Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1682
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, October 1, 1882
“You lust, and have not: you kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: you fight and war, yet you have not, because you ask not. You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts.” James 4:2,3.
MAY these striking words be made profitable to us by the teaching of the Holy Spirit. Man is a creature abounding in needs and ever restless and, therefore, his heart is full of desires. I can hardly imagine a man existing who has not many desires of some kind or another. Man is comparable to the sea anemone with its multitude of tentacles which are always hunting in the water for food; or like certain plants which send out tendrils, seeking after the means of climbing. The poet says, “Man never is, but always wishes to be, blest.” He steers for which he thinks to be his port, but, as yet, he is tossed about on the waves. One of these days he hopes to find his heart’s delight and he continues to desire with more, or less, expectancy.
This fact appertains both to the worst of men and the best of men. In bad men, desires corrupt into lusts—they long after that which is selfish, sensual and, consequently, evil. The current of their desires sets strongly in a wrong direction. These lusts, in many cases, become extremely intense—they make the man their slave. They domineer over his judgment; they stir him up to violence—he fights and wars—perhaps he literally kills. In God’s sight, who counts anger, murder, he does kill often. Such is the strength of his desires that they are commonly called passions. And when these passions are fully excited, then the man, himself, struggles vehemently, so that the kingdom of the devil suffers violence and the violent take it by force!
Meanwhile, in gracious men there are also desires. To rob the saints of their desires would be to injure them greatly, for by these they rise out of their lower selves. The desires of the gracious are after the best things—things pure and peaceable, laudable and elevating. They desire God’s Glory and, therefore, their desires spring from higher motives than those which inflame the unrenewed mind. Such desires in Christian men are frequently very fervent and forcible. They ought always to be so. Those desires begotten of the Spirit of God stir the renewed nature, exciting and stimulating it, and making the man to groan and to be ill in anguish and in travail until he can attain that which God has taught him to long for. The lusting of the wicked and the holy desiring of the righteous have their own ways of seeking gratification. The lusting of the wicked develops itself in contention—it kills and desires to have its fights and it wars. While, on the other hand, the desire of the righteous, when rightly guided, betakes itself to a far hotter course for achieving its purpose, for it expresses itself in fervent and importunate prayer. The godly man, when full of desire, asks and receives at the hands of God.
First, consider THE POVERTY OF LUSTING—“You lust, and have not.” Carnal lusts, however strong they may be, do not, in many cases, obtain that which they seek after. As says the text, “You desire to have, and cannot obtain.” The man longs to be happy, but he is not. He pines to be great, but he grows meaner every day. He aspires after this and after that which he thinks will content him, but he is still unsatisfied. He is like the troubled sea which cannot rest. One way or another, his life is disappointment. He labors as in the very fire, but the result is vanity and vexation of spirit. How can it be otherwise? If we sow the wind, must we not reap the whirlwind and nothing else?
Or, if, perhaps, the strong lusts of an active, talented, persevering man do give him what he seeks after, yet how soon he loses it! He has it so that he has it not. The pursuit is toilsome, but the possession is a dream. He sits down to eat and lo! the feast is snatched away, the cup vanishes when it is at his lips! He wins to lose! He builds and his sandy foundation slips from under his tower and his efforts lie in ruins. He that conquered kingdoms, died discontented on a lone rock in mid ocean and he who revived his empire, fell never to rise again. As Jonah’s gourd withered in a night, so have empires fallen on a sudden, and their lords have died in exile. What men obtain by warring and fighting is an estate with a short lease—the obtaining is so temporary that it still stands true, “they lust, and have not.”
Or if such men have gifts and power enough to retain that which they have won, yet in another sense they have it not while they have it, for the pleasure which they looked for in it is not there. They pluck the apple and it turns out to be one of those Dead Sea apples which crumble to ashes in the hand. The man is rich, but God takes away from him the power to enjoy his wealth. By his lusts and warring the licentious man, at last, obtains the objective of his cravings and, after a moment’s gratification, he loathes that which he so passionately lusted for! He longs for the tempting pleasure, seizes it and crushes it by his eager grasp!