Conflict Within the Church part 2 A description of their behavior.

We are still in this series, Good Works Flow from Good Faith, and as we got started in chapter four, we have run into what is called conflict in the church, have we not? We're going to carry this theme of conflict in the church a little farther through chapter four, and we are seeing that James is revealing conflict and behavior. We are seeing that James is revealing behavior that is behind the conflict. James is teaching us some truth. What I mean is James is showing us that no church is perfect, no people are perfect, no fellowship is perfect.

We're really just realizing some of their problems and their hang-ups, but now we're going to move on from the conflict in the church, and we're going to see this morning that this conflict is energized by certain people and by certain behavior. All this ties together for this message of conflict within the church beginning in chapter four. Now last week I showed us that we are not alone in church conflict. I talked to you just a little bit about the famous Jonathan Edwards and how he had suffered a church conflict within his church. As a matter of fact, he was dismissed from his church. He never pastored again.

Jonathan Edwards is world famous. He's very renowned for his preaching, for his theology, for his pastoral abilities, but yet he faced conflict as well. Now I also spoke to you about the example of diatrophies in 3rd John. Remember it was diatrophies who was in the life of that church, and John was dealing with that man who was causing all of this conflict. I also spoke to you about some of the personal experience that I have had with church conflict. Now I want to focus for just a minute again on diatrophies.

What I mean is there was conflict within that church, and we can identify this man diatrophies in 3rd John because John, he calls him out. He calls his name, but behind the man diatrophies there was specific behavior. John describes his behavior, and so what we see is with the situation with diatrophies, we see the church conflict, we see the man behind the conflict, but if we divide the text in 3rd John, we see the behavior that is behind the man. Now if we had time, I could go back and study this situation that we learned about with Jonathan Edwards. I did a little reading this week. I continued to study that set of circumstances.

As a matter of fact, years later Jonathan Edwards wrote about some of his personal shortcomings. It blessed me, he went on to talk about how certain things just did not come easy to him in pastoral ministry, and he felt like that contributed to some of the conflict. Now we don't have time for that, but what we're going to see this morning, James continues with this conflict within the church, and we're going to notice certain behavior that is behind the people. It energizes the people which comes out into church conflict.

Now the title of the message this morning is conflict within the church part 2, conflict within the church part 2, and we're going to notice a description of their behavior. A description of their behavior. We're going to be in the second portion of verse 2 and on down to verse 5, but I'm going to read the earlier verses that we were in last week to help us get our mind around really what's going on here. So let's start with verse 1. Let's look at John chapter 4 beginning in verse 1. James says, "What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?

You lust and you do not have, so you commit murder, and you are envious and you cannot obtain, so you fight and you quarrel." Now I want you to really put you a notation there because this is where we'll start, because James transitions to describe their behavior. Notice what he says, "You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives so that you may spend it on your pleasures. You adulteress, you adultresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility towards God?

Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." And then we will conclude with verse 5. "Or do you think that the Scriptures, the Scripture speaks to no purpose? He jealously desires the Spirit which he is made to dwell in us." Now again I said it in the introduction, James is still on the subject of church conflict, but now he is giving us a description of their behavior. Now you see before you there are three main truths that we're going to look at. So let's just take truth number one. Truth number one, let's look at their faulty prayer life. Their faulty prayer life.

Go back to the second portion of verse 2. That's where I wanted you to divide verse 2. He says, "You do not have because you do not ask." Verse 3, or the first portion of verse 3, "You ask and you do not receive." James really almost contradicts himself in their behavior, but it's not just a contradiction that we see. What we're seeing is James is describing their prayer life and it is a faulty prayer life. So let's divide this verse. Let's look at the truth that is within this main truth of a faulty prayer life. First I want you to notice they had an obvious need. They did have an obvious need.

Now these verses that we're looking at this morning, remember are part of a bigger message. Chapter 4 verses 1 through 12 are all about conflict which is in the church. It is obvious. Last week it was obvious. James uses bold language. He asks rhetorical questions to bring to the surface the obvious problem that they had a need. They had church conflict. And see what we are seeing right here? That they are relying on theirself. They are relying on their own thinking. There is an obvious need. Second, I want you to notice they obviously did not ask. Go back to the verse.

"You do not have because you do not ask." This is nothing more than self-sufficiency. They do not ask because they feel that they can handle the church. They feel that they can handle the church problems on their own and in their own strength with their own understanding and with their own ability. As a matter of fact the word "ask" here. Go back to the scripture. "You do not have because you do not ask." That word "ask" is a verb and it simply means to beg and to plead. This is the exact same word that James uses in chapter 1 verse 5 and 6. You do not have to turn there but listen.

James says, "But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God." That word "ask" it means to beg. It means to plead. He says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, ask God, beg God, plead with God." He goes on in verse 6, "But let him ask." Let him plead. Let him beg God. What? In faith. And so what he is saying is they obviously did not ask. What we see is they did not ask begging and they did not ask pleading. They were in a place of self-sufficiency. Third, I want you to notice they asked but they did not receive. See this is the seeming contradiction. What does he say in verse 3 or the first portion of verse 3?

"You ask and you do not receive." Again this word "ask" it means to beg and to plead. But see we see a contradiction in them. They are not prayerful. They have a faulty prayer life. They do not come and beg and plead. They simply do not receive when they do pray. We're going to understand a little later why they did not receive when they did pray. See the error in their prayer life was not what they prayed but that they did not pray. But yet when they did pray they received nothing. Absolutely nothing. Again they were self-sufficient. They thought that they could handle the church. They thought that they could handle church problems.

They thought that they could handle the individual issues in the life of the church on their own and in their own strength and then their own ability and understanding and knowledge. I like what the old revivalist or prayer warrior Leonard Ravenhill says about circumstances like this. What was born in the spirit they continued in the flesh. What does Ravenhill mean by that? When we are born again we're born of the spirit. When the church is brought together it's a work of the spirit. It is all a work of the spirit.

When God saves individuals and then he brings them together as born again individuals it begins as a work of the spirit and they were born again like this these people in the life of the church but what happens is somehow someway what was born in the spirit they're trying to work out in the flesh. I want to ask you to look around. It doesn't matter where you live if you live in the edge of Lawrence County the edge of Brook Lincoln County if you live on into Monticello or Brook Avon wherever you live observe look around and see how many prayer how many churches have canceled prayer meeting.

Ask yourself look and observe how many churches will just give a just a tip of the hat to the prayer meeting they might assemble together and go over just a casual list of physical needs but yet how many churches have abandoned the real true prayer meeting. I want to tell you if you show me a church I don't care how big it is if you have a church that has abandoned the prayer meeting I will tell you that they are continuing in the flesh what is supposed to have been born in the spirit they are trying to do the work of the church with their own abilities.

As a matter of fact some of the men that I respect that have lived and died who were used greatly in ministry they will say that no church can can be victorious with just one prayer meeting a week and personally I look forward to the day when we are strong enough to where not we have to pray but we willingly pray more than one time a week that day will come I have seen that I have been a part of that when you could not wait men could not wait to get to the door of the church to pray.

Now I want to tell you something every time we meet together it is important I will not put anything on the calendar that is there to just fill time if we meet it has a purpose yesterday we had a great time of fellowship it was ministry to our children and some other children that were ministering to and it was a wonderful time I enjoyed it it had a purpose fellowship ministry but yet when we meet together Sunday morning Sunday night we meet together to be in depth in the Word of God verse by verse word by word we have purpose you're going to be fed the Word of God when we meet Wednesday night we meet to pray we are shouldering one another's burdens we have things we are praying for that only God can come through on and we are going to see God answer we are beginning to be burdened for each other's circumstances in life but look let me tell you something I'm not for canceling but I would cancel Sunday night instead of Wednesday night without even thinking about it we must pray now I'm not relegating Sunday night to you know off to the side no it is very important what we are looking at in 2nd Timothy is extremely important but we must pray and see what these people had done they had allowed themselves to be in a place of a faulty prayer life what is James saying he says you do not have because you do not ask and then what he goes on to say is you know when you do ask it's wrong you don't get an answer they had a faulty prayer life let's move on truth number two I want you to notice I want you to notice their selfish motivations their selfish motivations this helps us understand why when they did pray there were no answers look back at verse 3 you ask and you do not receive because now notice you ask with wrong motives you ask with wrong motives so that you may spend it on your pleasures again James is showing us behavior that is behind the conflict as a matter of fact this is a pattern they have faulty prayer and now we see they have selfish motivations now let's break the verse down I want you to notice first notice they had evil motives they had evil motives because you ask with the wrong motives now the English standard version says you ask wrongly the King James says that they ask amiss now in the original this phrase with wrong motives it means evil and it means a wicked behavior it's real simplistic let me repeat that this phrase in the original with wrong motives it simply means evil and with wicked behavior let me go back to the verse because you ask with notice wrong evil wicked motives that's what he's doing he is showing that they had evil motives now I want to say this to you motives are hidden now the behavior that we have seen starting last week that behavior is for all to see but yet the motives are hidden but again this is the behavior that is behind the conflict and look lots of times it takes actions to reveal motives let me just repeat that because I want you to get it lots of times it takes actions or conflicts or circumstances to bring motives out second I want you to notice that they had selfish desires they had selfish desires because you ask with wrong evil motives so that you may spend it on your pleasures now the English standard version in the new American that I'm reading for them say spin now the King James uses the word consume now this is a monetary word this is a monetary word this word consume or spin it is the same word that is used in Luke chapter 15 don't turn there but some of you might remember the story of the prodigal remember that story this was there was a father who had two sons and the younger son came to him and said father give me my share of my inheritance so the father divided up his wealth between the older son and the younger son and what does the scripture say in this parable it said that not many days later the younger son gathered everything and he went in on a journey and he went to a distant country and there he squandered that is the very same word his estate with wild or loose living and notice verse 14 now when he had spent that is the exact same word that is used here in James they had selfish desires it was a monetary word they wanted to spend what they got go back to the verse because you ask with wrong evil motives so that you may spend it you may squander it on your own pleasures it's simplistic when they did pray they prayed for one reason and one reason only for self one of the commentators that I read said it like this in such prayers this is talking about the previous prayers but it ties to the motivations in such excuse me in such prayers God is regarded as a mere dispensary of instruments of vice what is that saying in the verse that's mentioned praying like this regards God as just someone to get something for your own vice or your own desires he goes on to say this sort of religiosity represents the worst of pagan attitudes about God what does that mean they had the worst attitude about God they had a pagan attitude about God because when they did pray they came with selfish motivations worldly motivations fleshly motivations and they wanted only for their sales they only wanted God to give them something so that they could squander it they could spend it on self now I want you to notice this faulty prayer life and selfish motivations they go hand in hand they do not pray but when yet when they do pray they pray purely out of selfish motives so that they could get what they can get to spend it on self now we know the context this is the church these are Christians who have gathered together and I could not help I want to keep it within the context I could not help but think about the churches that I have known of who have now listen they have prayed and wanted things exactly like we see here in the scriptures there are churches who want money and they want people so that they could gather them together for their own entertainments there are churches who want money given by God so that they could spend it on programming and concerts and conferences why for their own religious entertainments and when they come to God and they say God bless us with people bless us with resources and what they're saying is give it to us so that we can be entertained in a Christian so-called manner and therefore pat ourselves on the back and make us feel better that is with selfish motives I'll take it a little farther there are churches that are dying on the vine but yet they would pray and they would beg and they would pull money out of people just to keep the cemetery alive just to keep the cemetery going so they can keep the grass cut they can keep flowers planted why for selfish motivations now I think you should respect the cemetery yes but yet they're dead what about those down the road who were living but yet they are dead many times these type of circumstances will show us I know churches they will pray and they will have building funds and they will they will ask for money and quote-unquote pray for money so that they can have a big nice building why for south now is anything wrong with a nice building no I do not think it is it's not what you have it is what you do with what you have let me repeat that it's not what you have we've learned in our study in First Timothy that is not a sin to be blessed with money or riches because what did Paul say to Timothy command those who are rich in this present world to be rich in good deeds what is Paul telling Timothy those that are within the church that are before you those who have been blessed tell them to use what they have for Christ and for others so it's not wrong for a church to have a nice building but it's what you're going to use it for a lot of people they want a nice building for themselves I'll never forget I was a part of a church one time we were a Red Cross shelter and when we were a Red Cross shelter and when hurricanes would come through we would open up our doors for all the refugees who would be fleeing the storm and I'll never forget in one of the large hurricanes that came it brought hundreds of people and we had to open up every corner of the facility every corner people had to sleep on floors and on cots and on rugs and when you listen to their stories they were the people who were on the news who had lost everything and I'll never forget there were people in the life of the church their attitude was this we need to close the shelter down we need to get rid of these people they will never go home if we keep feeding them and their attitude was I want my Sunday school class back that's selfish motivations people so it's not a crime to have a building it's not a crime to have money coming in the offering plate it's why do you ask for those things see with those stories in mind go back to the verse what does he say because you ask with selfish evil wicked motives so that you may spend it on you the context is the church the seat in our church here at null about this church our prayers and our desires should be threefold number one for the glory of God number two for others and then somewhere maybe third fourth or fifth on the list self so they had a faulty prayer life and they had selfish motivations now I want to pause right here for a minute because I want to touch on something the context is the church I've been applying it to the church but I also need to apply it to certain specific individuals now I want you to listen close if we are not careful now listen it's gonna sound like I'm splitting hairs we can be praying that a lost loved one would be saved but yet with selfish motivations we can have a teenage son I'm telling you he's lost and he's rebellious and he has given us fits and we can pray for the salvation of his soul but yet our motive is so that all of the trouble that we are going through under the roof of the in our home all of that trouble will be dealt with and that could be selfish but yet the right motive would be Lord I want you to save my son not so that my home life would be better not so even that he would go to heaven instead of hell but yet you deserve glory and honor in his life and in his set of circumstances and see we can as individuals pray for a good thing pray for our right thing and pray for a thing that God wants to bring about but yet we can have selfish motivations and see we should pray that our children come to know the Lord God they are born again not for me but for him our motives are his glory so when whatever trial you may be in whatever difficult circumstances you may be in you must check your motives you can be praying the right words but you can still be praying with wicked motives because it can all be about you some of you might find yourself in your prayer closet later weeping because God is showing you that you have selfish motivations see that's what we have here in the life of the church they had a faulty prayer life and they had selfish motivations and then number three I want us to see their position before God their position before God now he's moving a little bit away from their behavior notice what he says in verse 4 you adulteresses do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility towards God therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God again he's moving a little bit away from their behavior and I want you to notice now he's starting to establish their position before God now let's break down this verse is a lot of truth here first I want you to notice they were an adulterous people they were an adulterous people some translations use the word adulterous and adultresses and it communicates the same thing but all of the translations that I refer to use at least one form of the word and usually if it's one form it is adulteresses now it is important to know what James is saying James is teaching he is using a metaphor to teach they were not committing physical adultery they were not committing sexual immorality but listen they were committing spiritual adultery we see this language in many places in the Old Testament I give you a specific one the book of Hosea what God is doing is he is saying Israel you are committing spiritual adultery that's what he's saying to Israel many of the prophets use this type of language but yet this is the first place that this language is applied to someone other than the Old Testament Israel Jews but what James is saying to them is this in your language in our language this is what he's saying you are sleeping around spiritually you are shacking up spiritually you are nothing but a run around spiritually that's what he's saying he's saying that you are an adulterous people second I want you to see they were hostile towards God you adulterous do you not know that friendship in the with the world is hostility towards God now here James is asking a question again this is one of those rhetorical questions he's asking the question to prove a point in this question he reveals their friendship with the world now the word friendship here now listen close the word friendship in the original language it is a noun now let's just check your English a little bit a noun is a person a place or a thing those of us who were awake that day when we heard that we remembered it a noun is a person or a place or a thing but in the original this word friendship which is a noun it comes from the verb love and it is a filet oh love now what am I trying to show you what is James saying they were not just in a friendship with the world but what he's saying is they are in an active love friendship with the world it's not that they were just holding hands with the world they had a heart-to-heart relationship with the world now this word world here it is the world system that is anti-christ anti Bible anti God anti Christian anti man I like how MacArthur describes the world he says they have a longing to be involved with the world's drives in pulses attractions and people for which they have a determined and habitual attachment you see they have committed spiritual adultery they are sleeping around spiritually and yet they are in this love relationship with the world and what James says is that is hostility towards God it is fighting against God the English standard in the King James used the word enmity means the same thing they are literally fighting against God third I want you to see that they were enemies of God go back to the verse you adulteresses do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility towards God therefore whoever wishes to be a friend that's that love relationship of the world makes himself an enemy of God all of the translations that I refer to use the word enemy look at how they now look at how they become enemies of God now I want you to see they wish to be in this love relationship with the world this word wish it means a strong desire now notice even making a conscious choice so what we see here is they are in enmity with God they are hostile towards God they are in a love relationship with the world but notice with the second portion of verse four this word wish means they have a strong desire and they make a conscious choice they make themselves enemies of God this phrase makes himself it means to appoint by their actions they are appointing themselves enemies of God now why do I spend so much time with this one verse because when we start studying the language we start seeing their actions they are in spiritual adultery they are in a love friendship with the world this world system that is against God it brings about hostility against God and they are making a choice they are consciously wishing to live this friendship love friendship with the world and therefore they have brought themselves to a position before God where they are enemies of God clearly these people were lost listen close these people were lost nowhere does God call his children enemies MacArthur says it like this he does not have a neutral relationship with God as an impartial bystander or a distant admirer no but it is in the fullest sense God's enemy again this is a doggrofies and what we're seeing is James is describing the behavior behind their action and not only that he is describing or revealing their position before God doggrofies was a lost man he was hostile against God and he was an enemy of God and see for some of us we have seen these people but I want you to listen to me close it is extremely important to see them just like James let me say that again it's extremely important for us to have the ability to see these people in the life of the church when circumstances come along and they step out and reveal their true colors it's extremely important for us to see them like James but listen James never names them James identifies them by their behavior James identifies them by referring to the conflict but he does not name their names why because there can be a danger if you're not careful when you understand these truths there can there can well up in you a spiritual pride and if you're not careful you can start to point the finger but see but by the grace of God you could go the same way and we must be like James we must have the ability to recognize them now as we transition to the conclusion I want us to look at verse 5 look at verse 5 or do you think that the scripture speaks to no purpose he goes on to say hey this is God jealously desires the spirit which he is made to dwell in us what is James doing here James is showing us that God is a jealous God it is God who has saved us it is God who has brought us together it is God who has unified us to this miraculous spiritual thing called the church and listen he died for the church he has brought the church together and the church is his and listen people God is a jealous God what we are learning here in verse 5 is God can handle his church God can handle it those of us who are men of God and those of us who are born of God we recognize this it is God's church God is far more jealous for his church than you and I will ever be and we must recognize that now as we conclude as we conclude I want to make three statements and I want you to remember these first we must recognize those who are in a position to fight there are the God ordained men who are given by God to you to lead the church to govern the church they are the men that God has appointed God has chosen them and they are the ones who are to fight this fight was it not John who identified diautrophies was it not John that said when I come I will deal with diautrophies and see you cannot go around God's chosen men now I want to say this to you God has appointed me God has appointed Keith and listen outside of the grace of God in the appointment of God we are nothing we are nothing we are men of God who have been born of God who were called of God and we live that call and we have the task to be the servants of God to serve him and to serve you and it is our job when this day comes to fight this is part of the fight now because I am equipping you and I am teaching you and I'm giving you the tools that you need to help you understand these truths but in that I want to say this would you please pray for us would you please pray for us because we are human we are fallible we are not perfect in our abilities we need the grace of God we need a double portion of the grace of God we are like Solomon when he was appointed as king he looked around and he said Lord I am a young man who can govern your people God said I'll give you whatever you want he said God I need wisdom to do your job we are exactly like Solomon and I want to ask you to pray for us as I was reading about Jonathan Edwards years later after that conflict now notice this he talked about how he personally struggled relating to people he said I did not relate to people very well and I felt like my greatest strength was in preaching and was in writing and was in teaching my people and he said later he realized because he did not relate to people that well people in the congregation could view him as cold and not loving and not warm and he was describing he never called it a sin just his struggle and what I want to say to you is we have struggles when you recognize a struggle in us please don't go home and put us on the skewer go into your prayer closet and get on your knees for us when you see fault in us if it needs to be corrected come to us when you see us in need pray for us why because we are the people that God has given you and we willingly take this job on because God has called us and we are in a position to deal with these circumstances when they come in the life of the church I know I was talking to a particular individual now notice this week and they were talking about inconsistencies in their church they were talking about error in their church and they were broken they weren't malicious and they were talking about how they wanted things to be fixed and I looked at them lovingly and I said it will never happen unless it comes from the leadership I said you can try you can pray you can teach you can never go around those people and I hated to give them the bad news I hated to tell them the bad news because as much as they want the church to be in line it will not go around those leaders pray for us please second I want you to see it is important to see these people for who they are there are two errors in this recognizing these people some will get over here on one side now say oh but preacher we can't judge you know we just can't judge we can't see that is an error that is too far to one side then the other side is when you have the ability to see someone in the life of the church like this you come out with pistols a blazing you pull out a sharp sword and you start cut cutting off heads no that is the other error James never exhibits that he describes their behavior he calls them out on their conflict but yet he doesn't name their names what am I trying to show you it is important for us to see this take place in the life of the church when it comes if it's happened in the past but not to be malicious not to be hateful to be loving to pray for mercy to pray for grace and if the time comes when there's a circus set of circumstances like this and someone has to be asked to leave out of the church pray for the men of God who would take care of the situation like that we must see the circumstances in the people the way the scripture says to see them and then third and third when it comes conflict will come it might not be such a grand scale where it causes bunches of people to leave it might not be so horrific but yet conflict will come when it comes listen pray for God to work no matter the cost remember verse 5 God is a jealous God it is his church it's not mine it is not yours pray that God would work no matter the cost and all through the scriptures we see men who will who were jealous for God jealous for God's glory no matter the cost listen let me tell you diatrophies was loved by many when John addressed that circumstance listen it sent shock ways in the life of that church when Peter when Paul stood before Peter and he rebuked him there in Antioch look it was God's church God was jealous because of that hypocrisy and Paul spoke the truth and what he did not care what happened because it was about God's glory and God's church no matter the cost and look our motive should always be always be the glory of God why we come to God and we say God it is your church you died for your church you have redeemed us you have brought us together to do this work and it is your church that you're coming back far and no matter what the cost no matter how painful I want this to be right in your eyes no matter what it costs for your glory and like I shared last week sometimes conflict comes and the devil means it for bad he always does but God's behind the devil the whole time and he means it for good and look it takes getting through a time of conflict to be able to look back and see that truth the title of last week's message conflict within the church part one and the title of the message this morning conflict within the church part two a description of their behavior let's pray father thank you for your word thank you for your truth thank you that you give us all that we need Lord I have seen