James: Practical Faith
James 4:1-6
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
Chenoa Baptist Church
11-03–2024
A Fight on an Exit Ramp
I’ve only been in a couple of fights in my life. One was when I was thirteen years old and I was walking to a friend’s house. This older kid on a bike came out of nowhere and started trying to get me to fight him.
I said to him that I didn’t know him and fighting someone you don’t know is dumb.
At that, he got off his bike and said something about my mom that I can’t repeat in church. I hit him so hard I thought I had broken my hand.
By the way, this took place in the grass on the exit ramp to I-240!
We rolled down the grass, wailing on each other. I finally kicked him off of me and said, “This is stupid! I don’t even know you.” He got on his bike and rode away.
The next night at the dinner table, my dad said that his boss had come into his office to say that he thought he saw me fighting another kid, rolling down the grass when he was getting on I 240.
I just smiled and said it must have been someone else. Pass the mashed potatoes.
Let’s Get Ready to Rumble!
From the hurried halls of our high schools to the hallowed halls of the United Nations, from the floor of the Senate to the floor of the preschool, from the boardroom to the bedroom, from the highway to the subway, conflict is a part of our human existence.
Nations fight over land and boys fight over girls. Husbands and wives fight over money and brothers and sisters fight over toys.
Cain killed Abel. Oswald killed Kennedy. Churches fight over the color of the carpet, the nature of their worship, and whether to have real coffee or decaf. As Rodney King cried out, “Can’t we all just get along?”
The answer to that haunting question is found in the book of James:
“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. (James 4:1-3)
Conflict happens when we allow our sin nature to rule. When we let selfishness, personal preferences, and our own opinions take priority, chaos and conflict are inevitable.
We want to do things our way and our motives are often suspiciously self-centered. We are quick to point out others faults and ignore the “log in our own eye.”
We quarrel and fight and often we enjoy it!
President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “There’s nothing I love as much as a good fight.”
That could be the mission statement of many churches today!
Review
James is a practical book and he is most interested in our spiritual maturity.
Warren Wiersbe didn’t hold back when he wrote:
“Spiritual maturity is one of the greatest needs of churches today. Too many churches are playpens for babies instead of workshops for adults.”
So far, we’ve seen the test of trials, temptations, how we handle the Word, how we handle other people, how our faith results in good fruit, how our words can glorify God, and how Godly wisdom can be shown by a godly life:
Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.
James set up a contrast between human wisdom and Godly wisdom.
Earthly wisdom is characterized by bitter envy and selfish ambition. This person is arrogant and denies the truth about the condition of their heart.
James doesn’t mince words. It is temporal, unspiritual and demonic and leads to “disorder and every evil practice.”
But the wisdom from above is a gift from an all-wise God. Last week, he gave us a spiritual maturity test:
But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.
This type of wisdom results in peace and a harvest of righteousness.
This morning, James will continue his theme of faith being shown by our deeds, particularly in the areas of conflict, prayer, and pride.
We are going to take chapter 4 slowly over the next few weeks.
Please turn with me to James 4.
Prayer
Two questions
Much like his older half brother Jesus, James loves questions. He began chapter three with a question. Now he begins chapter four with two questions!
What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?
Let’s remember that he is writing to Jewish Christians scattered through the nations.
Before we really jump in, let me make an important point.
There are times that I think we romanticize the early church. In the late 1990s, many churches wanted to return to being an “Acts 2 church.” I understand why:
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:43-47)
Who wouldn’t want that kind of church?
But that doesn’t mean that the early church didn’t have its problems.
Paul had to write to the spiritually immature believers at Corinth:
“Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly?” (I Cor 3:1-3)
Paul had to write to the churches in Galatia:
“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.” (Gal 5:13-15)
In Philippians, he straight up calls out two women whose conflict was upsetting the unity of the entire church:
“I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord.” (Phil 4:2)
There have always been conflicts in the church and there will be until Jesus comes back.
The War Among You
So let’s go back to those two questions again:
What causes fights and quarrels among you?
The first question asks, “from where?” Where does this conflict come from?
The word “fights” means individual battles. The word “quarrels” is a more general term for the entire war.
Psalm 133 states:
“How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1).
How beautiful it is when believers in Christ get along. And, let’s be honest, how ugly it is when they don’t.
Recently I heard of a pastor who was working in the basement and could hear his children and some of their friends playing in the back yard. Although he could not understand everything they were saying, he became worried when their voices got louder and louder.
All he could hear was “red carpet…blue…red…blue.” That disagreement died down and then his heart warmed as several of the neighborhood kids began to sing “His Mercy is More.” Abruptly, other voices began to warble, slightly out of tune, “Amazing Grace.” Each side grew louder and louder until the singing was interrupted by a shrill scream, “That’s my chair!”
At this, the pastor jumped up and ran up the stairs and out into the backyard. He discovered the gaggle of children on top of one boy. After pulling each one off, he sat them down and asked them exactly what they were doing.
His youngest daughter spoke up, “Daddy, please don’t make us stop playing our game, we’re having fun.” Bewildered, the dad asked the name of their game. The little blonde-haired girl answered, “Don’t be mad daddy, we were just playing church!”
He answers his question with another question.
Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?
Our external battles often come from the war that rages within our own hearts.
The word “desires” is very important here. It’s where we get our word “hedonism,” the ultimate worship of pleasure. This is a life characterized by intense passion and enjoyment.
There is nothing wrong with pleasure but when it drives us and controls us, it becomes an idol.
Paul wrote to Timothy that in the last days people would be “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” (2 Tim 3:4)
And Paul wrote to Titus about the status of our souls before being born again:
“At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures.” (Titus 3:3)
Those of us who are born again have a new nature and are filled with the Holy Spirit who is making us more and more into the image of Jesus.
But that doesn’t mean our old nature disappeared. The old nature, our fleshy, selfish, prideful side of us wages war against the new nature. We have all felt that conflict when we are faced with a temptation or with an opportunity to lie to get out of trouble.
Paul writes of this battle in Romans 7:
“And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.” (Romans 7:16-23)
How does this play out in our lives? James elaborates:
You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight.
James’s words are strong. Eugene Peterson paraphrases this verse:
“You lust for what you don’t have and are willing to kill to get it. You want what isn’t yours and will risk violence to get your hands on it.” (James 4:2; The Message)
Were people actually committing murder in the churches? Several commentators believed the answer was yes. There had been a murder in a church and that is what led James to write this.
James readers would have automatically thought about King David who had Uriah, one of his best and most loyal soldiers, killed, in order to cover up the fact that he got his wife Bathsheba pregnant.
This is also the reason why abortion has become accepted in our culture.
John Piper recently said this in a sermon:
“You desire and do not have, so you kill.
Desire what? More financial security or more leisure or more education or more unrestrained teenage sexual activity or more career options. Or the avoidance of children who may be handicapped, or perhaps just less hassle for the next 18 years. We desire, and the desires may be good or bad.
But then comes the pregnancy - the beginning of the divine work of person forming in the womb. And the result? The desires are threatened. We desire, but then, because of pregnancy, we cannot have.
The child is going to cost money or cramp our travel plans or leisure, or keep us out of school, or hinder our career advancement, or consume thousands of hours with a possible handicap; and limit our freedom in countless ways over the next eighteen years or more.
Now what? We kill marriages and we kill unborn babies because they cut across our desires; they stand in the way of our unencumbered self-enhancement. And we live in a culture where self enhancement and self advancement is god.
And if self enhancement is god then the One doing the work in the womb shaping a person in His own image is not God and the assault on his work is not sacrilegious but obedience to the god of this world.”
James is remembering his Brother’s words in the sermon on the Mount:
“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.” (Matt 5:21-22)
We murder people with our words and assassinate their character on social media.
We also covet, hotly desire, [bitterly envy], but we can’t ever attain what we want, and that leads to conflict with others.
Chuck Swindoll pointedly states,
“If a disagreement should be resolved and could be resolved, but is not, then our stubbornness and selfishness are at the core of the failure.”
I read about a research project with butterflies. If you introduce a large cardboard cut out of a female butterfly, the male will spend hours courting it while a real female butterfly sits nearby fluttering its wings in vain.
What do we want? We want things others don’t have. We want recognition, adoration, status.
I heard a pastor tell the story of how a widow across the street from the church needed help with her yard. When no one was home, he snuck across the street and mowed her yard for her. It was an act of anonymous service that made his soul feel satisfied.
That Sunday, the youth pastor preached the sermon and “admitted” that he was the one who mowed the yard. This was a blatant lie.
The older pastor felt his blood pressure rising and said that he wanted to stand up and tell the whole congregation the truth. Then he said he had a fantasy that he walked up on the stage and slapped him! He said that he hates that side of him.
We all have that side of us. The part of us that wants to get our needs fulfilled, not by God, by human approval and praise.
James then writes that selfish living leads to selfish praying.
"You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”
First, James writes that our needs aren’t fulfilled because we do not rely on God to fill them.
Dr. Adrian Rogers wrote this:
“The greatest problem we face is not unanswered prayer but unoffered prayer. Tragically, many of our prayers are so vague that if God were to answer them, we wouldn’t even know it.”
Matthew records Jesus’s words:
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matt 7:7-11)
But then James goes a step further. He writes that when we do pray, we see God as a holy vending machine in the sky.
We ask with wrong motives - “gimme gimme prayers.” Prayer is not about getting things from God but about aligning our will to His will.
Janis Joplin wrote the song Mercedes Benz to highlight the absurdity of this kind of prayer:
“Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends
So, oh, Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
Oh Lord, won't you buy me a color TV?
Dialing For Dollars is trying to find me
I wait for delivery each day until three
So, oh, Lord, won't you buy me a color TV?
Oh, Lord, won't you buy me a night on the town?
I'm counting on you Lord, please don't let me down
Prove that you love me and buy the next round
Oh, Lord, won't you buy me a night on the town?”
Charles Surgeon said,
“ When a man so prays he asks God to be his servant, and gratify his desires, worse, he wants God to join him in the service of his lusts. Such prayer is blasphemy.”
The word “spend” in the verse is the same word used in the story of the prodigal son who spent all his inheritance on “prostitutes and wild living.” (See Luke 15:11-32)
Hughes writes:
“Some of these might have been legitimate requests but the reason for making them are illegitimate. They wanted to satisfy their cravings and pamper their passions. God’s glory…consideration for other people never enter their minds. Such prayers are an insult to God.”
The War of the Worlds
You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
Let’s remember that this is a circular letter, meant to be read aloud in churches.
Can you imagine the gasps when the pastor reads these words?
James calls them “adulterous people.” Throughout the Old Testament, God laments the Israelites have committed spiritual adultery on Him.
But like a woman unfaithful to her husband, so you, Israel, have been unfaithful to me,” declares the Lord. (Jer 3:20)
The entire book of Hosea is a word picture of Israel’s spiritual adultery.
Wednesday night, Maxine and I and Cheryl went and saw Keith and Kristan Getty, Matt Boswell, and Matt Papa. This group of worship artists have written many of the new worship hymns that we sing.
Bryan Fowler joined them in Peoria. Bryan Fowler moved to Nashville ten years ago and soon after became one of the most sought after songwriters in town.
If you look up songs that Bryan has either written or co-written on Spotify, the list is over 200 songs for some of the biggest artists in country and Christian music and has been nominated for a Grammy twice, winning in 2015.
After they had kids and they got old enough to sing along in the car, he started cringing listening to them sing the words that he wrote.
These were Christian songs playing on the Christian radio station but he was embarrassed how shallow and fluffy the words were.
We felt like he had let a little bit of the world into these Christian songs and longed to write songs that were singable and had deep theological themes.
He co-wrote the song that we are learning right now - How Great is the Greatness of God.
“How faithful the Father above
How wondrous the work of the Son
How sweet is the Spirit given to us
How great is the greatness of God.”
Paul wrote to the Roman Christians:
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Romans 12:2)
In 1957, Time magazine wrote an article on the gangster Mickey Cohen meeting Billy Graham. Cohen said,
“I am very high on the Christian way of life. Billy came up, and before we had food he said…What do you call it, that thing they say before food?… Grace?… Yeah, grace. Then we talked a lot about Christianity and stuff.”
After his conversation with Billy Graham, he talked about Christianity often while continuing to live the gangster life.
When confronted on his way of living, his response could have come straight out of James 4:
“There are Christian football players, Christian cowboys, Christian politicians; why not a Christian gangster?”
It was obvious that he loved this world too much to surrender his will to God.
We are not called to hide from the world. We are to be in this world but not of it. We are to be salt to give this world a taste of Jesus and light to illuminate the darkness.
When Kirk Cameron read the script for Fireproof, he loved it. But he had a change that needed to be made. He refused to kiss the actress who played his wife.
“And so we re-did things, flew my wife out,” Kirk said. “She put on a wig that matched the actress’s hair in the movie, and she wore that dress. We shot the scene in a silhouette so you couldn’t tell, but when I’m kissing my wife in the movie, I’m actually kissing my wife, Chelsea.”
Remember that this is a Christian film made by Christians.
Kirk stated that some people got upset about arranging for his wife to come out and act as his wife in the film during that pivotal kissing scene. Some people, “thought that was such an inconvenience to the production and an offense to them personally.”
He said that he made a vow to his wife and he wasn’t going to do anything to potential injure his marriage.
By the way, after Neil McDonough was fire from the show Scoundrels for refusing to appear in scenes of intimacy or even to kiss an actress that isn’t his wife.
He is Jealous For Me
James then asks another question:
“Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us?”
While there isn’t a specific Scripture that James is quoting, the theme of God’s holy jealousy for us in everywhere in the Bible.
“They made him jealous with their foreign gods and angered him with their detestable idols They sacrificed to false gods, which are not God— gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your ancestors did not fear. You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.” (Duet 32:16-18)
David Crowder is a worship leader and poet. His song, “How He Loves Us” starts with these words:
“He is jealous for me
Love's like a hurricane, I am a tree
Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy
When all of a sudden
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory
And I realize just how beautiful You are
And how great Your affections are for me.”
God sees His relationship with us like a marriage, we are the Bride of Christ.
I have friends that know the inner pain and torture that infidelity creates. It’s an incredible betrayal when they have not been faithful to you but you have been faithful to them.
Princess Diana famously said that her marriage to Charles didn’t work because “There were three of us in the marriage, so it was a bit crowded.”
This is the pain God feels when we are "prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.”
When we seek after other gods, when we declare that we don’t need Him, when we are in constant conflict with others.
F.B. Meyer wrote:
“James went so far to speak of them as adulterous and then adopting a gentler, pleading tone, he says, ‘You have grieved the Holy Spirit who has come to dwell in you, who yearns with a jealous envy to possess your entire nature for Himself.”
More grace!
But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
“God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”
Oh this is good news!! Say it with me, “But He gives more grace.”
Spurgeon wrote:
“Note the contrast. Note it always. Observe how weak we are and how strong God is, how proud we are, how condescending God is, how changing we are, how unchanging God.”
James quotes Proverbs 3:34 as a warning.
God opposes the proud. The word “opposes” is a word picture of God arrayed in armor going into battle against you.
In his book, “Mere Christianity,” C.S. Lewis calls pride the great sin:
“There is one vice of which no man in the world is free, which everyone in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else…
If anyone would like to acquire humility I can tell him the first step. The first step is to realize that one is proud…If you think you are not conceited, it means that you are very conceited indeed.”
I read recently about a man that was voted the most humble person in the church. They had a party for him and then gave him a medal.
The next week, he wore the medal to church and they took it away from him!
The word humble means “a sense of modesty, without arrogance, the opposite of pride.” It produces a correct view of ourselves, our relation to Christ, and others.
Kyle Snodgrass writes,
“An understanding of God’s work is always an attack on the ego, not to obliterate or humiliate the self, but to bring into relation with God and redirect its interests. In losing life we find it.”
The prophet Micah wrote:
“He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)
We live in a culture that is obsessed with promoting ourselves, and our brand and exalting ourselves above others.
Google reports that there were 24 billion selfies taken last year and more people died taking selfies than in shark attacks!
But we are not called to exalt ourselves. In fact, we are called to die to ourselves.
“For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:25)
Charles Spurgeon once said:
“If you are willing to be nothing, God will make something of you. The way to the top of the ladder is to begin at the lowest round. In fact, in the church of God, the way up is to go down; but he who is ambitious to be at the top will find himself before long at the bottom.”
We are to take our cue from John the Baptist. He was asked whether it bothered him that people were flocking to Jesus and he responded, “He must increase, and I must decrease.” (John 3:30)
Jonathan Edwards wrote,
“Nothing sets a person so much out of the devil's reach as humility.”
You’ll know that you’re making progress in this area when you begin to think less of your own abilities and more of your imperfections.
We saw an example of this last week with the heartbreaking Hail Mary pass that helped the Washington Commanders beat the Chicago Bears with two seconds left on the clock.
Bears cornerback Tyrique Stevenson could be seen taunting the Commanders fans. He wasn’t paying attention to the play and was too late to prevent the tip that landed in Noah Brown’s hands to win the game.
Tyrique posted on X later that night:
“To Chicago and teammates my apologies for lack of awareness and focus …. The game ain’t over until zeros hit the clock. Can’t take anything for granted. Notes taken, improvement will happen.”
John Stott wrote:
“At every stage in our Christian development and in every sphere of our Christian discipleship, pride is the greatest enemy and humility our greatest friend.”
Pride says I deserve God’s acceptance and love. Humility recognizes that we are all broken and it is all by grace that God loves us.
Anne Lemont wrote:
“It’s okay to be broken. All the best people are.”
When you stand before God knowing that you are broken and needy, God is ready to lift you up.
I want to end the sermon with a video by Matthew West called Broken. Matthew led worship at Moody’s Founder’s conference two weeks ago.
In describing why he wrote the song Broken he said,
“…the song is about his humble appreciation for how God uses him, even though he feels disqualified and like he's messed up too many times. He said that God invites him inside the gates of grace again and again, and that he's reminded him that God is in the business of using broken people and things.”
Ending Video: Broken
Communion
Ending Song: You are my All in All
