Pastor Jack Hibbs delves deep into the message of James, a letter to those new in faith, struggling with their old nature. This insightful episode sheds light on the potent symbolisms and teachings that the Book of James offers regarding the innate battle every believer faces. From conquering our desires for worldly pleasures to fostering a true spirit of contentment and faith, this episode brings forth encouragement and spiritual enlightenment for all.
00:00:00 Introduction and Challenges in Christian Life
Where there’s new life, it should be seen. It’s able to be seen. If somebody names the name of Christ as a Christian, then the facts of their lifestyle ought to prove it. That’s who James is talking to, the church. But even in the church, there’s great struggles.
SPEAKER 01 :
This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I’m David Jay, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God’s Word, the Bible. What does it take to be a great leader? Whether you’re managing a business or running a household or navigating relationships, leadership is about so much more than titles and tasks. In The Way of the Shepherd by Dr. Kevin Lehman, you’ll discover some timeless principles of biblical leadership that really apply to every area of your life. Through some compelling storytelling, Dr. Lehman shares seven powerful secrets that’ll help you lead like the Good Shepherd does. Those secrets include understanding the people you lead, assessing their strengths, building trust, ensuring safety, providing direction, implementing correction, leading with compassion, Personally recommended by Pastor Jack Hibbs. The Way of the Shepherd is available today for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. That’s jackhibbs.com slash real radio. Get your copy of The Way of the Shepherd by Dr. Kevin Lehman at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series now called The Book of James with a message titled Our Internal War. Now, before it became one of the books of the New Testament, James was a letter sent to the Jews who chose to follow Christ. And as new believers, James shares with them that internally, there’s a great battle going on. You see, as a follower of Christ, we see the conflict within us. Fighting off old nature is a constant battle, isn’t it? Our desire for pleasure begins with us wanting what we want and wanting it right now. But what does God want for us? So today, Pastor Jack teaches how our personal desires are bent on going to war. We lust for what we don’t have. We discredit others for our own benefit. And we covet what we can’t obtain. But there is victory that’s possible, a victory that we should be enjoying. And now with his message called Our Internal War, here’s pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.
SPEAKER 02 :
And James, an elderly man, a patriarch of God, he was head of the council church there in Jerusalem. He was the half-brother of Jesus Christ. His other full brother, Jude, penned the book of Jude just before the book of Revelation. His mom and dad were, of course, Mary and Joseph. And James grew up knowing Jesus in his own household. That had to be something. To have a brother, so to speak, under the house, under the roof, but this one, Jesus, being absolutely God come to earth, clothed in human kind, human skin, human weakness and frailty. And James grew up being a man that was extremely dedicated to God. And he’s now, as I’ve mentioned, elderly in age, and he’s been speaking by his writing of the book of James regarding the issues of life concerning the Christian. Now, if you’re not a Christian this morning, that is, if you have never personally proclaimed Christ as your Lord and Savior, receiving him in your heart, then maybe you should just listen carefully and decide if you want to be a Christian at all. Because I want to tell you up front, yes, it is very, very good to become a Christian because ultimately we go to heaven. But it is a difficult life. If you’re really going to be a Christian, it’s a hard life. It’s a life that you just don’t pick up from time to time. It’s a life that if you’re truly committed to Christ and experienced Him in conversion, it is a life that is lived by the moment, by the hour, by the minute. And listen carefully, if you are a Christian, committed, you and I can throw our arms up sometimes with frustration, saying, Lord, I’m committed to you. I love you as much as I can. I want to know you more. I’m giving every bit of energy that I can to experience you, Lord, in every aspect of my life. But why in the world do I struggle with temptation? Why do I struggle with anger? Why, Lord, am I still battling the images or pictures in my mind from my old life? Our old doings. Maybe it was drugs in the past, and you still are tempted by that. Or maybe it was just being violent, being mean. Maybe it’s pornography. You love the Lord, you open your Bible, and there’s times when you blink your eyes, and there’s brilliant colored images in front of your face. A lot of men struggle with that, by the way. It’s a very difficult thing, even after they come to Christ. And maybe for a woman, it’s something else. Maybe it’s being covetous where she might want this. And she’s given that to Christ. And she’s wondering now, why do I still have this thing battling on the inside? That’s what James is going to talk about this morning. The internal battle that we go through as Christians. James is writing to the Christian. That’s all of us, I hope, this morning. If not, then soon to be. An inward battle. James chapter 4 verse 1, he says, Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure, that war in your members? You lust and you do not have. You murder and covet and you can’t obtain. You fight in war yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and you do not receive because you ask amiss. That you may spend it on your own pleasures. Verse 4. Adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the scripture says in vain, the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously? But he gives more grace. Therefore, he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. There’s some rather exciting portions to this scripture that we’re going to come to that maybe we’ve never quite seen before. But the fact of the matter is, each of us who have experienced conversion, listen carefully, we’ve been born again, Jesus put it. We all know about this battle, don’t we? We, like Paul, could write Romans chapter 7. You ought to jot that down in your notes. Look at it later. Romans chapter 7 is Paul’s treaty on the inward battle that takes place in the life of a spiritual man. Make it clear. There are none perfect. There are none, even in fact, the Bible says, good. That we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Every one of us are sinners. We have all failed. We’re not perfect. Because that’s true, Christ came 2,000 years ago to the cross. Because that’s true, the ancient prophets of old, even God himself in the book of Genesis, prophesied that an offering would soon come to mankind. It’s in Jesus who went to the cross that Easter weekend, who was resurrected from the dead, that bought for us eternal life. Why did he do it? Because we must, we need, we have to be born again, born from above to enter the kingdom of heaven. You and I will not go to heaven by being religious. It doesn’t matter how moral you and I can be. God turns his eye to that. The Bible tells us that by the works of righteousness shall none of us be saved. Well, how are we saved? By experiencing Jesus Christ alive. in the context of conversion. Jesus said to the crowd gathered around him, he says, unless you become like a child and are converted, you will not see the kingdom of heaven. Heaven will be just like children who in this world, in our lives, in our adulthood, become like a child, not childish, childlike. We’ve talked about this before. What is a child known for? Trust for one thing. That’s why those who prey on little children personally, I’m glad I’m not a police officer sometimes and social workers who have to deal with that stuff. I would lose control. Why? Because there are people who prey on the simple belief of a child. Somebody can say to a child, come here, and that little child will walk right to them. So believing, so trusting, so innocent. And God wants us to come to him like that. Why? Because he alone is worthy to be trusted. He alone is worthy to be the recipient of our confidence and all. He will never harm us. The Bible says he’ll never hurt us. That he only looks out for our good. That the thoughts that he thinks for us are only for the good. That we might have a wonderful future. What a father we have. If we are converted, we know even in our Christ-like faith that we have in God, this battle rages on the inside regarding our old nature. Remember? You know what I’m talking about, the old nature? Do I need to say anything about it? Or are you often reminded of it? The old life. The way you once lived. The way I once lived. Remember, we used to wake up Maybe people in other churches, not any of us, but other people used to wake up and say, what am I going to do today? I know, I’m going to call Bubbles and see what she’s doing today. Planning evil, planning sin. Hey, maybe I can get a couple of friends. We can pound some beers and get smashed out of our brains and forget our sorrows. Or maybe we would be brawlers or whatever it is. That’s the way we once lived until we were converted. We were changed. And when we were changed, we were born again. That is, inside now, the Spirit of God began to make residence and dwell, and we began to walk with the Lord supernaturally. Wonderful change. A miraculous thing that happens in the lives of all people who give their hearts to Christ. And I believe that strongly. Where there’s new life, it should be seen. It’s able to be seen. If somebody names the name of Christ as a Christian, then the facts of their lifestyle ought to prove it. That’s who James is talking to, the church. But even in the church, there’s great struggles. We’re going to see three points this morning, and the first one’s found in verse 1. It’s the origin of our internal war, the origin of it all, the origin of the battle. What about this battle? Yeah, you know what, I do struggle with thoughts, or yes, I do struggle with temper. Since I was a Christian, I’ve become a Christian, I thought that would go away. You notice it’s not as powerful as it once was, but it is still present. But you notice how time goes on. It weakens the more you sow to the Spirit of God. But maybe it’s still hanging in there and it’s still troubling us. And James is going to tell us why, with great hope. The origin of the internal war that’s in us. He says in verse 1, where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? Well, first of all, I want to ask, what’s the problem with pleasure? Isn’t it nice to have nice things? Oh yeah, it’s okay to have nice things. Unless you’re living for those nice things. It’s okay to have nice things if they serve you and they don’t detract from your relationship with God. That’s okay. But are you living for nice things? Do you have two jobs and you’ve got the wife working three and the dog, he kind of works on the side and the kids are mowing lawns? You know, just to have that thing, we’ve got to have that thing. Hey, that thing is just neutral. It doesn’t think. It’s in it. You either… you know, fly it or ski behind it or drive it or whatever you do with it. It’s just an it. But we as humans have such a tendency to put value on something. If I just have that one, all my friends will think I’m cool. And we begin to associate our wealth and our meaning to what we possess. So we desire good things, pleasurable things, things that bring us pleasure. That’s not exactly wrong if it’s in Christ. There’s nothing wrong with any of those things if they’re held in the right place. The problem is I’ve rarely seen, including myself, Christians who can hold something that is of this world’s value and hold it with the right attitude. I remember years ago when the newspaper wrote up an article about Billy Graham. They said Billy Graham is worth $22 million. And, you know, that’s true. And when the IRS did an audit on Billy Graham, he was absolutely flawless. Of course, you didn’t see that in the newspaper. But Billy Graham, in one of his statements, made the comment, I’m sorry that my father left me all this money. He didn’t get a dime from his ministry and what he was doing or is doing. Things aren’t bad. If we connect our pleasures to them and our identification with them, then they become very bad. James is saying, where do wars and fights come from among you? The word you right here, this is kind of fun, and I’ll say it as close to the Greek language as we can. The word would be better, Y-O-U-S. We don’t talk like that today. You’s coming? You’s here? You’s all going to be around? That’s the word you’s, plural, us. You, us. James uses a word that says you and me, us, the church. What about it? There are wars and there are fights among us as Christians. And don’t say there’s not. James is saying in Christianity, in a church, if you’ve got two people, there’s going to be wars and there’s going to be fights. And you might say, well, I don’t think I like that. Well, it’s just too bad. You and I are just absolutely as guilty about it as James is and the audience he’s talking to.
SPEAKER 01 :
You’re listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series, just go to jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. And for now, let’s get back to our teaching. Once again, here’s Pastor Jack.
SPEAKER 02 :
The word to war is a word to mount and Execute a campaign. It’s just not a moment’s thing. It’s not to get upset with somebody and it’s gone. It’s to have something, a tiff going on with someone. And it’s just going on. It’s lingering on. It could be a marriage situation. It could be a friendship thing. It could be a business deal. It could be with, you know, anybody. And there’s this thing in your thinking. you know what, they were wrong. And I’m gonna, you know what, I’m not gonna be their friend anymore. Or you might be thinking, I’m gonna show them. You’re worrying. I’m worrying when I’m like that. It means to launch a campaign against them. I tell you, life is too short to hold any grudges, people. If you’re holding a grudge, I hate to upset your hard work. But if you’re holding a grudge, guess what? You’re not bumming out the ex-friend or the foe that you’re talking about. You know who you’re eating alive? You. If you’re holding a grudge, you’re killing yourself. Take it to Christ. Cast all your cares at Him. Let Him have it. To war is to launch a campaign against someone or against others. It’s to have an attitude. They wronged me. I’m going to get them. Now, you’ll never be able to execute vengeance if you try to an extent that satisfies you. You won’t be able to do it. It will not only consume you, you can’t do it. If someone has wronged you, let God deal with it, okay? And don’t defend yourself. I’m talking to the Christian. Christians, we’re not to defend ourselves. God’s our defense. Well, you don’t know what that guy did to me. You know what? Maybe I don’t know, but God knows exactly what was done to you, and God knows exactly the motive in which that person executed that horrible thing on you with. He knows it all, God does. Let him be the judge. You see, listen carefully to this. If you as a Christian have something against another Christian, what does the Bible say to do? Go to them privately. Or if you know that another Christian brother has something against you, go to him, her privately. Doesn’t it say that? Don’t make it public knowledge. You go to them and you try to settle the account privately. That’s what God would have us to do. You don’t mount a defense against your situation. You know, this week I was almost excited when I heard the president of the United States say, I have repented. Of course, it came out in the gathering of religious people, but it came out nonetheless. And you’ve got to be able to say that never in the presidency of the United States has anyone ever publicly said the word repents. And he said that he’s repentful before his family all the way up to his God. Those are great words. Those are huge words. And I was grieved in my heart this morning to see the front paper, the front newspapers of all the papers. I’ve repented, but I’m launching an absolute attack against those who have made public my escapades. Wait, we have something wrong here, people. There’s something wrong for any of us to say, listen, I repent, and then launch an attack. You see, in the church at Corinth, The church at Corinth there were warring and fighting with one another. In that church, they were saying, hey, you guys, as a church, they were saying in that church, we follow Paul’s teaching. And then some people on that side of the church said, we follow Apollos. He’s a great speaker. And then some people in the back of the church said, we follow Peter. He’s going to be the first pope. Anyway, we’re following him. And then somebody in the crowd in 1 Corinthians says, We’re following Christ. They were probably the most divisive of them all. We’re following Christ. And Paul says, you’re all a bunch of carnal people, he said. You’re all divided. He says, Christ divided. Jesus’ arm on one side of the sanctuary, his foot over there on the other side. We’re in our little clique. We’re in our little club. Paul says, shame on you. Why? They were warring as a church among themselves. Paul says, I’m ashamed. You should repent, he says, before I come. When you repent, you let it go. And you don’t defend yourself. Don’t war. You and I are not to war with our brother or our sister. Let God deal with the situation. The next thing that we see here is not only to war, but this word to fight. The word fight means to cause friction. And it suggests with personalities. To fight. Rub against each other. Now the Bible says in Romans chapter 12, verses 9 through 21, they’re given a great description on how we should treat our enemies. In verse 18, it says there in Romans 12, that as much as it is possible, live at peace with all men. There are those even within the church, according to James chapter 4 here, that we ought to, because of personality conflicts, you know that you can’t communicate well with them. Are they with you? That you just leave it alone and abide with each other peaceably. Don’t war, don’t fight. But James says there are wars and fights among us. He’s assuming that the church goes through it, and it does. Boy, this guy’s amazing. He just lays it out there. Note this. Where do wars and fights come from among you? Look at this. Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? The word members, this is the word that you could apply to your, do they not war in your hands, in your eyes, in your ears, your feet, your body parts? Now of course your body parts are neutral. They don’t, my hand is not evil. But if my heart directs my hand to perform evil, I can lift my hand in prayer or praise to God and turn and strangle the guy standing next to me. Why? My heart commands the operation of my hand. You with me? The hand is innocent. It’s a nothing. It’s the heart that it’s connected to. So when he says here that in our members there’s this desire for pleasure, what is suggested is that we war and fight to get the pleasurable thing back. While our brothers and sisters do not have the pleasurable thing. It’s competition. It’s bickering and warring to get on top. And James says this happens in churches. It happens inside Christians. Why? Because you and I have two natures. We’ve been born again by the Spirit of God. We love the Lord and we love His Bible. And we want to do the perfect thing always. But why do we wind up doing the imperfect thing? Because we have the old nature still living. The Bible says that we are to crucify daily this old man. Are you talking to me to go home and slap my dad? No, not that. Not your dad, the old man. Us, the old inside. Who we used to be when we’re tempted. That’s the old man. When that temptation comes up, we begin to war, don’t we, on the inside? Lord Jesus, get these thoughts out of my mind. Lord, I don’t want to be thinking like this. I don’t want to be eaten by this, Lord. And there’s that battle. You know what I’m talking about? Or is it just me? Somebody say amen before I get discouraged. Hallelujah. Tremendous battle regarding personal desires that war within our members. The next thing that we see here is the second point found in verses 2 and 3, and that is, listen, why we’re not always content. Because this battle that’s going on in our lives, we are not always content. And you might say, well, you know, can anybody, can any man really be content? Are you ready for this? In 1 Timothy 6.6, the scripture says, Godliness with contentment is great wealth or great gain. Yes, it is possible to be absolutely fully content if we follow Jesus, keeping him in our sights. The moment we get our eyes off of him, we begin to get right back into the way we used to once operate or the world is currently operating.
SPEAKER 01 :
pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his message called Our Internal War. Thanks for being with us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s series called The Book of James. It’s a series on true Christianity and how it really creates a new lifestyle of living. And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hey, Pastor Jack here. I want to give you guys a quick update on what’s going on in Southern California in wake of the devastating and forever life-altering fires that have ravaged the Southland. Things have never been like this before. And I mean that where a fire has never been seen like this before, where the sky was aflame and the winds were blowing 80, 90 miles an hour, flames and fire horizontally. has devastated homes by the tens of thousands, and there’s over 150,000 people without a home. And I say all that, my friends, to encourage you to consider this. Please, please consider giving to the Samaritan’s Purse organization. Franklin Graham, We’re working with them. We’re on the grounds here in our own neighborhood, so to speak, of Los Angeles, Malibu, the Palisades, Eaton Canyon, Altadena, areas of Pasadena. And it is overwhelmingly epic. I promise you this. Give what you can to Samaritan’s Purse. SamaritansPurse.org. SamaritansPurse.org. Go there and send support to them regarding the Southern California fires. Please do not send us any of your money. Do not send it to Real Life. Do not send it to Real Radio. Please send it direct. Your contribution is a 501c3 tax-deductible contribution to the right people. Samaritans Purse, and you can go to SamaritansPurse.org. Thank you very much.
SPEAKER 01 :
This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in His Word. We’ll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.
