And let us turn in James to James 3, beginning reading at verse 13. James 3, beginning reading at verse 13 and reading through chapter 4, verse 10. So let us read together the Word of God. James 3, beginning at verse 13. Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder in covenant and cannot obtain. You fight in war that you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the scripture says in vain, the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously? But he gives more grace. Therefore, he says, God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Therefore, submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. Thus far, the reading of God's word. May He add His blessing to our consideration of it this morning. Brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ, as we said last Lord's Day, God calls us to humility. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. Lament and mourn and weep. We live in a culture full of envy, full of hatred, of murder. We live in a culture that pushes everybody else down on the way up. And we as Christians are called to be those of meekness. To be those who trust that God is the one who lifts us up. This passage reminds me so much of David in his early years. As we think about the time in which he was told that he was going to be the king of Israel. But how did he get to be the king of Israel? by shoving Saul out of the way as soon as he got his hands on him? He trusted that God was the one who would provide. God was the one who would take care of him. And as we read the Psalms, we know that there were even times in David's walk there, where he had essentially given up. But God is faithful to His promises. We so easily run after our desires, trusting that we're going to make it happen. When God is the one, as we talked about in our call to worship, God is the one who establishes the works of our hands. God is the one who makes what we do of value. And so as we look at this passage, we see that faith causes God's people to meekly draw near to Him, and away from the earthly desires that easily entrap us. Faith causes God's people to meekly draw near to Him and away from the earthly desires that easily entrap us. In verses 13-18, we see that true faith produces meekness and peace, not demonic envy. In verses 1-5 of chapter 4, we see that God demands the worship He deserves. and that we easily give to earthly things. And in verses 6-10, we are called to humbly draw near to God, and He will draw near to us. He will lift us up. So faith is shown by works of meekness and wisdom. Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. If we think that we are wise and understanding, how do we show this? Think back to what James has said earlier. Show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works. If I am going to show that I am wise, how do I show that? But in works done by meekness of wisdom. Truly, godly wisdom doesn't make us think highly of ourselves, It makes us realize that God is the one who's important. And who I am is of no importance. Of course, it's important to God. And God is gracious to this miserable sinner. But brothers and sisters, when we think we're making a name for ourselves, we've got it upside down and backwards. And we so easily have demonic envy. And we need to admit to ourselves that our envy is demonic. As we look around our culture, they cry out to us, if somebody has something newer than us, better than us, obviously it's wrong. You have seen in our culture recently this idea of equity. which is the idea of uniformity of outcome, that everybody should end up with the same stuff, not based on what they have done or where they came from. Well, brothers and sisters, that is not biblical. that different people do different amounts of work and ends up with different things. And by the way, God is the one who supplies the outcome, not even humanity and not even our wages and those sorts of things. God's the one who blesses, as we talked about. Not ourselves, not even our culture. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. Okay, so we have in the first verse the idea of wise and understanding. But he says, if we have bitter envy and self-seeking, then we're prone to lie against that fact. We're prone to say, no, no, no, I'm what's important. And to lie against the truth. When we look at ourselves, do we see envy? Are we carried along by the culture around us saying, so-and-so has it better. Must be nice to have this or that. If we're self-seeking, if we're saying, I need, me, me, mine. We start sounding like seagulls on Finding Nemo, mine, mine, mine. Brothers and sisters, that's not how we should live. We do not grasp and pile up stuff for ourselves on this world and say it's about me. If we keep reading, and I really didn't want to add more verses to this, but James is going on in the passages to talk about piling up for yourself. And that God's going to judge if we are piling up for our own pleasures and for this world instead of for eternity. This wisdom does not descend from above. This self-seeking, this envy, does not come from God. It comes from the earth. From sensuality. And it is demonic. Yes, my envy, when I look around and say, must be nice, is demonic. My self-seeking, my selfishness is the same thing. These are not things we as Christians can play around with. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. When envy and self-seeking are bound, we'll do anything to get it. The catechism tells us that envy is against the commandment against murder. We are murdering, and we see that later on. You lust and have, and you murder and covet and cannot obtain, verse 2 of chapter 4. These verses all go together. Because where does envy and self-seeking end up? It ends up in fights and wars and murder. Grasping for this earth instead of gathering for eternity. In meekness, trusting God. 1 Corinthians 10.24, Let no one seek his own, but each one the other's well-being. Philippians 2.4, let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Worry about other people, not just about me. Think, go back to the beginning of what James said as he talked about living and caring about what is pure and undefiled religion. is to help the poor in their need. To care about those around us. Not about just ourselves as our culture so much does. True wisdom is what? Verses 17 and 18. But the wisdom that is from above, so we've said the self-seeking and the envy wisdom of our culture that says, I'm going to build over the bodies of those I've walked over, is evil and demonic. The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy, full of good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy. So instead of being full of evil, the wisdom that's from above is pure. Without the evil is glorifying to God. As opposed to the envy and self-seeking of the previous verses. Peaceable. Seeking to fight against anxiety and turmoil. Seeking peace as God has made peace with us. Gentle. Instead of beating over people, it is loving to people. It is kind to people. Willing to yield. Easily persuaded by God's Word. With the implication of being open to reason or willing to listen to God's Word. Full of mercy. Ready to show that which God has had toward us. Mercy toward those around us. Full of good fruits. The natural result of what has been done. Fruit that is good instead of evil. Without partiality. Without going after other people because of their differences from what we say. without hypocrisy, with a genuine desire, not play-acting. So often as we look around us in our culture, it can be so easy to see the play-acting, the talking out of two sides of the mouth, the two-faced world that says one thing to one person and another thing to other people. The fruits of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. Excuse me. These fruits are lived in peace. As opposed to what we've seen in the previous verses, envy and self-seeking. As opposed to what we're going to see is the fruit of this in the next chapter, in chapter 4, are sown in peace. Not just for ourselves, but for those around us. By those who make We as Christians are called to be peacemakers. There's a whole study that I would love to go through with some group in our congregation called the Peacemakers Ministry. Is it perfect? No. But Christians are called to be peacemakers. And the most important peace that we can have is peace with God. But then, as a result of having peace with God, how do we make peace among other people? And then, we're told, where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that warn your members? Going back to that envy. Going back to that self-seeking. We desire. Me, I want. Mine, mine, mine. But where is the worship supposed to go? God demands the worship that He deserves. And that we easily give to earthly things. Where do these wars, where do these fights come from among us? Look at the church, how many fights there are among the church. Sadly, fights within congregations. Where does it come from? From your desires for pleasure that warn your members. From your desire, our desire, my desire to be important. To be used. To be that person to whom other people look up to for importance on this earth. Instead of serving God. There are far too often fights and hatreds going on within the church. And where do they come from? They come from our desires. For pleasure. Not just feeling good, but things that we think are going to make us feel good on this earth. There's a war going on within every Christian. Between our new Christian nature and our old sinful nature. As we've been talking about as we've gone through the catechism in recent weeks. He says, you lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet you do not have because you do not ask. You lust and you have, or do not have. You murder and you covet because you cannot obtain. because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your own pleasures. First of all, we don't ask. It's too easy for us as Christians to not think about prayer. We're told in Scripture to be people of prayer, to pray without ceasing. I highly commend to you that we as a church should have a prayer time a scheduled time to get together as people and pray for God's church here, for the extension of God's gospel. I think it would be very, very important. I've heard there were different things in the history of this congregation. I commend that we should begin them again. We ask, we're called to be in prayer. And furthermore, he says, you lust and you do not have. Now, lusting is not just about sexual desire. It is any inordinate desire. You lust, you desire things in this world, and you do not have because you do not ask. You murder, and you covet, and cannot obtain. Are these the ways in which God calls us? To get things on this earth? To push other people down? Indeed, even to hate, and to envy, and to even kill them if sometimes situations happen. Of course not. We're following the pattern of what we see in this world. And we're not going to obtain true and important things in that manner. We run around after the things of this world, coveting them, spending our lives on them, and yet we do not really get them. What does Jesus say? Almost all of us will know Matthew 6.33. But starting at 31, therefore, do not worry, saying, What shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear? For after these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows you need these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Seek the thing that's most important, the kingdom of God, and all these other things that the world runs around. God knows we need them. Seek first His Kingdom and all these other things will be added to you. He continues, you ask and do not have because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures. We don't ask. But then we ask that we can have it for our pleasure, for our earthly aggrandizement. That we think we want it for ourselves. And God says no. If we think we're going to gather stuff on this earth for ourselves, for our earthly pleasure, God says no. God gives us a boundary in that for which we pray. When we pray for things just to use them for our own pleasure, God says He won't give them. But on the other hand, He continues to say, adulterers and adulteresses Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Again, God is using sexual language, lust and adulterers and adulteresses, to talk about spiritual things. God calls going after something that is not God, adultery. God desires our faithfulness to Him. If we are giving His glory to the junk of this world, where moth and rust will destroy, where thieves will break in and steal. James here says, we're not worshiping him. We're idol worshipers. Friendship with the world is being an enemy of God. If I want to be important in this world, and it's so dangerous, If I want the glory of this world, James says, God says, I have become an enemy of God. And that is so easy for us to do. I want human approval instead of God's approval. We see this in higher education so much. Education period. We put, we send students to public universities to gain doctor's degrees from unbelievers and wonder why all of a sudden they don't believe the Bible anymore. Because we sought earthly approval. And we do this all over the place in our own lives. I want people to think I'm important, I'm good. We're called to be fools for the gospel. And so when people say, oh, we can't believe that the world was created in six days. We say, I'm sorry, God says so. When the world says, you know, live together with your boyfriend, with your girlfriend for a while, get used to it, figure it out whether this is gonna work. God says, no, get married. that living together is not testing for marriage. In fact, the statistics show quite obviously the opposite. If you lived together before marriage, the statistics show that there is a much higher percentage chance of breakup. And we can talk through all of what works out to that. It's not hard to figure out. But God says that we are to follow His ways, not the world's ways. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, the Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously? God's Spirit who dwells within all Christians yearns jealously. It's not quite. It's a different word. I looked at it and I'm like, did he just say that God envies? No. But God is jealous. God is jealous of the right worship that He deserves. And we so easily give it to the things of this world and to the people of this world to receive earthly glory, earthly importance. God is jealous. God is a jealous God because He deserves. Our culture thinks that jealousy is a bad thing. Jealousy for the right thing is a good thing. That a husband or a wife is jealous that their spouse would be faithful to them is a good thing. We have to realize that. And God is a jealous God because God deserves our worship. The spouse deserves. We have made that vow before God. to be faithful to them. So that spouse deserves that and God deserves that as well. And so rather than run after this world, rather than seek after and be adulterous, seeking after the things of this world and importance in this world and friendship with this world as being enemies of God, humbly draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, he says, he gives much more grace. God resists the proud. God gives us grace. God is a gracious, gracious, gracious God. As we look at the patriarchs of the Old Testament, we see their failures and we are appalled. But brothers and sisters, look at our own lives. I am appalled at my own life. And yet God is gracious. So gracious to me, to us. He calls us to not be proud. God gives grace to the humble. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord. Humble humility. Knowing that I deserve God's judgment. Instead of being proud and envious and self-seeking. Instead of elbowing everybody else out of the way. Fighting and even murdering. God calls us to humility. God is a gracious God. If we have failed, we are called to run to Him. Remember chapter 1, verse 5 of James. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Instead of submitting to the world, instead of running after the things that the world tells us are important, Submit to God. Submit our desires to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. As we've said a number of times in James, there are statements in James that are overarching, powerful, awesome statements, and this is one of them. But it's said also in a context. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Stand against what the devil is doing and he will flee in our own lives. The devil does not have power over us. The devil is very powerful. Don't get me wrong. But we are called to resist. And as we think of our own sinful tendencies, we are called to resist. And God will give us grace in that. It's not always easy. Resist him and he has to flee. The problem is how many people offer themselves willingly to Him. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. We are called to draw near to God. As we think about the fights, and the arguments, as we think about our own tendencies, and following the culture, and envy, and self-seeking, God says, submit to Me. Draw near to Me. And if we draw near to God, He will draw near to us. So how do we deal as we think of ourselves and our stubborn sins? Do we overcome them by making one more stand? We overcome them by drawing near to God, saying, God, I'm going to spend more time with You. I'm going to spend more time in prayer. I'm going to spend more time in Your Word, listening to faithful preaching of Your Word. I'm going to go and run to You. Draw near to God, and God will draw near to You. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. What does God mean by draw near to Him? Cleanse your hands. Quit messing in the sins. Purify your hearts. What comes out of the heart shows what's in our hearts. What comes out of our lives. And even out of our mouths. So purify your hearts. If we're uncertain about the value and truth of going all in for God, remember again what James says in chapter 1. But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. Let that man not suppose he will receive anything from God, for he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Seek to say, I am going to stand upon the Word of God. We need to count the cost, as Jesus said, and realize that the value of being in Jesus is far beyond anything we could ever gain in this earth. Our lives here are short. And the best things on this world are not worthy to be compared to that which God has given to us in Jesus Christ. So count the cost, look at it, and see and realize that the treasure of what we have in Jesus Christ is worth so much more than anything we could ever get on this earth. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. Lament and mourn and weep. As we look at ourselves in this world, as we see where we have put our lives, running after the things of this world, envying people, fighting them for stuff on this earth that is going to fall apart and be useless tomorrow. Lament, mourn, weep. Don't join in with the world in empty laughter. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Be sorrowful because of the time and energy wasted on eternally useless things. And humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up. Humble yourself. How do we humble ourselves? Realize how important God is. Acknowledge that. Live based on that. That the things of God are worth everything. And God is the one who lifts us up. Instead of climbing over people with envy and self-seeking, with warring against other people because of our desires for earthly pleasures and earthly things and earthly importance. Humble yourselves. Humble myself. The pastor needs to preach to himself too. Humble myself in the sight of the Lord. And He is the one who is going to make us of any importance. Amen. Let us then rise, let us bow before our God in prayer, and we'll close this prayer together with the Lord's Prayer. Let us pray. Almighty, gracious, heavenly Father, we are so easily caught up by the world, running after earthly importance, earthly things. We are so easily hoodwinked into envying and self-seeking because it's our natural desires. Lord, help us to humble ourselves. Help us to draw near to you. To seek after the things that are important to you. To seek first your kingdom and your righteousness. and trust that you are the one who will provide for us all that is necessary for body and soul. We pray, Lord, that we might be meek, that you would use us as your people to glorify you instead of seeking our earthly self-glory. We pray, Lord, for your honor, for your praise in our lives, in our service, in our deeds. We ask this through Jesus Christ, who for the glory set before him endured the cross, despising its shame. Help us, Lord, to despise the shame of this world and to glorify you, our God, our Savior. For we ask these things in Jesus' name, praying as he taught us to pray, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.