Conflict II

Intro

How many of us have experienced whether directly or vicariously, unnecessary illness because of a refusal to adhere to the doctors prescription. Oh yes, we’ve seen it -avoidable illness, escapable calamity, unnecessary suffering, all because of failure to adhere to doctors’ directives. Beloved, this kind of unwarranted distress is also pervasive spiritually. As is the case with every malady, every illness God, whether physical or spiritual, God has the answer. And although His answer may not always conform to our fleshly desires, God knows best and if we are willing to receive His word, we can be better in the process. Church conflict, church fights are no different. I want to reiterate, fighting is nothing new to God. They are simply another manifestation of the sin sickness from which we all suffer but sufficient is the the word of God and the Spirit of God to guide us to victory even over church fights and the fallout thereof.

On last week we looked to scripture to elucidate the pathology of church fights. Oh yes, the Holy Spirit uses brother James to help us understand and identify not only the source of church fights, but also the sequence of their progression. James says the fights come from us. These fights emanate from the seed of of our malignant desires, sprout into malicious methods, grow stems and branches of misaligned prayer and bear the poisonous flowers of meandering affections and yield the toxic fruit of militaristic conduct -namely church fights. But i’m glad this morning that God does not leave us alone to deal with the toxicity of our sinful humanity, but rather provides us with the healing balm of His Word and His Spirit to nurture us as a body from virus of sensuality and selfishness to the vitality of spirituality selflessness! We must however take the prescription.

Reconditioned

...gives grace to the humble...

To understand this principle, it’s needful to revisit verse 5. Here the Holy Spirit teaches us God’s earnest desire to be prioritized in the life of the believer. God has endowed us with a measure of himself. He has made significant deposits into your life. Remember the audience is the church in Jerusalem. Believers who are in Christ Jesus. So, not only are they God’s creation in whom He has breathed the breath of life, the general spirit of mankind. But moreover, because they have believed on and been baptized into Christ, so that they have received the Holy Spirit. Now, they may not have understood this significance, but it does not minimize the importance of this, which may be why James has to bring it to their attention. God has poured so much of Himself into you -He gracefully created you, He gracefully kept you while you were in sin, gave you grace when He sacrificed His Son to save you, and now offers that same grace to sanctify you. What do you mean grace to sanctify me preacher? To sanctify means to be made fit for God. God saved you by grace to make you His child, but we don’t know how to act. So He must also use His grace to teach us to think, reason, relate and behave fittingly as His children.

See it another way, the text says the Spirit dwells in us, which means God has already purchased us. But to make us suitable or fit to house His Spirit, so again, He must recondition us by grace. What’s awesome is that there is no blemish, no deficiency, no sin, no act, no mindset, no flaw in your character that God’s grace is not sufficient to overcome…except pride. Pride rejects grace and grace resists pride. Pride deludes us to believe we are independent of God. Pride seduces us to believe we can do without God. The proud have chosen the praise and methods of the world and therefore act as the enemies of God. One writer declares it is the worship of self and the national religion of hell. Therefore, in order for God’s grace to adhere to recondition our hearts, they must be prepped with humility because the grace of God and pride will not coexist.

Reordered

...Submit therefore to God...

therefore links the revelation to the response. The revelation is how God engages those who are proud versus those who are humble. The prideful refuse God and choose self, which is why God opposes them. The humble however obey God, which is why God extends grace. The appropriate response of the believer then is to humbly submit to God. To submit means to come under, get behind, to subject yourself to another in obedience. James teaches that the believer is to be specific in submission. Submit yourselves to God -get behind, get under, obey God! Now the fact that he admonishes them in this way, implies that the audience has placed themselves ahead of God, before God, over God and have become disobedient. This has led to fighting, chaos because they are desperately out of order! What does this look like? When the believer seek his own will ahead of God’s will, when we promote self instead of Christ, when we fail to submit to God ordained authority… It’s this state of disorder that make us more susceptible to used and abused by Satan.

When we have disarray, fighting, perpetual conflict, continuous displays of selfishness, it is because we are out of order. When we ravage one another, whether it’s overt or covert, it’s because we’re out of order. I say covert, because some disorder is not as visible, sometimes it’s quiet, but the result is the same -selfishness and stagnation. So let me add another caveat. When the church is not moving forward, maybe it’s because we are out of order. Order is designed for our own good, well-being, peace and productivity so that God may accomplish His purpose through the believer. You see when I’m behind God, under God, obey God, I’m protected. Whatever and whoever that would get to me, must go through God first. When I’m in the right order, God protects me, He preserves me… Listen to the Word...

And the Lord commanded us to DO all these statutes, to FEAR the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day ().

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society. So if I’m gonna be

So if we as a body will be protected, preserved, productive, peace, then we must allow God to reorder us according to His will.

Replacement

As God continues to give instruction, the Holy Spirit leads James to helps us understand, there are some things that must be replaced. He presents this as a list of contrasting actions and attitudes. He first says we must...

Replace our affinity for Satan with intimacy with God. Satan’s ultimate goal is to separate the believer and God. He accomplishes this by driving a wedge between our relationships with one another. He seduces us into believing that we can minimize our relationship with one another while maintaining a relationship with God. . In reality, in our attempt to gratify self at the expense of our brother, we make Satan our master. (explain context; lift principle) ...The more embrace God, the more we resist Satan… How is this resistance of Satan and embracing of God accomplished?

Replace pollution with purity. Cleanse and purify are Old Testament terms used of priests in preparation for service. The priests would wash their hands ceremonially in the bronze basin as an object lesson to the people of God. However, it was also required of God that their hearts be sincere. James uses this to teach the believer that God require purity both externally and internally. He requires it both publicly and privately. Sometime we want to mask private pollution with public purity. I cannot be so with God. This is what James alludes to by the phrase double-minded. It is one who is characterized by instability, by vacillation, by doubt. It is a division within one’s own psyche. It is attempt to maintain duality… But God says either you’re gonna be with me or not. God is not looking to be a part-time lover. For those too young for Stevie Wonder, this means God has no desire to be your sidepiece. He’s a jealous God, He’s an all or nothing God. And James teaches us that His desire is that we totally reflect Him in every way both with our actions -clean hands, and with our attitudes -clean hearts.

Replace our disposition toward sin. -Merriness to mourning.

The more embrace God, the more we resist Satan....

Purity is the language of the priest. Mourning is the language of the prophets. They often used mourning as the appropriate response to recognition of sin. James is not suggesting there is no room for joy and laughter in the life of the believer. But these words were often used to describe God’s people’s cavalier attitudes toward sin. James is saying what used to make you laugh ought to cause you to cry.

says Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.

This is a warning from God. When we dismiss the gravity of God’s commands in favor of our own gratification, God says the same thing that made you laugh is gonna make you cry.

Laugh in sin; cry in judgment

Laugh in rebellion; cry in recompense

Laugh in disobedience; cry in damnation

Laugh in selfishness; cry in suffering

But God also says if you mourn about your sin, transgression; you will be comforted. Heartfelt sorrow about sin is an indication of true repentance. We ought to be affected by our sin. We ought to lament for our sin. That’s why John says in , a child of God cannot continue in sin because it conflicts with his nature, he is miserable in perpetual sin. This sorrow that James articulates of God’s Presence in us; it is an indication that our hearts are becoming aligned with the heart of God; in this God is glorified. It signals renewal, reconditioning, reordering, true transformation, which is the goal of God.

If you know you’ve been changed...

if you know you’ve been made over...

James knew something about being made over