Now, please turn with me to the scripture in James, the epistle of James, chapter 4. That's right after Hebrews and just before 1 Peter. James, the fourth chapter, we'll read the first 12 verses. What you're about to hear is God's word. Let us listen with attentiveness and respond with obedience. The word of the Lord from James chapter 4. own motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think scripture says without reason that the spirit he cause to live in us tends toward envy, but he gives us more grace. That is why scripture says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves then to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn, and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one lawgiver and judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you, who are you to judge your neighbor? Here ends this portion of God's holy word. May the Holy Spirit help us to understand it and be blessed by it. Dear friends in Christ, this is a wonderful congregation. I'm starting that way because there's some harsh things in this passage and you wonder why I picked it. My wife and I still speak of the warmth, the warm way in which we were embraced. It's 25 years ago now. As a matter of fact, one family among you kept me for two and a half months while my wife was off finishing her teaching contract and trying to sell a house back in the Chicago area. So, you're wondering why I pick a passage of the Scripture that says, what causes fights and quarrels among you? And it speaks of adulterous people. And after all, this is addressed to the churches. You know, Paul's letters were to specific congregations. That's why we call them the letter to the church in Ephesus or Corinth or Rome. But James and Peter and John wrote what we call general epistles. for the whole church, not specific congregations here or there. And they were very conscious of the fact that there was prevailing evil in the midst of some church settings. Now, I know we often romanticize the early Christian church. These wonderful people who endured persecution, and many did. But they weren't perfect. They were forgiven sinners, which meant they were still sinners. And that's why the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians speaks so bluntly to that congregation and says, you people have spiritual pride and you're practicing sexual immorality. That's harsh language. Paul, like James before us, told it like it was. And so we have James here saying, don't quarrel, don't fight, don't be envious, don't be proud. And now you're still wondering why I picked this passage to preach in this congregation. Two reasons, and the first of which is very practical. About a year ago, I was invited to participate in an extensive study of the book of James. And after I agreed to participate, they assigned me chapter 4. And now when I was asked to preach a week or so ago, I thought I will let you benefit from the results of my study. Okay? That's the practical reason. The other reason is that while this is a very peaceful congregation, I don't know of any conflicts among us, yet the potential is always among us. Maybe we're going to expand that fellowship hall that seems inadequate. Well, there I start again, you see. We can choose up sides so quickly. The potential for conflict is in all of us. So I want you to listen tonight to the Bible solution for church conflicts. That's the title of our message. And after studying these first 12 verses, I believe that James was motivated by the Holy Spirit to teach the churches the secret of healing in the midst of conflicts. And there are three solutions that we find in this passage. The first is submitting to God. That's in verses 7, 8, and 10. And the second point that the Apostle James makes is that we must resist evil. And the third issue that James wants us to understand, And in order for a solution for church conflicts to prevail is to respect each other. Okay? The solution, Bible solution for church conflicts. First of all, submit to the Lord. Listen to verse 7 once again. Submit yourselves then to God. And then in verse 8, the first part. The first part of verse 8 doesn't seem to agree. but there must be a misprint here. Let's look at verse 10. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up. So, the first solution for healing church conflicts is to submit to the Lord. Of course, that's where everything begins in the Christian life, isn't it? A right relationship to God is the prerequisite for a proper relationship to each other. Their quarrels begin by asking who we are, before the face of God. Any conflicts? Let's remind ourselves that we are the body of Christ and members one of another. Remind ourselves of our basic spiritual unity and remind ourselves of our equal loss condition, our equal need of forgiveness, Our equal call to repentance and faith, our equal hope of salvation, and our equal accountability before the Lord. Now, practically speaking, submission to the Lord simply means to seek to do God's will in all our relationships. Now, sometimes I hear people say, I can't discern what God's will is in my life. Before I came to Westminster, I had taught at the college level for 20 years. First at Calvin College and then at Trinity Christian College. And again and again, young college people would come to me and say, I wish I could see clearly what God's will was for my life. What I should major in. Many have come to me and say, I wonder if the person, the friend, boyfriend, girlfriend, with whom I'm now associating, is really God's will as a life partner. And of course, there are times in all of our lives where it doesn't seem to be so easy to discern God's will. When we're calling a new pastor, of course, we pray earnestly that God will lead us, but it doesn't happen always so spontaneously. So, sometimes it's not easy to discern God's will. But I would like to suggest that in most situations of life, we know what God's will is. At least we know what pleases the Lord and what doesn't please the Lord. You husbands and wives, you know how God would like you to treat your spouse, don't you? You know what God's will is. And you also know what displeases Him in our relationships. Brothers and sisters. You know, brothers and sisters fight, don't they? We did. But we knew what God's will really was in our relationship with each other. And in the church, we really do know what God's will is, don't we? We know how God wants us to treat each other. That isn't too hard to discern, is it? The problem is not knowing, but doing the will of the Lord. When I was young, one of my favorite authors was Mark Twain. That's Samuel Clemens was his real name. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Do they still read these in grade school? Do they? And The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Our preacher used to tell us when we were kids not to read those books. Because these guys were kind of naughty. You know, they did some rather unseemly things. But I thought it was exciting. Well, Mark Twain, who wasn't known as a very pious person, that's one of the reasons the pastor was a little reluctant to have him read, because he said some rather sarcastic things about the Christian faith. But one thing he said we should take to heart. Mark Twain said the parts of the Bible that he did understand were the parts that bothered him. Not the parts of the Bible he didn't understand. Because he knew the parts he did understand explained to him what the will of the Lord was in his life. And that's the one thing we should follow and that's what we're reluctant to follow so often. And so the Apostle James says, Submit yourself to the Lord and humble yourself before the Lord. Earlier in the chapter, he uses the word, a Greek word which means mighty God, phaos. But now in verse 10, he says, humble yourself before the Lord. That's another name for God, of course, but it's a tender term. It's the word that means master, owner, one to whom we belong. Like our catechism says, we belong in body and soul, in life and death. He is our Lord. He owns us. And He wants His property to behave in a proper way. I'm often, when we're in the Chicago area, invited to preach in RCA churches, Reformed Church in America churches. And in their hymnal, they have a hymn that I frequently hear them sing. It's entitled, Victory in Jesus. But I love the chorus because it says, He sought me and bought me with His own precious blood. Well, if you buy something, you own it. Jesus bought us. He owns us. We're Christ's property. Take good care of it. The people you see sitting in front of you, or next to you, or across the aisle from you, belong to Jesus. And Jesus wants us to treat His property kindly. Well, that's our first point. The first solution for church conflicts from the Bible, submission to the Lord. The second solution is to resist evil. You'll find that in the second half of verse 7. It starts by saying, Submit yourselves then to God and now resist the devil and he will flee from you. You see, that's the flip side of submission to God. Because if you submit to the Lord's will, you're not doing the devil's will. If you are right with God, you're wrong with the devil. You see, when we recognize that we and our fellow believers belong to Jesus, then we have a sort of a guarantee that we will resist the devil. Because the devil doesn't like people to belong to Jesus. And the only way we can resist the devil is in the strength of the Lord. Not in our own strength. In anybody here equal to the devil on his own or her own. But with him, with Christ, we are more than a match for the devil. We can't say no to the devil in our own strength, but in the strength of Jesus we can. And then we have victory. Victory. Did you hear it? It says, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Imagine, the devil is afraid of believers. Did you realize that the devil is afraid of you? Do you trust in Jesus? Do His will? He'll run away because he ran away from our Lord. That threefold temptation in the wilderness, the devil found that Jesus represented a power far greater than the power he represented. And he ran off. And the beautiful part of it is, if we say no to the devil, It frees us up to say yes to that which is wholesome and good and righteous and God-honoring. Appreciate the presence of so many young people here tonight because of the choir here. But you know, in those decision-making years, high school, college years, if we say no to the devil in the strength of Jesus, you can live a life that's joyful. but surrendering to that which displeases the Lord is the beginning of a lifelong regret nothing but disaster so resist the devil now you see James in verse 4 tells us that we have to make a choice verse 4 says Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. The New Testament uses the term world in two ways. It uses the term as God's magnificent creation. The Bible never says reject that. No. The heavens declare God's glory. And we should appreciate God's handiwork. But the New Testament also uses the term world as worldly or worldliness or that which is opposed to God. And that's the way it's used here. When the apostle says, anyone who chooses to be a friend of worldliness, what the devil likes, the devil's will, is an enemy of God. And then he goes on to say some rather harsh things, doesn't he? He says, you adulterous people. Don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Adultery. Adultery is replacing a spouse with another lover. Spiritual adultery is replacing God with that with which he is dishonored. That which is opposed to God. And the temptation is to try to be both. The word double-minded. It's translated in some of the more modern translations as, You hypocrites! Playing with the world and claiming loyalty to the Lord. Double-minded, a mind going in one direction to the world and another direction toward God. It won't work. Because friendship with the world is automatically hatred toward God. We cannot serve God in the world. This world is no friend to grace. So that's the second solution for church conflicts. The first, you remember, was submission to God. The second is resisting evil. And now we have a third. Respecting each other. That's in verse 11. Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law. God's own word. That word brothers, again, in newer translations say brothers and sisters. It's nearly not really very good. And some of the older translations just said brethren. The word really does mean fellow believers. It really does not have a sexual reference. Fellow believers, something like the word beloved. The old preachers used to say, beloved in the Lord. Pastor Hauerzal used that term, didn't he? Beloved in the Lord. I loved it. I loved it. Maybe we should go back to that. Beloved in the Lord, it's a term of endearment. So you see, James, in the final analysis, ends his solution for church conflicts, begun rather harshly, now rather tenderly. He said, oh, fellow believers, don't slander. Don't be judgmental. God is the judge. You see, the opposite of respect is selfish pride. That's in here, too. That's in verse 6. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. You know, that's a direct quotation from Proverbs chapter 3, verse 34. You see, the writer of the Proverbs, as well as James, knew that pride, which is the enemy of faith, is also the enemy of fellowship within the household of the faith. Too high an opinion of ourselves causes us to look down judgmentally on others. We go through their life with a fine tooth comb and say, well, they didn't amount to much anyway, you can't expect much from them. Pride and envy are twins. He speaks of envy also in verse 5. He says, don't you know that the spirit he caused to live in us, You know, that's the evil spirit. Tends toward envy. Pride and envy are unrighteous twins. Because pride and envy makes us jealous of the gifts of others. And their possessions. And their talents. Instead of thanking God for blessing others. Pride seeks recognition rather than recognizing the gifts of others. Pride seeks compliments and will not give compliments. Pride wants to be appreciated rather than to show appreciation. Pride wants to be thanked instead of to be thankful. And the antidote for pride is grace. The grace of God is the medicine that cures pride. A gracious one will always rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Sometimes it's easier to weep with those who weep than to rejoice with those who rejoice. Because we may be jealous of the person who's been so blessed that they're rejoicing over good fortune. But a gracious person rejoices with those who rejoice and weeps with those who weeps. A gracious person is happy with the good fortune of others and will help with the burdens of others. And the conclusion of all of this, I want to direct a question to your minds. How often have you thanked those fellow members of this congregation who make ministry here possible? How often have you thanked the teachers who teach your children in Sunday school? How often have you thanked the nursery volunteers or the youth leaders who set such good examples for our cadets in our gyms? Have you ever thanked the ushers, the coffee break leaders, the musicians? We thank our pastors, I think. At least they tell me they receive expressions of appreciation from you. But there are others who are in ministry. Let's thank each other and rejoice in the gifts God gives. I close with a quotation. Listen. Humility before the Lord and each other makes our expressions of love genuine. that's a quotation from a sermon preached by Pastor Voss. And I don't think he would mind if I tell you that afterward I said that was a great quote but you said it so fast not many people caught it. So I'm going to repeat it slowly. Humility before the Lord and each other makes our expressions of love genuine. Please bow in prayer with me. We thank you, Father, for the scripture which illumines our minds and hearts and even gives us solution when conflict emerges among us. We thank you for the richness of our fellowship and we pray that we may live together as a people who know we belong to You and that we belong to each other. And only because of Jesus. Amen.