- Mar 12, 2023
- 3 min read

Lesson 661: James 4

"Am I an ENEMY of God?"

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JAMES CHAPTER 4

1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? 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. 3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. 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. 5 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? 6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. 9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. 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. 12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another? Trust God in making future plans 13 Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: 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. 15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. 16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. 17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

Lesson No. 661 "Am I an ENEMY of God?"

Book of James, Chapter 4 03/12/2023

1) James speaks to us in Chapter 4 as a 'Dutch Uncle' would speak to a beloved family member, starting in verse 1 what does he 'liken war' to when speaking about our hearts?

2) He says in verses 2 and 3 that we try every way to fulfill our desires except the right way, what is the right way? (Hint- verse 3)

3) If we are a friend of the world, what does that make us with God, and why? (Hint- verse 4) God tells us show ourselves ‘friendly’?

4) James gives us rock-solid advise about being humble, resisting the devil, drawing close to God, and curing our flesh that is double minded in verses 5 through 8- what is it? (Draw near to God and cleanse our hearts) What should we say and do when Satin approaches us? (or the world)

5) James sounds like a kill-joy in verses 9 and 10, but what is his motive?

6) He then talks about the law and speaking evil in verses 11 through 12 (gossiping and falsely judging); what are we doing when we do this?

7) James gives us a bigger picture about our lives in verses 13 through 15, what is it? Should we just simply 'give up and not care about anything but God'? Is that what he is saying, since our life is but a vapor?

8) Verse 15 states conversationally that God is sovereign over everything, including how many days we have here on earth! Do we live like that? We should put in front of everything we say and do...'If God wills it..."

9) In addition to all these good instructions for living a godly life, what does James say about boasting? God says elsewhere in His Word, 'no man glories before God'.

10) All these difficult but godly instructions are summed up in verse 17! If we believe that 'all good' comes from God, this makes perfect sense. This reminds us of what Paul said in Romans, Chapter 14, verse 23. Do we see how all scripture fits together, and how this masterpiece from the Master could not have been written by man?

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