We open the scripture this morning again to the epistle of James. The text is in James chapter 4, but we'll begin reading in chapter 3, in verse 13. James chapter 3, beginning at verse 13. And we'll read through verse 10, which is the last of the verses of the text for this morning. James chapter 3, beginning at verse 13. This is the word of God. Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness and wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion, and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. From whence come wars and fighting 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. Submit yourselves, 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 yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. We read this far in God's holy and inspired word. The text begins in the second phrase of verse 6 through verse 10. Wherefore, he says, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves, 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 yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up. These verses, beloved, belong in the section that begins in chapter 3 and verse 13. We've been looking very carefully and slowly at these verses as they develop this contrast between the wisdom that's from above and the wisdom that's earthly and sensual and devilish that has its origin in Satan. That kind of wisdom produces bitter envying and strife. Chapter 3 and verse 14. And a result of the bitter envying and strife is conflict between believers. Chapter 4 and the first three verses. And the one who has this wisdom of the world, which is from below and its source in Satan, is a friend of the world. And because of that, an enemy of God. Chapter 4 verses 4 and 5. And James, in a sense, has been analyzing and looking at the anatomy of this worldly wisdom and how it works out in the Christian life. It's very penetrating the way that he's been looking at these things. This worldly wisdom, which has its source in Satan at the center, is selfishness. A selfishness which ignores, which is true wisdom, ignores the reality of God. And in contrast, the wisdom from above recognizes the reality of God. And that works out in the Christian life in a totally different way. The one who has this wisdom from above is pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy. This person in the midst of conflict considers himself and his own lusts that cause him to fight against others. And this person is an enemy of the world because he is the friend of God. And it's into that whole context of these two kinds of wisdoms and how they work out in life that James brings the words of the text this morning. And the theme of the text, the theme of these verses is obviously humility before God. In verse 6, he begins that way. God resisteth the proud. but giveth grace to the humble." And he finishes in verse 10, "...humble yourselves therefore in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up." James is talking about humility before God. And in a sense, as we talk about these two kinds of wisdoms, now James in his analysis of them has come to the heart of the issue. If you would be truly wise then here's the key. Here's the key element to true wisdom. The wisdom that's from above. That you humble yourself before the Lord. Doesn't that remind us of the Old Testament Scriptures? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. There is no wisdom in one who ignores the reality of God and who He is before God. Now, as we've looked at these verses, we've tried to emphasize that James is making application here, not to the world out there, so that as we look at these two kinds of wisdoms, we say, well, this is us and that's the world. They have this wisdom that ignores the reality of God, that James in very striking and direct ways makes the application to believers and to the church. For example, in verse 1 he says, from whence come wars and fighting among you? Don't they come from your lusts and your envying and your warring against one another? And so the application has to be to ourselves. He calls the church in verse 4, adulterers and adulteresses. Ye adulterers and adulteresses. And he accuses them of this sin of spiritual adultery in which they have an affair, so to speak, with the world while they are the bride of Jesus Christ. And in the verses before us this morning, he's just as direct. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. And these are accusations that he levels against the church. And so, he's very direct in order that we, as we look at this, consider ourselves before the Word of God. It's so easy to make the judgments about the unbelievers. But the Word of God comes and it judges us. With the sword power of the Word, there's a piercing to the dividing of our souls and hearts and joints and marrows to discern what's going on there. So this morning, as we look at this key, the central part of the wisdom that's from above, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Humble submission to God. That will be our theme, humble submission to God. Let's notice first what this is. Second, how this shows itself, how it works out in the Christian life. And then third, the resulting experience for the one who is humble and who submits to God. Now to understand this section, we need to come back first to something that we've raised earlier in this series on the book of James. And that's the idea that some have about the book of James, that this is a Christless epistle, that it's very practical, that in a sense it's very moral and morally important, but there isn't any gospel in the book of James. Some will have that kind of a mentality about the book of James. And we want to see, as we begin this morning, that that's not true, and that the passage that's before us is a very striking example and illustration of how Christ and the Gospel are very present in this book of James. Remember these two phrases. Before we read some Old Testament passages, these two phrases from the passage before us. There's mention here of drawing near to God. And then there's mention here of cleansing your hands and purifying your hearts. Now, listen to the Old Testament. Exodus chapter 19, verse 22. And the priests also, which come near to the Lord, sanctify themselves lest the Lord break forth upon them." And so you have the priest drawing near to the Lord in the Old Testament. And then Psalm 24, we sang this a little while ago. Who shall ascend into the holy hill, into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? And the answer? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart. And now these illusions that James has here to the Old Testament may not be so apparent to us at first. And probably because we're so familiar with the New Testament. But you have to think of the Jewish audience that James is writing to. Christians who have been converted in Jerusalem as Jews and persecuted, so scattered throughout the world. They knew the Old Testament scriptures. And so when James says, cleanse your hands, purify your hearts, drawn near to God. They knew what he was talking about. He was talking about the temple. He was talking about being accepted in worship before God. He was talking about the priest coming into the presence of God. And before he could do that, he must sanctify himself. And as these Jews thought about that in the Old Testament context, It would have been something like the psalmist in Psalm 27 or Psalm 84. In Psalm 27, the psalmist says, My one request is this, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord forever. In Psalm 84, he envies the swallow and the sparrow who can dwell in the rosters in the tabernacle and the temple because they're near to God. And as an Old Testament saint, and this was true for all the Old Testament saints, even the priests, there was a barrier for their being received into the presence of God. There had to be a sacrifice. And only once in a while, maybe just a few times in your life, you came into the temple and into the presence of God. And it was always with the sacrifice and the consciousness of your unworthiness. But now James is saying to New Testament Christians, you, do what the priest did. Draw near to God. Cleanse your hands. Purify your hearts. Not just the priest, but all of you. And not just in the temple, but now draw near to God. He's talking about prayer. And there is here in this text this access to God that we have that wasn't possible for the Old Testament saints. And you read the book of Hebrews and it's an epistle that puts before you Christ the great high priest and the access that we have to God through him. That's underlying here. Those are the illusions that James gives here. And so don't say that this is a Christless epistle. No, the exhortations that are before us in the text this morning are intended by the Holy Spirit and by James to bring us exactly to the cross of Jesus Christ in humility and in repentance for purification and for holiness. The only way is through the cross and the suffering of Jesus Christ. So that's here. And that's the goal of these exhortations. Let's look more closely at them. There are quite a few of them in the text. James begins in verse 7, Submit yourselves therefore to God. And the idea of submission is literally to arrange yourself in order underneath another. Originally, it's a military term. And there was the general in the army and underneath him were the men of different rank. And there's no question about who belonged where and about who had authority and who must submit to that authority. And the soldier in whatever position he was, put himself under the authority of his seniors. That's the idea here. Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. It means recognize that God is the sovereign. He's the creator. He's the lawgiver. And now you, as a creature and as a servant, and you'll always be a servant. Even in heaven, you'll be a servant. Submit yourself. Arrange yourself under the authority, the sovereign government of God. And there are two ways in which we do that. Two sides to this. Two areas of our life in which we must do this. There is, first of all, and the authority of God is very clear. There's no question about it. There's, first of all, the commandments of the Word of God. We have to put ourselves under the Word of God. The one who is humble, the one who has heavenly wisdom recognizes the authority of the Word of God for his life. We read a little while ago the law of God. This is what it's all about. Honoring the commandments of God. Every one of them. This is the one who fears God. This is the one who loves God. Jesus says, if you love me, keep my commandments. In the second commandment, there's this contrast between those who love God and keep his commandments and those who hate him. How do they show that they hate him? They don't keep his commandments. They don't arrange themselves under the authority of God. And so, this is the first area of our life in which we must submit ourselves to God, keeping his commandments. And that's in contrast to, in the earlier verses, the world and friendship with the world. Friendship with God shows itself in obedience. But then also, there is submission necessary in the Christian life to the providences of God. To God's hand, which guides us through life. Which brings every circumstance to us in life. And all the difficult ones as well. All the trials and the troubles that we go through in 1 Peter chapter 5. The Apostle Peter uses the same Old Testament passage from which James quotes here. The Old Testament passage is Proverbs chapter 3 and verse 34. Surely he scorneth the scorners, but he giveth grace unto the lowly. And you see that in verse 6. God resisteth the proud, but he giveth grace unto the humble. And when Peter uses that, he uses it in reference to submitting to the trials that God brings to us in our lives. 1 Peter 5, verse 5, For God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. And then he continues, casting all your cares upon Him. For He careth for you. This is what it means. In the cares and the troubles and the anxieties of life you submit you arrange yourself under the sovereign guidance of God and Peter says you cast your cares upon him because we recognize that this God who is the sovereign to whom we must submit is our loving Father We don't submit to a mindless God who plays games with us, but we submit to a father. And this same word is used in the Scripture to speak of a wife submitting to a husband and children submitting to their parents. That's the kind of submission here in this covenant relationship of father and children. We submit to a loving father. His commandments are good for us. His way and his leading in our life is good for us. There's nothing that can separate us from his love. Now, that submission is not easy. And that submission requires, because it's so difficult, to added virtues in the Christian life. And James describes them here as well. Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. And then he says, resist the devil and he will flee from you. And then draw nigh to God and so on. But these are the two things, the two sides to the submission to God. First is this, that we humble ourselves before God. This is in opposition to the worldly wisdom which says, I live for me. Hedonism. My goal in life is my pleasure. Humility takes God into the picture and puts self in his proper place before God. Humility has a low opinion of self. James is going to work that out in the later verses of the chapter when he describes what we are. He describes the proud, the wise of this world. And they say, well, today and tomorrow and this year, I'm going to go here and there and do all these things and make all these achievements. And then he says, but what is your life? It's a vapor. That's humility. before God eternal realizing how minute, how finite, how weak, how frail my existence and my life is. But it's not only recognizing our humanity, what we are, it's recognizing also our sinfulness. This is true humility before God that we recognize our unworthiness, and that God is worthy of all. We humbly recognize this before God. Now, when we speak of having a low opinion of self, we're not speaking here of somebody who has a low opinion of self before others. But we're speaking of a low opinion of self before God. We must agree with. We must line up in our thinking about ourselves with what God thinks of us and how God evaluates us. God's thoughts of us are thoughts of love and thoughts of peace. He says to Jeremiah, have not I formed thee? And it means in love. In Psalm 139, the psalmist confesses that he's fearfully and wonderfully made and known in every part of his substance before he could ever be distinguished in his mother's womb. That's God's view of you. But to have that understanding of the love of God, we have to know who we are. and what we are before Him. Then we'll submit to God. Submit to God in humility. And then second, we submit to God by resisting the devil. James says, resist the devil and he will flee from you. The devil is very proud. The devil is very strong. The devil is very crafty. The devil's pride is the source of his fall into sin. God made the devil to be the highest of all the creatures, greater than man. He gave him the most exalted position as the chief of the angels, but the devil stopped looking at God and began to look at himself in comparison to others. And in his pride, he was lifted up and he fell into sin. That's pride. And it has its source in the devil. In 1st Timothy 3, verse 6, Paul says about office bearers that they should not be a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, they fall into the condemnation of the devil. It was the source of the devil's problems. And when he tempted Adam and Eve in the garden, he came to them. to put that pride in their temptation in their own hearts. And he said to them, you're bigger than the commandments of God. You're greater than all the other creatures. You know better than God. Don't you want to know what God knows? Good and evil. And he caused them, through pride, to fall. And today, still, this is the way of the devil's tempting. It's not just the outward temptations, but it's the pride in our hearts. And again, this penetrates at the wisdom of the world. This is the devil's way of temptation. He has an ally in the flesh, our old man of sin. And he's very subtle. So what are we to do? The text says, resist the devil. How do we do that? Well, it's something of a mindset. The devil is this alien power that has come into and occupies our Father's world and territory. And we are a part of this resistance movement against the devil. And it's not just negative, but it's positive. Not just looking at and speaking about and recognizing all the devil's inroads, but rejoicing in what we have, the kingdom of God and His Son and the freedom and the liberty that we have in Him. And so we, as it were, meet together to rejoice in those things in ways and places where the devil is not welcome. In our private prayer meetings with God, in our family devotions with our children, in our church meetings, in our study of the law of God and the Word of God. under whose rule we are as his people. Reading the messages of hope that come from the king, and it makes you think of the resistance movement against the Nazis in World War II. It wasn't just negative, but they were fighting for the liberties that they had once, that they were promised to have again. And the Nazis weren't welcome. The Nazis didn't even understand The hope that they had and the freedom that they longed for. You resist the devil in your communion with fellow believers around the word of God. And it's the word of God that gives the power to resist. When God's word lives in our souls and our hearts and our lives, the devil will flee. That's the promise here. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Look at the temptations of Jesus. How did he resist the devil in every case? In every case, it was with the Word of God. He had prayed and he'd fasted for 40 days without food before he embarked upon his ministry. And then Satan came. And Jesus answered the temptations of Satan at every point with the Word of God. Satan came and said, Hath not God said? And Jesus said, But it is written. And that was the power to resist the devil. The psalmist says to the Lord in Psalm 119 in a prayer, Write thy word on my heart that I might not sin against thee. This is the power to resist. You've seen before a dog running with its tail between its legs. That's how Satan flees from the word of God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. That's the promise here. And as we draw near to God, as believers in Christian homes and a church, then Satan has no place. We're more than conquerors. through Him that loved us. And when Satan is resisted, we are submitting ourselves to God. Well, the text mentions two ways in which this submission will show itself in the believer's life. At the end of verse 8, cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. There's one way. And then at verse 9, another way that this shows itself is that we are afflicted and mourn and weep and so on. And what you have here as you look at it from the point of view of theology is the two sides of true repentance. True repentance shows itself first in sorrow over unholy living and turning in the second place to holy living in sanctification. And those two things are mentioned here. You notice the order in the text. The first one that's mentioned is holy living. And the second one that's mentioned is the repentance and mourning over sin. Now, it seems to us that when we talk about repentance, that's reversed. It's in the wrong order. Shouldn't the mourning over sin come first and then the holy living, cleansing your hands and your heart? But maybe this is the answer to it. That this isn't something that just takes place in our life once. Conversion doesn't just happen on a particular day, an hour, when Jesus Christ is accepted into your heart. And now all your sinful life is behind you. Conversion is the daily experience of repentance in the Christian life. in which he's always striving to live in sanctification and in which he's always mourning over and putting away his sin. That's true conversion. Ongoing reformation in personal godliness. Well, you have those two sides here. Let's look at them a little more closely in verse 8. Cleanse your hands and purify your hearts. Those two things belong together. And they refer to the spiritual cleansing of the child of God, which is not only a cleansing of his actions, purify your hands, but it's also internal. It has to do with the heart. And again, James is penetrating. And it's obvious that those to whom James is writing hadn't been doing this. Sanctification was not all that important to them as Christians. Something like the church at Corinth to whom Paul wrote. Just in the verses preceding, James had to warn them and call them to repentance of the sin of spiritual adultery. And here he calls them sinners and double-minded. And this is what James is saying. True humility and true submission to God and true repentance begins with recognizing deep down not only what I am, a creature of the dust, but who I am, my nature, my sinfulness and the inclinations of my heart. True repentance begins with purification. of the heart. God doesn't just look for an external show of Christianity and godliness, but there must be truth within. David says, I'm evil, born in sin. Thou desirest truth within. That's true repentance. That's what James is talking about here. Now we ask, Well, why does that come in the form of an exhortation? How is that possible for us? Isn't this the work of God's grace? And it is. He begins here, but He gives us more grace in verse 6. Why does it come as an exhortation to us that we must purify our hearts and cleanse our hands? Isn't that God's work? And the key to understanding that here is in the word double-minded. In a sense, only the Christian can be a double-minded man. Because the Christian, by the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration, has been given a new heart, and new desires, and a new mind that longs after God. But now, James is talking about the Christian in the context of the world, and his struggles with the world, and sin, and the flesh, and the lusts of the flesh. That's all in the verses before this. And he's saying this, in your warfare, in your battle against sin and your evil desires, you've given so much place to the devil and the world and the wisdom of the world that your life has become this double life. And now he's calling those who have The spirits work in them and they desire after godliness to put away this double-mindedness by cleansing their hands of sin and their hearts of evil desires. You see, it's by the grace of God that we have to strive and we have to pray for a single mind that's fixed on God. So you first have that cleanse your hands and purify your hearts. And then second, be afflicted and mourn and weep. Verse 9. What a remarkable passage. So you went to church this morning, somebody will say. What did you hear? Well, the minister told us three things. Be afflicted, mourn and weep. Well, that sounds rather morbid. Did he tell you anything else? Yes. He said, let your life to be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. You see, this is not a feel good gospel. This is not a message. The word of God doesn't come to make us feel good about ourselves and where we are. But at the same time, it's not either a killjoy message. Look at Philippians chapter 4. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. But you see, what makes all the difference is this. The thing in which you find your joy. What are you rejoicing in? And these people that James is writing to in their spiritual adultery were finding their joy in the world. They're joy and pleasure. They're joy and sin. And James is saying if you find your joy in the things in which the world rejoices, then be afflicted and mourn and weep and let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. He's speaking again of repentance. And this time, not just repentance in the change of life and the change of thinking, but a repentance in a deep recognition of our sinfulness. Be afflicted and mourn and weep. If we've lost with the world, we ought to grieve and mourn and weep. That's what James is saying. And so, the text is really asking this question of us. What are the things that you enjoy? What things make you laugh? Where is your joy? Is it in something unwholesome? Is it in something against Christ? If it is, then be afflicted and mourn and weep. And we can think of David. He took pleasure in the sin of adultery. He was proud of the fact that he could murder and hide it. There was no remorse in his heart. But when the prophet with the Word of God came and said, Thou art the man convicted by the Word, David mourned and he wept and he grieved over his sin. And this is what James is saying. Find your pleasures and your joys, as Paul, in the Lord. Not in what this world has to offer. And if you do, weep. Isn't this the way Jesus began His ministry? Isn't this the way John came, preaching to the Jews and to the multitudes? Repent. That is, be afflicted and mourn and weep. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. We need to be on our knees in true repentance before God, like the psalmist, against thee, thee only, have I sinned, the fear of the Lord. That's the beginning of wisdom. We live in repentance before God, first of all. And you see, again, where all this is leading. It's leading to the cross, where true joy alone can be found. The Christian's life, in a sense, is an anomaly. Nobody in the world is so sorrowful as a Christian over himself and his sinfulness living in this fallen world and fighting. No one finds life so difficult. And yet, at the same time, there's no one in all the world so filled with joy and hope in the midst of a miserable life as the Christian. And the two go hand in hand. The way to joy is through sorrow, and that's the cross. Hebrews chapter 12 describes the cross this way, that Christ, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross. He suffered His blessed body to be nailed to the cross. He endured the wrath of God against Him for what we deserve. For the joy that was set before Him. And that's the Christian life. Jesus says, take up your cross and follow me. The dark shadow of the suffering of the cross falls all over our life. But the sorrows are the way to joy for the child of God. Be afflicted and mourn and weep and let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness because this is the way to true joy. We run the race with Christ before us. When we live that way, the result will be in our lives the rich experience of the blessing of God. The text here is filled with promise. James says, the devil will flee from you. He says, you draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. He says, humble yourselves and God will lift you up. He will exalt you. And those promises are made here in the text, not in the sense that we take the first step and now God is responding to that. They're not conditional. But James is talking here about the experience of the Christian life. How is it that we know that The devil flees from us. How is it that we, in our experience, know the presence of God drawing near to us? When is it that we are exalted and lifted up? Well, it's when we, with this heavenly wisdom, the fear of God, submit to Him in humble submission before His Word. When someone When sometimes God seems far off from our experience and the Christian will have times like that in his life. Is it because the promises of God are failing and God is being unfaithful? No. Very often, most often, it's our own failure. to live in fear of God. We live in the fear of man. We live before people. We live in disobedience. We live with this mindset of friendship with the world. We live for self and in conflict with others. And God seems so far off. And James is saying, draw near to God. Live in repentance. Resist the devil. Humble yourself. And in that way, you'll know the rich experience of the presence of God. It's the same as the word of Jesus Christ in Luke 18, verse 14, when He's speaking of the publican in contrast to the Pharisee who went up to the temple to pray. And the publican, you remember, smote himself on the breast and he said, God be merciful to me, the sinner. This is the humility that James is talking about. Jesus says this, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other for everyone that exalteth himself shall be amazed and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you in the life of humility and repentance. You'll experience what Enoch did, who walked with God. God walking with you. And not only this, He'll exalt you. He'll lift you up. The world makes so many promises. that are supposed to lift us up, to exalt us. It promises us an occupation and a job, a place in this world, money, pleasure, so many things. But they're temporal. When the text says, He will lift you up, it's thinking of the eternal exaltation of Christ and His church. His people with Him. God's exaltation is eternal. When we've been beat down by the world, God will lift you up. So there's the hope. There's the promise. There's the experience of the child of God who lives in humble submission to God. Now, as we finish, let's Again, go back to the context and put this in the context. What James has been talking about is so practical and so important for the Christian life. Conflict with the world or friendship with the world and conflict in our homes and bitter envy and strife between believers. This is the key. Fear God. Live before Him. Put away selfish pride. Draw near to God. And the blessings of Christian living will be known in your life. Amen. Father, we thank Thee for the Scriptures that are so penetrating and so helpful for us. We pray, Lord, that we may be humbled before this word, that we may be those who recognize the value of heavenly blessings and don't seek the things that the world would offer to us, and that we may do this in true humility before the gospel of Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.