I want to be taking you through the large majority of James chapter 4 this morning. I couldn't quite get through it all, but I cut it off at verse 12, and I think it's going to be a blessing. Open your Bibles to James chapter 4, and while we're doing that, go into a brief moment of prayer with me. Father God, thank you, Lord, for the privilege that it is to speak this morning on this wonderful Sunday. I pray, Lord, that you help us all to glean understanding from your word, that this message would convict our heart, that it would help us ultimately to draw closer to you and see our sin as it really is and how we fall short of your glory and your holiness. Father God, I pray that you give us all ears to hear and the motivation to put your word into action. And I pray this in Jesus's precious name. Amen. So James chapter 4, I have a little outline here. It's going to take us to show us wisdom and action. I have the message titled, Godly Choices and Wise Speaking. James is going to show us that we have a choice between friendship with God or friendship with the world. And then James is going to show us that we have a choice between humility or arrogance or selfishness. And then James is going to bring the hammer down on us as he shows us how to speak wisely with those who are brothers. I'm going to start off with the first five verses. Read along with me, if you would, in James chapter 4, verses 1 through 5. What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is the source not your pleasures that wage war in your body's parts? You lust and do not have, so you commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. you ask and do not receive, because you ask with the wrong motives, so that you may spend what you request on your pleasures. You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility towards God? Therefore, whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the scripture says to no purpose, he jealously desires the spirit whom he has made to dwell in us? James wants to take us to a moment of self-examination. He asks us directly, and the believers of that time as well, what causes quarrels and fights among us? And he doesn't give us time to think. He exposes our reality. We are selfish. We let our passions take over. They blind us to the reality of how we should be living. considering the gift of salvation that we as believers have. There's obviously some bad blood in these churches that James is writing to. And this isn't a problem that's limited just to this church or churches in the Bible. Look at all, and maybe you all have been unfortunately a part of this, look at all of the church splits that have happened in even just the last 25 years. It's terribly sad. Terribly sad. And here's the reality of it, myself included. We have all been, or are currently a part of, some quarrel with someone who is a believer. We let our own passions blind us to the reality that we serve the same God and we're part of the same mission. These are the same sinful, self-indulgent passions that cause destruction. They cause chaos. They cause pain. This is really interesting, something that I had to pencil in here that happened this morning. It's wild how God works, but I was up here placing my sermon and my Bible up here and Ralph and Dave were up here speaking and they were bringing up something about interpretation of certain, what you could consider second or third tier issues. And it was convicting for myself even hearing this, because I'm going to be as honest as I can. Very early on in my Christian journey, I would say probably somewhere in the 2022 area, I have named what I now like to refer to myself back then as a Facebook warrior. That's what I was. Specifically with my old pastor, love him to death, Pastor Josh, wonderful guy. And I was part of the prayer team and there were some people on that that we just didn't quite see eye to eye on some things. but not sin issues. Let me be very clear. And while it's a funny name that I refer to myself as, this is what would happen, and this is not good. I would see some post that one has made on social media platforms, and I would think it's alarming, but once again, second and third tier issue. And if you don't know what that is, I get on to that more in the sermon. But let me be clear, not sin issues at all. And if I'm being honest, I was leaning into them about it. I was fighting for truth on the phone and in text messages, proof texting every line. But that was in a way that was causing division rather than bringing us closer together as believers. Now, there's nothing wrong with fighting for truth. Biblical truth, of course not. But doing it in the right way is absolutely important. And that's not something you want to do in that example. And even now I fight that urge that you just see so many deceivers and horrible things happening in the realm of Christianity and it's hard to not feel the urge to want to fight in that way and quarrel with another believer. James says here in verse 2 that they are causing murder because of their evil desires. Now through the study of this text, I don't know if this is specifically talking about physical murder. Probably not, but that is a possibility. James is most likely leaning on the teachings of Christ found in Matthew 5 verses 21 through 22. I'll read it for you here. You have heard that the ancients were told, you shall not murder, and whoever commits murder shall be answerable to the court. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be answerable to the court. And whoever says to his brother, you good for nothing, shall be answerable to the Supreme Court. And whoever says, you fool, shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. That is the words of our Lord. Hatred and anger towards one another is a grievous sin against God. This type of anger that we can hold reveals a lack of wisdom from above. It relies on jealousy, selfish ambition, and selfishness. This takes place when our passions Our preferences, our perspectives are wrapped up in me, me, me, and what I'm desiring. And then what happens? What takes place after that? Anyone that stands against us, anyone that stands in our way, we get angry with. We push them aside. We begin to quarrel or fight with. When we lack godly wisdom, all we're able to focus on is ourself, our own desires. Now listen to this quote. When I was writing this, it was convicting. 17th century Jewish philosopher Spinoza was considered one of the greatest thinkers of his time. Now let me be clear, I don't believe this man to be a believer. I have not researched him that much, so I don't 100% know. But listen, this bite of wisdom he gives us. Whether it's hatred we have in our heart. Maybe it's holding something against someone or a certain group of people. Maybe you don't have the best opinions about people in this group or the people over there or people who live there. People who do this or look like that. Hear this. I have often wondered that persons who make boast of professing the Christian religion Namely, love, joy, peace, temperance, and charity to all men should quarrel with such rancorous animosity and display daily towards one another such bitter hatred that this, rather than the virtues which they profess, is the readiest criteria of their faith. That's convicting. That is conviction. This is it put from the Bible. One of the marks of the church is that we love one another. Listen to what John has to say in John 13, 35. By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. There is nothing more detrimental to the church, there is nothing more detrimental to our witness for Christ to the world than if we hate, especially if we hate one another. we are to be marked by love. If you continue to look more like the world than you do like Jesus, you are not taking part in godly wisdom. If you continue to pay more attention to the world than you do paying attention to Jesus, you are not taking part in godly wisdom. We can continue to be worried about the things of this world, the state of our country, Things that will ultimately pass away, things that are temporary, the things that people are doing, people groups are doing, wars, all of these things. And worrying about such things is useless. But if we don't love, if there is no love found in us, especially to believers, that's more detrimental to the mission, to our calling, and ultimately to our Savior. 4 verse 3, you ask and do not receive because you ask with the wrong motives so that you may spend what you request on your pleasures. God is the perfect giver of gifts. He loves giving gifts to his children and thank God for that. But he only gives gifts that will help you grow in his love and affection for him and affection for others. So if you're asking for things out of selfish desire, you're asking for things that won't bring about His glory, you're not going to receive them. Good and perfect gifts from God are not those that serve the selfish desires in Parker's heart or your heart, they're not the gifts that Cause, oh, sorry, not the gifts that bring about my desires, my pleasures. The gifts God gives are to help glorify him and bring about his kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. You see, that's where the prosperity gospel gets it wrong. And there's plenty more that the prosperity gospel gets wrong. But this is the main thing. God doesn't exist or provide for your soul happiness or your benefit. God gives so that he can be made much of. God gives so that he is the focus. We are not going to receive what we ask for if it doesn't line up with godly desires. Unless it is used as a judgment upon us. James goes a little harder at the believers in this letter. And if I'm going to be honest, I like James for that reason. I do. There's no softballing reading the book of James. There's no spiritual milk, if you want to use biblical terminology. It's all stake here. For most of the letter, he's been rather gentle in his language, calling them brothers. But this is where he brings it down. James 4, verses 4 through 5. You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility towards God? Therefore, whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that scripture says to no purpose he jealously desires the spirit whom he has made to dwell in us? I thought that was interesting. You adulteresses. And that was not random that he chose that. This reminds the believers of the current time of the Old Testament prophets calling out the Israelites. Check this out in Jeremiah. It's beautiful. Jeremiah 3 verse 20 says this. However, as a woman treacherously leaves her lover, so you have dealt treacherously with me. House of Israel declares the Lord. When we are called to God, we need to view it as a marriage between ourselves and the king of the universe. As strange as that might be, this marriage language is all over scripture. The church is often referred to as the bride. When we chase after selfish, earthly, and even demonic wisdom, we're violating our relationship with God. When we seek friendship with the things of this world, we're telling God that, God, your love isn't good enough. We're committing spiritual adultery when we are friends with the world. Friendship in the first century is a little different than how we view friendship now. It has changed. When James writes about friendship, he is writing about a sharing of all things. This includes personal things, intimate things, and spiritual unity. You can't have that type of relationship with both God and the world. You cannot be unified with God wholly and unified with the world. There's going to be one in that relationship that falters. You cannot be bonded to the things of this earth without being adulterous towards God. This is what makes it tricky. Oftentimes, and at least I hope, we don't overtly disclaim God by consciously deciding to follow the world. Usually it doesn't end up by waking up in the morning and saying, you know what? Worldly mindset this morning. I'm going to live worldly today. I'm going to disrespect the Lord. It doesn't look like that. But when we imitate the world, when our mindsets and our concerns are chiefly of the world, that's when we're friends of the world. When our wisdom reflects mostly earthly wisdom instead of godly wisdom, that is the problem. When we neglect those in need, when we show preference to someone over another, and I don't care what the reason is, I really don't. When we speak with hatred, with jealousy, speak with judgment on others about their status, their appearance, how they falter in certain ways, we're demonstrating a friendship with the world over a friendship with God. When we're concerned with our own pleasures, our own desires, how we prefer things to be, rather than the mission of the Lord, that's worldly friendship. That's worldly friendship over being friends with the Lord. And here's a spoiler if you haven't gotten to the end of the Bible. It's been out for 2,000 years, you've had enough time. God doesn't tolerate rivals in any sense of the word. He is jealous for you. He wants you to know that he cares for you. He wants what's best for you. And the craziest part is, We don't deserve an ounce of anything. He wants your full focus. The Lord wants your devotion to him because he knows that that's what's going to make you whole. That's what's going to make you the best that you can be to serve God. Believers belong to the Lord and the Lord should have sole claim over their life because of the work that he's doing in you and because of the sacrifice that he gave for you and me. He alone deserves our devotion. He alone deserves our friendship. He yearns for our devotion and longs for our intimacy because believers are his children and to believers he is our father. And even when we mess up thank God there's grace but that grace is only accessed through humility. Grace demands the response of humility. That's what it says in our text. Let's take a look. James 4, 6 through 10 reads, but he gives a greater grace. Therefore it says God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Submit therefore to God, but resist the devil and he will flee from you. Come close to God and he will come close to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and He will exalt you. Humility is extremely difficult. We need to get over ourselves and look to God. Submit to the Lord. But humility, as hard as it is, and it is hard, It seems counterintuitive from a worldly perspective. How can thinking of myself less be beneficial for me? Because God opposes those who are proud. Look at the examples that Christ gave to us. One example being washing his disciples' feet, the Lord of the universe, creator of all, washing his disciples' feet, even those who would betray. That's putting others before yourself. Verse six, but he gives a greater grace. Therefore it says God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. We want to be on God's side. We want God to be for us. We cannot be proud. Pride spits in God's face. It screams at him that I know better than you, Lord, that I am better and that I don't need to rely on him. just rely on my own. Pride the first and greatest sin, thinking that I know better than my creator on how to live my life. If I submit to God, then through the power he gives, and only he gives, I can resist the devil, and amen. Verse seven says, submit therefore to God, but resist the devil. and He will flee from you. To submit to God is to place ourselves under His Lordship, that He is Lord of our life, and therefore we commit ourselves to obey Him in all things, and that's not easy. We all need a how-to on how to resist the temptations of the devil and thank the Lord that it's given. Step one, submit to God. Step two, rely on God. Step three, obey God. And step four is repeat steps one through three. If we're under the authority of God, then we will firmly refuse to bow to the devil's authority. Humility allows me to draw near to God because it allows me to see my wretchedness and our need for him. Verse seven, or verse eight, says this. Come close to God and he will come close to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. We all need saving from our sinfulness, and it's truly a tragedy when someone doesn't see that. We all continue to need grace. Even after being saved, of course, our messiness and that's putting it nicely. We need help. As we draw near to God, we see the reality of our filthiness and we repent. God will cleanse us and purify us. As we draw near to God, we will be able to focus on what is good, holy, righteous, and perfect. We need to be constantly aware of our need for God's grace because of our tendency to sin. This is something that comes easy. I'm very apt at departing from godly attitudes and behaviors. I believe we all are. It's something that comes so easily is departing from godly attitudes and behaviors because it's so much easier to be on the contrary. But as we draw near to him, We'll be reminded of our reliance, our need for our reliance on Him. We can't do this on our own. We really can't. We need the Holy Spirit to aid us, and humility ultimately allows me to take my sin seriously, to see it how the Lord does. I thought verse nine was interesting. Took me longer to study than all the other verses here. Be miserable and mourn. and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into gloom." I thought that was an interesting verse there. Too often we look at our sin as a little bad behavior that I just couldn't control. I don't take my sin seriously enough. It's just a little sin. It was just once. We don't really think that it grieves the heart of our Lord and our Savior. James is trying to get us to see that sin deeply affects us. And not only us, we know that, but those around us. I mean, look around the effects of sin in our community, in our world, in our churches. It's terrible. We should mourn in our sinfulness, not rejoice. We should weep when we grieve the heart of God. I thought it was interesting he said, let your laughter be turned into mourning. This idea of laughter here that James is talking about is very reminiscent of the fool talked about in the book of Proverbs. I'm going to give you some characteristics of the fool in the book of Proverbs. He scorns the idea of right living. The fool rejects the holiness of God. The fool lives a life of fruitlessness and is only concerned with the things of the earth. He is a fool and is rejected by God. Sin is a serious breach in our relationship with the Lord and we need to see it that way. Our sin can cause tremendous difficulty in our spiritual, physical, and emotional life. You have to take it seriously. I like this saying, and it's put as plain as you can put it, be killing sin or sin will be killing you. It's really that simple. As true believers, we cannot rejoice in our sin. We can rejoice in God's forgiveness, not giving us a license to sin, that's foolishness, but always be actively repenting to the Lord. And when we humble ourselves, we're exalted by God. Verse 10, humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and he will exalt you. When we recognize our spiritual poverty and need for the Lord, he elevates us and empowers us to seek forgiveness through him. Humility is the only proper stance for a believer. Humility is elevation. If you recognize your sinfulness and the gift of salvation that has been given to you, how could you possibly be prideful as a believer? Humility is the only way that we as believers are to live our life. We submit to the Lord's greatness. when we submit to his grace. True humility causes us to look at our relationships with God and look at our relationships with one another in the true light of the gospel of grace. And therefore, we submit to God and live a life of humility. We will stand opposed to divisiveness and demonic wisdom. James issues another aspect of godly wisdom. that we need to partake in and that is pure speech. This will ruffle feathers. This is convicting and is the most convicting of the verses this morning I've found. James 4, 11 through 12. Do not speak against one another, brothers and sisters. The one who speaks against a brother or sister or judges his brother or sister speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge of it. There is only one lawgiver and one judge, the one who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you? judging your neighbor. Sometimes the harshest language we use is on those who are closest to us. And this is true for the church as well. The modern day church has this issue. I'm sure every era of church history has. It's a fact, especially I've found in my evangelization endeavors. You know, some of the most judgmental people I have met are professing Christians and professing Catholics, and that's another issue. It's ironic, borderline. James tells us that we should not speak evil against a brother. one who is bought by the blood of Christ. We shouldn't slander against them because we're not their judge. We shouldn't gossip. Unfortunately, when we quarrel over most issues, it results in name-calling and personal attacks, but may that not be. We are to love, cherish, and care for one another, not offer slanderous words of hate, anger, and opposition towards them. When we slander against our brothers and sisters, we are causing division within the body of Christ. Regardless, if we think that they are wrong, if we cause divisions over things that don't need to be divisive, then we're the problem. I'm going to say this as clearly as I can, and I was writing to myself here, which is why it's convicting to me. My old self and the example I gave at the start of the sermon needed to hear this so badly. The church needs to hear this so badly. I was causing division. If it doesn't directly oppose God's word or the gospel, then be careful how you're responding to your brothers that you believe to be in the wrong. Undue criticism of a fellow child of God flies in the face of loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. In fact, when we decide that someone is wrong, we slander against them, then we're infringing on the true judge's right. We're taking God's role as judge. We are saying that we believe they are not fit to be part of God's family. We are trying to determine their spiritual destiny, you could say. We could not, we cannot, and should not use our standards of what it means to be a Christian and place them on someone else when those said standards are nowhere in the word of God. It comes down to this question. What is our standard as Christians? If that is answered correctly, then everything else comes easier. Everything else comes easier. This, that I hold, is our standard. And that is important to walk away this morning knowing that. The standard to be a Christian is not what's in here. It's certainly not what Parker feels. It's not what Reese feels. It's not what Billy Bob Joe feels. It's not how your parents felt. It's not how you were raised. And it's most certainly not what traditions you're so practicing that are the standard. The word of the Lord is our standard period. Please don't get me wrong. There are places where it is very proper to speak up and say something. Here's a few examples and there's plenty more, I'm sure. When a fellow believer is living outright in sin and boasting in it. That's a sad thing. When they are living according to the wisdom of the world instead of godly wisdom. When their focus isn't on Jesus and they are focused on serving self above all else, not obeying the word of God. Those are just three that I've come up quickly. But outside of those, you are not the judge. We most definitely shouldn't slander people because we disagree with them on certain issues. And this is something that is penetrating the heart of me as I stand here today. 2022 Parker was not doing a service to the church or to other believers. I was being divisive. Be aware of what you're going to fight over. Some issues aren't worth the fight. The second and third tier issues is where there is room for different interpretation is a reality and we need to know that that's where sometimes it's good to just step back. Don't hassle yourself day and night typing things up. Sometimes it's good to just hands off. We are to demonstrate love for God and for others. And so even when we wish to try to correct someone, it is of utmost importance to do that in love. Approach with grace and with understanding. We need to remember that as believers, we're chasing after godly wisdom. And I pray that. I pray that we're chasing after the wisdom that God provides. Godly wisdom pushes us towards humility, Instead of arrogance, godly wisdom guides our speech when we're dealing with those brothers and sisters that we disagree with. Godly wisdom should be our goal, and we should be seeking godly wisdom on a daily basis so we can live the holy life that God has called us to. Bow your head with me as I end in a word of prayer. Father God, what a privilege it is being able to read your word and understand it, that you have given us our perfect standard as believers, something that we can always come back to that is sure and unchanging. And we thank you, Lord, for that. I pray, Lord, that you guide our attitudes, help us to follow godly wisdom instead of worldly wisdom. I pray, Lord, that you guide us in our relationships, and help us to be a good witness for you instead of a bad one. I pray Lord that you help us grow in holiness and be more and more conformed to the image of your son every day that we live and to live to please you above all else in Jesus precious name. Amen.