2019-08-04 James 4:1-3 Stop Fighting (1): Attack From Inside (No video)

STOP FIGHTING (1): ATTACK FROM WITHIN (James 4:1-3) August 4, 2019 Read James 4:1-3 – Psa 133:1 says, “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!” Beautiful pix, isn’t it? I’m grateful that this is largely our experience at our church. But it demands constant vigilance! Jas knows incalculable damage is done in fighting churches. And while fights purport to be about God, they are almost always about us. Jas just instructed: Jas 3: 17: “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.” But when he looks around, that’s not what he sees. Remember there are no chapter divisions in the original letter. So 3:18 flows into 4:1: “And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. 1) [So] What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?” Literally, “Whence quarrels and whence fights among you?” “I’m calling you out, Folks. Much as you may think you are defending God’s honor, this fighting is not of God.” Quarrels (πολεμος) is usually translated “war.” “Fights” (μαχη) = individual skirmishes. Jas readers are at war with each other. We’d expect it of the world with its back to God. People fight in business, politics, religion, education, marriage and sports. But we must be different. Jn 13:35: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” “People will know of me by the difference they see in thee!” says Jas. And as Jas looked at his readers he says, “You are blowing it. Your fighting is unsightly and ungodly.” A fighting church is a contradiction in terms. So, how do we become brothers and sisters who dwell together in unity? That is the subject of vv. 1-12. The first 6 deal with the problem; the last 6 with the solution. So we’ll see I. Attack From Inside: II. Attack From Outside: III. Attend to Yourself: IV. Attend to Others. Today, the attack from within. “Whence wars and skirmishes among you?” They start inside. I. Selfish Desire In answer to his own question, whence wars among you, Jas replies, “Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you.” Passions is ἡδονή from which we get hedonism – love of pleasure. The dictionary definition is “experience of pleasure for any reason.” It can refer to sensuality as when Peter says of ungodly skeptics in II Pet 2:10: “They count it pleasure to revel in the 1 daytime.” They don’t even wait for darkness for cover. Pleasure is their pursuit day and night. But in this context, the word has a slightly more focused meaning. These are those who seek the pleasure of being right, of coming out on top, of getting their own way, of imposing their preferences. 2) “You desire and do not have, so you murder.” Literally!? That got heavy fast. Were Jas readers actually killing each other? That would be the church fight to end all church fights. But he’s not talking about physical murder. Murder is used metaphorically here, but that hardly softens Jas’ comment. I Jn 3:15: “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer.” You don’t have to stick the knife in physically; verbally and emotionally will work just as well. Bottom line, it’s a serious thing to hate because you’re not getting your way. “You desire.” You lust after, crave something. We’ve met desire before in 1:14 where it is the seed of temptation. We discovered that desire in and of itself is not wrong. Desire is God’s gift to enable Godly ambition and enjoyment. Desire is neutral. Poor Lazarus sitting outside the rich man’s house in Lu 16 desired to be fed. Jesus earnestly desired to eat Passover with His disciples. It’s the object of desire and the refusal to be satisfied when desire is not met that turns it evil -- desire abused is the problem. How often are church fights about someone desiring their own way and can’t get it? It leads to war. King David had a daughter who was raped by her half-brother, Amnon. Her full brother, Absalom, took revenge and killed Amnon. Worse, he became the mortal enemy of his own father, seeking from that time to take his throne away. He desired – but his desire was for the wrong things – revenge and power. Desire for revenge led to killing his brother. Lust for power led to war with his father and desire for his death. Only it was Absalom who ended up hanging from a tree by his hair until he died. That’s illustration enough. But, as Paul Harvey would say, “Now for the rest of the story.” We know how David seduced Bathsheba and then murdered her husband, Uriah. But did you know David had an advisor, Ahithophel, who was the grandfather of Bathsheba (II Sam 11:3 cf 23:34). So when Absalom took David on, guess what? II Sam 15:12: “And while Absalom was offering the sacrifices, he sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s counselor, from his city Giloh.” Ahithophel joined Absalom – not hard to guess why. Desire for revenge against the guy who messed up his granddaughter’s life. At first Ahithophel’s counsel was followed, but eventually Absalom ignored him. So II Sam 17:23: “When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey and went off home to his own city. He set his house in 2 order and hanged himself, and he died and was buried in the tomb of his father.” Illicit, unfulfilled desire leading to murder – in this case his own. So, we must beware. Churches have been ravaged by illicit desire –for power, prestige, revenge, recognition, prominence, or simply to have our own way. We’d never say it that way. We’re just defending God’s interests. But let’s all remember, God can defend his own interests. Short of an issue of morality or a major theological aberration, we must not be fighting. Accept a few hymns with the praise choruses for the sake of peace. Learn to appreciate the words more than the tune. Worship how you do best and let others do the same whether it’s hands up or hands down. Express your thoughts on carpet color and then accept the decision of the committee. We must not be figuratively killing each other just because we don’t always get our way, right? Let’s love the diversity -- embrace our differences. Phil 2:3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4) Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” No one ever said that would be easy – just worth it. II. Selfish Covetousness 2b) “You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.” Covet. It could be a synonym for “desire”, but here, it is desire intensified -- more than lusting after something, it is lusting after it because someone else has it. That inflames desire. Covetousness is desire in overdrive. It so focuses the mind on what we don’t have that we see nothing else – including God. So, Paul instructs in Col 3:5: “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” Imagine putting covetousness in the same list as sexual immorality! What was Paul thinking? He tells us. He was thinking it all amounts to idolatry. If you are having a sexual relationship outside marriage, you’ve put someone ahead of God in your affections. You’ve chosen to replace His will with yours. But covetousness is no better. You’ve put something ahead of God in your life. You might as well be offering incense to a physical idol. An Indian family lived across the street from us in YL. Patty went out of her way to represent Christ to them. On one occasion, she was invited to dinner when I was out of town. Typical Indian food. Sitting on the floor. But as they began, a daughter took a tray upstairs – to the room where they kept their gods. We would often hear them chanting and offering incense to various physical idols in that room. Seems strange and nonsense to us, right? When 3 the meal was over the idol’s tray was returned with no food consumed. Stupid! But no more so than coveting! Both are idols, and both are deadly. John Kennedy won the 1960 pres election by a razor-thin margin over Richard Nixon. On the day of Kennedy’s inauguration, Ted Sorenson, Kennedy’s speech writer, ran into Nixon who complimented him on the speech and said there were some things in there he would like to have said. Sorenson replied, “You mean the part about ‘Ask not what your country can do for you’?” Nixon replied, “No. I mean the part beginning, ‘I do solemnly swear.’” He coveted that position – all the more bc his opponent had it. It proved deadly. But the same happens in churches. Covetousness, Jas says, leads to fights and quarrels because someone can’t get what they covet. People covet the showy gifts – being up front, heading a committee, being a leader. We’re not satisfied to pray and help, we want to be in charge. Coveting position. Coveting the acclaim that someone else gets. They get their way; why can’t I get mine? It’s all idolatry – because I want it for me, not for God – not really. So quarreling ensues. We want the music our way; the decor our way; the organization our way; the staffing our way. We’re Burger King addicts; we want it our way. When what we should all be seeking is God’s way! J. Oswald Sanders, great missionary and Bible teacher for OMF once wrote how he wanted a particular position in a Xn organization. Having friends of influence, he decided to lobby for the position to see if someone could pull some strings. But walking down the main street of Auckland, NZ he passed His Majesty’s Theater, and a verse of Scripture came to mind: Jer 45:5: “Do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not!” He said, “The words came just as though it was God speaking. There were crowds all around me, and no one else heard the voice, but I heard it all right!” Sanders later said. “I believe that was a real turning point in my service to the Lord.” As a result, he did not seek the position, but it later opened to him on its own in God’s good timing. So we must all examine our hearts. Do we covet for our own sake, or for God’s? If for Him, surely we can trust Him to bring it about! III. Selfish Prayer One more thing that causes wars and fights – selfish prayer. How good intentioned this starts. Someone wants thing a certain way; they can’t finagle it, so they finally decide, “Oh, I know. I’ll pray about it.” That’s always a good plan, isn’t it? Jas says, “You do not have, because you do not ask.” Okay, so I’ll ask. So I do. And nothing happens. What’s the problem? 4 Jas knows. 3) “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” Slight problem. I was asking for my sake, not God’s. I wanted the pleasure of being right more than I wanted the will of the Father. I wanted what I desired more than I wanted what He wanted. And God doesn’t answer those prayers – selfish prayers. Selfishness cancels the whole deal. God is not obligated to answer all our prayers. Did you know that? Many things can hinder prayer. Prov 28:9: “If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.” In other words, don’t expect you can be living in willful disobedience here and asking for help there. Jas 1:6: “But let him ask in faith.” Lack of faith cancels prayer – not faith that you get all you ask for, but faith that God will answer rightly. I Pet 3:7: “Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way . . . so that your prayers may not be hindered.” Trouble at home can hinder prayer. Psa 66:18: “If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.” So any sin we cherish – even if only in our heart – bitterness, hatred, lust, ambition – can hinder prayer. Here, it’s selfishness. Insistence on having it my way. Desiring something simply to spend it on my own pleasure. Isa 29:13: “This people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me.” God is looking for a selfless heart. That’s what will grab His attention. Too many of our prayers are just a means of saying, “My will be done” – intended to put God in our debt. But He won’t go there. David knew how to pray. Psa 23:3: He restores my soul, He leads me in paths or righteousness for my sake?” Was that it? No – “for his name’s sake.” Psa 25:11: “For your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great.” Didn’t forgiveness benefit David? Yes – but his primary concern was for God’s name. Is that the way we pray? Psa 31:3b: “for your name’s sake you lead me and guide me.” Psa 79:9: “Deliver us, and atone for our sins, for your name’s sake.” And listen to this one: Psa 115:1: “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory.” We have a lot to learn about prayer, don’t we? John Ward was a member of the British Parliament. When he died, a prayer was found among his papers: “O Lord, thou knowest that I have mine estates in the City of London, and likewise that I have lately purchased an estate in the county of Essex. I beseech thee to preserve the two counties of Middlesex and Essex from fire and earthquake; and as I have a mortgage in Hertfdordshire, I beg of thee likewise to have an eye of compassion on that county. As for the rest of the counties, thou mayest deal with them as thou 5 art pleased.” Appalling? Yes! But I wonder how many of our prayers, if they saw the light of day would sound very similar. Would they? We must closely examine ourselves, Beloved. Are we in it for us, or for God? Conc – “Whence wars and whence skirmishes?” Jas answers his own question. They come from your attempts to give yourself pleasure – you desire the wrong things, covet for the wrong reasons, and pray selfishly. The common denominator? Selfishness. Causes fights every time, doesn’t it? England has long had a poet laureate position. When Tennyson died a list of potential candidates to succeed was created. Sir Lewis Morris, a politician and poet of some repute, was not on the list, though he craved the position. He complained to Oscar Wilde, “It’s a complete conspiracy of silence against me. What ought I to do, Oscar?” Wilde replied, “Join the conspiracy.” Good advice. When you feel left out, overlooked, and not getting your way, what to do? Recognize selfish ambition for what it is, give it to God and move on. Stop fighting in its tracks. Let’s pray. 6