Let's go to James. Let's get started tonight over in James chapter 4. Let me read one verse back into the section we dealt with last time and then go down through verse 10. James chapter 4 starting in verse 5. Scripture says, Do you think that the Scripture says 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, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you 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 looked at length last time, especially at verse 5, and I tried to share the variety of interpretations or translations, the readings of that particular verse. There's about four major ways of taking it. And again, I think in this case, the King James actually has it right that what this is saying is that he has just been discussing the fighting and feuding going on in the church and asking the question, where does this come from? And he says, well, it's coming from the lusts that are within. And with that being the context, then this statement in verse 5, do you think that the Scripture says in vain the spirit that dwells in us lusts to envy." In other words, it is diagnosing our problem. And this is, as we start tonight, we will look first at our problem. We have this spirit that lusts to envy. Remember, he characterizes that as the desire for the things of the world. which then is spiritual adultery. We see in verse 4 where He addresses these adulterers and adulteresses, saying, don't you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? So, that's our problem. But, at the same time, there in verse 6, we have a solution to the problem, is that not only do we have a spirit within us that lusts to envy, but we have a God who gives more grace. And notice, more grace. By grace here, we are not just talking about some nebulous favor in our direction, but we're talking about granting us the ability to overcome the lust of the flesh. Remember the character. In other words, that's through the Holy Spirit's work in us. Paul discusses that in Galatians, that the spirit lusts against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit so that you cannot do the things that you would. In other words, we have this war. The Christian, at least, has a war going on within him. The lost man doesn't have that. But the Christian has this struggle. He has the indwelling sin that wants its way, this spirit that lusts to envy. But he also, if he's a Christian, has the abiding power of the Holy Spirit within him that desires other things, better things. And so we're constantly fighting this battle within ourselves. So here is the problem. We have this spirit within. We have, however, a remedy, a solution, because we have a God who loves to give more grace to enable us to overcome the lust of the flesh. But now we've got a new problem. How do we get grace? We've got a God who will give grace, but how does it work? How do we obtain grace? How do we receive this grace? How's that going to work? That's really what we're dealing with tonight, and here is the proof text that James cites in verse 6. He quotes out of Proverbs 3 verse 34. Somebody look that up for me right quick. Proverbs 3 verse 34. Remember that as we looked at verse 5, there is no Old Testament text that states exactly that, but there's a whole bunch of text that sort of gives that as its gist. Everything from Noah, the time of Noah, and the man's heart's desiring sin. But here we have a specific text. So that's the text that James is quoting here to prove his assertion that we have this God who indeed does give grace. to the humble. It implies that God is willing to give it. We have a number of examples of grace being given to men who were utterly undeserving of it. I've given you a couple of them up here. Wayne, let me have you look up 2 Chronicles 33, 1-13. Joe, let me have you look up 1 Kings 21, 25-29. Right. You there? 1 Kings 21, 25 through 29. What do you read? Now, think about that a minute. Isn't that an interesting thing? Ahab, one of the most wicked men in the Old Testament, who brought all kinds of problems into Israel. Yet, when Elijah prophesied of the evil that God had intended to bring upon him, what does it say? He walked meekly. I think King James puts it, he walked softly. You know, the idea is it walks off and carry a big stick. But the idea of walking softly is that I'm just sort of, I'm not making a lot of racket. I'm not pushing my weight around. I'm not throwing myself around. And what does God say? Look, look, Elijah, look at Ahab. Look how he, what? Humbled himself before me. And so what does he say? I'm going to send the evil, but I'm not going to send it in his day. I'm going to send it in the days of his son. Now, that's amazing example there. that God responds to true humility. And everything we read about Ahab there seems to indicate that, yes, he was truly humbled before God. And because of that, he received grace. Wayne, what's your passage? Manasseh was one bad dude. That list, a laundry list of his actions. He had no excuse. His father, Hezekiah, was one of the most godly kings Judah ever had. He had torn down all these idols, and what does Manasseh do? He turns around and builds them right back again. Leads Judah down the path of idolatry into destruction, offering his own children in sacrifice. I mean, this is one bad hombre. And yet, when he is led away and changed to Babylon, what does he do? He humbles himself. And lo and behold, God hears his cry and is entreated by him and is in back." Do you see the principle that we're espousing here? That God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. And even the most wicked of men, He gives grace when they humble themselves before Him. So then, how to reach or seek humility is an extremely important question because you ain't going to get no grace apart from humility. In other words, you can say we're saved by grace and we're saved by sovereign grace. Well, those things are most certainly true, but at the end of the day, it's going to be the humble man that gets grace. And the proud man is going to be resisted by God. That is the inviolable principle. Well, how do we get humility? Well, I can give you James' laundry list here. And notice it begins in verse 7, "...which submit yourselves therefore to God." What does that mean? Andrew, you look intelligent back there. You're going to college, getting that big education. Tell me what it means to submit to somebody. Do what they say. That's the best definition you can get. You obey what they say. That submission, whether it's in the home, whether it's parents and children, whether it's boss down at the job. If you don't do what they say, you haven't submitted. Now, notice, I would be the first to say, well, wait a minute, isn't humility an attitude of the heart? Well, yes, it is. And can I just change my heart? No, you can't. But there are some practical steps we can take if we truly want to be humble. It begins by obeying the Word of the Lord. You say, well, no, lost people can't do that. No, they could. You see, there's something here they can't do. They can't change their nature. They can't change their heart. But you could obey, right? I mean, if your child said, you know, when you tell them to do something, they look at you and say, well, you don't understand. I'm totally depraved. So I can't obey. Well, what's going to be your response? Oh, well, in that case, you're totally depraved, so you're off the hook. Now, they may not want to do what you tell them to do, but they can do it. You see, that's not an excuse to say, wait a minute, I can't do it. Because, yeah, you can obey. You may not want to, but you can. Right? And so, the first step, if we're truly seeking humility, we've got to be willing to do what God said. Now, why is that necessary for humility? What's the connection between that and humility? That's right. In other words, what's the opposite? It's self-exaltation, that I'm the authority. In other words, when I take the step of, okay, God, I may not like it, but whatever you say, I'm going to do it. That's the first step of getting off your high horse. I use that expression a lot of times, but the first step off that high horse is to say, I will no longer be the authority here. I will submit to your authority. And you can do that. You may not want to and you may not love that, but you've got the ability to do it. Okay, the next thing he says, resist the devil and he will flee from you. What does that mean? First of all, let me try to help you think through this a little bit. How does the devil attack us? Does he come in a red suit and a tail and a pitchfork? Is it the devil that comes? That's witches. What's the devil come with? Fork and tail? You know, the characterization we see. Pitchfork? Okay. How does the devil attack us? Where does the devil attack you? Where's the battlefield? Where does he... In your head, in heart, yeah. In other words, the battlefield is in your mind. And so the idea, you know, we have the idea that to ward off the devil, we've got to have crucifixes. We've seen too many Hollywood movies. You know, we've got to have incantations and exorcists and all this. The real way of driving away the devil is that we refuse to listen to his lies and we embrace truth. Paul, over in Ephesians, says, don't give place to the devil. I don't know if I want to tell this or not, You already think I'm weird enough without telling this, but in my early days out in Wyoming, I had several encounters with people who, to all outward appearances, appeared to be demon-possessed, and so had some experience in dealing with that. And I'm going to cut to the chase and give you all this exciting stuff of head spinning and all that, you know. The bottom line I learned was the real problem was the fact that these people didn't want to believe God. They didn't want to receive the truth of God. And it began to dawn on me that I don't care what you do, how many demons you cast out, if they don't embrace the truth of God, you're not doing them any favors. The demons will be right back. Because the foothold, Paul says, don't give place to the devil as if your heart has a room in there and you've opened the door to the devil for him to come take up residence within you. Don't give place to the devil. Well, how do I give place to the devil? I believe him. I believe his lie. How then do I resist the devil? By refusing to believe his lie. Well, what is his lie? What was the first lie? Huh? God didn't say that. And if you'll just eat this fruit, what'll happen? You'll be like God. You get to be God. You get to be like the Most High. You don't have to listen to Him anymore. You can do your own thing. That's the first lie. That's still the lie. He doesn't have to change. It works so well, because that's what my old fallen nature wants to hear. I want to hear that I don't deserve to be down here. I deserve to be up there. I deserve better treatment. Right? I deserve the attention. back to this principle of self-exaltation, self-glorification, self-gratification. You know, I deserve better than I'm getting. And I want what's coming to me. I'm going to, to use the words of that commercial, exercise my right to look good. I've still been trying to do that. It hadn't been working, by the way. Y'all know the commercial I'm talking about? Exercise your right. That's their theme song. I've been trying. It ain't happening. But that's the idea. The devil comes along and says, exercise your right to bigger and better things. God's keeping you down. You don't deserve to be treated like this. You deserve more stuff. You deserve more glory, more adulation. You deserve more pleasure. You deserve a break today. You think about all the commercials that tell you that you don't need to be where you are, you need to be better. That's the voice of Satan. What is He saying? What is He doing? He's appealing to your pride. And so, if you truly desire humility, you've got to cut that voice out. You've got to refuse to listen to that voice and recognize it for the lie it is and be willing to submit and obey and believe the Word of God. And there's not going to be any humility. You ain't going to get humble until you do that. As long as you imbibe the lie of the devil, your heart is going to be puffed up with pride. Thirdly, he says here, we draw nigh, in verse 8, to God. Draw nigh to God, He'll draw nigh to you. Now let me ask a practical question. How do you draw nigh to God? When I draw nigh to you, what am I doing? I'm moving close, right? Maybe uncomfortably close. We get near one another. How do you get near to God? How do you draw close to God? Have you ever thought about that? Read His Word. In other words, how do you get near somebody? Well, number one, communication helps. That we have lines of communication. And therefore, we listen to God. How do we do that? Hearing voices? Or by imbibing His Word? Alright, that's one way. How else? Call on Him. We pray. In other words, communication is a two-way street. And if I'm going to get near to you, if I want a close relationship to you, I've got to be willing to communicate with you. Right? I don't get nigh to you standing over here and not talking to you. That's what happens when we put distance between us. So in other words, to draw nigh to God means that I come close. I spend time in prayer. I spend time reading, studying His Word. I listen and I talk. I spend time with God. And what is the promise? Draw nigh to me and I'll draw nigh to you. In other words, we have a God who promises that He will move towards us, as it were. as we are willing to communicate, to express the desires of our heart. All right, let's go a little further. Fourthly, he says here, cleanse your hands, ye sinners. You need to wash your hands. Now what does the hand represent? I think you realize we're not talking about literally your hands necessarily, but what do we mean when we talk about man, his actions, his works, things he does? And so notice he's saying, clean, you need to wash your hands. Now, why would you need to wash your hands to draw nigh to God or to be humble before God? Well, double minded is next. So stay away from that one, Joe. But you're exactly right. You can't continue in sin and get close to God. Duh. Why? Because he's holy. Exactly. He's a holy God. And how does a holy God respond towards sin? He hates it. And the old saying is, the least sin is infinitely reprehensible in the sight of an infinitely holy God. And so we have a God who hates sin, and you want to be in a relationship, close relationship with this God, a humble relationship, you're going to have to wash your hands. You cannot hold on to your sin and hold on to God at the same time, as Joe was saying. That's just, it doesn't work. And you see why? Here is a God who hates sin, and I'm trying to... That's the whole problem. There is a nature within me, a spirit within me that wants sin, and I'm going to have to turn loose of it. If I'm truly serious about it, being humble before God and receiving grace from God, then I'm going to have to turn loose of my sin. Just a no-brainer. I'm trying to think what it would be like. It's like saying, I want the light, but I've turned off all... Well, I'm not doing a good job of illustrating, but you know my point. I want this, and I'm embracing the opposite. I want light, but I'm embracing darkness. I want what is right and just, but I'm holding on to what's evil and wicked. So, in other words, there is the demand that we turn loose, that we wash our hands of this sinful conduct. And then, Joe, we'll finally get to yours here, the next one. in line is not being double-minded, or as I stated here, it's by being open and honest with God. Think about that just a minute. Double-minded. What does that imply? Holy and worldly at the same time. In other words, the attempt to be two-faced. I'm trying to think of the terminology we would use. Somebody, a white man speaks with a forked tongue. says one thing means another. Or we are two-faced. We put on one face when we're in this situation. We put on another face when we're another. And especially, the idea is we're being two-faced with God. This is why this doesn't work if you're looking at this and saying, okay, I see I need grace. I need this from God. So I'm going to put on this little charade. I'm going to go through the act of being lowly and, you know, putting on sackcloth and ashes. You see, just putting on the outward garb when you don't have the heart is this duplicity. It's this being double-minded. And do you think God doesn't see through that? No, I mean, you can put it over on me. You can trick me. You know, you come in all teary-eyed and all this, and you'll convince me that you're serious and you mean what you're saying. But keep in mind, you're not pulling the wool over God's eyes. He sees the heart. He knows what's going on. So if you ever want to get grace from God, you're going to have to get honest with God. You have to be open. Call a spade a spade. This is what I am. This is where I am. This is what I'm up to. This is what I'm doing. And forget this nonsense of trying to put something over on Him, trying to look religious and sound religious in His eyes, if you truly want grace. from God, because that is the mark of the humble man. He has stopped playing games. I remember a long time ago, I told you about my first sermon ever preached, but one of my early sermons was games people play with God. And Adam played hide-and-go-seek. But I said, most people play let's make a deal. That's their game. Let's make a deal. I want to have this arrangement. God, I'll give you this if you'll give me that. And what this is saying is, no, you can't play that game with God. You've got to be open, naked, honest. And then finally, he mentions this matter down here, and it sounds like a real downer, doesn't it? Verse 9, be afflicted, mourn, weep, let your laughter be turned to mourning, your joy to heaviness. What do you think? Is the Christian life This? Is there no joy in the Christian life? Are we supposed to walk around like we've been sucking on persimmons? Eating dill pickles? Yeah, that's the point. If we're not humble, it's time to wipe that silly grin off your face. In other words, there is a sense in which this world is a spirit. There's a spirit of this age. And it's an intoxicating spirit. And most drunks go through the stage of getting giddy. Right? Now, they may eventually turn into a mean drunk. But in the early stages of their drunkenness, everything's funny. Everything's humorous. That's why comedians love to have, in a bar, everybody half sloshed. Because everything sounds funny to a drunk. And so in the same sense, if we're not being humble before God, then the message is, you better wipe that silly grin off your face. You better get serious. Because this is serious business, you ain't going to get grace. Because you're never going to be serious with God about humility until you see yourself where you truly are in His sight. And take your place before Him. In the examples we had, read earlier, Ahab, Manasseh, in both cases, these guys got down to business. I don't know what their character was like before this, but after, you know, when they got serious with God, that's when they received grace from God. So, notice we have these six things that James is listing here that you want to work on humility, then work on these things right here. And again, You can say, well, wait a minute, Brother Mark, I can't do that. No, you can. You may not want to. And yes, you may be unable to do it because your old wicked heart doesn't want it. But if you want humility, and you better be seeking humility because it's only the humble man that gets grace, right? That's what we're being told. What happens to the proud man? God resists them. The walls go up. The humble man, God gives grace. So these things are necessary steps, and the humble man exhibits these qualities. Well, let's go on. Let's look at his conclusion here. It's found in verse 10. Read it. Humble yourselves in the sight of God, and He shall lift you up. It's back to this promise. We have it in several places. Let me get you to read Luke 14, 11. Andrew, you got a Bible there with you? Luke 18, 14. That's a good year for General Jackson, 14. Anyway, that's better. Chris, you got a Bible on hand here? 1 Peter 5, 6. All right, Barry. Luke 14, 11. Get that? Whoever exalts himself is amazed. Why? God resists the proud. But whoever humbles, abases himself shall be exalted." Why? God gives grace to the humble. Mary, let your eyes scan over that chapter. Do you know the context of that? They're at a feast, and remember they've said, soup's on, and everybody made a mad dash. And Jesus said, when you're bidding to a feast, what do you do? Make a run to the high seat? No. Sit down here and wait. for the master of the feast to advance you, exalt you. Because you'll be ashamed if he says, friend, what are you doing up there in that high seat? You get down here. And then that is the punchline. Whoever exalts himself shall be abased. He that abases himself shall be exalted. Alright, Andrew? Same principle. Now what's the context? Remember the Pharisee and the Publican praying in the temple? This is the context. The man, the publican, beating on his breast. Jesus says, that man went down to his house justified. We think they're, wait a minute, I thought we're justified by faith. Well, we are. But notice there's an intrinsic relationship between believing in God, faith, and humility. You say, well, I want to be a proud believer. I'm sorry, it just doesn't work that way. The true believer in God is the man who is humble before God. So notice how the same thing being expressed. And then Chris, 1 Peter 5, 6, "...Humble yourself unto the mighty hand of God." In other words, God's the one with the power. He's the one who can advance you. "...So that in the right time, in the proper time, He may advance you and exalt you." Notice, He may not do it on your timetable. And for you to think and to demand that He's got to do it on your timetable is right back to your problem with pride. Who do you think you are to be telling God what He's supposed to do and when He's supposed to do it? But it is our encouragement that we know that in His day and in His way, He does exalt those who rumble before Him. Now, my question is, is this living a life of legalism? You know what I mean by legalism. Quid pro quo. Okay, I'm going to give God some humility and He's going to give me some grace. Well, my answer is no, and I use as an example the principle of the law of gravity. Does the law of gravity work by quid pro quo? Gravity, I'll do this for you if you'll do this for me. No, the law of gravity is a law ingrained in the very nature of things. It's an inviolable law. It always works this way. You don't negotiate. You don't have a contract with it. It just works this way. In the same sense, this principle that God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble is built into the nature of God. It's His nature to resist the proud and give grace to the humble. Let me ask you this, is it right for Him to resist the proud? Why? You're exactly right. God is the only self-existent being in the universe. Everything we have comes from Him. Everything we, anything we can do, any power we have is derived from Him. And so for us, little creature that we are, to think that we can demand or negotiate, that is inherently wrong. Am I saying that right? It's just not right. And God doesn't like that which is just not right. In fact, He hates that which is not right. And so for the creature to exalt himself, to seek glory, can I put it this way, rubs God the wrong way, because it is inherently evil and wicked to its core. And that's of course what brought about the fall of man in the first place, was the creature rising up in pride against God. So in other words, the point being here, that we're not dealing with something God chooses to be. And I mean by that, chooses as if, well, I could go either way with this. You know, I could either be for pride or against pride in the creature. But this is something inherent in the very nature of God Himself. It's like saying God cannot lie. Why? Because He's a God of truth. So He cannot lie. Not because He chooses to not lie, but just because He is. I'm not saying that well, but you understand. Certainly he chooses not to lie, but he chooses not to lie because truth is his being. In the same sense, he resists pride and he loves humility because that's his nature to do so. It would be wrong not to do that if he's God, if all else is derived from him. It would be impossible. In other words, it's like saying God cannot lie. Why? Because it's too hard? He can't say the words? No, it's impossible because that would be contrary to His nature. And so what we're seeing here is in the very nature of God Himself, there is this, I want to use phobia, and phobia we think means fear, but phobia means, in science at least, to be repulsed by something. You have hydrophobic molecules. They draw away from water. Then you have hydrophilic molecules that are attracted to water. That controls how certain, like the DNA, bends and bends on itself. Because some of those molecules, when they get in water, they're attracted to water. They're like a magnet pulling them in that direction. Others are repulsed by water. Well, God is proud phobic. He is repulsed by pride. He is humility-philic. He is loving. He loves humility. And we saw it tonight that even the worst of men, when they humble themselves before God, receive grace from God. It opens the channel of grace. And the Gospel, as we saw in the case of the publican and the Pharisee, the Gospel demands humility. It can't be received any other way but then by a humble heart. And that's why faith and humility go hand in hand. One last thing, and it's over. I've mentioned this text many times. It is one of my favorite. It is the Psalm 18, Psalm of David, which is a sort of an autobiographical psalm. David has given us a very vivid picture here of God, Him being in great trouble, and God, heaven literally coming down and rescuing Him, picking Him out of the muck and setting Him on a high place. And I want you to see verse 25 through 28. David says this, Psalm 1825, With the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful. With an upright man, thou wilt show thyself upright." With the pure, thou wilt show thyself pure. And with the perverse, or the forward, thou wilt show thyself forward. Now think about that. David is telling you that you can control how God deals with you. Now, that sounds absolutely foreign to a sovereign God, to say that you can determine how God deals with you. But that's what he's saying. If you're merciful, He'll deal with you mercifully. If you're upright, He'll deal with you uprightly. But he says, if you're a fraud, if you're perverted, twisted, if you play in games with God, then He'll just play games with you. And you say, okay, I got it, so then I can put on this little show of trying to pretend to be this and pretend... No, because look at the next verse. For thou wilt save the afflicted people, but thou wilt bring down high looks. Barry, that's that high look. You remember, it says in the Proverbs, four things God hates. What's number one on the hip parade? This high, proud look. Notice God can see right through you when you're attempting to manipulate Him, play games with Him. He knows what's going on and He will play games with you all day long. But you get honest with Him, He gets honest with you. You deal uprightly, He'll deal uprightly. It's quite a statement here, but it's back to this principle that God naturally resists the proud, He naturally gives grace to the humble. These things are true because God is always repulsed by pride and attracted to humility. He shows grace to whomever He wants. That's sovereign grace, right? But to whom is it that he wants to show it? Now, I realize that it is behind the scenes, the sovereignty of God that brings us down off that high horse and makes us humble. I'm not denying that, that there's a reason why one man will seek humility and another doesn't. And that is the mysterious predestinations of God behind the scenes. But what I am saying, the man who receives grace from God will always be, ultimately, as far as Him receiving, His conscious reception of it, He's going to be made humble. This one that God has elected from the foundation of the world to receive grace, when it comes time for Him to receive it, what's the condition of His heart? It's humble. You see my point? So this thing, humility, is pretty important. Pride stands in the way of a lot of things, but it stands mostly in the way of receiving grace. So here, let's think back through this. We have this problem, the spirit that lusts to envy. There's a remedy. We have a God who loves to give grace, but we got a new problem. How are we going to get that grace? Who gets grace? What's the principle that we are to operate by? that God resists. Let us give serious, serious thought to this. Start looking at that list of things He tells you to do, and you start seeing, okay, I think I spot the problem here. I think I see myself here. I don't want to do what He says. I want grace, but I don't want to obey. I want grace, but I don't want to cleanse my hands. You see the problem? There's no mystery if I'm lacking grace is not because I don't have a God who wants to give it, loves to give it. He gives more grace. He just wants to keep piling grace on top of grace. That's his nature. He just loves to be gracious. Well, then what's the problem?