1. What are the Prevailing Symptoms of selfish pride (4:2-5)
2. What is the Primary Source of selfish pride (4:6)
3. What are some Practical Solutions for selfish pride (4:7-12)
JAMES 4:1
Two old friends were sitting on the front porch one Sunday afternoon when one of them began to confess to the other one. He said, “Bob, I’ve got something to tell you. I’ve never told this to a soul. You know that my wife and I have been married for 30 years. This is tough to say, but we have fought every day of those 30 years.” Well, Bob couldn’t believe it. He never suspected that they had been going through that in their marriage. He knew that couples have their occasional spats—but everyday? He didn’t know what to say, so he asked him, “Everyday? Even today before church?” His friend shook his head, yes. Bob was at a complete lack of words, and the only thing he could come up with was to ask him how it turned out. Bob said, “That woman came crawling up to me on her hands and knees.” “Wow, what did she say then?” “Come out from under that bed and fight like a man!” It wouldn’t be very much fun to be in a marriage like that would it? But the sad thing is, there are many marriages like that. Sometimes it just seems like people like to fight. They fight at home. They fight at work. They fight with relatives. They fight with neighbors. And they fight at church. I bet that if you locked some people in a room all by themselves, they’d fight with themselves. But most people don’t like to fight all the time—just sometimes. There are Landmark Baptists who go through some serious historical gyrations to try and prove that Baptists have been around since New Testament times. I don’t know why they have to twist history like that to try and make their point. All you have to do is look at the church at Jerusalem. It had to be a Baptist church. It had to be, because James says they were fighting. And we all know that Baptists love to fight. We joke about that, but the sad thing is, it’s true. But it’s not true just because we’re Baptists. It’s true because we’re people. Now, the church at Jerusalem where James pastored wasn’t really a Baptist church—Baptist churches didn’t really come around until about 1500 years later. But it was a church that was made up of people. And because it was made up of people, there was conflict. If you ever find a church that is completely without conflict, please don’t join it. Because you’re human and they must not be. If you join it, you’ll just ruin it for them. The passage we’re looking at this morning is part of a larger section that runs all the way through 5:6. That whole section contains James’ sixth test of faith—the pride test. As you recall, he is in the middle of giving us 9 tests to determine whether or not our faith is real. He has already given us the Bible Test, the Preference Test, the Works Test, the Tongue Test and the Wisdom Test. Now it’s time for him to test us at the very core of our sinful nature—at our pride. The test of pride is such a big issue for James, that he divides it into three sections—selfish pride, presumptive pride, and greedy pride. We’ll cover each of those over the next three weeks. In today’s passage, James asks his readers where their continual desire to fight amongst themselves comes from. And his answer is surprising. Rather than point his finger at an outward cause of their strife, he tells them it is because of each of their individual selfishness. Selfishness that is rooted in their pride. He doesn’t address it as a problem with the church body as a whole. It’s not a problem with the group. It’s not a problem with other people. He tells them it’s a problem with each of them. And that problem with each of them is causing problems for the body as a whole. I attended a conference at Ridgecrest this week called Building Bridges. It was designed to call for cooperation and understanding in our convention between Calvinists and Non-Calvinists. I left there with a great deal of hope for our SBC. At least among most of the presenters, there was a tremendous spirit of humility and cooperation. Even among folks with very different theological opinions, there was a common bond of passionate desire for evangelism and a commitment to the inerrancy, infallibility and sufficiency of Scripture. There were many people there who had passed this first part of James’ Pride Test. This morning, I want people to be able to say that about us. I want each of us to identify and recognize the areas in our lives where we harbor selfish pride. And when the Holy Spirit shows us those areas, I want us to turn from them and turn to the better way of selflessness that Christ offers. In order to do that, we’re going to answer three questions concerning selfish pride. The first question is: what are the prevailing symptoms of selfish pride? Look with me at verses 2-5:
JAMES 4:2-5
What are the prevailing symptoms of selfish pride? We have had a lot of people sick in the church over the past few weeks. And those sicknesses have had many of the same symptoms. Stuffy head, fever, coughing, sore throat. Just general yuckiness. Even though it is so much more, some people have described sin as a sickness. You can certainly think of selfish pride as a horrible sickness. It’s not seasonal, as a matter of fact, it’s something you’re born with. You can’t catch it from other people, but being around other people with the same sickness can make it worse. The biggest problem with this sickness is, you don’t necessarily feel bad when you get it. Sometimes it feels really good—for a while. But if left unchecked, selfish pride will destroy everything you hold dear. It will destroy your marriage. It will destroy the relationship between children and parents. It will destroy your family. It will destroy your friendships and it will destroy your church. In no way am I exaggerating when I say that selfish pride is the most destructive disease known to man. People worry about the bird flu and e. coli. Those are absolutely trivial to the disease of selfish pride. So what do you look for to know if you have selfish pride or not? What are the symptoms? The first symptom is lust. All too often in our society, we think of lust as always having a sexual connotation. Well, that’s not always the case. The biblical term includes sexual lust, but it’s not limited to that. It’s really a whole lot bigger than that. There are two different original words used for lust in this passage. The one used in verse 1 is the same word from where we get the word “hedonism” from. It carries the idea of having a completely self-centered view of life. This person’s motto is “whatever feels good, do it.” Their world is completely controlled and dominated by “me”. Even the things they do for others are done because it makes them feel good. Or it makes them feel needed. Or it gives them self-worth. The original word for lust that’s used in verse 2 deals more with the desire. The first is a state of being. It’s who the person has become. The second is the craving he has. It is the intense craving of an alcoholic for the next drink. It is the famished hunger of a starving man. It is the parched thirst of a dehydrated nomad as he walks across the burning desert sands with no water in sight. The object of lust can take many forms. Sex, drugs, alcohol, power, money, position, status, achievement, competition, popularity. The object can take many forms, but the symptom is the same. It is still lust and no matter what the object, it is still just as destructive. The first symptom of selfish pride is lust. The second symptom is consumption. Consumption is what the person who lusts does when he receives the object of his lust. To the person who is full of sexual lust, sex is merely a conquest. It is not an act of love or an act of passion. It is consumption. It is only devouring prey. The person who lusts for achievement is never satisfied. As soon as one achievement is met, they are obsessed with the next goal. The hallmark of consumption is that it is never satisfied. Those who say that we repress our teenagers when we tell them to abstain from sex until they are married have got it all wrong. The more you feed consuming lust, the bigger it grows. It is like a consuming fire. The more fuel you place on the fire, the larger and more destructive it becomes. The cure for consuming lust is not feeding it. It is starving it. Starving it through the use of Holy Spirit filled self-control and the proper use of the gifts God gives us. Not to feed our lusts. But to glorify Him. The first symptom of selfish pride is lust, the second symptom is consumption, and the third symptom is friendship with the world. When the obsession of your life is you, it can’t be God. When you become obsessed with feeding your all-consuming lusts, you can’t be obsessed with God. As a matter of fact, you can’t even really think about God. Because God will not take second place to anything in your life. He will not share your focus with anything. We call that the first commandment. In Exodus 20:3, God said, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” If you think He’s only talking about things like Mohammed and Buddha and Krishna, you’ve got another thing coming. He’s talking about you. Your self. Your selfish lusts. Your all-consuming desires. Anything in this world that you obsess over is your god. Whether it’s your desires, your home, your health, your spouse, your stuff or your kids—it doesn’t matter. God Almighty will not put up with anything in this world that He created being elevated in your heart over His Son Jesus Christ. Friendship with the world is enmity—that is utter hatred—with God. Jesus said, you cannot serve both God and mammon—that’s money. God will not share His glorious throne with anybody or anything. Period. The first symptom of selfish pride is lust, the second symptom is consumption, and the third symptom is friendship with the world. The fourth symptom is envy. Just like verse 5 says, “The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy.” As it is used in this verse, envy is an extreme form of jealousy and is the outcome and result of lust. Think about it, if your heart is full of lust toward an object. It is all you obsess on. No matter how much of it you consume, you still want more and more and more. To the point that it has become the god and sole desire of your life. How are you going to feel when other people have some of it? If you lust for success, are you going to feel joy in the success of others? No, you will feel jealousy. That’s how lust works. It is an appetite that is never satisfied. It is an all-consuming fire that just grows and grows. It is elevating the object of your desire to the place of God in your life. It results in envy and jealousy toward other people. And James says that’s why we fight. When you start to feel sick, what do you do? You take your temperature. You look at the back of your throat. You check your symptoms. Do you show any of the symptoms of selfish pride this morning? If you do, you need to get to the source of the problem. We’ve seen what the prevailing symptoms of selfish pride are. So, what is its primary source? Look with me at verse 6:
JAMES 4:6
What is the primary source of selfish pride? You can immediately see from this verse that pride doesn’t come from God. As a matter of fact, He is completely and totally opposed to it. The word that’s used for resisteth here is actually a military term. It pictures a full army lined up and ready for battle. Do you remember before the first Gulf War? That operation was called DESERT STORM. But leading up to that was another operation called DESERT SHIELD. For weeks we shipped our military equipment and people to the desert to wait for the call to invade. We were in the Azores at the time. The Azores was really nothing more than a flightline and refueling station in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. It seemed like overnight we went from having maybe one or two planes on the flightline to dozens and dozens. Every square foot of tarmac was occupied with aircraft. That is the picture that is painted with how God resists the proud. He lines up all of His heavenly army to stand in opposition to our pride. Why does He do that? Why is it that offensive to Him? Do you remember the reason that Satan fell in the first place? God had created him as an angel of light, but his pride attempted to elevate himself above God. Adam and Eve’s sin was rooted in pride. Satan told them that if they ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they could be like God. Out of their pride, that’s what they wanted. They wanted to be autonomous. They wanted to be free. They didn’t want anyone telling them what to do—even God. That’s pride. And pride has been at the core of every sin ever committed since then. The very word itself conveys that. The original comes from two words put together. The first is the word we get our word hyper from. The second means to appear, or to be made manifest. When you put them together, they mean the act of arrogantly elevating yourself until you appear to be above others—even God. You know what’s interesting about that? The fact that it’s all an appearance. In reality, there is no way we can truly elevate ourselves above God. God is God and we’re not. There was no way in the Garden that Adam and Eve could truly become as God. They quickly found that out. But where does it come from? If it’s not from God, what is the source of pride? Well, this is one that we can’t blame on the Devil. We can’t go Flip Wilson on this one and say that the Devil made me do it. He can tempt us to have pride. But pride is something we come up with all on our own. Satan tempted Adam and Eve with fruit. He lied to them about what it would do for them. But the fact that they wanted to eat the fruit to become like God—that was all on their own. The source of pride is our sinful heart. It happens when we elevate our heart to a place that only God should occupy. And God won’t tolerate anybody in His space. He stands opposed to it with His complete arsenal. He just hasn’t pulled the trigger yet. That will happen in the judgment. So, if the symptoms show that pride is something that is in each of our hearts. And we can’t blame it on anyone else but ourselves. And God is standing ready with every bit of firepower that He has, ready to judge us. We’ve seen the prevailing symptoms of selfish pride. We’ve seen that we are the primary source of selfish pride. But what’s the cure? How can we escape such a judgment? One word—grace. God gives grace to the humble. But how does that humility play out in real life? What must we do to destroy the selfish pride in our lives? Look with me in verses 7-11:
JAMES 4:7-12
What are some practical solutions for selfish pride? Well, there are only three. And James lists them as conditional statements under the umbrella of submitting to God. In other words, to destroy selfish pride in your life, you must humbly submit to God. And here are three conditional statements that clarify what it means to humbly submit to God. They are things that if we do our part, then God will do His part. The first practical solution is to resist the devil. Isn’t it interesting that to destroy the pride that lives inside your own heart, you have to resist the devil who lives outside your heart? Go back to the Garden. If Adam and Eve had resisted the lies of the serpent, they would not have given the pride in their heart a foothold. But by listening to him, they allowed him to play on the pride that he knew was in their hearts—just waiting to be fed. When the devil tempts you—resist him. When he plays on your selfishness—resist him. When he tells you that you don’t deserve to be treated like that—resist him. When he tells you you’re too good to do that job—resist him. And if you do resist him, what will happen? God promises that he will flee from you. Resist the devil and he will flee. The second practical solution is to draw near to God. How do you do that? Repent from your sin. Turn from evil in your life. Do the things that the Lord has commanded you to do. If you do, God will draw near to you. Resist the devil, draw near to God and humble yourself in the sight of the Lord. Does that mean to grovel around in sackcloth and ashes? No. Look at what it means in verse 11: it means to treat other people right. The way to humble yourself in the sight of God is to treat people right. Jesus said, they will know we are Christians by our love. It is impossible to treat yourself better than other people and be humble before the Lord. If you elevate yourself above people that God cared enough to send His Son to die for, you are elevating yourself above the sacrifice of Christ. But if you humble yourself in the sight of the Lord by treating other people right, God Himself will elevate you. He will lift you up. The solution is really very simple. All you have to do to destroy pride in your life is three things. Resist the devil, draw near to God, and humble yourself in His sight. Three simple things that will take you the rest of your life to work on. Three simple things that you cannot accomplish on your own. As a matter of fact, you have no hope of getting any of them done without one thing. That’s God’s grace. God, the lawgiver is able to save through the blood of His Son Jesus Christ. That is the grace He gives. He gives the grace for you to overcome the symptoms of selfish pride. He even gives the grace for you to overcome yourself as the source of your selfish pride. And he gives the grace to enable you to accomplish the solutions for your selfish pride. The marvelous thing about our God is that He has extended His grace to whosoever will receive it. He desired that you would receive His grace so much that He gave His only begotten Son to suffer and bleed and die on a cruel cross so you wouldn’t have to. Knowing that, why would you allow your pride to get in the way of accepting His grace? Swallow your pride and accept His grace today.
