James chapter four. The song that Hannah played today, there may be no more well-known or popular song, popular religious song, gospel song than the song that Hannah played, Amazing Grace. Many of you may be familiar with the writer of that particular song. His name is John Newton. Newton wrote that in the 19th century, and Newton was a very bad man. There is no better word to describe Newton prior to his salvation than a despot. He was a slave trader involved in all kinds of debauchery. And when Newton wrote Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, he meant that. That was not 19th century allegorical writing. That was a literal expression of how he viewed himself. a terrible, wretched man who only came to God by His, in fact, amazing grace. And that song itself really does capture the spiritual journey of a man. And of course, it centers on grace. You may remember in James chapter 4 that James addresses the conflicts that occur in the church and in relation to God. We spend a great deal of time two Lord's days ago in chapter four, beginning in verse one, considering the conflict that is there. And James concluded that there is only one cure to that kind of conflict, the conflict that exists between brother and brother, sister and sister in Christ, the conflict that might exist between one group or another group within the body of Christ, the conflict that exists between man and God himself. There is, in fact, only one cure for that. And in a word, that cure is grace. So that the Bible teaches us in James chapter 4 that a man does not have to be the enemy of God. So that the Scriptures teach us here in James 4 that a Christian woman or a Christian man does not have to fight to have his wants fulfilled or his desires met. He does not have to, quote, stand up for himself, end quote. He doesn't have to do that. Instead, that very same grace that makes a man a Christian is the very same vehicle that will bring that man to the fulfillment of life that he seeks. So it is that James calls our attention to an Old Testament text in verse 6. He's quoting from Proverbs, a portion of Proverbs 3, when he writes this in James 4, verse 6. And if you have your Bible, and it's open there, look at what he says. But, he gives more grace. Therefore, he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Now, what a great phrase to begin verse 6. Maybe you read over it rather quickly as you were going through that. Maybe in your weekly reading of this, as I am encouraging you to do, once a week to read through the book of James. As I've said, it will do two things for you. The first thing it will do is it will help to cement in your mind what it is that we have done previously. It will also help you in anticipation of the next Lord's Day. in seeing what it is that God will reveal to us. Well, what a great phrase this is to open verse 6. But He gives more grace. More grace for what? To what end? Why is it that God would choose to give more grace? Sufficient grace has been given for man's salvation. And now more grace is to come. For what purpose? There is more grace to live. There is more grace to love. There is more grace to learn. There is more grace to obey. There is more grace to fight. There is more grace to overcome. There is more grace to pray. And there is more grace to yield. There is always more grace. And I would suggest to you that we as believers, when we read those simple words, those five words which begin verse six, But He gives more grace that you and I should be enraptured, if not captivated by the thought that God gives to us believers more and more and more and more grace. The idea is this, that God is tirelessly on your side. As you now endeavor to live, warring against those lusts which are in your spirits. As you endeavor to live in this very difficult world to live. Do you find this world difficult to live in as a believer? I find it terribly difficult to live in this world. There is available to me more grace. Not only was there sufficient grace to merit my salvation, there is more and more grace that allows me to live in this world in such a way that God is well pleased. And I have lived in a way that has been good for me. Have you ever wondered, my friends, if God is on your side? Have you ever raised that question in your mind? That God's against me? Not sure if God's really come along here to help me. I think God's against me. When I talk with people in my office and we're going through a scenario in their lives that they're looking for some help on. Sometimes I remind them and sometimes repeatedly in that conversation, I'm on your side. Even though I may be telling that individual something that is difficult for him or her to hear. I'm on your side. Don't you like it when you have somebody on your side? I mean, have you ever been in a conversation in your family? You and another person are debating an issue. Your sister happens to walk through the room and you grab her and you say, aren't I right on this? And you tell her your side of it. You want somebody on your side. I mean, in school, don't you want somebody on your side? If you were playing a pickup basketball game, Who wants to play five on one? Nobody. We want people on our sides. Have you considered, my Christian friend, that the Bible teaches that God Himself is tirelessly on your side? He is your ally. Your friend. Your companion in arms. And what does he bring to the battle? What does he bring to the team? More grace. To live. To obey. To serve. To yield. To learn. To grow. To love. More grace. You know, really, the Bible is full of this concept. The scriptures tell us again and again and again. About God's grace and its availability to the believer, for example, the apostle Paul writes the second Corinthians 12 and verse nine, and he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. That's the idea of James four, six. The Bride of Hebrews put it this way in 416, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace. And what happens when we get there? When you arrive at the throne of grace, having now come before the Lord there, you will obtain mercy and you will find grace to help in time of need, more grace. Or the Apostle again in Romans 5 and verse 20. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace abounded more. Yet the fact of the matter is this. God is not blindly on the side of all. Did you notice in verse 6 the definition that God makes? The delineation of whose side it is that he is on. Did you notice that in verse six? There, the Bible says that God gives grace to the humble. But there is a segment that he does not give more grace to. And instead, those it is that he resists. He resists the proud, the Bible says. The man or the woman, the guy or the gal who is willful, who is obstinate, who is rebellious toward God, meets in God an opponent. Understand something. It is not that God ignores that person. The Bible does not say God ignores the proud. But instead, the scriptures are clear to say that God resists him. Why is it that God gives more grace? Why not just? Be content with the grace that came at salvation. Right, Ephesians 2,8 tells us for my grace, you have been saved through faith. Why not just that? Why is it necessary? To have more grace. Well, the answer to that I've already alluded. Because every believer needs it. To live in such a way that he does not give in to the fightings of verse 1. That he does not give in to the lusts of verse 2. To the temptation to be the friend of the world in verses 4 and 5. To live in such a way as to be a friend of God. The believer needs this. You know what James is describing here? James is describing in verses 6-10 of chapter 4, the process of sanctification. What is that? That's spiritual growth. Maturity. What is supposed to happen when someone is saved from that point forward. Do you understand this? That when a person becomes a Christian, When that man places his faith in Christ alone as his only hope for salvation, and that is how one becomes a Christian. No one becomes a Christian by being baptized. No one becomes a Christian by attending a church. No one becomes a Christian by being confirmed in a faith. All people come to God and become the children of God by faith alone through Christ alone. But what happens when that person is saved from that point forward? There is an expectation of God that we would not be, as the Scriptures put it, babes in Christ, but that we would grow in the nurture and in the admonition of Christ Himself. That we would grow up, the Scriptures say, into the same image of Jesus. That we would become Christ-like. The theological word is sanctification. We talk of it as Christian maturity or growing in Christ, maturing in Christ. And what James is describing here for us is this, that the only way for this to happen is that more grace be endued to the believer day after day, moment after moment. And the believer who gets that grace, is one who is humble, not one who is proud. All right. I have a question. What does that look like? Can you show me someone who is humble before the Lord? Toward whom God extends more grace, more grace, more grace. That's exactly what James does in verses 7 to 10. He gives us a picture of this person and shows us just what he's like. He teaches us, in fact, what Micah 6, 8 says. Do you remember this verse from your Old Testament? Where the Bible says he has shown you, O man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and here's the phrase, to walk humbly with your God. He is going to show you how to do this. You know, we often ask this, don't we? In looking at elements of Christianity, don't we often say, how is it or this thing will happen or that that thing will happen? Verses 7 to 10 answer that question of how it is that a man moves along in his Christian life. Beginning in verse 7, here's what James does. He gives a series of commands to obey. Probably ten of them, some say nine, some say eleven, but probably ten commands that spell out what it means to walk humbly before our God. What it means to be one to whom God does not resist, but instead to whom God gives more grace. And as we follow the commands that are given here in verses 7 to 10, as we follow those, guess what follows them? In a word, grace. So consider. In verse 7, the Bible teaches us this. Grace will follow when we submit to God. That's a fairly simple and straightforward idea, isn't it? Verse seven says, therefore, submit to God. What does that mean? It means this. The believer is to line himself up under God. So I'm not quite sure I understand that, or I think of it this way. In the first century, the term that is used here for submit is a term that is used in the military. It describes the relationship between an enlisted man or an officer, or a junior officer and a senior officer. The enlisted man lines himself up under the officer, the junior officer aligns himself under the senior officer, they take themselves and put themselves under them. Well, what does that mean? It means this, that enlisted man or that junior officer He goes anywhere and everywhere the commanding officer says you will go, and he goes nowhere that the commanding officer does not give him permission to go. But I mean, think about it in the daily nitty-gritty things. Some of you remember what it was like to be a man under authority in the armed forces. You remember those days. You ate when your CO said you could eat, didn't you? You slept when your CEO said you could sleep, right? Whatever activity you did for that day, you did it at the institution of your CEO. You rested when your CEO said to rest. That's what it means to submit to God. And the proud person will find this the ultimate challenge of his life. He will struggle with who it is that will control his life. The proud woman, the proud man will want to do it his way. James' command is this, that God's people submit themselves to God's arrangement of life. Have you considered this? that God has a mind about how life is to be arranged? Have you considered this, that God has a mind about how your life is to be arranged? Have you thought about that? I mean, friend, have you thought that God has a mind about the kind of woman a man should marry? God has a way of thinking about that. Have you considered God has a mind about the role of the children in the home? Young men, young ladies, are you aware that God has a very specific arrangement, order, plan for how you as a child are to function within your home. God has a way of thinking about that. He has a mind on this. I mean, have you considered that God has a mind about the responsibilities of a husband in the home to provide for his family? Do you know that God is not politically correct, according to Titus chapter two and verse five, and he has a mind about the role of women and that God has a mind that they are to be keepers at home. Titus 2 verse 5. Do you know that God has a mind about how to raise children? A mind that is not subject to a child's personality? That God has a mind about how to raise children that is not subject to the child's mental faculties? That is not subject to his birth order? or to his particular stage of life, that God has a mind about how to raise that child? Friend, have you considered that God has a mind about baptism? That God has spoken clearly on this subject? He has a way of thinking. He has an arrangement of men and women's lives that when a man or a woman places his trust in Christ alone, that he should display that publicly in baptism. God has a way of thinking about this. I mean, have you considered that God has a mind about retirement? Have you ever thought about that? I'm sure that probably all of us Certainly, all of us who are approaching the age of 40 have thought about that a little bit. Have you ever considered that God has a mind on that subject? Have you ever thought about that? And that God has a way of thinking about how a person should spend his golden years? Do you know that God has spoken to that? Do you know that God has a mind about the kind of friends you should have? The Bible teaches us that God has a mind about the mental images that we put before our eyes. That God has a mind about the kind of music that we listen to. That God has a mind... Have you considered this? That God has a mind. He has a way of thinking. He has an arrangement for the life of men and women. God has a mind about how much flesh clothing might reveal? Or that God has a mind about how the cut of a piece of clothing might draw attention to one's body? Have you ever thought that God has a mind about that? Have you considered that God has a mind about systematic and sacrificial giving of our financial resources? God has a way to think about that? And the list just goes on and on and on and on. But here's how someone might respond. All right, come on. Let me get this straight. There are six billion people in the world, more every day. And you're telling me that God cares about such things. Is that what you're saying to me? Well, I would suggest to you that is exactly what the scriptures are saying to you. Why else then, my friend, would the Holy Spirit of God inspire Paul to write 1 Corinthians 10.31? If all of these things were insignificant, and God had no mind about the matters, why is it that the Holy Spirit of God writes, whether you eat or drink or whatever it is that you do, do all to the glory of God? If God does not have a mind about such arrangements in the lives of all people, then why put that tenet before them? Of course God has a mind about these things. And that is why it is so very difficult to submit to God in them, is it not? If God didn't care about such things, and we knew God didn't care about things, who would have a hard time submitting to Him on such things? Nobody. The very fact that God does have a mind about them is why the Holy Spirit of God admonishes us to submit to Him in these. What happens when you do? What happens when one submits to God? You know what James' teaching is? Grace will follow. If you, my friend, in an area where you are not submissive to God, will understand God's thinking about it and make God's choice to obey Him in the matter. Grace will follow. He gives more grace. God promises to deliver sufficient grace for the submission. My sister or brother in Christ, God will give more grace to submit to his arrangement of life. He will do that for you. These series of commands continue then in verse seven. And we find that grace will follow when we resist the devil. So verse seven says this, therefore, submit to God, resist the devil. There's the second command, the second imperative thought, resist the devil. And the result will be that he will flee from you. When talking about submission, people often respond this way, don't they? I mean, haven't these thoughts maybe come through your head as I rattled off that encyclopedia of expectations from God? I can't do that. That would be so hard when there are so many things pulling me in a different direction. Well, James addresses that. What does he say to do with those pulls? And when it is identified in a person that is the wicked one, what does he say to do with that? He says, resist that. What is our activity to be to those things which are outside of God's arrangement for our lives? What is to be our activity? Resistance. Let me tell you what that does not mean. Resistance does not mean negotiation. Well, let me see if I can figure out a way so that everybody's in A wonderful new millennium phrase. Everybody's in a win-win situation. Everybody wins. Let's negotiate this. I'll negotiate with the wicked one a little bit. I'll negotiate with my flesh a little bit. I'll negotiate with the world a little bit. They get a little bit of what they want. I get a little bit of what I want. Everybody wins. It does not mean negotiation. Nor does it mean capitulation. Well, in the big scheme of things, this really isn't that big a deal in the big. Look at the big picture, Pastor. Come on, Mike. Look at the big picture. All right, I will look at the big picture. I'm interested in more grace. That's the big picture. And God says the avenue to that is a humbleness that resists the devil. You see, there cannot be any giving of any ground at all, my friends. There cannot be the statement on our parts just this one time. There cannot be thoughts, well, it's only a little bit. We must resist. Well, this won't be that bad or maybe it's not all wrong. No, James's command is this stand up to him. How do you do that? How does one resist the devil so that he flees from him? How do you do that? Well, thankfully, we have a wonderful example in our Lord himself, who resisted the devil. How did he do that? You say, well, he quoted scripture. Yes, but it's not merely the quotation of the scriptures that is the resistance. It is the resisting of what the devil says is the way to go, the way to arrange the life, in favor of accepting what the Father says is the arrangement of the life. That's the resistance. I hear lots of people... I remember one story that was told to me of a pastor who had been involved in an adulterous situation. He memorized all this scripture. about overcoming this adultery. And as the story goes, as I understand it, when he was driving to his mistress' home, he would quote the Scripture verses. And he said afterward, I quoted all the Bible and I still gave in. God did not help me. Wrong! He chose to believe what was being offered to him, that arrangement of life. Here is what will make me happy, full, contented. This thing, this person over here. He chose to embrace that as opposed to what his Bible taught him, what his God said to him, which was to be satisfied with the life of your youth. Nobody else. That's the difference. How does one resist? One resists. by recognizing those two opposing thoughts and rejecting the counsel of the deceiver in favor of the command of the Father. And then look at the promise that is in this statement. He will flee from you. How many of God's people have felt at time like the devil himself was just nipping at your heels? grabbing at your ankles, tripping you all along the way. And as hard as you tried, you could not get away from Him. My friend, look in your Bible at what God said in those black letters. I did not say this. God said it. Resist Him and He will flee. That's what I want. It's interesting that he flees after the resistance. Resist and more grace comes. Let me ask you this. Would you place the two thoughts that are in this verse opposite against another? Submit to God, resist the devil. What is the temptation for the believer? You're smart people, you can figure this out. Isn't the temptation? to submit to the devil and resist our God. If you will choose, my friend, if you will choose to obey God's command in this, the Bible teaches more grace is to come, grace will follow. There's a third in this first grouping, and that begins and comes to us in verse 8. Well, the Bible says this, draw near to God and he will draw near to you. And the teaching is grace will follow when we draw near to God. All right, let's remind ourselves of some things. To whom is James writing this small letter? You'll remember that James is writing to believers, Jewish believers specifically. Who primarily lived in or around Jerusalem. and who had been scattered throughout the region because of the persecution in the first century. He is writing to these people. And it's understandable that he would write to them in terminology that they would easily recognize. So when he says to them, draw near to God, these Jewish believers are going to make an immediate connection. Because that phrase, draw near to God, is used for the activity of the priests when they come before God in the temple. It describes the worship of the priests. And what James is teaching here is this. It is the privilege of all believers to draw near to God with this result, that God will draw near to you. And there is in this verse a beautiful, glorious tension. What tension is that? Man's responsibility and God's sovereignty. Because doesn't the Bible teach this? In John 6, verse 44, does not the Bible teach, no man can come to me, except the Father which has sent me draw him. All right, we've got that verse. Nobody comes except God draws him. And now we've got this verse, John 4, verse 8, draw near to God. You say, which is it? It's both. God places the responsibility upon a man to point himself in the direction of God, yet the reality is this, no woman ever comes to God except God draws him. It is a beautiful, glorious tension. You say, Pastor, explain that to me. I don't know that I can. I don't think I can explain this except to say God commands that we do so. And to say further that the desire to draw near to God does not originate in man, but in God. So here's the order. Here is how James puts this up, by the way, can we pause just a moment? James is writing, do you suppose? That these statements therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, he will draw near to you. And so on, all ten of these. Do you think that James just haphazardly put these together in some kind of order? Remember when you were doing your term papers? You had those goofy little 3x5 cards, you had all your little notes on them. Remember those days? You did all your research and you had all that. You weren't very good at your writing, but you had a really, really good thing to say. Maybe it was a neat story or a neat quote that you found in somebody. You just had to put it in. So you took that three by five card and you wrote it down in your paper. Remember those days? That's not what James is doing here. It's not like James has been thinking for some time. You know what I'm going to tell people? If I get a chance, I'm going to tell them to submit to God. You know what else I'm going to tell them sometime? If I get a chance, I'm going to tell them, hey, why don't you resist the devil and he'll flee from you. And by the way, if I get the opportunity, I'm going to say, draw near to God and He will draw near to you. These aren't things that He has pulled out of the sky and thrown them on paper. There is a progression here. There is a sequence. Alright, now let's understand the sequence. The first step for a believer is this, submit to God. What is the second? The second is that he would resist God. Now, when that man submits to God, his next step is to draw near to Him. The how to draw is rather obvious, isn't it? It's the things that we talk about regularly. Systematic, regular, disciplined reading of our Bibles. Private and public prayer. Private and public worship. Participation in the Lord's table. Fred, have you thought about this? That fellowship with God does not just happen. I mean, have you really thought about that? The believers must make a conscious choice to draw near to God. They must do that. In the same way that they chose to submit to God, in the same way that they chose to resist the devil, they are next supposed to draw near to God. Why do we have Sunday evening services here? Why do we do that? You say, well, we want to make sure that you're getting a full week's working, buddy. So if you're going to work on Sunday, we're going to make sure you work the whole day, pal. So that's why we have Sunday evening services. Is that what you think? Some of you aren't smiling. Maybe that is what you think. Why do we have Lord's Day services at six o'clock on Sunday nights? I mean, lots of churches. Lots of churches have long abandoned them, and by the way, can't you still be a Bible centered church and not have a Lord's Day service at night? Sure you can. So, I've got lots of stuff to do, don't you? And if you can still be a Bible-centered church and not have a Lord's Day service on Sunday evenings, then why have one? There can only be one answer. Because we are looking for every available opportunity to draw near to God. That's why any other reason. I can dismiss like that. This is the only reason. The point here is this, that a believer must make a conscientious choice to draw near to God, it does not just happen all by itself. Some of you have made such choices. And I commend you for that. I commend you for your Bible reading. Some of you tell me about your Bible reading and how you are reading through God's Word this year, or maybe you're reading through the New Testament this year. Some of you young men and young ladies, probably at camp when you were at the Wilds of the Rockies two weeks ago, I'm guessing that many of you made a conscientious choice. I am going to draw near to God by reading my Bible. I commend you for such a decision, and I commend you all for such an activity, if you have pursued that. I commend you for your faithfulness to the Lord's day, to attend worship services, not to make the Lord's Day another play day in the human agenda, but to set it aside to draw near. I commend you, for those of you who come to our prayer meeting on Wednesday night, to seek the Lord and pray to Him. You are drawing near to God. And what does He promise the person who draws near to Him? What is the promise? He will draw near to you. Wait a second. Do you not find yourself wanting the reverse? Do you not find yourself saying, well, how about this? How about God? You draw near to me and then I'll make you a promise. I'll draw near to you. How many times do you in a month, a week, a given day, that God is so distant. He is so far away from me. Pray the Lord. Draw near to me, God. But the activity of the believer precedes the promise of God. If you draw near to God first, then God will draw near to you. When you draw near to God, you can expect that grace will follow in the form of God drawing near to you. Let me try to give you these last ones rather quickly. James and describing the believers growth. How it is that he will mature in Christ. In what way more grace is to come, that is a humble person in describing this humble individual who submits to God, who resists the devil, who draws near to God. In verse eight, moves away from relationships and moves to a subject. In verse eight, he says this. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. And the teaching then is this, grace will follow when we purify thoroughly. And there is within the text two thoughts to a thorough purification. The first is external and the second is internal. Like the phrase before, This, too, has a Jewish thought. The cleansing of the hands was a required activity of the priests before they came into the temple. It was a symbolic act that they were rejecting all sinful activity and coming before God. The hands being the demonstration, the simple, the activity of the body, their cleansing of them said, we are dismissing ourselves from any activity of sinfulness and come to approach God and drawing near to God requires this. Drawing near to God requires the actions of the sinful past must dissipate. Sometimes washing your hands is simple. Go into the restroom, kitchen sink, you press a little dispenser, you give it the five second wash. You rinse them off and you sit down. Sometimes it's simple. Sometimes. Cleansing the hands requires that little brush or a thorough scrubbing. And so too it is in our own lives. The Bible's admonition is that we are to clean up the outer lives of our hands. I want to stop here to think about it just a second. Friends, it is not biblically accurate. It is not biblically accurate to say, judge me by what I am or by what I believe, not what I do. That is not a biblically accurate statement. Don't judge my actions. Don't judge what you see. Judge what I am, what I believe. What is God's expectation in this verse? God is looking for a thorough purification that includes the outside. That is to be clean as well as the inside. So it is, cleanse your hands, sinners. Interesting that this is the work of the believer. In this verse, there is a direct address, sinners, double-minded, The direct address is to people. And he lays the responsibility of their purification on themselves. How often you and I pray, God, make me pure. And there certainly is an aspect that is the responsibility of God. But in this text, it is the responsibility of the believer to purify himself. Let me put it to you this way. Many of you ladies, some of you are older ladies, you do a lot of gardening. flowers, tomato plants, sunflowers, all that kind of stuff. And let's say you walk out there this afternoon and you're walking around in your garden and you see a big old fat broad leaf. So you being a wonderful, godly, spiritual woman, you drop to your knees. And you pray the God of heaven, God You control the lilies of the valley, and you control this leaf. God, would you remove this weed from my garden? And you get up, and you walk back into your house. And you come back out the next day, and the leaf, the weed, is still there. Well, I'm curious. Did God fail to answer your prayer? You say that's a silly illustration. Of course it is. In the same way that it's silly to ask God to purify you when it is that you have the power to purify yourself. I'm going to meddle here for just a moment, OK? I'm telling you up front. Why would a believer, why would a believer Why would a believer pray to God to purify his mind and bring into his home HBO, Cinemax, Showtime or the rest? Why would he do that? And then lay his bed down, lay his head down to bed at night and say, oh, God. Please purify me. Something there doesn't quite match, does it? This is the responsibility of the believer. He is to do this. The second part of the verse deals with the internal. And it is why Mott your in his commentary called this section a thoroughgoing purification, because it deals both with the internal and the external. We've seen this word double minded, this little phrase in chapter one, verse eight before. Who is it describing? You'll remember that it describes a man who has divided loyalties. At times they are with God, and at times they are with the world, the flesh, and the devil. God calls for these to purify themselves. You double-minded purify yourself. That word purify is a very interesting word. It is the verb form of the Greek word which is to be translated holy. In other words, it's this way. God says, holy your heart. Well, what does that mean? See if I can help you understand it this way. On Wednesday nights, the children have been meeting with Brenda and me on Wednesday, and we have some time of singing together, and we do some missions things together, and I'm hoping the children are going to be able to sing for our worship service in a couple of weeks. We were singing a hymn last Wednesday night or a week ago. It's this hymn. It's one you know. Take time to be holy. Speak off with the Lord. And then we sang this hymn also. Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee. Now, how do you explain consecration to a six year old? How would you do that? You say, I don't know, I can explain it to myself. How would I explain it to a six year old? I don't know. Let me tell you how I explain it to a six year old. I remember when I was a little boy, my mom was a seamstress. She taught my sister to be a very good seamstress. My mom had some orange-handled Fisker scissors. Remember these when you were growing up? Maybe your mom had them. Maybe you had them. And those scissors had a dedicated use. One use only. Cutting fabric, nothing else. I remember times when you've got kids in your house and you're looking for scissors, you just grab whatever scissors you buy. You don't care if they're the orange handled scissors. No, you just grab the scissors. I remember cutting aluminum cans with those scissors. I remember cutting my sister's own hair with those scissors. I don't ever remember cutting fabric that was intended to be sewn. I remember cutting fabric with those, but not the fabric that was intended to be sewn with those scissors. They had a consecrated use. One use only. You could say about those scissors that they were, to take the word here in verse 8, they were purified, consecrated, singular use. Now, what is the believer's singular use? Purify your hearts, double-minded. The believer is to have a single consecration, a single loyalty. to his God. No wavering. By the way. Can I bring you back to the sequence? Do you remember the sequence? How is it that we often talk about cleaning up our acts? Don't people who do not know the Lord, maybe you thought this. Maybe you're sitting here this morning saying, oh, man, is this guy ever going to quit? I got to get out of here. And maybe you thought this. I'm going to come to God when I've got my life cleaned up. Stop doing the things that I do. Stop saying the things that I say. Stop taking the Lord's name in vain. Stop sleeping around. Stop stealing. Stop drinking. I'm going to get rid of all those things. Then I'm going to come to God. Do you notice the sequence here? God does not say, clean up your act and come to me. God says, come to me, I will draw near, you will find more grace, and then your act will be made clean. Nobody gets to God by doing good stuff. All men come to God by drawing near to Him as He responds to the impulse of God. That's the sequence. Well, let me draw this to a close. Verse 9 tells us this, grace will follow when we consider sinfulness to be heartbreaking. These are interesting words that are in verse 9, aren't they? Lament, mourn, weep, mourning, gloom. Well, this guy's a real downer. And I'm not going to read James. He talks about some heavy stuff. And those are sobering words, aren't they? Lament, mourn, weep. I mean, those are the activities of the broken hearted normally, aren't they? And normally, aren't those activities associated with death? So we will offer a phrase, something like, she's in mourning. About what is James talking? When he says that there should be something about which our hearts should be broken, what is he talking about in context? What word would you say James is talking about in context about things that people should weep or mourn or lament? Things about which they should not be joyful, but should be saddened. Things about which they should not be glee, but gloom. What would you say that is in the context? I hope that you would say sin. Because that's what he's talking about, purify your hands, clean your hands, purify your heart. Certainly, it is a shameful thing, though I suppose it is an expected thing when sinners laugh at sinfulness. It's a far worse thing when believers do the same. We appease our consciences by saying it's not that big a deal, it's just a little thing, lighten up, we're just having a little fun. But instead, God calls us to an attitude. That is heartbroken by our sinfulness, and when we come to that point, Grace follows. I would suggest to you, my friends. That for the person who does who knows little. Person who knows little of this kind of spirit towards sinfulness, knows little of the grace of God and is more likely to know the resistance of God. Well, I've taken way too much time and I got to get done. First, 10 brings us to a close where James says this grace will follow when we humble ourselves. We don't have time to look at a number of references, but there are probably 50 references in the Bible which deal with this phrase, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up. What is the admonition of James? Humble yourselves in God's sight. And I cannot read this text without thinking of the prophet Isaiah, who, when he was in the presence of the Lord, said about himself, I am undone. I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the people with unclean lips. His response was good and it was right. Let me see if I can bring this together. Have you noticed, as we've been working through, how words are juxtaposed against one another? That means there's one and then there's another. And they don't quite fit. If you take notes, maybe you would see it this way. Put on your paper, submit, resist. And then resist, draw near. Lament, laughter, humble, lift. Each one of these times there is a juxtaposed position. You submit on one hand, you resist on the other. You resist on one hand, you draw near on the other. You lament at one point, you have laughter on the other. You humble at one point, you lift on the other. What is the position, the prostrate position of the humble? It is face down. Do you remember the Apostle Peter in Luke chapter 5 verse 8? The Lord had done a mighty work in his presence, and the Bible says when Peter saw it, he fell down in his Jesus feet and he said, Depart from me, O Lord, because I am a sinful man. When a man humbles himself before God. What does God do? Let me tell you what he does not do. He does not beat you up. He does not step on you. He does not crush your head. Instead, the Bible says when a man humbles himself before the Lord, he lifts that man up. How does that happen? Let me close by asking you to turn Mark chapter 1. Can I show you one verse in Mark chapter 1? Let me show you how God does this. When a man humbles himself before the Lord, and the Bible says God lifts him up, how does he do that? In verse 31 of chapter 1, the Bible says, So he came, that's Jesus, and took her, that's Peter's mother-in-law. You remember they had traveled to her home and she was sick with a fever. And the Bible says, when Jesus came and took her by the hand, next words. And lifted her up. All right, so the Lord Jesus has done this in the past, physically lifting the person up. And what was the result of that? Here is the important thing that I want you to concede. And immediately the fever left her. What would you call that more? Grace. And then look what she does. And she served them. There's the activity of the Lord. And what was the result? The result was the enjoyment of his person and service at his good pleasure. And isn't that a beautiful picture of spiritual maturity? enjoying God and serving at his good pleasure. You see, my friends, when we humble ourselves, grace follows. Well, let's bring this to a close and I'll have to do it rather choppily. There are nine commandments here in the text, at least nine, probably 10, maybe 11. They all describe the humble person to whom God gives more grace. They all show in opposition the one to whom God gives resistance. Now, my friends, all of us who know Jesus as personal Savior are in the process of sanctification. That means every one of us has room along that line to change a point of activity. Every one of us. Now may God help you to humble yourself in His sight.