So if you'll open your Bibles, please, to James chapter 4. As you'll see on your handout, our title today is The Cause of Conflicts Among Believers, Applying by Faith God's Word to the Problem of Wrath. I'm thinking of titling this, especially in light of the bombing this week, of the battle within and the battle without. We know that the unsaved are separated from God and they have no Holy Spirit within them, they have no peace with God and therefore there's warring within them. against all that God holds dear. But we also have a battle going on that we'll look at today, a battle within our members. And that's a battle between God, the indwelling Holy Spirit, God's will, on the one hand, versus our own lusts and pleasures, our desires for our own interests, our pride. So today we'll be looking at a contrast between pride and humility And we'll see that pride is what leads to strained relationships. It leads to conflicts within and conflicts without. So we'll look at some groundwork here today. Since this can describe all of us, it's easy to apply these truths and say, I know someone who's having conflicts with others, but the fact of the matter is we're all capable of strife, both within, as there's, again, an ongoing conflict, and a desire at times for our own things, which can lead to conflicts without. As we look in the book of James, we'll recall that there's a... that there's a history here, as we've... this is not our first study in James, this is our eleventh. So one of the... The first passages we looked at is in James 1, verse 19. In today's study, that's exactly what we'll be looking for, is what brings about the wrath of man. Oh, boy. I hit the wrong button here. I'm done. Do I just hit this one? Motion. OK, thank you. So the first one of these that we'll look at, we'll look at quickly, being swift to hear, as we see in James chapter 1 verse 21 and 22, therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and we're looking at a heart condition here, to be swift to hear with meekness, receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save our souls, to save our souls from destruction. Now, James also notes that we are prone to be a hearer of the word, but he says to be a doer of the word and not a hearer's only, as we're also prone to self-deception, deceiving ourselves. So we see that James 1 is asking us to be swift to hear, so I ask that you be swift to hear today. The second thing James asks is for us to be slow to speak. And we had, two weeks ago, a very good study on the tongue. And the tongue, as we see in James chapter 3, verse 1 through 18 here, is we all stumble in many things, but we can stumble in our words. conversation. And if anyone does not stumble, it's because he's mature and under the control of the Holy Spirit. He's also able to bridle the whole body. The tongue reflects where we're at. And in verse 5, the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. So when it's out of control by the flesh, we see how great a forest fire, a little fire kindles. And the tongue is a fire. It's a world of iniquity. So where does this come from? It's set among our members, and it defiles the whole body, and when it's controlled by the flesh, it sets on fire the course of nature, and it's set on fire by hell, by the flesh, by the satanic world system, as we'll see. So when it's out of control, our tongue is prone for great destruction, which is going to be, again, laying the groundwork for our study today. We saw also last week a contrast between divine wisdom as well as self-seeking, fleshly wisdom. So James says, who is wise in understanding? As there were people who sought to be leaders in the church, they were envious, they were self-seeking, and what James says here is that there should be a spirit of meekness among the There should be a spirit of meekness among each of us, not envy, not self-seeking, because envy and self-seeking result in confusion and every evil thing. When we're on our own way, when we're looking out for our own interests, there's going to lead, as we'll see today, to frustration. So envy and self-seeking are a result of pride, which leads us into today's study. If you'll read along with me in James chapter four. 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 do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and 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 pleasures. 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. So we'll continue today to look at the contrast between God's ideal, as we saw from last week, about the wise and understanding with a spirit of meekness, and those who have a spirit of envy and self-seeking and pride. First off, frankly, as I read this passage, I thought, this is a challenging passage. This is a passage where James is not holding back. He's trying to rock their boat. He's trying to get them out of their complacency and their pride. Now the Christian life is to be a delightful walk with the Lord, is it not? So what we're seeing here is people who are not enjoying the Lord. These are people who are fighting and they have desires and they're coveting and they're warring. So I wanted to take a look at just a few passages because I thought I need to go back to what is the reality. What is it that we really should have characteristic in our thoughts, in our actions, in our lives, in our relationships. So Jeremiah 15, 16 says, And in Psalm 1611, it says, you'll show me the path of life in your presence's fullness of joy. As we see, these believers did not have this joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. They were looking for pleasures, but not these kind of pleasures, not God's pleasures. They were looking for self-gratifying pleasures. And Psalm 37, 4 and 5, how God delights to answer prayer as we delight ourselves in the Lord. He'll give us what we want if our wants line up with His desires. He'll give us, I should say, the desires of our heart as our heart is in tune with Him. As we commit our way to the Lord and trust in Him, He shall bring it to pass. So I hope that you believe this because this is what God wants for you and He wants this for me. As in Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, 7, Proverbs says, Do you see a man who's wise in his own eyes? There's more hope for a fool than for him. So we want to be humble. We want to be meek. And Jeremiah 10.23 says, I know the way of man is not in himself. It's not in man who walks to direct his steps. We have to have a spirit of humility in order for God to work in and through us. Because John 15.5, Jesus said, without me, you can do nothing. Now, a close pastor friend of mine once shared with me that as he talks to people that are going through marital counseling, he'll often stop because there'll be conflicts there, and he'll say, what do you want? So that's a real good question for each of us to ask ourselves. What do you want? What is it that you desire? What are the desires of your heart today? What is it that you want? And another close pastor friend of mine says, I only get in trouble when I want something, when I want something outside of the will of God, when I've set my mind on something that is important to me without checking in with the Lord. So I'll ask you again, what is it that you want? Because when we take our eyes off the Lord and we put them on the world, we see the things of our world, we break in our relationships with the Lord, and that affects our interactions with fellow believers, as our vertical relationship with the Lord is key to our horizontal relationship, whether it's at our homes or in our local church. So James would no doubt agree with a psalmist who said, And so if you see in conflicts, contrary to, again, God's will and God's desire. And even as Leonard Adkey had said before, often how rare it is for brethren to dwell together in unity because we're prone to think in human viewpoint and our human desires. So we looked at the fruit of divine wisdom and humility, and we contrasted that with human wisdom last week. So now we're going to examine this problem amongst the believers. And now there are no chapter divisions, so as we're going from chapter 3 to chapter 4, this is just a flow, okay? So James 4 continues with his address of the problems, and we're looking at the source of the problems, the root of the problems, as the fruit, again, was this conflict, fruit, works of the flesh. So as we look in James 4, chapter 1, the first cause that we're going to see is carnality, as we analyze the problem. Where do these wars and fights come from? The war speaks of fighting and strife. And fighting speaks of severe conflict. And James had said that the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. It produces, as we saw, conflict. And even as we saw last week, James warned believers to be very cautious when aspiring to teach the Word of God to others, as he had asked, who is wise and whose understanding among you? As he said, that worldly wisdom and pride had resulted in some who wanted to teach God's Word motivated with envy and self-seeking. what Leonard Radke used to call Christian armor polishers. They want to teach you after somebody else has shared the gospel and led you to the Lord, then they want to come along and straighten you out. And often there's a spirit of envy there. And that can be applicable today as well. So James asks, where do these come from? As he speaks of interpersonal conflicts within the body, and we see that it's carnality, which Paul described in 1 Corinthians 3.3 as you're still carnal. These are believers, they're saved. but where they're living with envy and strife and division among you. So envy, strife, and divisions among you, that's carnality. When you see envy and strife and divisions, that's someone who's not walking in the Spirit. They're behaving like the unsaved men. And the source of this carnality, in the case of Jane's audience, is that there's this conflict going on. There's good and bad desires, and as they were at war within themselves, there's this tumultuous inner life, and all too often, the desires for pleasure were overriding in their heart the desires for God's will. And so, the desires for pleasure here, we had seen that there are pleasures at God's right hand forevermore, but these desires for pleasure speak of our sin nature, And it's desire for that which gratifies and satisfies me. It's self-gratification. Hedonism is the root word. Hedon gives us a root word of hedonism. So this desire for pleasure, it's like a hostile soldier that wars within your members. So within us, there's these hostile soldiers and there's a battle going on. And the desires for pleasure in the Christian's life can be like the thorns in Luke 8, 14. As the thorns choked out, due to cares and riches and the pleasures of life, the Word of God. There was no fruit, or as we see today, the only fruit was the works of the flesh. So Titus also speaks of the mindset and the manner of the unsaved. This is how the unsaved think. This is not to be characteristic of us as believers. For we ourselves were also once foolish and disobedient and deceived. This is the unsaved. Serving various lusts and pleasures, looking again for this self-gratification, hedonism, this me first. living in malice and envy and hateful and hating one another. And you see hatred all over, do you not, with the bombings and all? So this is characteristic of the unsaved. This is not to be characteristic of a believer. But when we're controlled by the flesh, we're capable of any of these things. And in 2 Peter 2.13, speaking of the people that Lot was associated with, Peter writes, they will receive the wages of unrighteousness as those who counted pleasure to revel in the daytime. There's spots and blemishes. James had said in James chapter two to keep oneself unspotted from the world. So he speaks here of spots and blemishes carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you. We can get drawn in and get too close with the unsaved and they live for pleasure and we can live for pleasure. Again, thinking even a lot as he sought to live for a pleasure and he lived with rubbing elbows with the unsaved. His self-seeking emanated from his sin nature, which is where all of our self-seeking and pleasure-seeking desires come from. So there is, again, a war going on within us. In Galatians 5, 16 and 17, "...walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh, as there is flesh lusting against the Spirit, and the Spirit lusts against the flesh." And these are contrary to one another, so you cannot do the things that you will. So again, the source of the problem is this desire for pleasure. It comes from our sin nature, and that's what controls our life if we're not yielding to the Holy Spirit. So the source of the problem, again, is our carnality. But our symptom of the problem here is that we lust and we do not have. You lust and you do not have. So there's personal frustration involved. We lust and we do not have. Lust here speaks of, it's a present active indicative. It means this is an ongoing choice. It's an active choice. It's an action in process. This is how they were continually thinking. You lust and you do not have. Lust here means to strongly desire what belongs to someone else. To strongly desire what belongs to someone else. or to engage in an activity that is morally wrong. So when you think of lust, it can be engaging in an activity that is morally wrong. So in verse three, it says, you murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask amiss to consume it, or spend it, rather, on your own pleasures. So a point here would be that the carnal believer is never satisfied. Sometimes you think, I just need to have a little bit of the world, I need to have a little bit of my pleasures, and that's a never-ending quest to be satisfied, which again leads to personal frustration. As we can be on a frantic search for happiness, and we look for it in the details of life. What can I buy? What kind of people can I be with? What kind of power can I have? What kind of prestige can I have? So looking for Satisfaction in the things of the world not looking for satisfaction in our walk in a relationship with the Lord again So what is it that you want? Are you content? Are you thankful today for your relationship with Jesus Christ for your salvation for all that you have in Christ? first Timothy 6 6 to me who writes godliness with contentment is great gain we can just stop there and Godliness with contentment is great gain. Because God's given us much, much more than we ever deserved in his grace. What we deserve is what? Hell. But he sent his son to die in our place, and now we can walk with him, we can have a personal relationship with him through Jesus Christ. He says in verse 9, those who desire to be rich, we're not content, we're not thankful, we're not happy. We desire to be rich. We fall into temptation. We fall into a snare and into many foolish and harmful lusts. So if our desire is to be rich, we're seeking for pleasure and purpose in the things of this life. And the love of money can become a root of all kinds of evil. And in Matthew 5.28, speaking of lust, Matthew says that lust is actually going on in the heart, which then is the same as adultery, for whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. So what is it that's going on inside? And I say, I've never committed adultery, and yet not be committed and faithful to your relationship with your spouse or In the case of our example today, we may say that I haven't committed adultery. And as we'll see, God says, if your heart's not right with me, yes, you have. And Paul in Romans 7, 7 says, what shall we say then? Is the law sin? On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through law. So his point here is, this is what tripped him up. He says, I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, you shall not covet. He said, I could say that I hadn't murdered. I could say that I haven't had other gods before God. He says, but this one got me. The covet here is actually the same word as lust, epithemal. So what's going on in our heart is what God's looking at. Are we focused again on Him? Or are we going with the lust of the flesh, as the flesh lusts against the Spirit? We saw it in Galatians 5.17. So the symptom we saw is personal frustration, as we lust and we don't have. We lust after the things of the world, and God doesn't answer and give us what we want, because again, our flesh is never satisfied, and what we do get, we'll see, can be motivated, our desires for the things of God or the things of ourselves. So James here now talks about our mental attitude sins. In 1 John 3, 15, John writes, whoever hates his brother is a murderer. And James says here that you murder and covet. So he's not speaking about bloodshed on the pews, but he's saying that there's actually the same mindset. I wish they were dead type of thinking. Now contrast with the wisdom from above that we saw in James chapter three. James is saying here that you murder and you covet, but in James chapter three, he said the wisdom that is from above is pure and peaceable and gentle and willing to yield It's full of mercy and good fruits, and that's without hypocrisy or partiality. Partiality and hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. So the proof again of the root is in the fruit. If there's mental murder and covetousness, that's not the wisdom that's from above. And again, we're all prone to go one way or the other. My desire today is that we would be just taking a self-analysis and yielding here to what the spear wants to show us and recognizing we're all capable of mentally murdering and coveting in our thoughts. So murder and covet, they're both present active indicatives. Again, they're ongoing choices. And point here would be that the carnal believer will mentally and verbally murder those that are on their way to pleasure fulfillment while his jealousy wants what another has in a search for happiness that excludes Jesus Christ. So maybe it's somebody else got what you want, something in the church, something in a relationship, a job at work. So our mental attitude here can either be to check in with the Lord or to get jealous. Maybe I want what I want when I want it. And little kids are really good at this. They're very open and honest. But as we get older, we get a little bit more refined, don't we? But the Lord looks and sees the same type of thinking going on. So their hateful and jealous mindset was a result of not being controlled by the, or they're being controlled by the flesh. And they could not obtain it. They could not obtain what they desired here. That means to acquire, it means to receive. So when we want something we don't have, so we need to evaluate. Can we take a noise unto the Lord? Just examples, even thinking of ministry-wise. Cain, how did he take it when his offering was not accepted by the Lord? He was angry and he committed murder. And David, when he wanted to build a temple to the Lord, this is on a positive side, he wanted to build a temple and God said, no, even though David was a man after God's own heart, and David took that as from the Lord, he didn't murder, he didn't covet, he didn't get angry because Solomon was allowed to build the temple. So we can really get messed up inside when God says no, and we say yes. and he doesn't bless what we want. And that's a fruit of pride. We looked at this passage over the last couple of weeks a number of times, but these things the Lord hates, Proverbs 6, and 7 are an abomination to him. And just when you think again of our passage that we read today, a proud look a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, and again, this can even be mental attitude murder in our context, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among the brethren. Again, these are all the roots of the flesh or the fruit works of the flesh. The root is our flesh here. That's what it's coming out of. And we're all capable of these. And Satan desires to destroy our local church. And again, in our context, believers with personal ambitions can spot and defile us. We need to be wise. And those who have a personal agenda will frequently be in conflict with other believers. You fight and you war. There's a frustration here, again. You fight and war. You're not getting what you want. And this is not unique to James. In Philippians chapter 4, Paul writes, I implore Iodia and I implore Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Here's somebody in the local church and they're causing a problem. And so they're mentioned by name. not of the same mind. They're sowing discord, and they're causing strife. You fight in war. And in 1 John chapter 9, John writes of diatrophies, I wrote to the church, but diatrophies, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us. There's some believers, The diatrophies is not receiving the believers, the leaders of the church. And if I come, I'll call to mind his deeds which he does, prating against us with malicious words and not content with that. He himself does not receive the brethren and forbids those who wish to, putting them out of the church. So this diatrophies loved to have the preeminence. He wanted to be somebody. He had this envy and self-seeking that we had seen earlier in the book of James. So hopefully, we don't have some desire or agenda, maybe in the nursery or teaching or in a young people's group. Can we just be submissive and faithful? Maybe we don't have a position. Maybe it's in the nursery. And while we're there, can we seek out others who are going to be enjoyable to fellowship with or are going to hang with people that are critical and less supportive? So we want to think very carefully of where we're at here, as there's potential for fighting and warring. And there really isn't any middle ground. We're either going to be, as we'll see, faithful, or we're going to be unfaithful to the Lord. We're going to be warring within our hearts, or we're going to be at peace. And often, people who are in conflicts, it may not be overt like this, fighting and warring. It could be that the words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart, and his words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords. So we need to be careful and wise with who we spend time with, because In Acts 20, 29, Paul writes, So here in the midst of the flock, there's a wolf in sheep's clothing. So we want to just keep coming out to hear the Word of God. Spend time with believers that are enjoying the Lord, and be willing to let the Lord show you the areas in your thinking where he wants to make an adjustment. That's all James is really asking here. Are you willing to let the Lord make an adjustment if your thinking hasn't been right? Or would you seek the Lord's glory and not your own? As true fellowship with other believers flows from a true fellowship with the Lord. If we're enjoying the Lord, we're going to enjoy true fellowship with other believers. So we want to keep short accounts here with the Lord, We want to make sure that if our relationship breaks down, that we get it right. Because otherwise, we won't come to the Lord in prayer. When we see conflicts, we won't bring them to the Lord. We'll fail to pray. Number four here. You don't have because you don't ask. You got a problem with another believer, don't bring it before the Lord with humility. We don't ask for peace and harmony in the local church. We want to get our mind in the right place and ask. Ask the Lord. God delights to answer prayer. But we often are depending on ourselves or others. We don't come in a spirit of meekness. We don't come in a spirit of dependence. We don't come at all because we're looking to fix things ourselves. We're looking to run our own show. In Jeremiah 33, God says, call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you do not know. So just be humble and call on the Lord and ask Him. He will answer us. In Matthew 7, He says, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it will be opened to you. He talks about giving good gifts to your children. And James had said earlier that every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of light, with whom is no variableness or shadow of turning. Back to King James on that one. So God delights in answering the prayers of His children. And whenever we ask, Jesus says, in my name, Jesus says, I will do it. We have to ask in God's name. Why? That the Father may be glorified in the Son. And if we abide in me and my words abide in you, Jesus said, you'll ask what you desire. Because our hearts, our desires are in line with God's desires. And we have the right motive, God's glory, God's purpose, God's desires. And even if we have delight in the Lord, He'll give us the desires of our heart. And if we have a lack of wisdom, we can ask of God, and He wants to give to us liberally. This is in trial. So if you're going through a trial, if there's a trial with believers in the church even, it'll be given without reproach. Ask in faith, though, nothing doubting. Just come to Him in faith and in humility. So we see that a failure to pray is a result of not being in tune with the Lord. But sometimes we can pray and it can be wrongly motivated. So we pray, but you ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. You ask badly. The Greek word is kakos. You ask badly, you ask poorly, you ask amiss, that you may spend it. You may spend it on your pleasures. So what is it that you've been praying for when you do pray, and why do you want it? So don't expect that God's going to answer your prayer to win the lottery. Don't ask them to give you a ministry if it's for your own honor and glory. These believers' prayers were not answered because they didn't have the Lord's interests in mind. They had their own interests in mind. Lack of prayer and wrongly motivated prayer, that can be a characteristic of church splits and conflicts. Just thinking about our Wednesday night church, it appears to me that all the people, and I don't know what's going on in their heart, but when they gather together, they're enjoying fellowship with the Lord. That's unity, that's harmony, that's fellowship. It's not what's fostering conflicts in the church or church splits. So in a healthy church, such as in the Book of Acts here, people continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in the breaking of bread and in prayers. So they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, that's all, that's all we need to do, with the right attitude again, in the breaking of bread and in prayers. So people were united in their ministry, they were striving together for the faith of the gospel, they prayed together. And in Acts 4, 31 and 32, when they prayed, the place where they assembled was shaken. So they prayed and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the word of God with boldness. So prayer will result in a healthy body and the word of God going forth. Now, As far as the Wednesday night prayer nights, sometimes we can say, I'm too busy to get there on Wednesday nights. And I've been guilty of that. I mean, you barely make it for 7 o'clock. But maybe that's a problem. Is our job, is our sports, is our other activities, is they causing us to put something else in front of this opportunity to get together and pray? The definition here of worldliness, it's a mental attitude that's occupied and directed by the world and not Jesus Christ or the Word of God. So we can look at our schedule or our day planner, we can look at our checkbook and find out, Where really am I invested? Where am I investing my time and my money? Where am I investing my relationships? Is it got to do with the world? Because the worldliness is a mental attitude. It's occupied and directed by the world and not Jesus Christ or the Word of God. It's basically doing our own thing. You say, It's not bad. It's not wrong. No, maybe it's not. But where's Jesus Christ? Has it been like the thorns that are choking out the Word of God? So where do we get our standards again? Kids can get them at the high school and they come home and bring them home. We've got to take a stand and say, you know what? Where are you thinking? What are your desires? Why do you want to do that? Is it to fit in? And we already know that we're not here to fit into the world. We're here to be, again, a light, a light in this dark world. And worldly thinking can affect every part of our lives. There's often many times for ministries, fellowship, and if we truly value the word of God, we'll try to make those be important and not be running around in circles all the time. chasing after the things of the world. It's very easy to be conformed to the world. And so Paul writes in Romans 12, 1 and 2, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice that's holy and acceptable to God, that's your reasonable service. In light of all God has done for us, will you respond with an attitude of gratitude, with a servant's mindset, with a sacrificial mindset, and not just a little but a complete yielding in every area. Present your bodies, not holding back. Not one foot in the world and one foot pointed toward the local church or the word of God. Maybe not physically speaking, but in our mind. And do not be conformed to this world. And isn't that hard? Isn't that difficult nowadays when we're getting bombarded and we're so busy? How do we not be conformed to this world? but we'd be transformed by the renewing of our mind. We spend time in the Word of God. We spend time meditating on the Word of God. We spend time fellowshipping around the Word of God. That's encouraging. That's uplifting. People, again, spend time with believers that are enjoying the Lord. Spend time. Make it a priority to spend time in the Word of God in order that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. God has a perfect will, and as the pastor has been teaching, he wants for us to know it. First off, though, we have to be willing not only to hear it, as James says, but to do it. So we've seen the definition of worldliness, and now we look at the description of worldliness, which is called here, James, spiritual adultery. He says, you adulterers and adulteresses, again, it's a spiritual, nature, and this is very strong language, speaking of infidelity, betrayal of a closeness, lusting and longing for another. Think of a marriage, if you're married. If your husband or wife were to find that you really have a heart for something or someone else besides her, and that she's not in soul first place, or your husband's not, there's going to be, again, a jealousy. And we're going to see that God can be jealous of us as we are basically unfaithful to Him. On the critical text, it omits you adulterers, and it just starts with adulteresses. This is speaking of Jesus Christ is the bridegroom, and the church is the bride. So this is Christ's bride, in essence, saying to him, to the bridegroom, I don't really love you. My eyes aren't on you. I'm not thrilled with you. Turn the other way, and we're going to see that this causes God to be jealous. He doesn't tolerate this type of thinking. We're not going to have peace with God if that's how we're thinking. So he says that you're a friend of the world. If you want to be a friend of the world, that's defined as the love of the world system instead of Jesus Christ. John 15, 17 through 19. These things I command you, you love one another. Love one another. And if the world hates you, you know it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you're not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Positionally, believer, the world hates you. It hates you. It hates Jesus Christ, and it hates you and me. And to the extent in which you stand with Jesus Christ, to the degree to which you're occupied with him, on a practical level, it'll hate you all the more. And you may seek to be friends with the world. You may seek to get along with the world. But the root, the core, the satanic realm is completely at odds with Jesus Christ. and ultimately it hates you. And if you can be conformed to the world, if you can be pulled away from Jesus Christ, it's a victory for Satan, but it's still out of a hatred for you as one of Christ's. The world hates Jesus Christ, and it hates anything and anybody that has to do with him. A friend of the world. What is the world? It's the word is cosmos. The cosmos is the world system, and it's wicked and alienated from God, and yet it's cultured, it's educated, it's powerful, it's outwardly moral at times. It can be very attractive. It's a system of which, again, Satan is the head, and the fallen angels and the demons are his servants. And all mankind, other than the saved, are his subjects. So this includes the people, the pursuits, the pleasures, the purposes, and the places where God is not wanted. So if you're hanging around with your athletic team, if you're hanging around with your work group, if you're hanging around with your whatever group that trips your trigger, You can get along just fine, but you can't talk about Jesus Christ there, that's why. It's because they're of the world, and we want to be very conscious that we're not of the world, and not to be conformed to the world. God gets very jealous. He says in Hosea, go take yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry. For the land has committed great harlotry, again speaking of marital infidelity, by departing from the Lord. So we commit harlotry when we're close, attracted, friends with the world. In Hosea 4.12, my people ask counsel from their wooden idols, and their staff informs them. For the spirit of harlotry has caused them to stray, and they've played the harlot against their God. In 2 Corinthians 11, Paul says, Oh, that you'd bear with me in a little folly. 2 Corinthians 11.1. And indeed, you do bear with me. He says, for I am jealous. for you with godly jealousy." So God is jealous. Paul's saying, I'm jealous. I betrothed you to one husband, thinking of the bride of Christ, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But here you are, playing the harlot. I fear less somehow as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. Love the Lord with all your heart and soul and mind. Nothing less. But I fear less somehow as a serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness. So your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. What's your mind on? Is it on the fact that you're in Christ? Or if he who comes preaches another Jesus? We saw on Wednesday night, sometimes people will say, well, this Jesus, he's going to let his bride go through the tribulation. That's a different gospel, it's a different message, and you may well put up with it. Are you gonna put up with it or are you gonna take a stand? Are you going to be trying to play both ends against the middle? Again, you try that and God's gonna be very jealous. And he says in 2 Corinthians 11, 12 through 15, he says, such are false apostles, deceitful workers, and they transform themselves into apostles of Christ, wolves in sheep's clothing. And no wonder, for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. And it's no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, who end will be according to their works. Again, it's this spirit of envy and self-seeking. So God sees our desire for friendship with the world as infidelity to Jesus Christ. There's our principle here. Go back. He sees our desire for friendship with the world as infidelity to Jesus Christ. So we've seen the definition of worldliness and the description of worldliness. Now we look at the danger of worldliness. Whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God as we put ourselves in opposition to God. And Paul writes, first off, I've got a principle here. You and I function in the realm of the world or in the realm of God. There is no middle ground. Which side are you on? Where's your loyalty? Where's your faithfulness? It says, brethren, join in following my example, and note those who walk as you have us for a pattern. For many walk, of whom I've told you often, and I tell you even weeping, they're enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, whose glory is in their shame. But look at the ultimate culmination of this. charges here. They set their mind on earthly things. They have an inner pride and a self-seeking and an envy. They set their mind on earthly things. When First John says, do not love the world or the things in the world, and if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not In him for all of us in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not Of the father, but it's of the world and the world is passing away and the lust of it But he who does the will of God abides forever. There's a qualitative eternal dimension as we Do as we occupy ourselves with the Word of God and and do it not just hearers but doers of the work So we might not necessarily say, down with Jesus Christ, but on a practical point, we can love the world, and that's how it comes out in the wash. We can develop a worldly mindset, and hopefully, today we see that we need to be humble and have a spirit of meekness, not be defiled and spotted by the criticisms of those who are seeking to sow discord, not only model us in our own lives, but to teach these things to our children and to stand for them in our lives. So, there's an answer to the problem. This is where James brings us back around. There's encouragement here. That even though we are capable of loving the world, even though we're all capable of being unfaithful, God has given us a Holy Spirit, the indwelling Holy Spirit, in whom you also trusted after you heard the word of God, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after having believed, when you trusted in Christ as your Savior, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who's a guarantee of our inheritance. He's not going to leave you forever, ever and ever, until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of God's glory. And yet, this permanently indwelling Holy Spirit can be grieved again as we take our eyes off the Lord. It can be jealous. The Spirit yearns jealously as He's God. God is a Holy Spirit. God's jealous. Holy Spirit's jealous. We can grieve Him, but we can't grieve Him away. We're sealed for the day of redemption. And Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6 that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own. You are not your own, for you are a body and a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. So it's good to remember we're not our own. And the Holy Spirit again is indwelling us, and it will until the day of redemption. We've been purchased by the blood of Christ. That's a down payment. God will return for us. So the indwelling of the Spirit we've seen is the power and the intent of the Holy Spirit is that He yearns jealously. You shall not make for yourself a carved image of anything that is in heaven above or on earth below. He says, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. Do not bow down to them and don't serve them. No carved images, no likenesses, nothing else. Don't bow down to them, don't serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the Father upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me. Desiring friendship with the world causes the Holy Spirit to yearn jealously. In Exodus 34, 14, you shall worship no other God, nothing in this world. It doesn't have to be a carved statue. You shall worship no other God, for the Lord whose name is Jealous is a jealous God. In Deuteronomy 32, 16, they provoked God to jealousy with foreign gods, and we can provoke God to jealousy, too, with abominations. They provoked Him to anger. God is righteous and holy, and when we live independently of him and serve something else, put that first before him, he's jealous, he's angry. The Holy Spirit can be grieved. He's a person. So the power that we have for the problem of conflict is the Holy Spirit. And the provision is that God gives more grace. It's available. God's grace is available. He gives more grace. It never runs out. James has indicated that the thinking of these believers has not been honoring. It's not been pleasing to the Lord, but God is gracious. He's provided through his grace, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the source of grace and truth of his fullness. We've all received in grace for grace, grace upon grace for the Lord was given through the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. So we need to put ourselves into the position of how are we going to receive this grace? This grace, again, is available by faith. We have access into this grace by which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God, Romans 5 and 2, 5-2. We have access by faith. God's offering his gift. He's offering his grace to us. We can accept it by faith, just as we accepted salvation as a free gift by grace. by faith. In Romans 5.20, moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. Isn't that encouraging? If you've been involved with sin, grace abounds much more, and we all have, haven't we? So is this not encouraging? We cannot out-sin the grace of God. That's wonderful news. So we can relax. We can know that God's grace is available to us right now. And in our concluding verse, this tells us how we can appropriate God's grace. So if God's grace is available, we can appropriate God's grace as James here quotes from Proverbs 3.34, about how God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. We have to put ourselves in a position to receive God's grace, it's available to us. But if we're arrogant, if we're proud, As these people were, there will be rivalries and conflicts in the church. It'll cripple the church, and it's all because of pride. And so we have seen that those who are worldly and function independently of God's purpose and plan and power are proud. They create problems in their local church as their life is about themselves. It's not really about Jesus Christ. And we can all be proud. It affects our relationships with others. It causes discord within the church as we see in our passage today. So we don't want to be proud as life outside of the will of God leads again to frustration. So God resists the proud, but the cure, the answer for wrath, the answer for this internal fighting, the answer to this fighting amongst believers, it's cured by humility. Positively, God gives grace to the humble. So our passage today has been a sobering warning, but James leaves us with a reminder of God's promise and his provision of grace, and it's available to those who have a yielded spirit of meekness and dependence and humility. Pray that thou be true of us here today, that we have a yielded spirit, that we're meek and we're dependent and we're humble. God gives grace to the humble. So where does that leave us? First Peter, chapter one, or chapter five, verse five through seven. Peter writes, likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another and be clothed in humility. For God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Again, quoting the same proverb, Proverb 334, as James quoted. So James is going to Proverbs 3.34. Peter uses Proverbs 3.34. Let's read it again. God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant. Because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seek whom he may devour. Thinking of the wolves in sheep's clothing. Saw something once, it said, not too long ago, it said, the sheep may think that the wolf will never come, but the shepherd lives for that day. Shepherd and the sheepdog, they're on guard, looking out for your souls. Your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion, he seeks to whom he may devour. The world hates you, believer. It wants to devour you. Satan wants to devour you. So resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. Peter is also writing about sufferings and trials, just as James was. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary—oh, I read that. walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world." So each of us has an opportunity to function within the will of God. God's grace is available. He gives more grace. We can function within His will in our thinking, in our lives, in our relationships with others, at home and in the church. If you're people in conflict, you know that there's carnality, there's pride in there. Pride causes us to act in a manner that's in line with the world, and the world is hostile to God. So James has asked us today, what is it that we really want? So if we live for ourselves and our own worldly ambition, with a life characterized by conflicts with others, that's one choice. Our pride and our worldly ambition and conflicts, that's on the one hand. On the other hand, to live quietly, to live peaceably, to live faithfully, to live meekly, right where God has placed us. To be content and thankful and at peace with others. So I just thank you for listening tonight. Let's close with a word of prayer. Our Father, I just thank you for your grace. I thank you that you demonstrated your love for us. And while we were sinners, you sent your son to die. And that even now, as we live in this world, it's hostile to you, that you've given us everything we need to live a life of peace and godliness, to live a life that would be enjoyable. in harmony with you and your desires, where you answer our prayer and you delight in giving us what's best for us and what glorifies you. So just pray, Father, that that's what we really want and not to allow worldly thinking and carnality to take our eyes off of you and to think that somehow there's something else that's better. So we know you'll be jealous and we'll be in conflict not only with you, not only within ourselves, but with others. So just thank you, Father, for this lesson today and I just pray that We take these truths and apply them to ourselves in our own thinking. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen