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This morning, Reverend Daniel opens the scriptures from James chapter 4, verses 1 to 10. And explores how conflict in community often flows from passions within us, leading us to an important question. What can we do to deal with these passions?

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Once again, good morning, church. We are continuing the sermon series on the book of James. Today we'll be looking at James chapter 4, verses 1 to 10. I thought it's good right at the start to just uh share with us uh the big picture or the big idea of what James chapter 4, 1 to 10 is about. So as we do that, uh as I do that, following this, we will kind of unpack uh the details as we go along. So this is a big idea in James chapter 4, verses 1 to 10. He's addressing, James is addressing the conflict in the community. And the root and the heart of the conflict that's happening within the community flows from what we call the evil impulse, the last within a person. And oftentimes that is what blocks prayer. That's why when they pray, they do not receive, because they ask to spend it on their passions. So James used a very strong word to describe the Christians. He says, The Christians are adulterers, for they have provoked God to jealousy by their lust and pursuit of worldly ways. So therefore, James concludes by urging the believers to repent and turn from the devil and his works. The sermon today will be in two parts. Firstly, from James chapter 4, 1 to 6, we will speak of the causes of the community, of the community in fighting. What is causing the conflict in the community? And in James 4, verse 7 to 10, we will look at James' call to repentance. And following that, we will, as usual, always ask ourselves what is the implication or how can this be worked out in our lives? Let us pray. Father, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen. So James chapter 4, verses 1 to 4 begins with this 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. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. James chapter 1, verse 1 to 2 tells us that the quarrels and the fights literally translated, it is warrants and swordings, means they were taking arms. So and it James tells us this comes from your passions at war within you. Because the passions within a person causes someone to desire and long for something they can't have. So they covered and they cannot obtain. And that leads to again fighting and quarreling. So unmet desires in turn leads to fights and quarrels. And again, this is because at the heart of it, it lies the passions that are aroused within them. So there's a kind of mirror in James chapter 4, verse 1, what causes quarrels and fights. In verse 2, you know, when they can't obtain it, they fight and quarrel. And verse 3 ends with the fact that even when they come to God in prayer, they do not receive it because they wish to spend it on their passions. So the word passions is repeated again. So it forms a kind of a unit for us to understand that at the heart of this all is the struggle with one's passions in the community of God. In the New Testament, passions is translated hidony, or where we get the word hedonism, or we say the hidden, or those who do not know God. So that is the it represents one of the many forces which belongs to the world of unsantified carnality, uh, our fleshly desires in brute force, in full reality, which strive against the work of God and his spirit in our lives and in our community. And if we are just root by our passions, we will be dragged back into the kingdom of evil. However, the word hidone or even passions, not necessarily is a bad thing because uh the word uh passions or hidone uh has in a positive sense a feeling of pleasure or enjoyment. It derives from the root word of what is sweet, pleasant, and delightful. However, passions can be used also in a negative way. So not all passions are bad. If we enjoy, we are passionate about a sport or something that can contribute to the community of helping others or certain uh hobbies that we have. It's not a bad thing, we are passionate about it, but it can also refer to the negative side, the flip side of it. And this is what James was trying to address the negative aspect of the passions. So in Jewish literature, the word hidone or passions carries the idea of being the seat of all evil impulses. The evil intents is translated as hidone or passions. It can denote the evil impulse which provokes to transgression God's commandments and will lead often to ethical perversity. So a word very closely related to the word hidone or passions is the word concupiscence. Concupiscence is a strong word uh used often by the church fathers, theologians, uh like John Calvin and the Lutherans to refer to a strong, inordinate lust, usually uh referring to sensual or sexual lust or desire, a strong sexual craving, lust after a man or a woman, concupiscence. However, the last is not just uh limited to a sexual, uh sensual lust, but it could refer to other forms of lust, other forms of longings. For example, a lust or longing for power, for wealth, for prestige, for positions, or something or someone that we just desire and we long after. So in the context of James chapter 4, 1 to 10, a related idea, as I said earlier, to concupiscence is the word translated as passions or hidone in James chapter 4, verse 1 and verse 3. And here James is using it not in a positive sense but in a negative sense to refer to the state or condition of experiencing evil pleasure or an illicit desire. A desire that is good, but it has turned to an immoral or incorrect desire, a longing. And James said, because they ask for this with a wrong motive, a wrong desire, uh, they do not receive. Because when they pray, they are asking for something in which they were able that in which they want to spend on their passions or their evil pleasure. So, in the strongest word possible, in James chapter 4, verse 4, James addresses them with the word, you adulterous people. You adulterous people. In doing so, he recalls the community back to the whole Old Testament tradition of Israel as God's unfaithful wife, denounced in the prophetic books. For example, in Hosea chapter 1, verse 2, the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whodom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord. Again in Isaiah 1, verse 21, how the faithful city has become a hall, she who was full of justice. Similar to James, who refers to the quarreling and the infighting among believers as involving lusts, illicit desires, and murder, Ezekiel chapter 16, verse 38 combines murder and adultery in the matting out of God's judgment. Ezekiel 16, verse 38 says, I will judge you as women who commit adultery and shed blood are judged, and bring upon you the blood of wrath and jealousy. Jesus himself called the Jews an adulterous generation in Mark chapter 8, verse 38, and Matthew 12, verse 39. So James continues in James 4, verse 4 to 6. He says, Do you not know that friendship with the world is enity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 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 us more grace. Therefore, it says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. So here James makes the point that the self-seeking of the community is tantamount to being in enity with God. This is because in James' understanding, one can either be a friend of the world or an enemy of God. Here, the world does not refer to the physical world, the created world of that that uh God brought to being in Genesis 1. But the world here again is used in a negative sense of its institutions, its structures and values that are organized against God's way of working, God's system, God's values, God's uh way of seeing life and humanity. Similarly, 1 John chapter 5, verse 19 tells us the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. So in John's understanding, the world signifies mankind in rebellion against God. So this is what James is talking about. It's not the physical world, but a system of thinking, of making judgments and looking. The lens in which we see uh all of creation must be a lens in which is filtered by God and not according to the world. Because the world is under control under the control of the evil one, therefore we cannot be friends with it. That's why the strict word of judgment of James upon being friends with the world. So if we be friends with the world, who is in control, the world is in control of the evil one, when we do that, we become an enemy of God. So instead of being drawn to sinful desires and sinful inclinations like quarreling and fighting uh within the community, we should be moving away from it and growing in holiness. That is why scripture holds a high view of our call to live holy lives. And one of the uh principal passages which kind of embody this is from Ephesians 5, verses 3 to 5. Paul says this but sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as it is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure, Paul says, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous, that is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. So it's a sobering word because uh Paul was addressing Christians. He was not talking to uh non-Christians, he's talking to Christians. Wake up, uh, get your life together. You cannot uh call yourself a follower of Jesus and yet entertain attitudes like uh sexual immorality, impurity, or even covetousness, uh, desiring something that does not belong to us, an illicit desire that draws us, that pulls us in. Because God is a jealous creator who created the human spirit at the heart of it all for fellowship with himself. So we should be aware when we seek the world instead. So James chapter 4, verse 7 to 10, then uh James rains it in by in three short verses, calling the people, the community to repentance. And he does that by using 10 imperative verbs, actions that uh that we should take if we were to repent. So the words are kind of uh highlighted in yellow. So the the verbs that are highlighted in yellow are all imperative verbs, and it's quite intense because within a span of three short verses there are ten imperative verbs. So what uh uh James is saying is uh is are commandments actually, commanding them in in ten imperative verbs. These are things that you should do. He said, submit yourselves 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, purify your hearts, you double-minded, be wretched, mourn, weep, let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. So, what is interesting is right at the beginning in verse 7, James 4, 7, the call to submit and verse 10, the call to humble ourselves is almost synonymous. Uh, is speaking of the same thing because as we submit ourselves to God, we are humbling ourselves. Therefore, James says, God gives grace to the humble. So, in other words, he's saying we must repent by submitting ourselves to God. Let me just move on to the implication of this uh passage for us. So, the root issue, as I said, the heart of it all, is about dealing with our passions, our illicit desires, a strong inclination that no one knows except deep down within the recesses of our hearts. The passions that are arose uh within that arise within us is something that we have to deal with. Because that is the root of often a lot of conflict that happens in community, is also the root of many uh sexual, moral sins, or even uh uh uh in the context of the work environment, uh uh when we lie and cheat or when we cover uh money that does not belong to us. It's because of our passions. And of course, in James, the issues that uh the sins, the community sins, the passions, is more relational, quarreling, fighting, and so on. But I think the word passions is more than just community sins, but it it stirred up from our desires, our illicit desires. The desire to be right, the desire to make our point known and to stick out our head to say that you know it's my way or the highway. There's no other way except my view that holds true. So that becomes a stirring of our passions, and it becomes evil when it hurts others. So we need to deal with our passions, which is the state or condition of the experiencing the evil pleasure or illicit desire that comes to us. I'd like to share a story from thirst.sg. Thurst.sg uh is a platform which if you have not uh uh accessed that portal, I think you should do that. Is there's a lot of encouraging testimonies uh that is recorded on thirst.sg of uh real struggles, Christians that struggle with sin. And it's a platform for even people to be anonymous. You can write in and share your story without naming yourself. So, but it's a shared platform where people can bear their souls to be open about their struggles. So thirst.sg was launched in December 2016, not too long ago, to help a generation of seekers and believers, Christians, to have honest conversations about faith, life, relationships, work, and school. So it's it's a really a good platform which encourages you to uh just log on, just thus.sg, you know, and you are able to access many stories, many testimonies. Uh perhaps you can find something that will encourage your faith in your journey and struggle with sin. So this particular story again, there's is anonymous, um, but it's recorded by uh Joanne Quad, right? This is the person that recorded this. So recorded the testimony of this person. So uh the real life testimony is entitled My Struggle with Lust, Masturbation, and Sexual Fantasy. It begins. I had to find an outlet to relieve my stress. I needed to feel in control of my life, to feel loved and accepted. I had needs in my life which God doesn't seem to be able to satisfy. So I turned to last, masturbation, and sexual fantasies. Last was a great stress reliever, a good distraction from my current problems. It gave me a sense of control. A bit explicit here, but I think I will just say it. The woman on the screen, she was mine. I could make her do whatever I want, make her sound and react a certain way. All for my pleasure and delight. And this case is illicit pleasure, right? It's not a good thing. Whatever my imagination could conjure up, she had to do. She made me feel wanted, no matter how I looked physically. She filled the void in me. With her, I felt like something in life was finally going my way. Of course, I knew it was wrong. You don't have to go to church for your conscience to tell you that lasting over a naked woman is wrong. But I didn't want to stop. It felt too good. The rush of dopamine through my body and the momentary high. I was addicted. Besides, I found the Christian life boring. Obeying a set of rules in an ancient book, no, not for me. God didn't feel real. So I decided he wasn't really worth the effort anymore. I felt that if he was real, then he would have mended the hole I thought I had in my life. He should have filled my emptiness long ago. But the pleasure always ends once you pass the climax. I had to face all my problems and emotions. I had to face life again. And deep down, I still felt empty. Last, masturbation, and pleasurable as they were in the spur of the moment, wasn't quick fixes at all. Not only were they damaging, I was robbed of experiencing true lasting joy. But the storm had long been brewing. I was living a false life, always putting on fronts in front of people. Because I didn't like myself. I was prideful, selfish, short-tempered, disobedient, and lustful. And I felt pressure from everyone to meet certain marks. And I invariably fell short at all of them. That made me feel unloved, unwanted, and unaccepted, like I was a complete failure. The ensuring storm of emotions, pain, doubt, anger, panic, sadness, would sometimes come all at once, leaving me feeling trapped and emotionally constipated. I wondered where was God, and I was tired of the usual Christian advice. I didn't really believe God was listening to my prayers at all, let alone fighting for me. I became cynical about everything. All the hate knowledge of God's faithfulness and goodness met a total disjunct with what I was feeling in my heart. But I had to find a better way. As indulging in physical pleasure proved to be self-destructive, I figured that there had to be a better way, one which led to lasting joy. I was looking for something to satisfy the deep longing in my soul, and that was something only God could do. God covenanted love for me never failed, no matter how many times I failed. He forgave me even when I couldn't forgive myself. He didn't condemn me even as I lived a life of self-condemnation. Somehow he tells me I'm worthy to be loved even when I feel so unlovable. His is a love that which pursued me even as I chased after sin and the world. It's a crazy kind of love, doesn't make sense. There wasn't an immediate victory, but I began to learn to journey with God in my struggle. In him, I can always find the grace to pick myself up and press on towards overcoming sin. And God's love isn't just a nice concept to hold on to, it is made manifest in the person, Jesus Christ. Goes on to say, I'm going to stop obsessing over finding the magic solution to lust. I'm going to fall in love with God instead. I will explore the sheer depth and length of God's love for me. It's my only hope because what I have have what I have isn't a problem of lust or masturbation. Lust is a problem of not loving Christ enough. Make this your prayer today. To know God's love, to be fully known by Him, and to love Him back. With each passing day, let the last of your eyes dim in comparison to His glory. So the testimony of this anonymous person sometimes speaks to the struggles of living our life as a Christian. Sometimes, especially in moments of weakness, tiredness, that's where the enemy always comes to pull us away, men and women alike, with illicit desires, thoughts, or actions that we know is contrary to what God desires. And one step leads to another. It's a slippery slope to sin. So I'd like to urge us today in terms of uh the implication. I know it's quite a tough topic, even for us to speak about. That's why I, you know, the testimony is helpful because it's anonymous and sometimes it speaks to us in our own context. So my call to us today is to really come to Jesus as a friend and to learn to relate to him naturally. And the basis of this is a verse that I'd like to share with you from Hebrews chapter 4, verse 15. The author of Hebrews tells us, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. So here the author of Hebrews is using uh double negation in in Greek. Basically, there are two not not. So we do not have, but he doesn't stop there. He again says, who is unable, again is a negation uh word being used. We are we do not have a high priest and who is not able to sympathize with our weaknesses. So, in other words, the author of Hebrews wants to make it a point that Jesus as a high priest who has gone before us, is there's no way he cannot sympathize with our weaknesses. There's no way as a high priest he's not able to sympathize with the feelings of humanity. Even the hatred that we feel in our hearts sometimes, the anger we feel towards someone who has hurt us, the righteous anger we feel towards our boss or superior who has uh maligned us or passed us over from a promotion or or you know, kind of did certain maneuvers to um affect our promotion or even our job security and the anger we feel or the temptations that draw us, you know, uh perhaps uh sexual temptations that you just feel drawn towards this person and you don't know how to fight that, you know. And the Lord is saying that He's aware of all our weaknesses, all our frailties. There's nothing uh that He you need to be ashamed about that He cannot identify with, He cannot sympathize with us with. But the problem is this, the problem is with us. Because right at the beginning of creation in Genesis 3, after Adam and Eve fell into sin, the very first thing that they did was to realize that they were naked. Before they they at from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, life was in its full purity. But at once, once they have eaten from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which God says you shall not eat, you know, their eyes were open and suddenly they realized that they were naked. And what's the first thing they do when even though their husband and wife they were naked, is there's no shame. You are, I mean, you are a married couple, right? There's no shame. First thing they did, anyone knows what they did? Yeah, they sewed fig leaves and covered their nakedness. They were ashamed as a couple, they were ashamed, they realized, oops, actually there's something called nakedness after eating from the knowledge of uh the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and they sowed fig leaves to cover their shame. And the next thing, the Lord God called out from them in the garden, Adam, where are you? It's a long, sustained call, where are you? And Adam replied, uh, I heard you, I was afraid, so I hid from you. Right? So after shame, uh, the next emotion that came was fear. I was afraid. Why are you afraid of me? You know, I'm your creator and I love you. But he began to hide, you know, probably among the trees. And the next thing, when confronted with his sin, Adam, what do you do? He said, uh no, no, it's it's not me. It's my wife. My wife gave me the fruit. You know, and and when Eve perhaps was confronted, then she said, uh, this serpent that is the one, no, actually it's it's not me, it's a serpent. So same thing. Sometimes when we are confronted with our sin, we act out in different ways. Either we cover it up, we pretend everything is okay, or we run from God, or we blame others, or we blame our sinful nature. We can go through life, we can say, Oh, it's not me, it's my sin, but my sin is not me. You know, or we can detach ourselves, disassociate ourselves from the pain, and deny sin in our lives by this association, and that's dangerous. All right, so yeah, so there's so we have all been running away from God in one way or another, but I sense the call of God today is for us to come before Jesus because there's no way the author of Hebrews takes pain to use two double negations to tell us there's certainly, certainly no way that Jesus is unable to sympathize with all our weakness, with all our human failings. Therefore, he urges us in Hebrews 4:16, the next verse, let us then draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. The English uh Puritan John Owen says this the great sin of believers is that they make not use of Christ's bounty as they ought to. That we do not every day take his mercy in abundance because we allow our sin, shame, fear, blame to just cover our lives. So we live our lives in shame, in fear, in blame, that we do not make full use of Christ's bounty as we ought to. So today is a useful reminder uh when we uh when we were at the beginning of the service when we said the uh Kira Elism, which is Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, reminding us that yeah, we need God's mercy every day in our lives. So I'm also reminded uh just uh last night that uh Jesus, the Lord reminded me, I was trying to close up the sermon preparation, and the the thought just came to my mind that do you know that Jesus was actually a friend of sinners? You know, he of course, as a holy God, was separated from sin, but he was a friend, he was their friend. He did not stand apart from sinners, but he was found among them.

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