Open your Bibles back to James chapter 4. That passage that Mel read for us earlier will be our text this morning, James chapter 4. We've been studying through the book of James on Sunday mornings in youth Sunday school class. Verses 1 through 10, it took us a month of Sunday school lessons to go through. Hoping to be a little bit shorter this morning. Hopefully, we'll see. The title of my message is Unity Through Humility. Unity Through Humility. There's a lot here in this passage. God's really worked on my heart, and I hope to be able to share that with you this morning. James chapter 4, verses 1 through 10. I've read that the average helicopter requires four hours of maintenance. Four hours of maintenance for every one hour of flight. That seems really high, right? What was a helicopter designed to do? Was it designed to be maintained or was it designed to fly? It was designed to fly, right? You don't make a helicopter to maintain it, you make a helicopter to fly. And so it seems like a really inordinate amount of time is spent maintaining. And I've read that this is because there's about 400 pieces in the average helicopter that are necessary to maintain flight. And if one of those pieces fail, there's a good chance the helicopter will crash. And so they spend a lot of time in preventative maintenance, trying to get out ahead of a problem and stop it before it happens while they're up in the air. Preventative maintenance. It's the best kind of maintenance. The main issue that this text deals with is not an issue that I believe is crippling our church. It's not an issue that I believe is crippling our church. However, it very easily could. I want us to approach this sermon as preventative maintenance of the desire is that we examine our hearts and our lives, and we fall on our faces before God in humility, and seek to correct anything that we find that's out of place in our own hearts, in our own lives, to avoid this future problem. The issue that this text addresses is disunity in the local church. Disunity in the local church. In this passage we see first the sin, then the source of that sin, and finally the solution. The sin, the source, and the solution. And we learn the biblical truth that unity in the church, unity in the church will be a product of personal holiness and humility before God. Unity in the church will be a product of personal holiness and humility before God. Before we jump into this, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Dear Lord, we thank you. Thank you for the beautiful day you've given us. Thank you, Lord, for the opportunity we have to gather together. Thank you, Lord, for the time we've already spent in Sunday school in your Word, and now the music that we've sung, the hymns. Lord, what an encouragement it's been to be in the house of God this morning with the people of God. Lord, I pray that as we look at your Word here, this passage in James, that we would be convicted of things that are wrong. And Lord, that we would be instructed on how to make things right. Lord, we ask these things in your name, for your glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So first we see the sin. The sin. And that sin is disunity within the church. And James exposes this in the first part of verse 1. He asks a question. He says, from whence come wars and fighting among you? From whence come wars and fighting among you? James asked this Holy Spirit inspired question. Where did these wars and fighting come from? We can assume a couple of things from this question. First we can assume that there were wars and fighting in the church. Now James, he's an elder in the church of Jerusalem. And the Christians have been scattered abroad because of persecution in Jerusalem. And James is there and he's getting reports back. And so he writes the book of James to correct some issues in Christian living that these Christians who've been scattered abroad have had. The book of James, it's really, really practical. Really practical book. Just talking about practical Christianity. What Christianity should look like lived out. And this is an issue that these Christians are having. There's wars and fighting among them. In their local assemblies, there's wars and fighting. And James says, where do these things come from? We can assume that there's wars and fighting in the church. And second, these wars and fighting, they are not natural. These wars and fighting, they are not natural. Wars and fighting within the church are not part of God's design. They don't belong. They're not part of God's design. Local churches have unity. It's not my intention and we don't really have time to deal with this issue. In great depth, I want to give you a couple of references. First, Ephesians 4 verse 3. In Ephesians 4 verse 3, it talks about keeping the unity of the Spirit. Now, that's not the thrust of this passage. It's teaching on something different. But it mentions the unity of the Spirit we're supposed to have. Unity in the Spirit of God. Also, 1 Corinthians 12. In 1 Corinthians 12, I'm going to read verses 12 and 13. The Bible says, For as the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been made to drink into one Spirit. If your physical body was not unified. If you had disunity within your physical body, what would the situation be? You'd be in a mess. Right? The body is supposed to have unity. That's a picture of the church. There's supposed to be unity in the body of Christ through one spirit, the Holy Spirit. And so these wars and fighting in the church are not part of God's design. Now there's a biblical term for being outside of God's plan. There's a biblical term for this, all right? Really simple, three letters, sin. Sin, being outside of God's plan, God's pattern is sin. The church where the members are at war and fighting is a church that is far removed from the will of God. And this failure, this sin, must be corrected. Now let's pause for a moment here. I mentioned that I don't think this is an issue that's currently tearing this church apart. But we need to stop and examine our lives. Have we ever, or do we ever, attack a brother or sister in Christ? Especially in our local body. Do we ever attack a brother or sister in Christ? Do we ever disrupt the unity of the church? This is a serious sin. A serious sin. And James approaches this issue head on. He gets right to the source. He says, where do these wars and fighting come from? They don't come from God. They're not part of his pattern. He's designed for the local church. So where do they come from? With an eight-word question, James is exposed a great and grievous sin, disunity, wars, and fightings within the church. And with the sin exposed, the scripture goes on to deal with the source. The source. The source listed is lusts within. Look at the second part of verse 1. James chapter 4, second part of verse 1. Where do these wars and fighting come from? Come they not, hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? So he asks, where do the wars and fighting come from? And now he answers, they come from the lusts that war in your members. You'll find it to be the case when you begin to look for the source of sin. Many times it will lead you back, or for the source of a specific sin, many times it will lead you back to another sin. And that sin has found its source in another sin. And that sin has found its source in another sin. Sin is like a chain reaction. It keeps on building and building and getting bigger and bigger. And the more that sin grows in the life, the more power that sin has over a life. It's a chain that binds. That's certainly the case here. James says here that the disunity in the church found its source in the lusts of individual members. Does anyone need to answer the question? What are these pleasures? What are these lusts that he talks about here? A lust very simply is an ungodly desire. An ungodly desire. A sinful desire with sin as its focus. Or maybe it can even be sometimes an ungodly desire for a good thing. We can illustrate this. Some examples. Now the sex drive, it's a good thing. It's God given. God put it within us. It's a great blessing within the bounds God has set for it. But what are those boundaries? Genesis chapter 2 verse 24 defines marriage. Jesus affirms this in Mark 10 verses 5 through 9. One man, one woman, one life. Any sexual activity outside of marriage is a perversion of God's plan. It's sin. And any desire for such is an ungodly desire. It's lust. How about hunger? Hunger is a natural God-given desire. Adam and Eve, they ate in the Garden of Eden. I like food. I really like food. Mrs. Bell was telling me yesterday that she had made something that I really like. She was planning to make something I really like for the meal today after church. I was excited because I like food. It's a good thing. But that desire, that good desire, can very easily become corrupted, perverted. and become an ungodly lust, gluttony, has a spiritual effect on us, has a physical effect on us, an ungodly desire. In our society, we need money. I wish we didn't, but we do. We need money to survive, to buy the things that we need to get by. And it's a good desire, it's a godly desire to want to work hard to provide for yourself, to provide for your family, to provide for those in need. That's a good biblical desire. But it's so easy to get tripped up and fall into this lust after money, to love money. And what does the Bible call that? It says, the love of money is what? The root of all evil. Absolutely, yeah. There's a quote that's often attributed to J.D. Rockefeller, who was at one time the richest man in the world. He was the first billionaire in American history. And the legend goes that someone asked him, how much? How much is enough? To which he supposedly replied, just a little bit more. Just a little bit more. Now, we don't know if J.D. Rockefeller actually said that. We don't know for sure. But isn't that the mantra of lust? How much is enough? And lust says, just a little bit more. Just a little bit more. Just a little bit more. And on and on and on it goes. This passage goes on to bring out two terrible truths about lust. Two terrible truths about lust. Look at what it says in verse 2. It says, Ye lust, and have not. Ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain. Ye fight, and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Lust all you want. Lust all you can, but the end result will always be the same. Ye have not. Three times in this one verse, it says, ye have not. Ye cannot obtain. Ye have not. Lust is its own end. When you act on lust, it will only lead to more lust, and the cycle will continue and continue and continue. The perverter of sexual desires is never satisfied. The glutton is never full. The greedy never have enough. And on, and on, and on it goes. And James says here, you can fight, you can war, you can kill, but your lusts will continue on unsatisfied. Unsatisfied. At the end of this verse, it says, Yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye have not, because ye ask not. What don't you have if you're chasing after the lusts of your heart? Fulfillment? Satisfaction? You don't have these things because you're not asking for them from the One who can truly provide them. We were created for a purpose. Society would have us to think otherwise, but the Bible says that we were created for a purpose. And we are to honor and glorify God, to bring God the honor and glory that He is worthy of from our lives. And in this only, we find satisfaction because this is what we were created for. Anything else is less than our created purpose. And if we're not going to the source of satisfaction, we're never going to be satisfied. When we chase after our lusts that war within us, we will never be fulfilled. And this verse gives a rebuke. Why are you not asking God? Why aren't you going to God, the only one who can truly provide for lasting satisfaction? The first truth seen here about lust is that it will never lead to satisfaction. Lust will never lead you to fulfillment, to satisfaction. It will only lead to more lust. The second terrible truth about lust seen here is that lust blinds. Lust blinds. Look at verse 3. It says, you ask and receive not. Now wait a second, James. What do you want from us? You say in the end of verse 2, you don't have because you don't ask. And now it says, you ask and you receive not. Well, what does James expect of us? We've got to continue on and see the point that James, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is making here. He says, you ask and receive not because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts. that you may consume it upon your lusts. A prayer that is born from an ungodly desire is a worthless, empty prayer. A prayer that finds its source in an ungodly desire, an ungodly lust, is an ungodly prayer, and it would be better to not pray. But we would never do that, right? We would never pray a prayer out of a heart of lust. Those are spiritual people, right? We understand these things and we would never fall into a trap like that. I think sometimes it sneaks up on us. We don't realize what we're doing, really. There's an example that I came across a while back from Mark Twain, of all people. He actually provided a good illustration of a prayer born of lust. I don't think that was his intention, but he did it anyways, in a short story titled, The War Prayer. And in this story, The country has gone to war and everyone is full of patriotic spirit and in a church service there's this long lengthy prayer that God would grant the country a great and crushing victory over their enemies. Somebody gets up and delivers this long flowing prayer and after that person is done an older man in the congregation stands up and he prays another prayer. I'm going to read a portion of that prayer. He writes, O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle. Be thou near them. With them in spirit, we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells. Help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead. Help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, withering in pain. Help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire. Help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief. Help us to turn them out roofless with their little children, to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolate land in rags and hunger and thirst. broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring thee for the refuge of the grave, and denied it. For our sakes, who adore thee, Lord. Blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet. We ask it. in the spirit of love, of him who is the source of love and who is ever faithful refuge and friend to all that are sore beset and seek his aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen. Mark Twain, he was not a godly man. And he wrote that as satire. In many ways, he had a very, very low opinion of Christianity and the church. And sometimes I think we deserve a low opinion of the world. Because how often do our prayers sound just like that. Prayers that are born out of a spirit of lust, out of an ungodly desire. Lust, it blinds us to our hypocrisy. And when we pray from a heart full of lust, it's hypocrisy and worthless before God. James, he goes on and he uses some strong language in verses 4 and 5 to address the ungodly lives these Christians are living. He says, Verse 4, ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do you think that the scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? So ye adulterers and adulteresses, verse 4 starts with. That's a serious accusation. If somebody were to barge in here, walk into the service and call you out publicly for adultery, that would be a very serious accusation. So what's James talking about here? Look at the rest of the verse. It says, James is telling these Christians, and us by extension, in no uncertain terms, that they can't have it both ways. You can't be a friend of the world and a friend of God. When you're saved, you become part of the church, the bride of Christ. And any time when you turn from Christ and you go back to the world, back to sin, you're committing spiritual adultery against your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And James asks, don't you know? Don't you realize? Don't you understand what you are doing? Look at verse 5. Do you think that the scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? There's some debate among commentators about what's being discussed here because that's not a direct quote from anywhere else in scripture. You can't find that quote anywhere else in scripture. Now some commentators and some other translations put this in a little bit more clear wording other than King James does. There's some debate here about what it's talking about. Some commentators will say that it's pointing to the spirit that's within man. Some say the sin nature and the natural bend to wickedness. And that's a scriptural doctrine. Man has a sin nature within him. Others believe that it's referring to the Holy Spirit that indwells believers. And that's the position that I would take. And that's also a very biblical stance. The Holy Spirit is grieved by sin. grieved by sin in the believer's life, grieved by sin. And the scripture is clear in several places that God is jealous for his people. When we are jealous, when a man is jealous, it's often because that man wants something that doesn't belong to him. He wants honor, he wants loyalty, he wants things that don't necessarily belong to him. And often it's sin to be jealous. But when God is jealous, it's a holy and righteous jealousy because God doesn't want something that doesn't belong to Him. God wants something that is due Him honor and glory from His people. It's a righteous jealousy because God is worthy of our lives. He's worthy of our praise. He is worthy of any glory and honor that we can bring to Him. When we commit spiritual adultery against God by turning our back on Him and seeping ourselves in sin, we provoke Him to jealousy. There's a lot of being dealt with here, and we need to be careful that we don't lose ourself in the great depth of this passage. The sin that James, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is addressing is this disunity in the church, these wars and fightings within the church. James then addresses the source of this sin, lusts within individual believers. Uncheck lusts, lusts that have been acted upon. Sin that has estranged them from God. Friendship with the world. And the Holy Spirit has been grieved and God is jealous for His people. Maybe you're sitting there and you're under great conviction. God used this passage to really deal with me. And this passage shows so clearly that when we fail in personal holiness, when we fail in personal holiness, it's not just us who are affected. It's the whole body. Not only that, but we set ourselves up as enemies of God. We provoke Him to jealousy. Each and every time, one of us fails. We're endangering the unity of the body of Christ. Each and every one of us should be convicted as we consider this passage. Great conviction. I have gone so far astray. I have so easily fallen into lusts. I have so endangered the unity in the church. I have so offended my God. What is my hope? We've looked at the sin. We've seen the source. And now verses 6 through 10 deal with the solution. Now what is that solution? Humility before God. The first part of verse 6 contains some of the most encouraging words in all Scripture. Some of the most encouraging words in all Scripture. Look at what it says, the first part of verse 6. But He, God, giveth more grace. God gives more grace. The grace of God is greater than our failures. The grace of God is greater than our shortcomings. The grace of God is greater than our sin. Friend, if you're biblically minded, that's the best news that you can read. For He giveth more grace. We must rely on the grace of God. We must rely on the grace of God. If you want victory over sin, if you want to overcome the lusts that war within, if you want to see lasting unity in this church, then you must rely on the grace of God. We can't do it on our own. We're not strong enough. We're not good enough. But Jesus Christ is. Jesus Christ is. And he has finished the work and grace is offered to us to meet the need that we have. It is on the grace of God that we must rely. We must rely on the grace of God. The grace of God. But what stands between us and the grace of God? What stands between us and the grace of God? Pride. That old foe of mankind, pride stands between us and the grace of God. And so what then is the solution? James tells us here. Humility. Humility. We must submit ourselves to God. We must humble ourselves and place ourselves under His authority. Look at the first part of verse 8. It says, draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you. Draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you. What a precious promise. Like the father ran to embrace the prodigal son, when the prodigal son returned home, so God meets us when we turn to Him in repentance and humility. I heard one pastor say, when we crawl to God, God walks to us. When we walk to God, God runs toward us. And when we run toward God, God flies to us. God wants that relationship restored, that sin destroyed. And when we repent, when we come to God in humility, God draws nigh to us. What a great and precious promise from the Word of God. Look at the rest of the passage. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up. What will our response to all of this be? What will our response to all of this be? We would like to stop right here. And we might think something like, well, you know, that's a good word. And that's important. And we'll definitely think about this as we file out at the end of service. But the Word of God says, no. No, repent. Show works, meet for repentance. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners. Not those sinners, ye sinners. Purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Not those double-minded, ye double-minded. Don't brush the Word of God off. Be afflicted, mourn, weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. A serious issue demands a serious response. A serious issue demands a serious response. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord. And the whole passage ends with this promise. And He shall lift you up. And He shall lift you up. We're not supposed to do this on our own strength. We can't do this on our own strength. But when we humble ourselves before God, when we come to Him in a spirit of humility, say, Oh God, I can't. I'm relying on Your grace. He will lift us up. James addresses a very serious sin in this passage. Disunity within the church. Wars and fighting within the church. He then exposes the source of this sin. Lusts within individual members. A failure in personal holiness. And finally, the solution is given. Humility before God. The grace of God is sufficient, but we must humble ourselves before God and cry out to him in repentance. God's desire is for there to be unity in the local church body. And such unity will be a product of personal holiness and humility before God. Unity within the church body will be a product of personal holiness and humility before God. Let's close in prayer. Dear Lord, we thank you for your word. Lord, there are so many precious promises in this passage. Lord, there are so many strong rebukes in this passage. It's called repentance. It's called to deal with issues that we might have, lest we endanger the unity of the church. And Lord, I pray that each one of us will take this seriously and will realize the danger that we put the church in when we're not leading lives of purity and holiness before you. Lord, I pray that we would see each little sin not just as something that affects us personally, but something that could affect the whole church. I pray that we would take this very seriously. Lord, that we might bring you the honor and glory that you are worthy of. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.