In his sermon titled 'When Pride Is Rampant in the Church,' Mike Davenport examines James 4:1-5, highlighting the destructive nature of pride and selfish desires within the church community. Using the metaphor of a spiritual metal detector, Davenport urges believers to self-examine and root out hidden destructive tendencies such as itching ears, distraction, self-righteousness, pride, and hypocrisy. He emphasizes that these internal battles lead to conflicts and strife among believers and warns that friendship with the world is enmity with God. The sermon outlines three key points: a sad reality of existing conflicts, a sobering assessment of the selfish desires fueling these conflicts, and a serious warning against infidelity to God. Davenport concludes by calling the congregation to genuine prayer and humility, reminding them that unresolved pride and selfishness ultimately lead to spiritual emptiness and broken fellowship.

Good morning. The sermon text today is James 4 verses 1 through 5, starting in verse 1, James 4. Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure, that war in your members you lust and do not have, You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet you do not have because you do not ask.

You ask and do not receive because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the scripture says in vain, the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously? Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for these eternal words in the book of James. We pray, Lord, that these would speak to us, to our spirit, your spirit, to our Spirit, Lord, that you would guide us, let us glean the rich richness that's in the text that we may learn and become a little bit more like Christ today. Thank you, Lord God. We pray for Mike as he comes forward to exposit this word that you would fill in with the proper words to say and to share with us the scripture in the name of Jesus. Amen.

You've seen them before. Most of us have walked through them in some place or another. You can find them at airports, correctional facilities, police stations, and courthouses. You can find them even at some schools, manufacturing facilities, warehouses, nuclear facilities, transportation terminals, historical landmarks, and arenas or stadiums that host sporting events or concerts. Do you know what I am referring to?

Walk-through metal detectors. Some of you children may not know what that is, a walk-through metal detector. Well, I'll describe it like this. It's like a doorway without a door. It's not attached to walls and it's just this door frame, it's metal and it's a heavy-duty structure and it's wired to detect anything that you might be carrying on your person that is metal.

And so this system has a coil of wire at the top of the frame that acts like a transmitter that both creates pulses of electricity and also acts as a receiver of magnetic fields. And this system will start beeping when anything that is metal passes through the frame. And the purpose of having people walk through these detectors is to ensure that no one that is coming into that building or event has something that is destructive. Well, as we come to our text today, I would like to ask you to pass with me through a spiritual metal detector so as to protect both you and others around you from anything that might be destructive. There may be things that are concealed from the sight of your brother or sister, but things that would most certainly set the detector off that would make it beep very loudly.

These are things that ought not to be brought into our gathering as we sit before the Word of God. These things are destructive. They will keep us from receiving with meekness the implanted word which is able to save our souls. What am I talking about? What things might cause this spiritual metal detector to go off?

Well, one thing might be itching ears. Itching ears. The Apostle Paul told Timothy, Preach the word, be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and teaching, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but according to their own desires which we'll talk more about in our message today according to their own desires because they have itching ears They will heap up for themselves Teachers and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables So what have you come to hear this morning Don't treat the message of God as a buffet line, picking and choosing what you like, and then just leaving the rest because you don't like it. Another thing that might set this spiritual metal detector off is distraction.

Distraction. That is a heart that is bothered with the thoughts or concerns of many other things besides the most important thing of this day, and that's the worship of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in spirit and in truth. So Do you have ears ready to hear what the living God has to say? Or are there distractions? Third, something else that will set this spiritual metal detector off, self-righteousness.

Self-righteousness that is an attitude that you are not in need of what the spirit has to say It's an attitude that says I'm in I'm not in need of this it's not for me It's a spirit of self-righteousness that we can bring in even before we hear What God has to say? Another thing That will set this system off is pride pride Now pride and self-righteousness go alongside each other most often, but as self-righteousness says This isn't for me what pride will do pride will say that someone else is in need of this I hope my brother is listening to this I hope my sister is listening to this they need this something else that will set it off hypocrisy hypocrisy hebrews 413 says And there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things, all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account." You see, in a certain sense, there is a metal detector that is set up. God sees the thoughts in the intents of our hearts. He knows what we've come with this morning. He knows our hearts.

So let's be consistent with reality. If we are Christians, we are in and of ourselves nothing more than sinners saved by grace. Sinners we were, sinners we are. A remembrance of the great debt we owe God would change the way we look at others. So let us come to the Word without bypassing that spiritual metal detector.

Let us come praying like David, which was also mentioned a little earlier in our prayers. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxieties and see if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting." The sermon title this morning is, When Pride is Rampant in the Church. When Pride is rampant in the church. The outline we will consider is as follows.

Verse 1, a sad reality, a sad reality. Verses 2 and 3, a sobering assessment, a sobering assessment. And then thirdly, verses 4 and 5, a serious warning, a serious warning. So first, a sad reality. Verse one, where do wars and fights come from among you?

Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? If you recall from our introduction of this epistle some months ago, the James who is writing this is most likely the brother of Jesus, who at the time of the writing of this epistle was an elder in the church in Jerusalem. The persecution of the day had caused many, probably most, all that were part of that Jerusalem church to scatter. It was called the diaspora or the scattering. So James is writing this epistle to fellow Jews, most of them who were members of his own congregation before being scattered.

So these are ones whom James knows, these are ones whom James counts as his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. He calls them brethren over and over and over throughout this epistle. Yet here in this opening verse of chapter 4, James notes a sad reality. He asks, where do wars and fights come from among you? There were wars and fights among the professing people of Christ.

They were not wars with the devil. They were not wars with the world. They weren't even wars against their own remaining flesh. These were wars and fights among those in the church. In the previous chapter, James had confronted this people already.

He said in chapter 3, verses 9 and 10, with our tongue we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so." Evidently, among this people were some hearts full of bitter envy and full of self-seeking. And because this envy and self-seeking were allowed to exist, confusion was there as was the revelation of other evil things. And these things are listed for us in the following verses and should make us feel the weight of our own remaining sinfulness.

Allow me to read a lengthy portion from Gordon Keddie's commentary on this epistle. Why are we not the way we ought to be as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ? Why do we have platitudes instead of real peace, fights in place of fellowship, strife instead of sanctification? Strife in the church is a painful subject, as anyone who has experienced it can testify. One expects these things in the world, but it always is a shocking contradiction of the very nature and purpose of the body of Christ.

We do not normally expect Christians to be nasty. Inconsistency, un-mortified sinful attitudes, and downright hypocrisy are found somewhere in every body of Christians in the real world of sinners, even if they are sinners saved by grace, or say they are. It is beyond doubt that James was writing to real situations in which there was strife between professing Christians. Situations no different in principle from what we have all seen and to which in one way or another we have all been party in our own day. Situations which need to be resolved with brokenness of heart and contrition of spirit so that the true healing of the gospel may be experienced and evangelistically demonstrated to a world that is in bondage to sinful strife in all its forms Well after asking this shocking question James points to the origin of such strife Do they not come From your desires for pleasure that war in your members We would like to polish up such strife and contention by suggesting that we are acting out of zeal for the glory of God, or out of a love and concern for the church, or out of a concern for this or that particular truth of Scripture.

But James blows past all of those excuses and puts his finger on the origin. He does so by asking a question, a rhetorical question, because the answer is quite obvious. James just finished a discussion about wisdom. He ended that section with the following words, now, the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. And as he begins this chapter, it is Obvious that he is convinced that there are some among those he is writing to who are not at all interested in peace They are what Linsky describes as chronic fighters James has been trying to get us to face the obvious that such water flows from a certain spring source that such fruit grows on specific trees That such wisdom that we would like to call it is actually earthly, sensual, demonic.

This war, this fighting, he says, comes from your desires for pleasure. They come from your desires for pleasure. Linsky describes this as their own pleasure that keep campaigning in their members because you see what's happening is they come from your desires for pleasure, that war in your members. And so he says it's their own pleasure and this pleasure keeps campaigning in their members. James keeps the figure of war when he characterizes these pleasures as constantly campaigning in the members of his readers.

They go on the warpath. They keep up the fights. So it's within the headquarters of the members of our bodies that such campaigning goes on. From that campaigning goes desires for pleasure as we allow such things to get the upper hand in our members. But then what happens?

When these passions are given free reign in our hearts and in our members, they will soon break out and seek to have free reign in the church of God. I give you the pastoral wisdom of Mr. Keddie again. Robert Johnstone observes that the race of diatrophies who troubled the churches of Asia because he loved to have the preeminence is by no means extinct. Somewhere in every quarrel is this love for ascendancy over others.

It may be on one side or the other, but frequently it is on both. You can surely think of many ways in which animosities have developed between people you have known. James is not concerned to discuss specific cases, but he is concerned that we search our hearts about the issue itself and make appropriate application to our own behavior. If righteousness loses in the battle within us, then it will soon break out in battles outside us, in the fellowship of God's people. It is inevitable that pride and selfishness in one person will eventually clash with pride and selfishness in another.

And it is also true that such sinful commitments will contest the righteous desires of those who are faithfully bearing a testimony for the Lord and His Word. Yes, this is a sad reality, but that does not mean that such a reality should be acceptable. My brethren, these things ought not to be so Well having described a sad reality James secondly gives us a sobering assessment a sobering assessment Verses two and three You lust and do not have You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures." If you think that the last part of the previous verse was in question form because James was not really sure that this was the case, but he was just kind of throwing it out there as a possibility.

Well, these two verses should set your thinking straight. Having stated their desire for pleasures as the origin of this war and fighting, James makes a sobering assessment of the hearts of his hearers. You lust, you murder, you covet, you fight, and you war James does not mince words Indeed pastors God's ambassadors must not mince words Just like James. I am not allowed to just give you my thoughts. I am God's ambassador, and as such, I must speak the things he has declared and made known." And so James deals with these sheep as a faithful shepherd.

Having described the source of these wars and fighting as their own desires for pleasure, he seeks to unveil now those desires. First, you lust and do not have. Mr. Keddie describes man's two deepest problems as first, the thought, I want to be my own God. And second, as we look around us, I want one too.

I want one too. The word lust should not cause us to think in terms of sexual lust only in The original the word here means simply to covet to desire to set the heart upon something so the lusting this lusting this this coveting is it's either not satisfied after obtaining what it wants, and It is so Because it is still just not satisfied even though it has obtained it it has it But it didn't fulfill like it thought it would it still leaves emptiness or they're just simply disappointed there was a satisfaction but it didn't last It it leaves a disappointment whatever it is he says you lust and you do not have Lusting and coveting by nature do not bring the satisfaction desired They leave a man feeling empty and wanting more. Gotta have more. But not only does he say, you lust and do not have, He says you murder and covet and cannot obtain you murder and covet and cannot obtain Here we have the escalation of a lustful heart Why? Because where bitter envy and self-seeking are Every evil thing is present there We shouldn't be surprised that he's gone now from lusting to murdering and coveting.

The word murder should not leave us thinking simply of taking somebody else's life from them. If that is where you stop with your application, then I say honestly you're ignorant of the teaching of Jesus Christ in the gospels as he sought to open up and help us to further understand the law of God. In fact, James use of the word covet alongside with murder here helps us to understand the word murder. Covet here is not the same Greek word used for lust in the previous sentence. This word translated covet here is actually to be heated, to boil with envy or with hatred or anger.

And so that's coupled along with murder, this boiling up, this stirring up that's coupled with...does that remind you of anything? Does it not remind you of the words of Jesus Christ about anger in the heart that is murder, that it is murder? And so we should apply here to this text the words of Christ in the Sermon on the Mount as well as what we studied in 1st John. The one who hates his brother, the one who hates his brother is a murderer. Listen to the following again from Mr.

Keddie. Character assassination is an apt term, and the murder it describes no less real for the absence of a literal corpse. Words can kill. People murder in their hearts even if their hands never lift a dagger. Any personal irritation or disagreement can erupt into the murderous attitude of which the Apostle John speaks in 1st John 315.

This is true within the fellowship of the church and You know, you know that Satan is trying his hardest to shatter the body of Christ. And we must admit that he has had plenty of help from us. Too many church annual business meetings are blighted by rancor and discord from some quarter. Bible study groups and personal conversations so easily become arenas for the taking of sides. The fact that the truth, the Word of God, is the subject at the heart of these interactions means that disagreement can very easy develop into divisiveness.

What ought to foster bonds of unity the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace is perverted by human sin into an unholy justification for spiritual pride and broken fellowship. James' words must challenge every Christian. Thirdly, you fight in war. You fight in war. James here reiterates what he already said in verse 1, simply exchanging the nouns that were used in the previous verse for verbs here in this verse.

Both of these words, fight and war, convey the idea of quarreling, disputing, wrangling, or striving against. In other words, it should not be thought of as only having to do with physical contact It goes beyond that as with murder fighting and warring can be done and most often are done with our words. And then fourthly, a strange one. He says, yet you do not have because you do not ask You ask and do not receive because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures Here James pulls back as it were on the last proverbial peel of the onion. It's the last peel of the onion.

It... He's taken the pot and he's boiled it down, and this is what remains. This... This lusting, this coveting, this fighting all exists ultimately because those in the church have ceased to pray. They've left off praying.

There is no longer a living vibrant communication with Almighty God Or if they pray James says They ask a miss That is literally with the wrong intentions. They're praying. Boy, oh boy, their intentions? What are they praying for in order that their own pleasures might be gratified? That word pleasures in the Greek is the word from which we get our English form of the word, hedonism.

It's hedonism. So this lusting, this coveting, this fighting, this warring are flowing from hearts that are becoming or have become basically either atheistic or hedonistic. So these are the things that James would have us to consider. Where is your heart? What is your heart attitude towards your brother and towards your sister?

How are you using your words? What is your prayer life like? And dear brothers and sisters, before we leave this point, please note something that James reiterates with all four of these points. You do not have. You do...you cannot obtain.

Again, you do not have. And finally, you do not receive. Do you see the folly, the folly of pursuing these things, that the chasing of the wind, the vanity of vanities it is to desire and chase after our own pleasures that are just campaigning constantly in our members. So first, a sad reality. Secondly, a sobering assessment.

Thirdly, and finally, a serious warning. A serious warning. Verses four and five. Warning. Verses four and five.

Adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously? How James has been describing what is going on among Christians is alarming. His alarming, warring, fighting, lusting, coveting, refusing to pray or praying selfishly.

What do all of these have in common? James pulls no punches. He gives it to a straight. Infidelity. Infidelity.

Here in this verse, James addresses these whom he calls brethren throughout this epistle as adulterers and adulteresses. He's saying, you're not faithful to the Lord who's called you. You're professing a faith that I've been seeking to test. Is it genuine? Is it genuine?

Is it genuine? James has concerns. So the idea being conveyed is a lack of faithfulness to God. When we are lusting, when we are coveting, when we're fighting and warring, something other than God has captured our hearts. Do you remember going through on Wednesday nights many months ago, going through the book together as I read some excerpts here and there on that book, all, that we've lost our awe of God.

This is the problem. It's a faithlessness to God, a lack of faithfulness to God. Something other than God has captured our hearts. We say that we love him, but our hearts and actions that flow out of them show that there is a competing love. The things that James has been talking about, they reveal a love for the world and the things of the world, and ultimately, What does that point to a love for ourselves?

Adulterers in a tall trusses If such a reminder of the covenant of our covenant relationship with God doesn't arrest our hearts. What will? What will? James wants us to consider the seriousness of the state of a heart that gives evidences of such fleshly passions. Wow, adulterers and adulterous.

Why such a serious warning? Are the things that James is talking about really worth such a strong response from him? I mean, has James gone overboard? Is what he's calling them warranted? He says it is warranted.

He says, do you not know that friendship with the world is not compatible with love for God. Remember the words of the Apostle John, do not love the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in Him The word friendship in the original language means literally to find pleasure in. To find pleasure in. We like to think, well it means best buddies, we always do everything together.

If you see this one, you always see that one. They're just always together. There's a friendship there. The word friendship means merely to take pleasure in. He who finds pleasure in this world is enmity with God, that is, places himself at hostility with God, in opposition to God.

It's a hatred directed to God. Mr. Keddie describes this friendship in the following way. James challenges our whole pattern of life, both outward behavior and inward aspirations and desires. Friendship with the world then is when these inner desires and motives are in harmony with those of the world that does not know and does not want to know God.

It is when we seek what the world seeks, when we want the riches that fade away, when we hunger for the praise of men that God says is a snare, When we much prefer the pleasures of the old man with his affections and lusts to the righteousness of Jesus Christ, it is then that we know we are friends with the world and would rather not be distracted or interfered with by the God of the Bible. Now, a question may be forming in your mind. What does this worldliness have to do with the first part of the chapter? With lusting, with coveting, with fighting, and a lack of true prayer? Matthew Henry's comments are helpful.

Hence arises wars and fighting even from this adulterous, idolatrous love of the world. What peace can there be among men so long as there is enmity toward God. Christians, to avoid contentions, must avoid the friendship of the world." That's the connection. That's the connection. This lusting, fighting, warring, coveting, murdering, it's flowing out of a desire for their own pleasures.

And where do we learn to seek after our own pleasures? It's what the world says to do. You only go around once, get all the gusto you can get. Sure life, do with it as you please. Just do it.

Just Go for it. And it teaches us, and we bring it to the church. And our own lustful pleasures desire, and what happens? My desires, your desires? Probably not the same thing, because you're probably not so concerned about my pleasure and I'm not really concerned about yours.

So what happens? All the campaigning inside causes that strife and where that self-seeking is where that bitter envy is