Shabbat shalom everyone. Today we are going back to the study of the book of Yaakov, James. And I would like you all please to open your Bibles to the book of James. And today we are going to look into James chapter 4, the first 12 verses of this chapter. And I'm reading. Jacob is saying to the early Hebrew believers, From whence comes 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 adulteress and adulteresses, know ye not that 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 sayeth in vain the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resists the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourself therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Be afflicted and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness.

Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother And judges his brother Speaketh evil of the law And judges the law But if thou judge the law Thou art not a doer of the law But a judge There is one lawgiver Who is able to save and to destroy Who art thou that judges another? I'm stopping here in verse 12 of James, chapter 4. Yaakov, reminding you, beloved brothers and sisters, that actually most Bible teachers believe that this epistle, this letter that was written by Yaakov, the brother of Yeshua, the Messiah, James, was the first letter of the New Testament written between 45 to 50 AD.

Yaakov was a Hebrew believer, a Messianic Jewish person, as I remind you again, that before Yeshua rose from among the dead, he did not believe that Jesus, that Yeshua was truly the Messiah. After all, he lived with him, and for some reason he couldn't get into his mind that this older brother is Israel's promised Messiah. But after the resurrection of Yeshua the Messiah, Yeshua revealed himself unto James. And James became a believer in Yeshua the Messiah and a great witness to him in the early church, in the early assembly in the city of Jerusalem. So beautiful to see. And you can see the burden of James.

Because right now he's writing a letter to his very Jewish brethren who believed Jesus that Yeshua was the Messiah. And he's writing this letter, very sincere letter, very practical. You remember in the previous chapter 3, he was talking about the tongue, the lashon as we say in Hebrew. And how often time we use our tongues instead of building the people of God. We use our tongue as fire and we end up doing a lot of damage to the testimony of Yeshua, the Messiah. And he challenged those early brethren to watch their tongues. If you want to use your tongue, use it for the glory of God, for the building of the assembly of the body of the Messiah, rather than to destroy the testimony of Yeshua the Messiah.

And he was very strong, used a whole chapter to teach about the tongue, the Lashon, as we call in the Hebrew language. And he did say, the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth. This is James 3 and verse 5. Well, we talked already about it. But James continued to be very practical. And now, beloved brothers and sisters, in these 12 verses of James chapter 4, he deals with the friction and the problems that existed already then and there among the believers in the land of Israel, the early Hebrew Christians in the city of Yerushalayim and elsewhere. And I don't have to tell you, beloved brothers and sisters, that wars are part of life, unfortunately.

Everywhere you go, you hear of wars and of rumors of wars. You remember what Yeshua said in Luke chapter 21 and verse 10? He says, nations will rise against nations and kingdom against kingdom. talking about the future day of the tribulation period and prior to it, but he knew very well that wars and conflict exist everywhere in life. In fact, there are wars that exist between nations, there are wars that exist between family members, there are wars that exist between brothers and sisters and friends in the world, and there are even wars that existed among the people of God. You know, the reason that the body of Christ, the body of Messiah, is so divided, it's not because everybody became so spiritual.

It's simply because we just can't get along with each other. And that's why the body of Messiah is so divided. You can go in this very city, and you'll find a church group in this street, and a church group in this street with different names and different titles. Why? It's not because one is more spiritual than the other. History teaches us that friction and problems have already existed many, many years ago in the earlier days of the church age. Let me just remind you that James teaching us now in these verses that there are three types of wars that we are experiencing in life. The first one, we might say, is a war that we have with each other.

Secondly, is a war that we have within our own self, in our own hearts. The conflict that we have as believers, the flesh and the spirit, the spirit and the flesh, constantly at war against each other. And also, we have these conflicts, this war against God. When we live a life that is in disobedience to the word of God, we are really at war with the living God, with the God who created us here in this universe. So what really Yaakov is doing here is really seeking to help the people of God to know how to stop wars, how to stop conflict. You know, I tell you, brothers and sisters, this is very important.

If you and I want to be a blessing and a testimony to the people of God, we need to seek to be peacemakers, not war makers. The Hebrew word for peace is shalom. You know, in Israel, we say shalom when we come. We say shalom when we go. I'm sorry to say it, but sometimes they don't know whether we Jews are coming or going. But nevertheless, beloved brothers and sisters we long for shalom we long for peace and yet israel very little peace whether it is interna or externa there is very very little peace but yeshua the messiah said in matthew chapter 5 and verse 9 blessed are the peacemakers ashrei rodfei shalom he said when he was at the sermon on the mount when he was speaking there and teaching the disciples there in the galil and he was teaching the multitude and he says blessed are the peacemakers why because they shall be called the sons of God practically oh yes they were believers and positionally we are the sons of God but practically we don't behave like the sons of God and the daughters of God when we cause hindrance to shalom among the people of God.

And here, this man by the name of Yaakov is dealing now with the necessity of bringing peace among the people of God, wherever you are, whether you are here in our midst in Holy Scriptures in Israel, Bible fellowship, whether you go anywhere in this world, at work, at home, at school, at play, Wherever we are, we are exhorted in the Bible to become peacemakers, shalom makers, those that seek to make peace wherever we are. Paul said it, as much that it is within you, seek to make peace with all men. Look how this chapter 4 began. In chapter 4, in the first part of verse 1, we find out that there are wars among the people of God.

In Hebrew, the word war is milchamayin. You know, since I was a little boy in Jerusalem many years ago, I don't remember a time in the history of my life in Israel that we didn't have any war. In 1948, we have the independent war. We call it milchemet ha'atzmaut in Hebrew. Israel, to become a nation, had to go through a war. Later on, if you look at the Jewish history, Some of the wars that I can mention, all of us know very well the war of 1967 called the Six-Day War. We call it, in Hebrew, Milchemet Sheshetayamin. In six days, Israel had to defeat the nations around who sought to consume our people Israel.

Then we all know very well, in 1973, we had the Day of Atonement War. In Hebrew we call it Yom Kippur, Milchemet Yom Kippur. And I was a soldier, I was 18 years old in 1973 at the war that had started with the Syrian in the northern area, in the Golan Heights. As a young, 18 years old, didn't even finish my training, already had been falling into a war zone. And then we know very well other wars that existed among our people in the neighboring nation. We have the Lebanon War in the 80s. And then later on, even just recently, the war in 2014, the war against Hamas in Gaza.

And war after war after war, we're even naming those wars. Yom Kippur War, Day of Atonement War, Independent War. The whole world experienced these wars. We have World War I, we have World War II, and we name them and we mark them And we know that we live in a world that have constant wars all around us. But now James goes down to the people of God. And he says, listen, in verse 1 of James 4. From whence comes wars? And fighting, and notice the word, among you. Now James is a very straightforward writer who directs himself to the people to whom he wrote. Apparently he wrote to Hebrew believers of first century and he asked them this question and he brings them to the reality.

He says, where are the wars coming from among you? Imagine the people of God saved by grace, forgiven, loved the Lord Yeshua the Messiah and belonged to him, are ready to go to heaven to be with him eternally. And yet there is constant war among the people of God. And so, James is going to go down to the problem, the root of the problem. What is the root of the problem for friction? If you and I have a problem with each other and we don't talk with each other and we speak against each other and we run down each other and we are just simply not stopping to discourage and to make all kind of accusation against another, where do you think it's come from?

It doesn't come from God. It doesn't come from the Holy Spirit of God, from Ruach HaKodesh. There's a root problem that existed right down in our very own hearts and conscience and sin nature. And so in verse 1, he's telling them, beloved brothers and sisters, he said, where does wars and fighting come among you? Well, apparently already in the earlier assemblies, a congregation of the church age, already friction have been all along. I don't have to tell you, just look at 1 Corinthians chapter 6, they used to take each other to the court. Brethren, believers, look at Galatians chapter 5 and verse 15, Paul is writing to these brethren in Galatia.

Not only Jewish believers had a problem among themselves, the non-Jewish believers, the Gentiles believers had a problem among themselves.

Galatians 5 verse 14 said for all the law is fulfilled in one word even in this thou shall love thy neighbor as yourself but verse 15 if you bite and you devour one another take heed that ye be not consumed one of another apparently the Galatians believers had just as much friction as the Hebrew believers to whom James wrote to and I don't have to stop here because in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 3 they had problem with unity among the believers and in Philippians chapter 4 and verses 1 to 3 there were two sisters who could not get along with each other and apostle paul that is shaul was writing to the brothers and

sisters to try to make peace among those two sisters who could not be with each other but they had friction among each other so james is writing to this earlier brethren and he's saying to them hey brethren why is it the fact of the truth of these existing wars one against another in the midst among you among the people of God those that are saved and are on the way to heaven they have this constant friction among the people of God and so this is verse 1a the first part of this verse so what does he do James Jacob from verses 1 to 3 James shows us that there is wars that is existing among

us then from verses 4 to 12 he shows us that there are other wars that is really we have with God or against God and against the will of God in our lives and we need to curb that we need to put an end to it in some small measure if we are to be blessing to the people of God so let's go through these verses together as we move along here in James chapter 4 notice that it says in verse 1b this time, James Yaakov is pointing to the problem.

The problem, the reason why from time to time we have conflict with the people of God is because we have this sin nature that is allowed to be fed and to have its own way. Instead of submitting to the Holy Spirit of God through the divine nature that he had given to us we allow the sin nature to carry on and to do his own thing namely it is self-will not God's will but my will look what it says here in verse 1b come they not those wars and fighting come they not hence even of your lusts or your desires that war in your members you lust and have not ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain ye fight and war and ye have not because ye ask not and verse 3 ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss or you ask for evil reasons that ye may consume it upon your lusts let me break this down a little bit for us beloved brothers and sisters.

You know, self-will, which we all have, did not start now. It began already a long time ago. In the Garden of Eden, Gan Eden, when Adam and Eve could have lived a long, long life enjoying fellowship with God, instead of submitting to God's Word where He said to them, If you remember this very well, of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat thereof, for in the day that you will eat thereof, dying you shall die. But you know what Adam and Eve did? Instead of submitting to the will of God, they wanted their own will. And they listened to Satan's voice.

And when Satan had introduced the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Eve of course had been beguiled and took of the fruit and Adam violated God's word in disobedience have eaten of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and plunged the whole human race into sin that's why we have today what is called a sin nature that's why we seem to always have our own will and not submitting to the will of God because this all sinful nature wants its own way. And so we find this in the whole history. Remember Abraham, our father, when he left Canaan, he went down to Egypt because he did not submit to the will of God and he ended up to be in Mitzrayim in Egypt and he ended up losing all the testimony there when he lied about his wife, that she is his sister.

Abraham was not in the will of God, though a man of God. And then we can go on. What about Achan, who when he went into the city of Jericho, and God said, don't take of this accursed thing. And instead of submitting to the will of God, he wanted his own will, and he ended up losing his life. the family and so on because he did not submit to the will of God he says my will rather than God's will and what we think about Miriam and Aaron you remember Miriam and Aaron the high priest of Israel who were jealous over Moshe and they said to Moses in the book of Numbers chapter 12 who make you the leader God could use us as well and God had to judge Miriam and make her a leper, and Moses, the man of God, prayed for his own sister, and she recovered after seven days, and she moved with the camp on the way to the promised land, but she was not submissive to the will of God, like we are many times in our lives, and what we think about James and John, this is another James, Yaakov and Yohanan, you remember when they came to Yeshua in Mark chapter 10, And they told him, we want you to put us on your right hand and your left hand in your kingdom.

They wanted their will, instead of thinking of the Lord to be exalted, they wanted their own will in their life. And we can go on and go on, and we look at many others in history, and we look at ourselves, never mind others. How many times we sinned against God when we did not submit to his will. And later on we felt the loss of our relationship with the Lord. We don't enjoy his fellowship because we have not obeyed and submitted to the word of God. And so look at these brothers and sisters now after he's saying to them in verse 1, those wars do not come out of your own lust because that war in your members.

now notice how interesting this word for lust really is desires we have desires and those desires that we have is warring against the members of our bodies because I have these evil desires in my heart I end up hurting the members of our body now it is interesting this word war in your members if you just for a moment turn to first first Peter chapter 2 verse 11 Peter say the same thing but he applied not to the members of the body but to the soul it says dearly beloved I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts listen which war against the soul in James evil desires war against the members of our body while first Peter 2 verse 11 these evil desires are warring against the soul now you know you see that what happened at the time in our life why our souls are not refreshed and encouraged because those selfish desires of our own that we have and not curbed and not judged allow us to have the conflict against the soul and a conflict and a war against the members of our body and it's really crippling us from spiritual growth and now we continue in verse 2 and verse 3 and he shows us that selfish desire lead to wrong action.

It says, notice that, look at the progression, beloved brothers and sisters, in verse 2. It says, you lust and have not. Ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. Ye fight and war and ye have not because ye ask not. You notice the progression? First of all, you lust, you have is desire. Secondly, you kill. The word for killing here really has to do with hatred. They didn't literally kill each other physically, but they hated each other because of their will to get their own way. And then it led to the desire here. In other words, the burning with zeal against each other or hatred with enmity and it ultimately led to the word for war and fighting now look at the progression when we desire something in our hearts and we don't get it and we instead of waiting on the lord and trusting in him in due time to open the door what happens if we have this desire at the end if we don't get it we gotta get it one way or another so what we're gonna do we're gonna start to hate here the word for killing simply applied to hating we start to hate the person or someone who shut the door before me because i wanted to get my way and then when that doesn't work we end up to fight as it says here to desire as strongly with hatred and as it were here burning with zeal to get our own way and it end up to be a fight and a war which cause us to split and to separate from each other.

This is exactly what happened in the early church to whom Jacob was writing to. And this is exactly what happened today in the body of Messiah. Most of the time we see the conflict that exists between brothers and sisters. It's not at all because we submitted to the word of God or because we wanted to be more spiritual minded. Many times to our shame, It is because we've simply gone through the process of lusting and hating and then hating with passion and ultimately having these fighting that lead to a war and a breakdown among the people of God. And you see, Yaakov wrote 45 to 50 A.D.

We are now 2,000 years almost later and the same thing existing among the people of God. It's a problem that exists in every one of our hearts. And we cannot blame those early Hebrew believers. We can look at our own hearts and we can say, Lord, to my shame, I know how often time I have been the cause of a division and friction among the people of God. And Lord, help me. And you notice, by the way, that it says in verse 2, ye have not because you didn't ask. There was not prayerful request from the Lord and saying, Lord, help us. Help me. Now, it is a shame for us if we don't pray.

When we have a desire for something or we have a burden, a concern for something, how shameful it is when we don't even talk to the Lord and ask him, Lord, can you please help me with this issue? But what we do instead of praying to the Lord, you know what we usually do? We pick up the telephone and talk to somebody else about this. Instead of picking up the telephone and talking to the Lord, we end up picking up the telephone and causing friction and spreading cancer among the people of God. James saw that at that time, in those early years of the assembly of the church, and he heard about the condition that existed, and you know what he did?

He says, listen, this is an individual problem of a carnal believer who is not judging himself. that's what he's really saying and he says you don't even pray he says look at the prayerlessness that was existing there to whom he wrote he said and you have not why you have not because you ask not verse 2 now you notice the word ye mentioned so many times in verse 2 ye last ye kill ye fight ye have not because he asked not he's talking directly to the brothers and sisters of the local assembly to whom he wrote to the early Hebrew believers of first century and now he's telling them in verse 3 look at this selfish desire will lead us to wrongdoing and therefore we need to pray in the way that the Lord wished us to pray and notice how he said in verse 3 you ask now, when you ask, you don't receive it.

Why? Because you ask amiss. You're asking for something, the word for amiss, really for an evil reason, not for a good reason, that ye may consume it upon your own desire, your own lust. You know, apparently, so said, when they finally asked they were asking for a wrong reason that's a poor way to ask in prayer do you know Elijah when he was fleeing from Jezebel he was praying against Israel and God told him we learn a lesson remember when he said Lord he says they did this to me and they killed this and only I left the spiritual man Elijah and God said to Eliyahu you know Elijah I have left 7,000 men who did not bow the knees to Baal you are not alone there are others that I've kept them and they have been kept by submitting to me Eliyahu Elijah he's saying to him and this is a great lesson for us when we pray, never to pray against the people of God.

Even if they have wronged you, or they have wronged me, always to pray for them. Always to pray for yourself and for them, that there will be harmony among the people of God. Never to pray against the people of God. And here we find out in verse 3, you ask and you are not receiving. Why? Because you asked for an evil desire that ye may consume it in your own lusts. Can you imagine to ask God to have something bad happen to somebody else? What a shame. Think about Yeshua, our Messiah. When he was on the cross, he said, Father, forgive them. The very people who he gave strength to hang him on the tree.

He prayed for them, and he said, Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they do. Think of Stephen, what an example he was. When he prayed, counteth not, Lord, against them, when he was stoned. Now, I know my flesh, and you know yours. When somebody wronged you, in a sense, what we want to do, we want to retaliate. And in a sense, we wish them evil, you might say. But that comes from the flesh. That's not of the Spirit of God. That's not from Yeshua, the Messiah, to wish evil to somebody else. Yeshua taught the disciples, love your enemy. Pray for those who persecute you.

Now, this is not normal, beloved brothers and sisters. That demands spiritual maturity. That demands closeness to the Lord. Where are we going to get such a standard in our own life? We, who are sinners, who have an evil nature in us, we're going to pray for our enemies? How is it possible? Are we going to pray for our brothers and sisters who harmed us and caused us problems in our life? Are we going to pray for them? By nature, not at all. But God is able to work it out in our hearts. For spiritual maturity, a closeness to the Lord, enabled the believer to have a change, a growth.

2 Peter closed, the whole epistle of Peter said, but grow in the grace and in the knowledge of Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah. We are to grow to be more and more like him. And so what a lesson he teaches us here in these verses. So now go to the Gospel of Matthew for a moment, Matthew chapter 7. Here is the desire of Yeshua for his own people. In Matthew chapter 7, Yeshua taught the disciples and the multitude that he said in chapter 7, verse 7, Ask, and it shall be given unto you. You see, in James 4 and verse 3, they were asking and they received not because they asked for an evil desire.

But here Yeshua says, ask and it will be given to you. You see the difference? Look at Matthew chapter 21 and verse 22, what Yeshua is saying there. It says, and all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing ye shall receive. Well, apparently these brethren were asking amiss, not asking, believing that God is able to heal and to restore, but they were asking for wrong reason to satisfy their own flesh and end up enlarge the conflict, enlarge the war, enlarge the fighting. That's what really they were doing. And those are believers. And if they did it, I'm sure I have done that, and I'm sure you have done that.

And a spiritual man, a spiritual woman, ought to be what the Lord is asking. You ask, and you will receive. But when you ask and receive, believe. For good reason, for the benefit of the people of God, because asking amiss for wrong reason, it is definitely wrong to do. Now go back to James, Yaakov, this time go to chapter 1 for a moment, and verse 6, we have another verse here that already had been pointed to, by Yaakov himself it says in James 1 5 and 6 if any of you lack wisdom let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and abradeth not and it shall be given to him but let him ask in faith nothing wavering for he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

And let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his way. A double-minded, it takes us to the book of Psalms, a heart and a heart, as we already have been speaking about it in our first ministry of James chapter 1, of Jacob chapter 1. So here, beloved brothers and sisters, it is so important that we will realize that there is battle within the people of God, there are wars among the people of God, and really the root of these wars are simply self-will, unjudged sin nature. That is the reason why we often have wars among each other and you know that the challenge for us is to ask ourselves the question, am I a cause, am I a promoter of these kind of wars among the people of God or am I a peacemaker as Yeshua said, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God.

Ashrei rodfei shalom, blessed are those who run follow after peace follow after Shalom. So verses 1b to 3 shows us that there is battle within among the people of God that we need grace from the Lord to help us to deal with it. Lusting leads to hatred, killing leads to desire which ultimately brings us to war as it's written for us in verse 2. Well let's move now to the second portion of our ministry meeting today and here we have verses 4 to 12 we have not only wars among each other but really we have a problem that because of our own will we really have a war against God himself when a man want to have his own way when a person want to have his on where he's really ending up to fight against the living God.

So here is the root cause of every war is rebellion against God. Yaakov is saying it, notice in verse 4 to 7, how does a believer declare war against God? We allow ourselves to be influenced by the three enemies that we have. I don't know if you noticed it, but the moment you became a believer in Yeshua, the Messiah, you have three enemies that are ready to attack you at any moment. Those three enemies are the world, the flesh, and Satan himself. Ha'olam, ha'basar, ve'hasatan, as we say it in Hebrew. The world, the flesh, and the devil, Satan. Now, when we think about the world, we often think about the trees sometimes, the plants and so on, and things that are existing today in this world.

But the real meaning in the Bible concerning the world who is an enemy of the believer, the world simply is a system that is headed up by Satan. And that system desires to fight against God and against God's people. In fact, these systems say, no God in my life. And this system, of course, is headed up by Satan. And that system is constantly against the people of God. So when we became believers in Yeshua the Messiah, automatically we find ourselves that the world is seeking to influence us not to follow the Messiah, Yeshua, and to follow in our own way. So let's look at this.

First of all, notice verse 4. Here is the three enemies. And the first enemy, of course, is the world itself. Now look what it says here in verse 4. It says, ye adulteress 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 an enemy of God. Now, when you think about the world and to be worldly, sometimes we use the word worldly, And if a person, if a Christian or a believer go to the movies, he's worldly, sometimes we say. Or if you watch television, he's worldly. Or maybe if he's going to the bar, he's worldly, you know.

But in the context of Yaakov, James, worldliness here is not going to the movies or smoking a cigarette or drinking a glass of wine here. The worldliness, according to James chapter 4, is that is exactly what has existed among the brethren in the earlier church age. Friction, self-will, I get my own way, I got to do my own thing. You may never smoke a cigarette, and never drink a glass of wine, never watch television, and never watch a movie, and you can be more worldly than the unbeliever. If you and I are constantly causing friction and desiring our own will, it doesn't matter how many movies you didn't watch and how many cigarettes you didn't smoke and how many glasses of wine you didn't drink.

That's what James is saying to the brothers and sisters. Worldliness, it's not what you do outside. Of course, he doesn't condone all the things that are wrong in this world, but it is an evil thing to do that which was happening here among the people of God when they were warring against each other. You lust, you kill, you desire, you fight, and you war. That is the world that he's speaking about here in James chapter 4. Now, brothers and sisters, there are many unbelievers who do all those things that maybe are not right for the believer, And yet they behave much better than we when we want our own will and causing friction among the people of God.

Even if we never have done all these things. The point that James is pointing out here, he's saying here that this system is a system of an evil desire of the heart that instead of building and forgiving and edifying is tearing apart. Let me show you some verses. Go back to James chapter 1. What is a pure religion, you might say, in James 1 verse 27? Pure religion and undefiled before God and father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world. In other words, a godly brother or godly sister are people that are desiring to build up the people of God, visiting the needs, being an encouragement to the people of God, and keeping themselves unspotted with such a condition as desiring our own way, and forcing our own way, and friction among the people of God.

This is what the Lord desires in the heart of the people of God. Look at 1 John 2 and verse 15. John, Yohanan, is saying now to the early believers, he said, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but of the world. And the world passes away and the lust of, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. Now again, notice that he connects here the lust of the flesh that leading us to have wars and conflict among the people of god first john 2 and verses 15 16 and 17 we have other verses like romans chapter 12 where the apostle paul who wrote to the believers at roman he said to them verse 1 i beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God to present your body the living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is your reasonable service.

And be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. You know what the world does? Constantly hurting each other. Constantly fighting among each other. Constantly inflicting pain upon one another. Look what's going on today in the Middle East. When one has a right to inflict his own view upon another to the extent that he will cut his head. Can you imagine the people of God? And so we read here that they are exhorted to be careful not to have this worldly type of attitude coming up in their lives. Well, that is verse 4. Here is the second enemy now, it is in verse 5.

The second enemy is the closest enemy to us, and this is the flesh. This is the old nature that we have. James is now speaking about that. And so he's saying in verse 5, Do you think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? And you notice this is very interesting. Because it says, do you think that the scripture saith in vain, And because Yaakov did not have what we call the Brit HaChadashah, the New Testament, he's applying this to the Tanakh, to the Old Testament. And he's saying to these Jewish believers, he says, Brethren, do you think our Hebrew scripture saying in vain what it says?

Verse 5, that the Spirit of God that dwelleth in us desire and have jealousy over us. In other words, here is the word for desire in a positive way. You see, God is jealous over his people. And just the same like Jehovah, the God of our fathers, is jealous over the people of Israel. Yeshua, the Messiah, is jealous over the bride of the Messiah. The bride of Christ. He's jealous over us. What does that mean? it's a godly jealousy and what happened he desires so much that we will be living for him that when we allow our flesh to have its way God in a sense loses of the enjoyment to have relationship with us and we also lose of that enjoyment of having a relationship with him you know what God said to Israel in Exodus chapter 20 it says in verse 5 just listen to that God says to Israel thou shall not bow thyself unto the images nor serve them and listen for the Lord thy God am a jealous God you know God is jealous in a positive way.

You know, we sometimes get jealous because someone has something and I don't have it. We're jealous because somebody has been promoted and I have been demoted. We're jealous because we don't get our own way. But God is jealous over his people. Why? Because we belong to him. Israel belonged to God. That's why he warned Israel, thou shalt have no other God before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images, and you shall not bow thyself to them, nor serve them, because the Lord your God is a jealous God. I don't share my glory with another. You belong to me. And I love you, Israel, God said to his people, our own nation, Israel.

I love you. You belong to me. I have chosen you. And what about us? see because James Yaakov was writing to believers now he's really saying to them now you as a believer as part of the body of Christ the Messiah is jealous over you and that's why in verse 5 it says the spirit that dwells in us lusts us or envy or desire in jealousy for you and he doesn't want you to act in the flesh but act in the spirit and submit to the Lord because the Lord is jealous over his own people. Paul wrote to the brothers and sisters at Corinth, 2nd Corinthians chapter 11, he said to them in verse 1 and 2, would to God that you would bear with me a little in my folly, and indeed bear with me, for I am jealous over you with godly jealousy.

For I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Mashiach, to the Messiah. See, Paul, Shaul, was jealous over the brothers and sisters in Corinth with godly jealousy.

And the godly jealousy says, listen, when I led you to know Yeshua, the Messiah, I led you so you will belong to him, that you will serve him and live for him and be totally for him it's so beautiful to see that so when you act in the flesh you are not devoted to him the spirit of god does not have his own way by the way i understand that many believers have a problem with verse 5 because they are looking at the old testament scripture because they said do you think that the scripture says in vain in other words they are looking in the old testament in the tanakh to find a verse that

says that the spirit that dwelleth in you lusters to envy but there is no such verse like this in the tanakh but the whole theme of the tanakh of the old testament is that god the holy spirit jealous over the people of god desiring to see them growing and serving the living god that's the point that we learn here from verse 5 so the world and its influence in verse 4 the flesh and its influence in verse 5 and now notice about satan himself the devil notice what it says here in verse 6 and 7 it says but he give us more grace wherefore he says god resists the proud but he gives grace unto

the humble submit yourself therefore unto God resist the devil and he will flee from you now you see what happened what do you think that causes of the friction that we have among the people of God well it is none else but Satan he's the deceiver of old that already in Genesis chapter 3 came and deceived Adam and Eve in the garden and he does the very same old trick today he deceive us he influence us and he stir up the old nature in us which causes us eventually to fall and to cause all these wars and friction among the people of God same old problem same old thing so what he's really saying that

satan the devil you remember how satan lucifer became the enemy of god satan he fell because of pride you know they say that in us pride dies last as long as we have the breast in our nostrils we still have pride in us the last thing that dies in us is pride and satan you remember what he did this lucifer he says i will be like the most high he wanted to take the place of god in fact he wanted to dethrone god and to place himself as the god of this world and actually really brothers and sisters he became the god with a small g of this world second corinthian 4 says the god

of this world had blinded the mind of them that believe not lest the glorious of the gospel should shine unto them the world has been blinded by Satan and often time when we allow him to control us he also become for us an influence that lead us eventually to disobey the Lord so what he is really saying now in those verses we have three enemies brothers and sisters and one of them is the world the second one is the flesh And the third one is the devil himself.

And let's beware of those three enemies. Because we are no match to these three enemies. Even if we are believers. We have a new nature. We have a new life. We belong to Yeshua. We are going to heaven. But here in this world, we are no match to these three enemies. If we are not putting the whole army of God and seeking the Lord's help, we will every time fall against those three enemies in our lives. So now, he is trying to give us a solution, and it's so beautiful. There are three instructions to help us how to be at peace, at shalom with God, and also within each other.

It's so beautiful for that, in those last verses here, 7 to 12, they have instruction on how to help us to be at peace with God, and ultimately with each other. Well, look at this. The first one, of course, is found in verse 7. It says, submit yourself before God. Submission. You know, submission is amazing how important it is. If there's anything we don't like to do, it's to submit. Do you have this problem? I have this problem. To submit? You mean, you're going to tell me what to do? I'm the captain of my ship. I'm the pilot of my plane. You're not going to tell me what to do.

Children oftentimes don't submit to their parents. Students don't submit to their teachers. We don't submit oftentimes to one another in the Lord. Oftentimes we don't submit to our spiritual leaders. We many times don't submit to authority. And on and on and on and on. Submission is our problem. So one of the things to help us to be with shalom with God and shalom with each other is simply to submit to God. Just simply to say, not my will, but your be done. Again, it reminds us of Yeshua, isn't it? You remember when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane, just before he has gone to the cross, to the tree.

he fell on his face and he says father if it is possible take this cup away from me this was a cup of God's righteous indignation against sin every sin that I committed that you have committed Yeshua was going to drink it every sin that was a cup of God's righteous indignation against sin. And when Yeshua was anticipating this, he said, Father, if it is possible, take this cup away from me. But then he says, but not my will, but thine be done. And he submitted to the Father. And he went all the way to the cross. And he bore your and my sin in his body on the cross, on the tree.

He was submissive. And you see, it's an encouragement for us to simply submit. Notice what it says here. Submit, therefore, unto God. And then, notice, beloved brothers and sisters, it does say in verse 7, resist the devil. Not to submit to the devil, to Satan, but to resist him. To resist him, it's a constant battle. resisting him. Why? Because he's constantly shooting these darts against us. He knows your weakness and he knows mine. And he's shooting these darts in order to cause us to fall and to stumble. And every time he wins when we are not resisting him. How can we resist him? Ephesians 6, put on the whole army of God that he may be able to stand.

We cannot stand without the Lord's armor, without the Spirit of God to influence, to help us. So, important to submit to the Lord, to submit to God. This is essential for the believers if we are to have peace, shalom with God, and we are to have shalom with each other and not wars and fightings. Secondly, in verse 8, it does say, notice what it says in verse 8. It says, draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh unto you. Now, how do we draw nigh to God? We cannot draw nigh to God when we don't pray. You know, when we pray, we are getting closer to God.

Why? Because I say, God, be merciful to me. I'm talking with Him. We talk with Him. We share with Him our problems, our failure, our sins. we confess before him we tell him the desire of our heart and that's the important of drawing nearer to God you remember the two on the way to Emmaus Yeshua drawn nearer to them and they began to share with him and they had such a fellowship with him remember what we read they say did not our hearts burn within us while he walked with us on the way sometimes we sing this song he walked with me and he talked with me along that narrow way it is important for the believer to draw near to God and then he draw nigh to us fellowship with God is so important and you know when sin come into our lives and it does if some of us say that he doesn't sin he's a liar and the truth is not in him or in her but what we do when we sin first john 1 9 says if we confess our sins.

He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. There is a provision for cleaning us constantly by the washing of the Word through the Scripture and God's Spirit of working in our hearts and He washes us and He cleanses us and He refreshes us again. So important to draw nigh unto the Lord in a practical way. Read your Bible. Pray. Come to meetings where the word of God is being opened. If it's not here, wherever you are, you want to have a drawing near to God. Don't say to God, God, I'll talk to you later. Don't say to God, I'll open my Bible later.

I don't have time. There is time for pleasure. There is time for business. There is time for everything else. But very little time. We take for the Lord's things. And therefore make time, take the time to draw closer to him. And then he continually says in verse 8, Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Now, he's not talking to unbelievers here, he's talking to those believers. Cleanse your hands, meaning stop to do the wrong that you are doing. Purify your hearts, he said. Stop to think and to desire the wrong thing that caused friction. Internal work and external action. That's what he's saying.

Double-minded, a heart and a heart. A heart and a heart. In other words, if we are going to follow the Lord, we need to have our hearts focused on the Lord. That's what he's really saying. Don't have double mind, a double heart. Just have a single heart towards the Lord. And then notice, brothers and sisters, verses 9 and 10, it's not only that we are to submit to God, verse 7, not only we are to draw nigh to God, in verse 8, but we are also to humble ourselves before God. That's very, very difficult for us, because notice what it says in verse 9, Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep.

Let your laughter turn into mourning, and your joy into heaviness. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. Now, you see, humbling ourselves before God is very, very important. Every man and woman of God throughout biblical history, when if they have been used by the Lord, they humble themselves before the Lord. There are so many verses to read. There is a verse that I want to point out in Job chapter 22 and verse 29. Very interesting. Listen to this. When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, there is lifting up, and he shall save the humble person. In the book of Job, he's mentioning this here, when the conflict and the questions have been with his friend Eliphaz.

Humility and humbling ourselves before the Lord is very important, to tell him the reality about ourselves. I think of Abraham and even Isaiah the prophet. Woe is me, he said. For I am a man of unclean lips, Isaiah chapter 6. And I dwell in the midst of a people with unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the king. He was talking to the king of Israel, to Jehovah himself, and he confessed before him, he said, woe is me. I'm a man with unclean lips. I'm a sinner. I deserve nothing. I have seen the King of glory. He repented and confessed before the Lord. There are many other verses that we can read in the Proverbs and elsewhere that is important.

You know, here he is saying to them in verse 9 and 10, he says, Mourn, weep, your laughter turn into mourning and your joy into heaviness. In other words, he said, don't be mockered, just realize the condition of your heart. In other words, make it real in your life. You think God doesn't want us to have joy? He does. But not merely an external joy, a joy that comes on the basis of mourning and weeping and truly repenting and humbling ourselves before the Lord. And that's why he says this famous verse, Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and He shall lift you up. You know, God resists the proud.

Pride comes before a fall. Satan prided himself. And if we let Satan influence us, we become very proud. And it's so beautiful to see the brothers and sisters in the local fellowship, local church, local assembly, not proud, just simply serving one another in humility as before the Lord. And there are many, many other verses. I'm not going to point to all of them, but pride is that which we need to stop. In other words, we need grace from the Lord to humble ourselves before him so he will lift us up in due time. Well, brothers and sisters, now he concludes in verses 11 and 12, and I want to mention those two verses of James 4, verses 11 and 12.

And in those two verses, really, we have, how do we stop all these wars? Well, before God, we are to submit to him to draw near to him, and to humble ourselves before him. What about before each other? And here in those two verses, he tells us three things that need to be done in order to stop those wars among the people of God. Number one, in verse 11a, do not speak evil of one another. I want to put it to your consideration and to mine. When you begin to talk evil about somebody else, Stop it right there. Don't wait. Even if somebody comes and says, tell me more.

You make sure if you want to be right before the Lord to stop it right away and talk to the Lord. Instead of gossiping, destroying the character of somebody else, spreading cancer, causing wars among the people of God. If you have nothing good to say, better don't say anything at all. that's what he says notice verse 11 speak not evil one of another brethren achim you are brothers and sisters don't speak evil one of another that's what he's saying to them and this is terrible because what happened speaking against one another end up to destroy the testimony already there by speaking against one another brought all sort of wars and conflict that the early believers, the early church was already splitting.

So stop it, he's saying to us. Stop doing it. Stop speaking evil. Now, if you're not stopping it, if I don't stop it, you know what's going to happen? You will never be satisfied in your relationship with the Lord. You will have to face the reaction of the Lord in due time. Because God resists the proud. He resists those that cause division. Go to Proverbs for a moment. Chapter 6. This is a very important verse to read. Verses 16 and 17. These six things does the Lord hate. Yes, seven are an abomination unto him. A proud look, a lying tongue, a hand that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked imagination, feet that shall be swift in running to do mischief, a false witness, in verse 19, and look at the seventh one, and he that soweth discord among brethren.

He says in verse 16, six things God's hate, the Lord hate, but the seven is an abomination to the Lord. What is the seventh one? He that soweth discord among brothers, among the Achim. This is terrible. And so he's saying to them, stop, speak no evil. James 4 verse 11. Against one another. Secondly, how do we stop war among the people of God? Secondly, verse 11b, don't judge one another. Look at this. It says, he that speaketh evil of his brother, and he judges his brother, speaketh evil of the law. And he judges the law, but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.

Now, you know, who make you and I judges? You know, we don't judge ourselves, but we are ready to judge everybody else. And you notice what he says, he that judges his brothers, speaking evil of the law. Now, he doesn't mean the law that God gave our people Israel on Mount Sinai. He's speaking about the law of the Messiah, of this present day dispensation of which he already spoke about in the earlier chapters of this book. Look at this. Go to James 1.25. Whoso Lucas into the perfect law of liberty and continues therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man is blessed in his deed.

It is the law of liberty that liberates us. The law of freedom, spiritual freedom. Look at chapter 2, in verse 8, he says this. Be fulfilled the royal law. According to the scripture, you shall love thy brother and thyself. This is the royal law. The law of liberty. The royal law that he is speaking about. And in Galatians 6, 2, it's called the law of Christ. The law of the Messiah. If we are to be like the Messiah, we are to stop what we are doing. Because if we start to judge one another, we often judge motive. That does not mean that when evil is being done in a local church that the brothers and sisters need to deal with it.

He doesn't talk about dealing with sin that needs to be corrected among the people of God, but he simply means always judging one another. I've never done that. He's better than I'm better. You know, it's constantly that he's dealing with evil that cause war. Stop it, he's saying to them. And finally, in verse 12, and I'm going to stop, in verse 12, accept the fact that God is the one who will ultimately judge all things. It says in verse 12, there is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy, and who art thou that judges another? Really, at the end, brothers and sisters, we cannot fix everyone to my tune or to your tune.

We cannot force somebody into my way. Let the Spirit of God work in the midst of the saints. And let him to lead, but by example, with the help of the Lord, we might influence one another to get closer to Yeshua, to have harmony among each other, to have true shalom, true peace. rather than those wars and fightings that have already existed then and there, which is today in our midst, we know it very well, and we experience this. All of us can say, we know that's the truth. And so Yaakov is saying, brothers and sisters of the first century, there is wars that come out of your desire, of your heart to stop it, And with the help of the Lord, you will be able to make shalom, to make peace among the people of God.

May the Lord help us all to do so.