judge anybody ever in any way—just like he's not saying don't engage. He's talking about destructive criticism, not constructive criticism. You know how I know? The rest of the book of James is all kind of judgments. He just got done calling every one of his readers "you adulterous people." That's kind of judgy, don't you think?

He's not saying don't discern. He's not saying don't engage. He's not saying don't cultivate growth in your brothers and sisters. He's not saying don't have arguments or engage in conflict. He's not saying any of that. But what he is saying is that you don't approach them as though they deserve judgment, that they deserve to be cut off, that they're the enemy and they should be killed and destroyed. You don't approach them like the Christians approached their enemies in the Crusades. You approach them like the Christians in the Colosseum who prayed for the people who were actually leading them to death.

You know, Ignatius and Tertullian and Justin Martyr—all these guys in the early church who suffered at the hands of the Romans—they wrote a ton of stuff arguing for the virtue of Christianity. They didn't just say, "Hey, kill us if you want to." They said, "No, we're innocent. You're wrong. You guys are doing the wrong thing. Hey, this is bad." It's fine if you want to kill us, but that's wrong. They engaged them on their wrong, but they did that in a way that was different. They did that in a way that changed their actual tormentors.

You know, historically, if you look at the outcome of the Crusades and the outcome of the Colosseum, you see two very different results. The Crusades were a failure. There were nine major Crusades. None of them were able to accomplish any of the things that they wanted. If Urban was trying to consolidate power within one block of Christianity, it didn't happen. If they were trying to retake land, it didn't happen. If they were trying to get wealth and power, that didn't happen. They killed a lot of their own people, and people died rather than getting the things like wealth and privilege that they wanted from that.

On the other hand, Colosseum Christians brought down an empire. Four hundred years in the empire converts. Whether you believe Constantine was really a Christian or he was just looking at all the Christians around him and going, "Hey, it's politically advantageous for me to say I'm a Christian"—whichever interpretation you take, and I don't have time to get into it but I want to—the effect of those Christians and their posture was powerful.

So brothers and sisters, there's a lot to engage the world on. There's a lot of things that are wrong with the world that we should speak into. And believe me, I am not saying we shouldn't. And I am not saying we shouldn't care. But how we care and how we engage ought to reflect our Savior who came and engaged all of those things himself. But he did that in a loving and self-sacrificial way, and he called us to do the same.

So as we engage in politics, as we engage in theological debate, as we engage in any kind of conflict, let's do it in a way that reflects our Savior. Remember that James was once a little dog. He was running around telling Jesus he was crazy and he was wrong and everything was all kinds of messed up. And then he saw the resurrected Christ and he changed.

If you are here and you find yourself fearful over all the things in the world, if you fear what's going on, if you find yourself sorrowful over events of this world, there's nothing wrong with that. Jesus was sorrowful over the events of this world. But please run to the cross and remember that Jesus Christ has given you everything you need to be saved, to uphold you. You have nothing to fear. And the sorrow that you feel over the brokenness and fallenness of this world, he feels it too. He feels it maybe even more deeply than you do.

So run to him and find solace for that in his arms. And then turn to those whom you're in conflict with, engage them lovingly, and pray for them that they would be transformed, that they would know the love of Christ, that they would see his love for them. And whatever is causing their wrong desires that are at war with each other, that Christ would send his Spirit after his gospel to transform them and make them more into his image.

CTK, may we be a people who not only reflect right theology, but a right posture as we engage the world in the things that they're wrong. I have a friend who I texted this week who we have a long standing theological debate that is a big deal, and I'm not going to tell you what because it'll distract you. And you'll go, "Yeah, you're right," because I am. Maybe. But we exchanged texts this week just saying that we were praying for each other. And that's a difference. And I was really grateful for that, and it was really kind of him to initiate it.

Brothers and sisters, let's fight like Christians, not like non-Christians. Let's be big dogs, not little dogs. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, we thank you for your goodness. We thank you for the fact that we have everything that we need in you. Lord, help us to see that, to believe that, to live out of it. Help us to do all of the things that James says in this passage. And would you allow the world to see the way in which we engage and see the difference? And whether they agree with us on everything—I don't know anybody I agree with on everything—Lord, may they see that difference and long to be in agreement with you and long to be transformed by you and have their hearts made whole by you. Lord, would you work in us in that way despite our disagreements and despite our conflicts? I pray this in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen.

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