James #10

“A Living Faith”
James #10
March 1st
Pastor Ben Fleming

There is no one in this room who enjoys conflict. There is no one in this room who enjoys being in conflict with others – you do not enjoy being in conflict with your spouse – with your children – with your mom and dad and there is no one who enjoys being in conflict with someone in your church family. Conflict is not enjoyable. Most of us run from conflict – we avoid conflict – we put off dealing with conflict and we rationalize and justify allowing conflict to continue. Some think that time will get rid of conflict---- we say to oneself “just let it go and it will go away.” But as we concluded last weeks message James writes that “Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.” We are going to talk about conflict today. Turn in your bibles to the book of James chap. 4.

Last week we looked at two kinds of wisdom that James wrote to the church about – human wisdom and heavenly wisdom. He was urging and pleading with God’s people to pursue heavenly wisdom. Heavenly wisdom is peaceable – it is gentle – heavenly wisdom is reasonable and it is full of mercy. Heavenly wisdom produces peace. It might have conflict and it might start conflict and I know that at times I have done that but heavenly wisdom says those in God’s family who demonstrate and live out heavenly wisdom in their lives are peacemakers. They are the kind of believers who sow peace and work at peace – they do not run from conflict….even when they are the cause of it. Tthey are the people in between the conflict – they do not enjoy it ----- but they know peacemaking brings honor and glory to God. They do everything to bring peace with God’s people even it means they are the one to ask for forgiveness. Every believer in Jesus Christ must become a peacemaker. There is a connection between peacemaking – righteousness and biblical wisdom. Where you find peacemaking – you find righteousness… – where you find righteousness… - you find biblical wisdom and peace. Today James is going to deal with conflict. He is going to address conflict with God’s people. At the top of your outline I put the key verse for this section.

Key Verse: 4:4 “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes and enemy of God.”

Do you see how strong James is in his writing??? He is writing to believers. He is writing to the church. Do you know how insulted people would be today if a pastor spoke that way to them? James is not accusing them of sexual adultery – he is simply using a term that meant spiritual adultery. When you and I are friends of the world, we have a spiritual affair going against God. Please stand as we read God’s Word. James 4:1-17 --- ME -------- prayer

When you and I rely upon human wisdom it causes conflict. It causes conflict in our marriages – it causes conflict with our children and every child knows that it causes conflict with mom and dad….. Human wisdom also causes conflict with other believers in the church. When you have conflict with another believer ….…… it is always because someone or if not both parties are relying on human wisdom. Human wisdom is unbelief and unbelief is friendship with the world. You battle that and I battle that. Remember: James is not writing about what is but he is writing about what ought to be in the life of a believer. Look on your outline with me at what James says human wisdom produces.

1. Human wisdom produces conflict with others. (vs. 1a) “What causes fights and quarrels among you?” The first term that James used – fights or conflicts referred to an armed battle but he used it figuratively to mean an on going struggle between powers and the second term “quarrels” meant a fight but without weapons. Do you have any of those fights and quarrels that are ongoing and just seemed to keep coming back at you and rear their head at the wrong time???? Anyway you look at it James is writing to the Christian in the church when he addresses them using the phrase “among you”. ……. The “you” being the believers that he is writing to. James is writing to the church because there is obviously a condition in the churches where sides have been chosen in the church family and positions have been dug in and anyone seeking to be neutral is looked on with suspicion by both sides….. I do not believe that there has never been a church family where fights and quarrels among God’s people have not taken place….. but conflicts within the church is not in God’s will or design. We know that because of what Jesus said in

John 13:34 – 35 “This is a new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Later in the highly priestly prayer just before Jesus was going to the cross – He prayed for His followers in John 17:20 – 21 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who would believe in Me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in Me and I am in You. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.”

Jesus not only prayed for His followers but He was praying for those who would follow Him because of the testimony of His disciples. He then prayed that they might be one …………. Jesus wanted unity and harmony among His followers. He says that unity and harmony among believers is going to point others to Christ. Unity and harmony in the church family is the best evangelism toll the church has. Unresolved conflict among God’s people points non believers away from God……… Conflict does not demonstrate the love of Christ. We demonstrate human wisdom when we are the cause of conflict.

We demonstrate human wisdom when we run from being a peacemaker. If you become an active member of a church family I guarantee you --- you will eventually run into conflict with others. Some of the conflict will be simple and some of it will be severe --- when it happens to you --- you have a choice to run………. and we tend to see nothing wrong with running away but if you run away from conflict you will not experience and see what God wants to do in and through your life and you will continue to remain immature and easily follow and submit to human wisdom. Peace is difficult to pursue but when you do pursue peace you will harvest righteousness. I am not talking about the appearance of peace but we are talking about the reality of peace in and among God’s people.
QUESTION
Is there the slightest hint or smell of unresolved conflict in your life with another believer ?? If there is then you have been listening and following human wisdom. Conflict always provides you with an opportunity to glorify God. Every time you encounter conflict in your life, you will show what you really think of God by the way you deal with it --- you will either respond to conflict with biblical wisdom or human wisdom. Human wisdom produces conflict with others.

2. Human wisdom produces conflict within oneself. (vs.1b - 3) “Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” You can see conflict within someone everywhere --- our nation is full of it --- we have new personal disorders, we have counselors galor, we take pill after pill and when Ann Landers died – her secretaries took over her column and it is still popular in newspapers today and it is all about conflicts people have. James says that there are three causes of conflict in our lives.

A. Internal conflict is caused by uncontrolled desires. (vs. 4:1b) ”don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?” The NIV translation used the word desires here but the best translation would be pleasures because James actually wrote the word hedonon from which we get the word hedonist and hedonism. Hedonism is the uncontrolled personal desire to fulfill every passion and whim that promises satisfaction……. The desire to fulfill these pleasures comes from selfishness which is opposed to God and the Word of God. Paul warned Timothy that he would find this in the church as well as the community…. 2 Timothy 3:2 - 4 “people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God.”

As a non believer – you were a slave to those pleasures. If you have not come to Christ --- you have no choice but to follow those desires. Those desires that we just read are your way of life --- you need to be born again. Some of you know that has not happened to you. As a believer in Jesus --- when you follow earthly wisdom --- when you listen to human wisdom and ignore God – you go back to those pleasures and that causes internal conflict in you. The joy of God leaves you. The peace of God leaves you. John Piper wrote a book called Desiring God. You must get it an read it. The entire premise of his book is about a believer becoming a Christian Hedonist. A believer who is pursing Christian hedonism has no internal conflict because he or she is learning to have their desires controlled by God. What is Christian hedonism? Piper puts it best: (SLIDE) God is most glorified when I am most satisfied in Him. To be satisfied in God is to know Him – to know Him is to have all your pleasures met and under His control.

Wisdom from above brings controlled desires. Earthly wisdom and the pursuit of personal pleasure brings uncontrolled desires and much pain. STORY I still remember my friend David Jelinick who showed up on my doorstep on a Saturday morning with tears streaming down his face when he found out that his 26 year old wife and mother of his 3 small children insisted in going out dancing on Friday night so that she could begin to have the fun she missed as a young mother --- through his tears and pain David said that she went home with a man she met in the bar. David and his wife had been missionaries with Youth with A Mission. Internal conflict is caused by uncontrolled desires.

B. Internal conflict is caused by unfulfilled desires. (vs.4:2a) “You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want.”
I like the NIV bible here that instead of saying lust says “you want something”. Joshua Harris in his book “Not even a hint: Guarding Your Heart against lust” says – “lust is wrongly directed desire” ---- to lust is to want what you don’t have and weren’t meant to have.” “ Lust goes beyond attraction, and appreciation of beauty, or even a healthy desire for sex ----- lust makes your desires more important than God. Lust wants to go outside of God’s guidelines to find satisfaction.” So Joshua Harris sees lust in the sexual realm but it is much bigger than that” ----- This is the very key and success of advertising to get you to want something and to get you to want something so bad that you believe that you are unfulfilled and therefore you will get it regardless and that wanting something causes an internal conflict within you.

That unfulfilled desire is so strong that it will cause you to do anything and say anything to get it. You believe so much that you have to have what you want that you will go into debt ----- you will run over people – you will begin to hate people and you will deceive people. It is the kind of thinking that says – “when I get that or when I am listened to ---- then I will be happy.” “ When I am accepted then I will be happy. When I am appreciated I will be happy. When I am treated rightly and fairly I will be happy. Every time you fall into the trap of believing that your desires are the most important thing on the earth ----- you will have internal conflict. Internal conflict is caused by unfulfilled desires.

C. Internal conflict is caused by selfish desire. (vs. 4:2b – 3) “”you do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask you, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” James is addressing worldly unbelievers and believers in a local church family. Everybody wants God to answer their prayers. Everybody wants God to answer their prayers just like they prayed them and in their time. Look at verse 2 -3 …..… Do you see how many times James uses the word you in these two verses? Count them. 9. When you talk about selfish desire you can only use one word – YOU. It is all about you. Most of us do not think we are selfish people --- but we are. It is all about what you did not get and it is all about what said or how you were treated. Human wisdom tells you that…. and when you think it is all about you – James is saying that you will have internal conflict. Your motives in your prayer is about you --- you want what you want and you think you deserve what you want. Non believers and even believers do not even think that they need to ask God for their needs ---
“I remember very clearly challenging a woman to pray and ask God and she said – oh --- I would not think of bothering God with such minor details.”

Of course – she never ever thought of participating in prayer with others in the family of God and learning about prayer. I believe that many who claim the name of Jesus really do not believe in prayer. I have needs – I am sinking and I do not think God is going to pull me out – so I do not pray and I do not ask others to pray for me…. James says that many times we do not see answer to prayer because our prayer is focused on our personal pleasure. We want what we want and we believe we desire it --- we are entitled to pleasure. God wants me happy and I deserve to be happy. That is human wisdom and it will only cause continual conflict within you.

Application for Your Prayer Life!
* Do I really need what I have asked for?
* Am I asking for special treatment from God?
* Is my request in the best interest of God’s kingdom?
* What do I plan to do if God answers my request? ------------ human wisdom produces conflict within oneself and human wisdom produces conflict with others and

3. Human wisdom produces conflict with God. (vs. 4 - 6) “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit He caused to live in us envies intensely? But He gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” What kind of conflict?

* Hostility toward God (vs.4) “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes and enemy of God.”

All throughout the OT – you see God’s people being accused of adultery. A Jew would have known exactly what James was writing about. When God’s people are unfaithful to God in the OT – they are called an adulterer – that adultery gives them a hostility to God. They are more a friend of the world instead of being a friend to God. Do you feel friendship with God? The word friendship here – philia from where we get Philadelphia and the verb form is phileo or love. When you do not feel – close to God. When you do not taste of some kind of intimacy with God --- your love for God has perhaps been shifted to the world.

1 John 2:15 -17 “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world – the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does ---- comes not from the Father but from the world.” Human wisdom produces hostility towards God. Remember: James is writing about what ought to be in the life of the believer not what is. Human wisdom causes

* Apathy to Scripture (vs. 5) “Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit He caused to live in us envies intensely.” This is a difficult scripture to tear apart and understand but most of the sound bible scholars would agree that James is saying that unbelievers --- which are in a constant state of spiritual conflict with God --- when they hear the Word of God ----- they refuse to acknowledge God’s Word and obey His Word there is an ongoing conflict and eventually there is a hardening to the Word of God. For the believer who relies on the human wisdom there is an apathy that happens to them. They do not care about the Word of God --- they do not respond to it and there is no taste or hunger for the Word of God. You do not find that believer in a bible study and you do not find that believer available to hear the Word of God. Has that happened to you? Is that happening to you? Human wisdom causes apathy to scripture. It causes

* Sin of pride (vs. 6) “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” This verse is often quoted. It is written in the context of human wisdom. A person who demonstrates and only listens to human wisdom is full of pride. It can be a non believer or a believer. Pride is the opposite of humility so it is also the opposite of heavenly or godly wisdom.

Let me give you a definition of pride = one who shows himself above other people. You do not have to be a non believer to demonstrate pride in your life. Pride has also been translated as arrogance and within the church you will find spiritual arrogance at times in some of God’s people. The word oppose that James used, is a military term. It was used by the Greeks to refer to someone who was fully armed and ready for battle. God is in full battle gear against the proud. Non – believer and believer. Pride comes from human wisdom. The opposite of human wisdom --- heavenly wisdom produces humility.

God pours His grace out on the humble. He pours His grace out upon a man or woman when they humble themselves and come to Christ and He continues to pour out His grace upon His children when they listen to and live out heavenly wisdom in their lives. God has always been God who responds to humility in man.

Isaiah 66: 2 “Has not My hand made all these things, and so they came into being?”, declares the Lord. This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at My Word.” Who is the one that God esteems or pours out grace upon? ----- the one who is humble and trembles at His Word.

Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the (humble), for theirs is the Kingdom of God.” Just as pride is the root of all sin ---- humility is the root of all righteousness. So ---- come to God today and ask Him to make you humble --- ask Him to show you and convict of all your pride.

My natural bent is to be proud. I know I am a proud man. I am more concerned for my self – concern than I am for the glory of God. I have to work at humility. I have to choose to come to God and confess to God and I have to choose to daily place and see myself as less than those around me. When you demonstrate and live out humility in your church family you open more grace from God upon your life than you can ever imagine.

Let us pray: