Christ Church

How to Endure Trials

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THE TEXT

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways (James 1:1–11).

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When Desire Divides

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INTRODUCTION

You should recall that at our previous joint worship service earlier this summer, the emphasis was on two kinds of unity. The first is a unity that we are given by grace, and are called to preserve (Eph. 4:1–3), and the second is a unity that we are called to establish or build (Eph. 4:11–13). We preserve the existing unity by dealing with sin properly—resisting temptation, seeking forgiveness, and extending forgiveness. The second kind of unity is the maturity that the Holy Spirit is in the process of bestowing on us as He grows us up into the perfect man.

In the message today, we need to drill down into some of the issues surrounding that first kind of unity. And that means we have to talk about sin. But I want to focus on a particular kind of sin, the kind that consistently thinks of itself as always somehow in the right. You know, sins that are common in church. This kind of sin actually causes a lot of havoc in conservative churches—far more havoc than selling cocaine does, or running a brothel, or robbing banks.

THE TEXT

“From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble” (James 4:1–6).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

As our community continues to grow, and is growing rapidly, we are likely to find ourselves with increased conflicts with the town, whether we want them or not. One crucial thing to avoid, therefore, would be conflicts with one another.

When Christians collide with one another, what is going on? You would think that when Christians ask that question, they would immediate think of James 4, which actually asks and answers it. Where do battles and fights among you come from (v. 1)? You have certain desires down in your members, and these desires are waging war (v. 1). You want, and don’t have. You kill, and still want, and still don’t have (v. 2). The reason you don’t have is because you don’t ask God (v. 2). And when you do get around to asking God, He doesn’t give it to you because you are asking for it all wrong, in order that you might consume it on your lusts, your desires (v. 3). “You adulterers and adulteresses,” James says. Don’t you know that friendship with the world and friendship with God are mutually exclusive (v. 4)? You cannot have both, so choose and choose wisely. For v. 5, I am following the AV, taking it as “the spirit within us veers toward envy” (v. 5), but God gives more grace (v. 6). God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. But if you take v. 5 in the way other translations do (“the Spirit within us yearns jealously”), it doesn’t really affect the broader flow of the argument.

TWO KINDS OF DESIRE

James tells us that the central villain here is our “desires.” And that means we have to take a moment to understand those desires in the context of this passage.

There is one kind of desire that everyone here has, and there is nothing wrong with it. Let us call it creational desire. You have a desire to breathe, for example, or to drink when you are thirsty, or to eat when you are hungry. This kind of desire can function without anybody else being present. It is not socially rooted. If you are thirsty in the desert, the nature of that thirst will not be affected by the presence or absence of other people. You have these desires simply because you are a creature with a nature. You have lungs, and muscles, and nerve endings.

But there is another kind of desire, and it is the kind of desire being addressed in our text. Do not be thrown by the use of the word lust. In modern English, the word has a strong sexual connotation, but that is not required here. Take it as simply a strong desire, desire for anything. But in this context, it is desire for things that are socially situated. It is mimetic desire, imitative desire. James is asking why fights arise among you (v. 1). He says that we covet (what someone else has) (v. 2). We fight (with somebody else) (v. 2). Then he locates the root problem—the problem is friendship with the world (v. 4). It is friendship with the world, and all of its lies, blandishments, advertisements, fashions, fads, and entertainment stampedes. You could be quite godly if it were not for all these other people out there.

COLLISIONS RESULT FROM CONVERGENCE

But it is not just other people. It is the other people we know, the people who are up close, in your neighborhood, in your school, or in this sanctuary together with you.

The secularists, when trying to give an account of human fractiousness, have a quaint myth that they love to appeal to. They believe that we collide with one another because of our perceived differences, and if we could only come to see how many similarities we share, then the fluffy clouds would suddenly appear, and attractive woodland creatures would caper in the meadow. And so it is that they sponsor international student exchange programs, and food fairs where we sample one another’s exotic foods, and they love to solve problems with diplomacy. Let’s hug it out.

But what if conflict is caused, not by dissimilarity, but rather by similarity? You bonk heads with someone precisely because you were both reaching for the same thing. And you were reaching for the same thing because your tastes were so similar.

If you will allow me, a few autobiographical illustrations might help. I have been in the education business for some forty-odd years now. During that time, guess how many scrapes or collisions I may have had with advocates of the Montessori approach to education? Why, zero. And how may tangles have I had with classical, Christian, Latin-loving, logic-teaching, Trivium-applauding, Sayers-appreciating educators? No idea. Too many to keep track of.

How about theology? How many battles have I waged with ministers from the Assemblies of God? Again, zero. And how many head bumps with Reformed, postmillennial, presuppositional, paedobaptistic, and Presbyterian brethren? Heh.

You have collisions with your roommate because of the things you share. And that would include the things he borrows without asking.

Similar views, similar tastes, similar opinions, similar doctrines cause people to converge. And when they converge, conflict is hard to avoid. I also cannot tell you how many times I have counseled a young man who is interested in a young lady, and he wants to know if he should contact her father, and I am trying to figure out what to do with the fact that I had a very similar conversation the previous week with this fellow’s roommate, and about the same girl. This kind of thing does not happen because everybody is so dissimilar.

REMEMBER THE EARLIER WARNING

In the world of education, we are now have a cornucopia of options—Logos School, Logos Online, Kepler, New St. Andrews, White Horse, Jubilee, and I am sure some others. Do you think that any James 4 elbows might get thrown? Why, yes. Remember what I said about those distributing “the biblical worldview” by various other means (publishing, video, etc.)—we have Canon Press, CCM, Huguenot Heritage, Gorilla Poet, Roman Roads, CrossPolitic, Having Two Legs, New St. Andrews, Blog and Mablog, and there will soon enough be even more points of friction. And also remember what I said about all the restaurants, realty companies, medical practices, software companies, light manufacturing, contractors, and so on. And don’t forget Christ Church, Trinity Reformed, CCD, and so on. You cannot have this type of cloud form without it becoming a thunderhead.

BRING IT TO THE CROSS

In ungodly societies, and in ungodly times, the electrical charge that builds up is dealt with by means of catharsis. Sometimes it is artificial catharsis—plays, movies, grand sporting events. So let’s cancel all those. And sometimes it is real time catharsis—riots, executions, wars. Of necessity, apart from Christ, there is an endless cycle of it.

But the last verse of our text says that God “gives more grace.” And how does He do that? The ultimate and final cathartic event was the crucifixion of Jesus. Even Pilate was keen enough to see that Jesus was turned over to him because the Jewish leaders were envious of Him (Matt. 27:18). And in that ultimate death, we see—by faith we see—the death of death. But there is no death of death apart from the death of sin, and there is no death of sin apart from the death of envy and striving.

In the death of Jesus, every form of envy died. In His resurrection, we have God’s assurance that it need never come back.

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Artillery Sermon 2019

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Introduction

First a word on the curious title for the sermon. In the American colonial era, ministers used to preach sermons to prepare congregants for their civic duties at election time, and these sermons were called artillery sermons. The custom may have begun (back in England) with messages that were preached to artillery companies prior to their election of officers. But the term broadened, and here we are.

What I would like to do this morning is declare an authoritative word to you in the light of our current political season. Given the inflamed state of our postmodern politics, it might seem that we are always in a political season, and that is actually part of our dilemma.

The Text

“Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin” (James 4:17).

Summary of the Text

What we have in this text is a very succinct definition of what have come to be known as sins of omission. A sin of commission is committed when someone does the evil thing. He does it, and he is the sinner. A sin of omission is when an evil is about to happen, and someone who has the means to prevent it does not prevent it. He doesn’t do anything, and hence he is the sinner.

The context of this verse in James has to do with entrepreneurs who boast in their conceit about their ability to go here and there, do this and do that, and make a pile of money. But, James responds, your life is a little wisp of fog rising off an obscure creek. For such a one to boast is evil. But James hastens to add that it is not enough to avoid the evil—one must also do the good that is before you.

Immediate Application

This coming Tuesday, our city is holding elections for city council. There are three open seats, and there are six candidates running. Each registered voter gets to cast up to three votes in this election. The election is a city-wide horse race, meaning that the top three vote-getters will take office and, if you follow me closely, the other three will not. If you are interested in narrowing your options down, three of the candidates used what can only be called “a drag show fail” to drum up support. They apparently did not know what would appeal to you.

So the immediate point of application is this—followed by a brief explanation, and followed a bit later with some general observations. Here is the charge: anyone who lives here in Moscow, and who is qualified to vote in this election, must vote in this election. It would be a sin not to. Sitting this one out is not an option. This is an election that will have significant repercussions for a number of individuals in our community, and for a number of institutions. This includes entities like Logos, NSA, Christ Church, and so on, not to mention numerous individuals. And so this means that if you do not vote, and a year from now we find ourselves getting hassled by a city council that is now hostile to us (surprise!), and your lack of participation in the election was the reason for it, then you will have a great deal of trouble praying with us for a successful outcome of the upcoming hearing which will determine whether NSA students have to park their cars on top of the other students’ cars. To save room.

Yeah, But What About . . .?

Perhaps some of you have been in conversations with co-workers or neighbors about your involvement with “that church.” And so is this an instance of us “flexing?” Is this an instance of us finally “making our move?” I want to provide you with a few things that you can say in such conversations, and say with confidence. You can say these things with confidence because they are true.

Political, Not Partisan

We believe, and have taught for years, that the Christian church is inherently political. At the same time, we have diligently avoided partisan politics, and will continue to do so. Here is the difference. Politics is not our savior, but politics will most certainly be saved. We therefore avoid every form of “vote for Murphy” partisanship. Christ Church never wants to fit in with the old jibe about the Episcopalians, which was that they were the Republican Party at prayer. That was a century ago, as they are now the Democratic Party at a séance. At the same time, we recognize that the resurrection of Jesus most certainly has an agenda for our earthly political system.

Repenting of Cynicism

Any thoughtful person who watches our clown-car-parade of a culture, a pandemonium that is punctuated at regular intervals by elections, is going to be tempted to become cynical. He will tell his wife that if God had wanted us to vote He would have given us candidates. He will tell his children that they shouldn’t vote because “it only encourages them.” He might be prevailed upon to vote in a hot presidential election, but for the most part he is lethargic. But, as we can tell from the huge turnout in presidential elections, compared to the small turnout for local elections, people really have their priorities upside down. Local is important, and cynicism cannot wave that reality away.

A Decisive Point

Our local progressives have made a great deal out of the fact that we want to “take Moscow” for Christ. And this is quite true, we do. But we want this in the sense intended by the Lord Jesus in His Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20), and in the sense that is desired by every evangelical Christian church. The means we intend to use to accomplish this will be Word and water, bread and wine. We intend to labor quietly with our hands and minds. We are resolved to show hospitality. We intend to bring up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, providing them with a thoroughgoing Christian education. Sounds pretty scary, doesn’t it?

In my father’s application of the principles of war to evangelism, he has taught for years that a decisive point is one that is simultaneously strategic and feasible. If we took New York City for Jesus that would certainly be strategic, but how feasible is it? If we took Bovill, Idaho for Jesus, we could do that in three weeks, but how strategic would it be? Small towns with major universities (like Moscow and Pullman, eight miles apart) are decisive points. But all of this is to be accomplished without any coercion, through the power of love, good works, true community, good work, and persuasion.

An Agenda?

So our agenda for Moscow is to be the right kind of left alone. Our interest in this particular city council election is entirely defensive.

“I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:1–4).

We are not interested in meddling with the affairs of others. We are not going to make the Moscow Food Coop sell Doritos.

Conclusion

One of the big reasons why Calvin was enabled to become the influential force that he became throughout Reformation Europe was because of the city council elections in Geneva in 1555. You may never have heard of those elections, but you also might be living here in Moscow because of them. Never underrate the power of Christ in your immediate surroundings.

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