Strong Desires, will

I'd like to read in James chapter 4, James chapter 4. I'm reading just a verse here in chapter 4 of James verse 4. The adulterers and adulteresses know you 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. Luke chapter 9, Luke chapter 9 and read a verse here.

The Lord Jesus speaking to his disciples verse 23 and he said to them all if any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 2nd Timothy chapter 3, 2nd Timothy chapter 3 and verse 12, yea and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. And one more verse please in John chapter 7. John chapter 7 just reading from verse 17 if any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of or from myself.

Now that's a lot of material to cover but I'm going to do it very briefly to try to challenge our hearts at the close of this conference not to say I'm the last speaker don't intend to be that but nevertheless a thought that has been upon my mind that I trust to be a voice from God to speak to each one of us and I want to speak to you about strong desires. That is desires that come from the depths of the heart. Desires that will result in your life and mind being changed in one direction or another.

We've been hearing about soberness and soberness certainly is an expression of a mind and a heart that is settled in the right direction and thinking properly but here I want to notice with you this little expression will will which indicates to me the earnestness of the desire of one who has this this interest this purpose this determination and it could be either one direction or another. But I want to look at James chapter 4 I want you to notice with me he says if any man will be a friend of the world as a result he is constituted the enemy of God. That I call the disaster of unfaithfulness.

The disastrous price that is related to unfaithfulness to the Lord Jesus. When you look at Luke chapter 9 we have the determination he says if any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. There it's the cost of discipleship.

Discipleship does have a cost. When you look at second Timothy chapter 3 and verse 12 there is a price of godliness. He says if you're going to determine to live godly in Christ Jesus you will have to pay a price.

You will suffer persecution. And last of all in John chapter 7 there's the recompense the recompense of obedience. If any man will do his will he shall know the doctrine whether it be of myself of or of God.

So just very briefly very sketchily I want to look at these expressions and seek to bring them a force in a way that perhaps you can develop them in your own consideration your study. James is warning he's a of course one that is giving very practical instruction. He's displaying and he's developing the theme of the reality of faith that is displayed by the character of life.

No contrast no dichotomy between faith and work so far as James is concerned. Don't separate them. If there's genuine faith there's going to be reality so far as life is concerned.

He says that faith is going to be displayed in a practical manner. He says the contrary aspect of it is this. If a person desires he says to be a friend of the world.

This world system that crucified our Savior. This world system that is designed by the devil to ruin the lives of men and women whether saved or lost. This world system that is contrary to the purpose of God and dominated by the God of this world.

He says if you desire to be a friend of this world you have set yourself and constituted yourself as an enemy of God. And he says that to do so is a matter of spiritual unfaithfulness. I'm not saying anybody's guilty of that here.

I'm just saying this is a warning. I take it that James is writing to believers. I take it that he is writing to them because there was evidence in the first part of the chapter that there were wrong desires and their attitudes were being directed in a harmful way.

They were desiring things for themselves. They were only occupied with self and self-pleasing and what I long to have in my life and what I would desire to satisfy my own lusts. He says if that's the character of your life this is what it's going to lead to.

You know faithfulness to the Lord Jesus is something that is very precious to God. We might not know a whole lot. You might not know all there is to know from the Word of God.

None of us do. But what God is looking for are hearts that are faithfully devoted to the Lord Jesus. Fidelity has a premium so far as God is concerned.

And here he says that there is the disaster that will take place if one is unfaithful to the Lord Jesus and is living with a chapter 1 he speaks about a divided soul. One that has one desire one direction and another desire the other direction. He says he's unstable in all of his ways.

He says that's the result of it if you come down to chapter 4. One whose attention and desires and devotion has been diverted again from the Lord to be attracted toward the world. John reminds us of that in 1st John chapter 2. He says love not the world. Don't become attached to this world.

Would to God that you and I could see this world as God sees it. A world that has been condemned to the cross. A world that is under the judgment of God.

And all that is in this world John says those things that are the appealing to the eye and the pride of life and the desires of the flesh he says those things are not of God at all. They're of the world. And so we have the disaster here of unfaithfulness.

And may God help us to go away from this conference with rude desires. But I want to devote my life to the Lord Jesus. To be absolutely true to Him.

To be faithful to Him in every aspect of my days, my activities, my life. Whatever I'm involved in to remember I belong to Him. Just like a wife or a husband has a responsibility toward their spouse.

In the same way he says anything that is contrary to that makes one guilty of spiritual adultery. So he has a warning for us. A warning because this is something that can come up in each one of our lives.

With all the attractiveness of the world and with all that is pertaining to this world system so designed so cleverly by the God of this age. And more and more it seems to have the ability to appeal to the hearts and minds of men and women. We need to be remembering constantly the danger of unfaithfulness.

You look in Luke chapter 9 and verse 23 we have the very contrary to something very contrary to that is the cost of discipleship. The verses previous to this the Lord Jesus had been providing the disciples of the pathway that he was taking. A pathway that was not leading to more and more approval and acceptance so far as men were concerned.

It was not a pathway that was going to gain him the approbation of men and their acclaim and their position so far as this world was concerned. No he says this, the son of man must suffer many things. He says he must be rejected, that's the second thing, of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be slain, that's the third thing.

I'd be raised again the third day, that's the end of it. In other words he says so far as this world is concerned, this life is concerned, it's going to be a costly business. It's not going to be an easy pathway that I'm taking.

I'm taking a pathway that is expressing absolute obedience to the will of God. I'm not going to divert from that pathway. And he knew what lay ahead so far as his life was concerned.

And he says so far as I'm concerned the son of man is going to suffer many things. He's going to be rejected of the chief priests and elders. He's going to be slain, he's going to rise again the third day.

Now he says if any man determined to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. That cross I take it would signify identification with a rejected Christ. I take it that cross would signify the recognition that I have no right to my own life so far as this world is concerned.

A man bearing the cross on that day you could just simply mark it down in your mind. He's a condemned man, he's going out to die. No future for him so far as earthly existence is concerned.

His time is short and he's soon going to end his life on this earth. And here he says that's the purpose of his heart for you and me. To be so identified with Christ in discipleship, in following him, in moving along the same pathway in the devotion of our hearts to him.

He says that we're willing to take up that cross daily. You know when you read Romans chapter 12 verse 1 and 2 which our brother didn't read, he calls upon the believers there to present their bodies, to offer their bodies not a sacrifice to die but a sacrifice to live. A sacrifice of expressing the fact that I belong to him entirely and to live that out day by day in my life.

Maybe that's more difficult, maybe it's a little more exacting to simply take up that cross that of identification publicly, personally, totally with the Lord Jesus as one that has been rejected by this world and one who has suffered by the hands of men and to be publicly and personally identified with him. You know a disciple in that day was one who was known by the one that he was following. They were identified with the rabbi or the teacher that they were that they were listening to and learning from and they were imitating them.

Wherever he was that's where they were and whatever he was doing that's what they were called upon to do. And the Lord says I'm setting the pattern before you. What is it? It's a pattern of the sacrifice itself.

It's a pattern that is so occupied with doing the will of God that no matter what it costs, that's what he's going to do. I've oftentimes, recently anyway, thought about the fact that in the relation of the obedience of Christ to the will of God there was no part, there was no aspect of it that he had any reservation about. No price was too great.

No cost was too much. He was going to be obedient to God or the will of God and Philippians 2 tells us it was out to the point of death, even cross death. And sometimes I ask myself as I think about the fact that many times when it comes to obeying the will of God we have a price and in a sense when it gets too costly that's when we hold back.

This is the most costly thing that the Lord was calling upon his disciples to do, to take up the cross in all their identification with him as the one that had gone out to Calvary and had suffered and bled and died. He says that's going to be your responsibility. He says if you want to come up to me.

Now the question comes to our hearts today how much do I want to follow him? And really brother and sister that is a searching question. It's not an easy question to answer because it probes the depths of our hearts affections and our desire for God and for the Lord Jesus. Do I really want to follow him? You know there's a kind of an easy kind of Christianity that is a practice of our world today.

A kind of a thing that says well you can be a Christian and do whatever you want to do. And even among us as believers gathered to the Lord's name there's that attitude creeping in. Our believers think that I should be able to do whatever I like to do and whatever I want to do and if it suits me that should be acceptable.

That's not what the Word of God says. Here's the cost of discipleship. And you know the Word of God makes it very clear that that's what the Lord longs for in relation to his desires for us.

He desires that there should be such an appreciation of him that would result in wholehearted devotion to himself and a willingness to dedicate our lives entirely and unreservedly whatever it costs to his service. You come to second Timothy chapter 3 and verse 12 and there's the price of godliness. You just look up the subject of godliness in your New Testament and in the Old Testament as well.

You'll find that it's a trait that God desires, expects to see in his own children. You know children are always like their parents. Some people tell me that I look more like my father all the time.

Well that's all right I don't mind that. I like to look at my look like I like to look like my father. I tell him I wouldn't want to look like somebody else's father.

It's a wonderful thing to look like your own father. Sometimes you don't appreciate that. But you know if God is godly and he certainly is, that's what we ought to be.

And he says if any man desires to live a life of godliness and remind yourself that Timothy is being told this in the background of an environment that is totally contrary to it. A world he says in which there it's going to be a difficult thing, hard days, and that's where you and I are today. And the sad thing is to be godly in this world, to live with the fear of God, the reverential attitude toward God that directs, controls, and motivates the life.

Makes one almost seem like a fanatic so far as the world is concerned. Sometimes even so far as other believers are concerned. Let me just say that that's what God expects for you and me.

And Timothy is being reminded by Paul, his father in the faith, these last words that he gives him before he goes out to give his life for the sake of Christ. He says those are determined to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Someone has said some time ago and it's something I've never forgotten though I can't say that I put into practice as I'd like to.

This person said that you can be as godly as you want to be. You know the only limitation is in you and me. The Spirit of God is in us to produce that.

It's a desire according to the Word of God and the will of God that we should live godly in Christ Jesus. The limitation is in ourselves. I'd like to challenge young people here today.

Begin your life with God. Live for God. Put God in preeminence in your life, the Lord Jesus in absolute control.

And make up your mind to live in an ungodly world. Godly, godly in Christ Jesus. The cost, the price of godliness.

Last of all though, in John chapter 7 we have the recompense of obedience. You want to know what the Word of God teaches? I'm taking it a little bit out of its context. You want to understand the Word of God, just be willing to obey it.

It says if you desire to know, if you desire to know and do the will of God, you'll know the doctrine. He's speaking of course to those who weren't willing to do the will of God. But I believe this with all my heart, that if you and I want to learn the truth of God's Word and have God open it up to us more and more, we have to be willing to put it into practice.

Want to understand the Bible? Just take what God has already shown you, live in the light of it, and let it control your life. And if you and I are willing to do the will of God, He'll open up the way, He'll direct your path, He'll reveal truth, He'll open up your mind more and more to appreciate the greatness of His purposes. We have examples of that in the Word of God.

It won't take the time to look at them. But just to remind our hearts today, that when it comes to strong desires, that God help us to direct them in a right way. A way that is for the honor of Christ.

A way that will, according to what our brother's been telling us, preserve us from the influences of a world that is contrary to the Lord Jesus. Whatever the cost might be, to determine to do what is for God and for the sake of the Lord Jesus.