Let's turn over in our Bibles to the book of James, if you would. The book of James, chapter 4. And we'll look here, beginning at verse 1, and we'll read down through verse 10. If I had to title this, and I don't think there's anything wrong with giving a message a title, but if I had to title it, I'd say, The Cure for What Ails Us. the cure for what ails us. And in the first few verses, we find what ails us, and then we'll be studying verses 6 through 10, the cure. In verse 1, we've already spoken on these words. From whence come wars and fighting among you? Come they not hence, or from here, even of your lusts, that warn your members? Ye lust, and ye have not, ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain. You fight in war, yet you have not, because you ask not. You ask and receive not, because you ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lust. You adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend in the world is the enemy of God. Do you 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, 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. Now we look here, and in this chapter, James has been dealing with inward maturity, spiritual maturity. And it's entirely possible for an individual to have earthly maturity, but no spiritual maturity. Here James is dealing with spiritual maturity, spiritual growth. And there were some issues going on early on, very early on, And we find that he wrote about it, and if you notice here, he says, from where do wars and fighting among you, where do they come from? Well, he gives the answer, they come from the lust within the members, these desires, these bad desires is what he's writing about here. And he says that these things come from that. And then he asks a question as well. He says, notice verse 2 where he bears it out. He says, you lust and you have not. And that's the way it's always going to be. We lust after some. We're not going to have it. He goes on further. And he says, you kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. You fight and war. You have not because you ask not. He sums it all up as to this. We never ask God. He said, we're desirous of something, but we've never taken it unto the Lord and seen if it's what He wants us to have. And then he goes on and he says in verse 3, you ask and receive not, because you ask amiss. that you may consume it upon your lust." Because again, I'm sure there was someone who said, well listen James, the Lord Jesus said if we ask anything in His name, we'll receive it. And James says, you ask, but you don't ask for God's glory. And you don't ask for your edification, you ask so you can consume it upon your evil desires. That's where it comes down to. Because if they had really asked of God correctly, they would have seen just how sinful their desire was. So James here, having rebuked him of these things. But we find here that James writes further in verse 4, he says the adulterers and adulteresses, they were, as we've called it, spiritual adultery. You see, Romans 7 tells us that when we're saved by God's grace, we've died unto sin and now we're married to another. We're married unto Christ. And because we're now married unto Christ, it would be adultery for us to then turn and run with lust after the world. Our desire is to be toward our husband, which is Christ. That's what the Scriptures teach. That's what we find here. that He spoke of that. Then He says in verse 5, Do you think that the Scripture saith in vain that the Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth or desires to envy? He's talking about here that Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ that now lives within us, it doesn't desire to envy. That's man's spirit. That's that old nature that desires after ungodly things. And so here is the issue. Here is the problem that we all face. And again, as was brought out in Sunday school, and that is, we don't want the cup that God has given to us. We want this brother's cup, or this sister's cup, or this minister's cup, or we want that church's cup over there. God has given you and I a specific cup for us to drink, just as He gave Christ. And I'll tell you this, the cup that Christ drank and the cup that you and I drank don't even compare to one another. because his was full of the wrath of God, and ours has no wrath in it whatsoever. Because he drank every drop, he tipped the cup up, and he tapped the bottom of it, so the ice fell out into his mouth. There is not a residue in our cup of the wrath of God whatsoever, because he bore it all. Now James speaks to us here in these verses and he says, listen, you've got some lust, you've got some jealousies, you've got some envies. You want what that one has and you know what? That one sadly wants what you have. But the reality is, is that we need to learn that we're to desire what God would have us to. God has given members of His church, since He established His church, God-given gifts of the Holy Spirit. And each one of us are to use them for the work of the ministry of the Word of God. we find as well that the Scriptures bear out and teach us that God has given unto us as we read in the Scriptures, as we find here, He's given us each things that again, they're all to be used for the glory of God. And our problem is we don't look at what God's given us because we're too busy looking at what God gave somebody else. And always remember, God has sovereignly dispensed these things out. He's in control of it, isn't He? He has given you things, and He's given me things, and He's given everybody something, and the Bible tells us that every good and every perfect gift comes down from above. It came from God. So it's given to you, and it's perfect for you. Kind of like there in the garden in the beginning when Adam, he had named God caused all the animals to come before him. And he named all of them. There was not found a help suitable for Adam. And so God, what did He do? He made Adam a helpmeet and He brought Eve unto Him and she was absolutely perfect for Him. You know what we don't read where Adam said, no God, why don't you shave a little off here and add a little here. What God brought him was exactly what he stood in need of. So we need to realize and understand that God knows what He's doing. And He's been doing it a long time. Now in these verses, in verses 6-10 we have the cure for what ails us. The Lord has outlined here the remedy for the lust, the wars, the fighting that plague us all. And while we might not at this present time within the confines and the assembly of this church, we might not have wars and fighting and backbiting and all of those things. And I thank God that we don't. But I guarantee you that you have a war and a fighting going on within each one of us with that old man. And here is the remedy for that lust, that war and that fight. These verses contain not only the remedy for what ails us, but also for the way in which you and I are to mature spiritually. Now I want to look here at something before we get into these few points we have here. Let's mention just a few things about spiritual maturity. You know, Jesus Christ, while He hung upon Calvary's tree, had some tremendous spiritual maturity, didn't He? And we don't expect anything but that from God, do we? But there He was, hanging from the tree of the cross, undergoing the curse of God, and the Bible says that He prayed, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. That's spiritual maturity, isn't it? There was a time when His disciples went unto Him and said, Lord, why don't we cast or pray that fire come down and consume them? That's spiritual immaturity. We have that in our own lives, don't we? while we have a dealing with this person or that one, and we want to attack them. We want like a pit bull to just latch on to them, or we want God to latch on to them in a way to destroy them. And that's what was going on here in James' day, and it's not right. We find as well, if you'll turn over into Philippians chapter 1, I'm sure you've heard of him, a fellow by the name of Paul. He had some tremendous spiritual maturity. And you know, I don't think it happens overnight. There might be some folks who God gives them a tremendous amount of spiritual growth. But it really takes a lifetime, doesn't it? God, He just goes at His own pace, doesn't He? I mean, God took 25 years. It did not take God 25 years, but God took 25 years to give him Isaac, didn't he? Philippians chapter 1 verse 12, listen. Paul says, but I would, ye should understand brethren. Now notice that. He already understood this, but he wanted the brethren to understand this. that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the Gospel. I'm sure there were some folks there in Philippi that said, this is terrible. Paul's been in prison. It's an injustice. It's not right. He didn't do what they said he did. Paul said it happened unto the furtherance of the Gospel. That's an individual who is spiritually mature, trusted the sovereignty and providence of Almighty God. I mean, he sat there and he said, God either brought it to pass or He let it happen. One of the two. Because if God didn't want Paul bound up, he wouldn't have been bound up. Paul went on to say in verse 13, So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places. And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Paul says, listen, because I'm in bonds, it has caused other brethren to preach the gospel without fear. Isn't that something? Satan thought it probably had the opposite effect, but instead there were some who were emboldened. Then Paul says, Verse 15, Some indeed preach Christ, even of envy and strife, and some also of goodwill. The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds, but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. What then? Notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. Paul says there were some who were preaching it, but it was to add to my bonds. He says, I rejoice that Christ is being declared. It doesn't matter what it does to me as long as Christ is being declared. Look over in 1 Corinthians 3. 1 Corinthians 3. Here we find, again, Paul has some spiritual maturity. The church of Corinth, as we're well aware of, had great divisions, envy and strife, schisms, divisions, all manner of things were going on here. And you know what Paul doesn't say at all in this book? He doesn't go to set the record straight, so to speak, does he? and say, listen, I was the first one that came to Corinth. He doesn't mention that here. Look at what he says in 1 Corinthians 3 and verse 5. Who then is Paul and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted Apollos' water, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. You know what Paul is saying here? He says it doesn't matter who God uses to do the work, God's the one who gets the credit. Because it's God who gave the increase. You see, we're like the world, we want to say, well I did this, and I did that, and I did the other, and they didn't do it, I did all of it. And Paul says, it's God who did it. That's spiritual maturity, isn't it? He was concerned about God receiving the glory due unto His name. I'll not turn there, but Joseph in Genesis chapter 50, his father died and his brothers were very concerned that Joseph was now going to reciprocate all the evil they had done to him. And Joseph says, nope. You meant it for evil and you know this. You did it for evil, but God did it for good. That's the man who understood God's predeterminate foreknowledge, counsel, all of that. He understood that. He understood that God was in control of these things, and it caused him to be mature. Now, how is it that Christ, Paul, Joseph, all of these saints of God down through the ages, how is it that they were cured of all of this? Well, James writes it here for us. So let's look first of all this evening in verse 6, God giving grace. That's the first thing. God-given, and I might add, God-sought-after grace. You see, we need God to give us grace and we need to seek after it. In verse 6 it says, but He giveth more grace. You see, all of these lusts and these wars and these desires, all of the asking amiss that we may consume upon our lusts, all of the chasing after the things of this world, and all of the following after the leadership of our own flesh instead of the leadership of the Holy Spirit, James writes, here's number one, God gives more grace. That's the first thing. Just as He gave more grace the day He saved you. Paul said in Romans 5.20, where sin abound, grace did much more abound. And that means that grace was greater than our sin. We sing that hymn sometimes. Grace that is greater than all our sin. Well, here we find that the Bible tells us that God gives more grace. You see, God wasn't done with grace, dispensing and giving unto you and I the day He saved us. No, He's brought us into a life where we need grace again and again. The writer of Hebrews said in Hebrews 12 and verse 28, Let us therefore have grace whereby we may be able to serve God. We need grace to serve God. Grace is not only God's unmerited favor for salvation, but the grace of God as brought out in Scriptures, it is mentioned as if it were a power that we needed in order to serve the Lord. You have to have it. Because if you don't have it, then you're not going to be able to overcome these lusts and all our envies and all our jealousies. Sin really has done a number on humanity. I mean, if somebody got bit by a snake and they got a whole bunch of attention, well, I'd want to get bit by two. That's the mentality of a lot of people, isn't it? Boy, look at all the attention this person's getting. I sure would like to have it. They have some terminal illness, you fool. Yeah, but people are really speaking to them and they're getting a lot of attention. That's what sin is. It doesn't make any sense. The Bible says that God gives grace. I believe He gives grace to those who recognize their own evil and want to be more like Christ. Because the Bible says, He giveth more grace. Wherefore He saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. You know, a man who says, you know, I'm really a lot like Christ, he's not getting any grace from God, is he? What does he need it for? He's already like Christ. This is a person who desires to be rid of these sinful things. And who desires to be more like Christ. And the Bible says that God gives more grace. What was it that the Apostle Paul said? We've already mentioned about his spiritual maturity. What did Paul say in Romans 7, verse 24? O wretched man that I am. Paul realized and recognized that he was a sinful creature. You know, we look at different individuals down through time and we say, listen, this person there, they're a monster. Look at all the diabolical things that they've done. Listen, folks, we're the same as they are. We are the monster. We are that sinful, wretched being who stands in need of grace. And we find that this grace, as the Bible says, He giveth grace unto the humble. You think about Jesus Christ, how He humbled Himself. in the greatest fashion there is. And that the Bible says that he humbled himself, how that he put off the form of godliness and he put on the form and the likeness of sinful man. He became a servant. And the Bible says, I believe it's in Philippians, tells us that he became obedient even unto death. That took a lot of grace, didn't it? Well, every time God's people surrender their lives and put off their lust and surrender it unto the Lord, that takes grace. And God will grant us more grace. But you know He's not going to grant us grace when we're running around with the world, is He? You think about that for a moment. Here you are married to somebody and you're running around against them, they're probably not going to give you very much grace. But if you come back in repentance, humble, then there's forgiveness and grace, isn't there, to restoration. And that's exactly what we have here. Those who return unto the Lord in godly sorrow and repentance, just as David did when he had sinned, and the murder of Uriah, and in the adultery with his wife, and all that he did, and Nathan coming unto him and saying, Thou art the man. Just as David spoke unto the Lord in the 51st Psalm and said, I have sinned against Thee and against Thee only, God gave him grace, didn't He? You know how we come to God? Well, it wasn't that bad. I'm not as bad as that fellow over there, Lord. My sin is not as bad as it could be. That's not humility. That's not being humble in any way, shape, or form. Look in verse 7. God giveth grace. What does God give grace to? Well, in verse 7, to submit yourselves therefore to God. That's the next thing. God gives us grace to submit to Him. Look over, if you would, in Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5. If you're like most people, this is the only thing that most Baptists ever think that is supposed to be in submission. I've heard this verse quoted by Baptist men more than anything in all the world. Even more in Daniel 4, verse 35. More in John 6, verse 44. The Bible tells us in Ephesians 5, and in verse 22, Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. This is the same word here. And the Bible says that it is their duty. You are supposed to do it voluntarily. There is no antinomianism, no hyper-Calvinists, no hardshell, no fatalists, no do-nothing of, well, if God wants me to submit, I'll submit. No, submit yourselves, God says. I gave you grace for the purpose of submitting unto me. The word submit yourself means to arrange under, to be under obedience. Now you read those words in Ephesians 5 and verse 22, wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. It doesn't go real well when, you know, I mean, my grandfather he used to use this analogy, he said, you know, he ate oatmeal a lot every day for breakfast. And you know, if he said, if I passed away, and Miss Hilly, if she married another individual, and she kept fixing him oatmeal every day, and he was a bacon and eggs man, she's still submitting to me, isn't she? That's not going to go real well, is it? We wouldn't like it if our wives were saying, well, this other husband, this is how he likes it. And you know, that's what we tell God a whole lot. You know what we submit to? Our own lusts. Our own desires. We arrange everything under those. We submit ourselves to those. We obey those lusts. We make provision to obey them. We arrange our lives so that we can fulfill our desires, don't we? I mean, you think about some of the things that go on in the world today, in our lives, in your lives, in my lives. All the things that we do. We make arrangements so that we can do these things, but how much arrangement do we make to obey God? Do we prepare? I mean, I'm sure you all have got something planned for this week. Or you know, it's summer now and a lot of families are making plans and preparations for summer vacations. And you know, there's nothing wrong with any of those things. But what I'm showing you is people plan to submit to this. We ought to plan to submit to God. We ought to arrange our lives to be in obedience to Him and His Word. Here we find that the Scriptures bear this out. that we are responsible, that we have an obligation to voluntarily bow down unto the Lord. One individual stated that submission means complete obedience to God's will. I told an individual, you know, we had a thing some years ago, it's been going on for centuries now about scriptural hymns. And I said, we ought to quit singing, all to Jesus I surrender. Because we don't surrender anything unto Jesus. That's a great hymn and it ought to, every time we sing that hymn, it ought to provoke us to surrendering to Him. to ordering our lives that there would be an obedience to God. If God says this, okay, I've got to arrange my life so that I can do that. And if that means I don't get to consume this lust, then God's got a good reason for it. It means to surrender all to Him. Not tomorrow, not in a few years, not after I get done sowing my wild oats or getting all my lusts, because you'll never finish that, will we? Right now. Right now. And if that means, remember that one fellow he said as they were invited to come on the Lord's table, he says, I can't, I have a wife. My dad, he always said, I don't know why I didn't bring her. One fella said, well I have to go and I bought a piece of ground, I gotta go and prove it. And that ground gonna be there tomorrow? Another fella bought a yoke of oxen. Maybe you shouldn't have bought a yoke of oxen. Do you see how we need to arrange our lives around what God's Word says and submit to it? to arrange it upon the worship of God, to arrange our lives around the Lord's Day and the midweek service and any special services that there may be, to submit to the will of God as revealed in His Word. Folks say, well, I have to do this. No, you don't. People do what they want. And if you want to submit to God, He will give you grace to humble you so that you can submit to Him. And if you don't want to, you'll just keep going on fulfilling your own lusts. Now I believe that humbleness will lead to submission. If we humble ourselves before God, the next step, the next thing that will take place will be submission. Where there isn't submission, you can know there is no humility. The next thing we find in verse 7 is to resist the devil. We are to, first of all, seek after God's grace that we might be humble. Secondly, to submit to God. Thirdly, resist the devil. The word resist means to set oneself against, to withstand or to oppose. And I think sometimes we get that backwards. We resist God and submit to the devil. Someone says, well, how are we supposed to resist the devil? Well, how did Jesus do it? Well, we read this morning in Matthew 4. It is written. He quoted from the book of Deuteronomy three times. Or not three times, a quote from Deuteronomy, a quote from Psalms. You understand. And he did, he understood. Remember, Satan even quoted scriptures and Jesus said, you err not knowing the scriptures. He did not rightly divide the word of truth, did he? He said, well, cast yourself down. And he said, the angels will lift you up. And he said, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Satan took scripture out of its setting, didn't he? We do that a lot, don't we? And we say, well, I remember we were there in Kansas and I was working at the pizza parlor and one of the prominent pillars of the community He had come in and he had some bottles of wine in his hand. And he says to me, he said, oh, a little wine for the stomach's sake. Well, that's not what Paul was writing Timothy about at all. I mean, it wasn't a refreshment. It was used as a cordial, a medicinal purpose. It wasn't to get drunk on. People take things out of their settings so they can fulfill their lusts. It's kind of like, you know, some folks say, well, I know God's Word says, be ye therefore perfect, but perfect doesn't mean perfect. Well, what does it mean then? Be ye holy, even as he is holy. Well, we're supposed to be holy, but holy really doesn't mean holy. Well, what does it mean then? You see, the Scriptures tell us to resist the devil and we're to resist him with the Word of God. The Bible tells us in Ephesians chapter 6 that God has given us a weaponry and one of them is the shield of faith whereby we can quench the fiery darts of the wicked one. Well, what's that faith based upon? The Word of God. And He's given us the sword of the Spirit as well, which is the Word of God. Resisting the devil is not easy. You're going to have a fight on your hand. Remember, he is a roaring lion, walking about seeking whom he may devour. If you think resisting the devil is easy, read the book of Job. Read about any of these saints of God. But submission to God's will and resisting the devil will not be done apart from a study of Scripture and of our spirits and souls being on their knees in prayer. You don't have to be on your bodily knees in prayer, but the knees of our souls and spirits need to be. In the military, they submit to orders, those that are given from higher up powers, and they resist the enemy. And you know how they do that? After months and months of intensive training. I mean, they just don't take somebody who signs up in their recruiter office and ship him overseas to fight, do they? I mean, you think about some of these elite warriors that there are. I just read about they got a Memorial Day challenge. You run four miles, you do 200 push-ups, you do 300 sit-ups, and then you run a mile or something with a 20-pound vest on. And it's named after one of the Navy SEALs. I thought that's insane. Sounds like fun. But you understand here, these guys are elite. And it didn't happen overnight, did it? And they didn't stumble across it. And they didn't fall backwards into it. It was through intense training that this took place. And if we're going to submit to God and resist the devil, it's going to be the same way with some spiritual warfare. In verse 8, we find our fourth point of what ails us, how we're to remedy it. We're to draw near to God. Draw near to God. The word draw nigh, as it's written here, draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you, means to join one thing to another. You know the Bible says that if we walk in darkness, we can't say we have fellowship with God. I mean, think about that. We can't sin in openness and say, well, I'm fellowshipping with God. It cannot be done. 1 John 1 verse 6 and 7 bears that out. We cannot draw an eye to God and be a friend of the world at the same time. It cannot be done. The Bible tells us, can two walk together lest they be agreed? And they cannot. So how is it that we are to draw near or nigh unto God? How is it that we are to be joined together? Now this isn't talking about salvation. This is dealing with people who are already saved. So how is it that a saved person can be drawn near unto God? How is it that you and I who are filled with lust and envies and asking to miss and all of the things and where our lives have not been arranged and submitted unto God's will, how is it that we can draw an eye to God? Well, verse 8 tells us. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. And I think James, when he wrote double-minded, I think he knew what he meant because remember he said in James chapter 1 that a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. A double-minded man is someone who thinks, well, I can live with the world and still be right with God. And it cannot be done. We find here that we need to cleanse our hands. That speaks of the outward. and we need to purify our hearts. That speaks of the n-word. James here is referencing the 24th Psalm verses 3 and 4. Look over there if you would and we'll read it. Psalm 24. How is it that I can draw nigh to God? You know, I think one of the things that ails us is this, is that we want to be as far away from God as possible and still, you know, somehow consider ourselves Christians. And that's the influence of the world. Because that Spirit that is implanted within us when God saved us says, I want to be as close to God as I can. Think about this. Christ, even while He was here on this earth, had perfect communion with the Father, didn't He? Until sin was put upon Him. Because He prayed there and He says, Father, there when He was at the tomb of Lazarus, He says, I know that thou hearest me always, but I said that because of so everybody else would know. That's perfect communion, isn't it? If you hear someone whenever they say it, that means you're in perfect communion. Psalm 24 verse 3, Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in His holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully." Well, I'll tell you what. Clean hands and a pure heart. How can we draw an eye to God? How can we, as the psalmist said here, how can we stand in His holy place? How can we have communion with Him? We're going to have to get cleaned up, aren't we? You know, I doubt very seriously if, you know, if we were called to go on to the president, if we would, you know, come in out of the field with the muck and the mire on our boots, we'd probably clean ourselves up. We ought to be cleaned up outwardly, our hands, and inwardly, our hearts, when it comes to drawing nigh unto God. Let us not be Pharisees with only clean hands. Let us not be do-nothings with only clean hearts. But let us be God's children with both. A clean heart will manifest itself in clean hands. And a clean hand manifests a clean heart. And James says you need to have both of them if you're going to draw an eye unto God. The fightings and the wars of which were spoken of in verse 1 manifested that there were inward lusts. You see, our hearts must be purified. Look over in the 119th Psalm. How is it that our hearts can be purified and our hands cleansed? Well, you remember when Jesus spoke unto His church in John chapter 13, and you remember how that He began to wash their feet, don't you? Simon Peter says, well, wash me all over. And Christ says, you don't need to be washed all over, just your feet. And He was telling him that you've already been cleansed wholly, but your feet need to be cleansed because you're walking around in this world and you're picking up filth. It's going to happen. Peter said, you know, I don't need it. Christ said, if I don't wash your feet, you don't have any part with me. Well, what did he wash? What was that indicative of? Well, the Bible tells us, and we preached on this Sunday night after the anniversary service there at Ephesians 5, that Christ is at present washing, cleansing, purifying His church with the Word of God. Well, notice here the 119th Psalm in verse 9. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? And I'll tell you what, whether you're young or old, male or female, this is it. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to Thy word. With my whole heart have I sought Thee, O Lord, let me not wander from Thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, teach me Thy statutes. Do you see here how that the Scripture takes cleansing, purifying, and brings it together with God's Word? It cannot be done apart from that. And so if I'm going to draw an eye to God's Word, I'm going to have to have clean hands and purified heart, which means I'm going to have to take heed to God's Word. It means I can't disregard it. I've got to believe it, I've got to own it, I've got to practice it. It's that imperative. It's that important. And then verse 9. The next thing we find is repentance. I'll tell you what, we're not very good at repenting, are we? I mean, we're not very good at saying I was wrong, period. We're not very good at saying I was wrong to the person sitting next to us. We have a hard time with that. Because nobody wants to be wrong. It goes against our sinful pride to be wrong. I mean, you think about it, when we try and justify our wrongness, we'll go to any length there is. Here the Bible says in verse 9, be afflicted and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. This is repentance. I'm sure David was having a grand time and then Nathan came in and said, thou art the man. I wish God would work repentance like that, that easily. Boy, that must have been something. He didn't argue with Nathan at all, did he? I mean, he just stopped dead in his tracks. He didn't try and wiggle like a worm that he was. In the days of Nehemiah, the Bible says that they had sackcloth and ash upon their beings. They were sorrowful over their wrongdoing. We need to be sorrowful over our loss, not just, you know, God forgive me and my sins, and this, that, and the other, and, you know, so on and so forth. I mean a real confession of sin. You know, not like, you know, you got the Church of Rome with their little cubicles they've got, and they go in there and they say, you know, I haven't confessed in X amount of days, and they say, and I've done this, and okay, do this, and you're forgiven. I'm talking about a pouring out. of sin. When's the last time we did that? When's the last time that we afflicted? I'm not talking about like the prophets of Baal where they afflicted themselves when they cut themselves literally, but where we afflicted our souls over sin and doing wrong. That's what James is writing of here. He says, be afflicted and mourn and weep. Your laughter turn to mourning, your joy to heaviness. We're to rejoice in the Lord, not in sin. You know, sometimes we have heaviness when God's Word tells us this is what we're supposed to do, when we ought to have heaviness or sorrow over our own sin. Our countenance is not shining for God's Word, but it is for the lust of the flesh. And James says you've got it backwards. And you need to switch it around. And then in verse 10, again, humble yourselves. Boy, he really speaks a lot about that, doesn't he? Humble yourselves. Somebody said, if you don't humble yourself, God will. Rest assured, you'll wish you had humbled yourself. When God humbles you, He's gonna put you down. You'll notice that it says, Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up. We're trying always to lift ourselves up, aren't we? We need to have God lift us up, because if He lifts us up, it'll be a lifting up that'll be worth it. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord. This is kind of like almsgiving in prayer. People make a show of being humble, don't they? Well, this is a humility in the sight of God. You know, this is like the Bible says about there in 1 Peter 3 about regards to a woman that her meek and quiet spirit is of great price in the sight of God. You know, meek and quiet spirit may not be worth a lot to a lot of people, but it's of great price in the sight of God. We ought to do things in the sight of God, not to be seen of men, and that means humble ourselves. Here we find that James deals with this over and over and over again, that our entire being, not just our knees, not just our heads, but our entire being needs to be bowed unto God. Every part of it. And when we do that, you know what will happen? We'll be able to fight and overcome the lusts. This is the remedy to what ails us. And what ails us is the flesh. And what will defeat it or remedy it is humbleness to God, receiving God's grace, as we have here, submitting to God, resisting the devil, drawing nigh to God with clean hands and purified hearts, godly sorrow and repentance, and humility unto God. Or humility in the sight of God. So how's all that come? It's the same way as it's always been. through taking heed to God's word and prayer. Over and over and over again. People say, that's not very flashy. No, it's not. Most things that work well aren't. And I'll tell you what, it's not gonna happen in a microwave either. We want everything to happen immensely quick, don't we? I mean, we don't even have time for water to boil anymore, do we? You know, we want to get down and pray some shoddy prayer and get up and be humble. Well, that doesn't work that way, does it? There were people who spent time. In fact, it's said of James that he spent so much time in prayer. I don't know how they know, but this has been said more than once. His knees looked like camel's knees. Go home and look up a camel's knees. They were that rough because he spent so much time in prayer. I think he knew something about prayer. I think he knew something about humility. I think he knew something about submitting unto God and resisting the devil. We don't take the time for these things, do we? We don't redeem the time in that fashion. So I pray that God will help us. This is the cure for what ails us. It's been the cure for a long time, hasn't it? You know, it's kind of like different remedies of days past and gone, you know? You look in one of them old farmer's almanacs. It says, will you do this for this ailment? And you know, put turpentine on it or something. Oh, you don't need to do that. That'll take a couple weeks. Take this pill. and you'll be cured. Well, maybe not. Because it's side effects are worse than the original disease. Do you understand what I'm getting at? It's the same remedy that's always been there. And those of you who have done it, you know it's effectiveness in your life. I pray that God will help us, that we'll receive grace to this end. Let's stand.