Please open your Bibles to James chapter 4. It is with joy that we return to the book of James. It's been a while that we've stopped it. It's been a while. Feels like a year, but I know it's not been a year, but we will Quickly round up the rest of the remaining sections of James. I'm not gonna tell you how many sermons I have planned because it will probably not be as little as that. But nevertheless, James chapter four, we read from verse one. What causes quarrels and what causes fight among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and you do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives. To spend it on your passions. You adulterous people, do you not know that being a friend of the world is to be an enemy of God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you not suppose It is to no purpose that the scripture says, and I'm gonna jump down to the quotation, which is in verse six, but he gives more grace, therefore it says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Back to verse five. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the scripture says, he yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us. But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves therefore 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. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. For those of you who have not been with us from the beginning of this book, let me give you the theme and also the stated purpose of this book. The theme of James is faith that works. The synopsis of this book can be stated as follows. Faith works in wise acts of righteousness. James, desires those who are receiving this letter to understand the importance of having a living faith. He emphasizes the importance of active faith and not mere profession of faith. Faith that does not merely proclaim to have a relationship with God, but is seen in activity. Faith demonstrates itself in life and is illustrated in the fruits of saving life. There are nine sections to the book and I have not given you the nine sections. It is very easy to identify these nine sections. It is usually preceded by a command followed by my brothers or brothers. So whenever you see that connection, There is a shift in conversation. There is a section in and of itself. I have reduced these nine sections to three, and it is as follows. Chapter one deals with faith and trust, the test of faith. Chapter two through to chapter five deals with faith illustrated, how faith is seen. And it's actually contrasted through faith versus spurious faith. And then the last section is faith demonstrated, which is seen in chapter five, seven and following. So we are in the section that deals with what saving faith looks like. And there's a contrast between genuine faith and spurious faith. Faith that comes from God and faith that is not from God. And he's used a variety of different illustrations to show that you are in one of these two worlds. You either have wisdom from above or you have wisdom from below. you either have faith that walks in a way that pleases God, or you have faith that claims to know God, but lives in ignorance of what God requires. And so James constantly makes this contrast between what faith that is saved, faith that saves looks like, and faith that does not save look like, very much like the book of Proverbs. James deals with people who have claimed to have a relationship with God purely on the basis that they are Jews. It's a very early book, very Jewish in nature for that very reason. He writes to a Jewish people who think that they know God but are actually far from God. They cared very little for the needs of God's people. They cared very little for the effect of faith in the life of God's people. They claimed to have wisdom, but their wisdom was nothing more than earthly, natural, practical wisdom without fearing God. James shows to this very early community that those who claim to know God must illustrate their faith by means of works. Now in chapter four, James gets down to what he's been hinting at throughout this book. He begins in chapter four verse one, to deal with struggles and quarrels and fights, and often this is used in counseling. But what James is pointing out is that the reason you have fights is because you have a heart problem. The reason you are struggling externally is because there's a war taking place within your heart. Notice what he says, the causes, what are the causes and what are the fights among you or in you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You have an internal war that makes itself manifest in out or external squabbles. You are not satisfied in your heart, and so that dissatisfaction is made manifest in how you fight with others. What he's pointing to is that you do not have a friendship with God. You do not really have a relationship with God, but you surely are a friend of the world, and that's the next exception that he deals with. Do you not know that having friendship with the world is actually, in reality, to be an enemy of God? Not only are they at war with others and war within themselves, but they are also at war with God. And for this reason, God does not answer their prayers. God is not interested in what they have to say to him. That is where you get this quote or this statement from. You do not have because you do not ask and you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly. Why? Because you are doubtless people. That is not used of Christians. You uniquely use the Old Testament of those who are the nation of Israel and you're speaking to Jews. makes absolute sense that James is talking to this Jewish community who have wandered away from God and have no real living relationship with him. In fact, he states it as such. Those who wish to be friends of the world are making themselves enemies of God. They have abandoned God and have pursued the world. This is not the state of the child of God, but those who have devoted themselves to a system that stands opposed to God, to a system that does not want to bow the knee to God, to a system that does not want the will of God. And he says, if you are there, if you are friends of the world, guess what? You are not a friend of God. James chapter four verse five, James starts to make a transition. Yes, it is a difficult verse, and I have spent some time explaining it to you. This is not a quote when it says, in verse five, do you suppose it says to no purpose that the scripture says, he yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us. The contrast in verse six tells us that it's not a positive statement in verse five. yet in our translations it seems to be there. I prefer the King James translation and I'll read it to you and it says it this way. The spirit that dwells in us lusts towards jealousy. The spirit that is dwelling in us lusts to envy. Our heart is naturally inclined towards idolatry. naturally inclined towards envy and jealousy. We often desire what pleases us and hence the statement, you adulterous people, you're not following up to God, you're following after your own hearts. Your hearts have been compromised. We do not know how to desire eternal good, but we do know how to desire our own good. Even as believers, we naturally put our own good above the good of God. We naturally pursue our own comfort, our own entertainment, our own desires over the things that honor God. And here to this community, he says, your natural inclination is to desire your own lusts. So he ends, this is where we ended last time in verse five. that your heart is not right with God. The quotation that he's after is our foundation verse for the sermon, verse six. But he gives grace. He gives more grace. In contrast to your natural desire towards sinfulness, there is hope. Your desire is strong, your lusts are weighty and heavy upon you, but there is grace. And he gives more grace. And now he gives the quote that he was hinting to in the beginning of his fire. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. This verse, is exposited and expounded in the following lines. What James does is he lays the foundation for your need and then expresses the work of God in the following verses. It may not be clear yet, but hopefully as I explain it, it should be clear. This morning I wanna talk to you about how the proud must be humbled and the resultant repentance that comes from that. How God needs to do the work in the proud heart and the net result is not only humility, but repentance and a changed life and only God can do that work. So let me explain how these verses put together. Look at verse seven. Take note of this word, submit, and then you look down at verse 10 and you see the word humble. I would circle those two words, submit and humble. Now look at verse six. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. In English, it will not be as evident as it is in Greek. The word oppose is a word that is connected to the word submit. Now, those of you who have your Greek Bibles open would immediately see the connection. So I'm going to say it in Greek. I'm not going to teach you Greek. I'm just going to say it in Greek so that you're able to hear the connection. Antitasso, that is oppose. Hupo, Tagete from the word upotasso, which means submit. The same root word used in verse five as you find in verse seven. That's significant. James is making a connection. So God opposes the proud. Verse seven, submit yourselves to God. Now look at verse 10, and this should be a little bit easier to see. In verse 10, you have the word humble. But if you look at verse six, notice the word there at the end of verse six, God gives grace to the what? Humble. Similar word, different forms. Tapeinois and tapeinothete. You can hear the word tape in both. That's the idea is to humble or to be humble. So what James does here is very interesting. He uses the same root word in both verses, verse 7 and in verse 10, to indicate that I'm still talking about the same thing in verse 6. God opposes the proud, now submit. God gives grace to the humble, now humble yourself. So he's still making the same point in verse seven and in verse 10. All that to say that James uses these verbal roots to say, I'm going to expand verse six from verse seven onwards through to verse 10. Verse 11 and 12 are connected, but I will deal with that at a later stage. So verse seven through to verse 10 is James' exposition of verse six. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. That's our two parts of our sermon. The proud must submit to God and the humble must bow before the Lord. That's what I'm gonna preach about this morning. The proud must submit to God, but the humble must bow before the Lord. What we have here is James' call to repentance. And in doing so, he also includes the results of repentance. Repentance is never without its fruits. That's what you will see in this section. Now that you have the conceptual flow of the passage, verse six is your foundation, verse seven explains the beginning of verse six, and verse 10 explains the latter part of verse six. Now let's give attention to verse seven. Submit yourselves to God. In verse seven through to nine, James is acting like an Old Testament prophet. The language he uses is skin to Amos, is skin to Joel, skin to a lot of the minor prophets where there's quick fire commands, humble yourself, submit yourselves, repent, return, come to the Lord. Over and over the Old Testament prophets used to call the nation of Israel to repentance and they use similar language. There are three elements concerning pride and submission that I want to highlight. Number one is this, submission is resisted by the proud. Submission is naturally resisted by the proud. Secondly, submission technoravis is caused by God. There will be a visceral reaction towards that statement, but I will deal with you later. Number three, submission will have an outcome. Notice the command, it's very clear in verse seven. Submit, that's your command. Submit yourselves therefore to God. So the first thing I want you to notice here is that the proud naturally resists submission. We don't want to submit. Ask any teenager. Ask any adult. There are those who do not want to bow the knee to Caesar or to the taxman. And we'll pray for them. It is no different in salvation. We resist God. Romans 3 tells you that. There is no desire for God. There is no willingness to bow the knee to God. And in 1 Corinthians 2 verse 14 says, there is no desire and there is no capacity to follow or to desire God. Why? Because our desire for freedom, our desire for sin is greater than our desire for obedience to God. We will naturally pursue our own sinfulness. We will naturally pursue our own freedom before we pursue God. This verse begins a series of 10 quick fire commands like an Old Testament prophet. He says, submit, resist, draw near, cleanse your hands, purify your hearts, be wretched and mourn, let your laughter be turned, humble yourselves, do not speak evil. Over and over and over, James calls them to repentance. Why does he do this? A turning from sin, rebellion, and the rejection to God is necessary if you submit to God. James wants these believers to recognize that they cannot please God in their pride, but they need the grace of God in order to please God. See, pride exalts the will of man, period. Pride exalts the will of man. Grace exalts the will of God. Pride makes much of the plan of man, the desire of man, but it is humility that bows before the will of God, the plan of God, and the desires of God. You're either proudful, unwilling to bow the knee, or you have been humbled and are already bowing your knee to the Lord. The faith illustrated by this community of people did not accord with saving faith. So James wants them to understand that they need to repent from the ungodly behavior and ungodliness to repentance before God. Now notice what James says, submit therefore to God. What is the therefore there for? Well, look at verse six, God, opposes the proud. There's a verbal connection, yes, but there's also a syntactical connection, which is seen in this little conjunction, therefore. Submit for this reason. What reason? Well, God opposes the proud. God stands ready to war against the proud. You must therefore submit yourself to him because if you do not, guess what? If you elevate your pride, if you elevate your will, God stands opposed to you. Flee from that condition and find refuge in him is what James is saying. Now what does this word oppose mean in verse six? It has the idea of setting oneself against another. God is hostile to the proud man or woman. God is ready to war against those who are proud. It literally means that God has set himself in battle array against anyone that leans upon his pride. Who are the proud? In the Old Testament, the proud are known as the haughty, the arrogant and the scoffer. Keep your handy and go to Proverbs chapter three. Listen to verse 34. Toward the scorners, the scoffers, the arrogant or the proud, he is scornful, but to the humble, he gives favor. Sounds familiar, right? Opposing the proud, but grace to the humble. Notice what it says in verse 31. Do not envy a man of violence. Do not choose any of his ways for the devious person is an abomination to Yahweh. But the upright are in his confidence. Yahweh's curse is on the house of the wicked. but he blesses the dwelling of the righteous. You see the contrast, the wicked, the righteous, he's gonna continue this contrast. Toward the scorners, that is the wicked man, the house of the wicked and the devious person, he is scornful, but the humble, that is the righteous man, the one who's upright, he gives favor. The wise, is the one who's humble, will inherit grace or honor. But the fool gets this grace. The fool here is a devious man, the wicked man, and the scornful man. Proverbs tells us that God not only scoffs at the scoffer, the proud man, God will not only mock him, but God will surely oppose him by cursing his house. God will oppose him by not blessing his labor, by not honoring his work. God considers him an abomination. This is who the proud man is. He's not a friend of God. James is stating a reality that the Jews readily knew that was so prevalent in the Old Testament. A fool is not a friend of God. The proud is rejected by God. Listen to Proverbs 16 verse five. Everyone who is arrogant or proud in heart is an abomination to Yahweh. Be assured, he will not go unpunished. So when James quotes from Proverbs 3.33, When he's alluding to the fact that God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble, the idea of being proud or a proud man is the idea that God stands ready to war against this individual, that God is not a friend of this individual, that God considers him to be an abomination and will wipe him out. He will not go unpunished. That's James. Why? Well, read the book of Proverbs and you will see that the proud refuses to bow the knee to instruction. Don't follow the folly of the fool. Do not answer a fool to his folly. Do not follow the way of the fool. Why? Because the fool has not bowed the knee to God. He does not want to bow the knee to God. There is no desire in his heart to bow the knee to God. Why? Because a fool is at war with God. A fool is at war with God. Proud people refuse to submit to God. They always think they know better. Their will is far more important than the will of God. It is this will that needs to be crushed. It is this will that must be humbled. God is at war with the proud. God is ready to war with the proud. That should be scary. And for this reason, James says, knowing that God opposes the proud, submit yourselves therefore to God. Knowing the reality that God will not only stand opposed to you, mock you in your calamity, but also wipe you out, you should therefore submit yourselves to God. Since only the humble receive grace, the proud man will receive God's opposition. James gives us two areas of reality. You're either a proud man or you have been humble. You're either at war with God or you're a friend of God. What does this word submit mean in the beginning of a seven? It's a military term that speaks of being placed in subjection to another. It is a word of rank being placed underneath the rank of another, somebody who's far higher and superior to you. and you are now under him, it relates to authority. One author says it this way, there's a relinquishing of your own rights, of your own will to be led by another. Think about that. The proud man does not relinquish his own rights, does not relinquish his own will, why? Because he wants that. But to submit to God means there's a giving up of your will, a relinquishing of your own right, so that the will of God and the right of God becomes yours. So yeah, it means to be brought under the authority of God, which means you are no longer in control. You have yielded your rights, you have yielded your desire, you have yielded your will to God. Listen, You cannot hold onto your own will and submit to God's will. You cannot. The proud will resist the will of God. You cannot be proud and say, I love the Lord. The two don't go together. your will must be brought into subjection to God's will. And that's the command that he gives in verse seven. Submit yourselves, knowing that God will oppose the proud, you better submit yourself to God. The proud will exalt the will, but the humble will relinquish the will. be subject has the implicit idea of being obedient to the will of another once for all. This is not a once-off willingness to follow. This is an ongoing submission to the world. You will find this idea of submitting yourselves to God also echoed in 1 Peter 5, 5. We can look at that on Wednesday. But the idea there is to submit yourselves to God. Pastors, to shepherds. Why? Because God opposes the proud. If you are a proud person, you are probably not following God. And so he cautions the saints there to make sure that you have submitted your will to God. And if you have submitted your will to God, guess what? You will follow those leaders that God has given to shepherd you. What's the point? The proud naturally do not want to submit. So if that's the case, then the proud are not going to be humble. The proud are not going to naturally just go from being proud to being humble in one switch. It doesn't happen. So something drastic needs to take place for people to move from being proud to being humble, from being opposed by God and opposers of God to being humble and following God. So firstly, not only do the proud resist submission to God, but also they must be caused to submit or they will never submit. The second reality that James highlights in this verse, submit yourselves therefore to God, tells us that submission is caused by God. Now, how do I know that? This is gonna be a little bit of a grammatical argument, but you will see it. Yes, James calls him to repentance, it is a command. But he does this in a very interesting way. In verse 7 through to verse 10 and those Greek scholars will quickly notice that you have two kinds of commands You have an active command, and then you have a passive command In verse 7 when he said submit when he says submit yourselves to God this actually Passive command now you may not know what passive and active means let me explain it very simply active means that the subject is doing the action of the verb. Passive means that the subject is what receiving the action of that simply what it means. How does this then and it's very awkward to translate it into English reflect what James is saying in submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Passive simply means that you are not the active participant. You are not the one submitting. You are not doing the activity or the action of submission, yet you are being commanded to be submissive. How does it work? Passive means that the commands either relates to receiving the action of being caused to submit or not resisting the action of being caused to submit. It is causative in nature. You could say it this way, let yourselves submit to God. No, it sounds awkward in English. or allow yourselves to be submitted to God or you must be caused to submit to God. I prefer that last rendering. It is not something you do or something that you can do or something that you can pursue to do. It is something that must take place in your life. James is stating a reality that must be true if the following will be true. It is required that you are caused to submit. It is not something that you decide. He's not saying decide on at some stage in your life to submit to God. No, he says you must be caused to submit to God. there must be a crushing of the pride so that there can be submission to God in order that grace may be applied to the heart of the believer. And you will see how that happens in this section. Submission is caused by God. Yes, this is a call to repentance. Yes, this is a call to salvation. James is calling them to respond. But it's just the first step is that God must crush your pride. God must deal with your obstinate heart. God must deal with the problem. You must be caused to submit. This means that self-reliance, self-dependence, self-will, these are the fruits of pride, not the fruits of repentance. The prideful heart will never choose God until God causes it to choose him. you can write down Proverbs 16, 18. Proverbs 16 through to 19. The fruits of pride is evident in that passage. We don't have time to look at it. A prideful heart cannot see its own sin, therefore it will continue to rebel against God. A prideful heart is blinded by its own folly and therefore it cannot see through its blindness. Something drastic has to take place. This is known as the blindness of the heart. And that's what James deals with here. God opposes the proud, but the proud can't help himself but to oppose God. So God needs to do something to the prideful heart. He must cause the prideful person to submit. God must crush the rebellious nature of man. And all of us were there before we came to salvation. Some of you are still there right now, rebelling against the grace of God because your pride has captured your heart. You are stubborn and obstinate and you are blind in your pride. And so you do not want to bow the knee to God as King and Lord. So firstly, God must crush that proudful state before grace can be applied. It is interesting that today, a certain group of people call themselves proud. They have a flag, a pride flag. And it is interesting that they refuse to submit. They will one day, maybe not in salvation, but they will one day bow the knee to God as Lord. Submission is caused by God. So firstly, we saw that pride resists submission, and secondly, submission must be caused by God. Now thirdly, submission has an outcome, and this is the rest of the section which will take the remainder of my time. There must be an outcome to submitting to God. Yes, there's a problem. God opposes the proud. Secondly, God must do something with a prideful heart. God must change the state of their heart by causing it to submit. And then there must be a result if God is doing that work. And this is the outcome of submitting to God. Here, the commands go from passive to active. So yes, God must do something in your heart, but this is what you must do if God is doing something in your heart. Here you have in the book of James, God's divine initiative and work in the heart of a stubborn, unrepentant sinner and human responsibility. Notice what we have to do. Resist the devil, draw near to God, cleanse your hands, purify your hearts, mourn and weep. I'm gonna stop there because the next part is passive again. God must change the heart, but it doesn't stay there. God has a work, but there's a human counterpart, human activity that goes with that. God by himself, for himself, for the sake of his own glory must crush the prideful heart so that there can be a change, a holistic change in the nature of the person. This verse 7b, the second part of a seven through to the first part of this nine is very similar to Old Testament ways of expressing repentance. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. If you are Proud, God will resist you and you have no resistance against the devil. But if God is causing you to submit, you must resist the devil as God is accepting you. It means to take a stance against something. Here the activity is active. This is what God requires, that you've moved from one phase of state to another phase of state. Your allegiance is no longer to the devil, but now to God. Consider the two realms that James is describing here. You can only be in one or the other. You're either in the realm where God is in control of your life or in the realm where what? The devil is in control of your life. So to those who have not yet submitted to God, they are under the control and the power of the devil. Does Paul not say something like that? In Ephesians chapter two, you were under the prince of the power of the air. the devil. At that stage when you were an unbeliever, guess what? You were not under your own authority. Not only blinded by sin and dead in your sins, but also under the control of the enemy. But now as God is working in your heart, guess what? You have to resist the desire of the devil, the will of the devil, the influence of the devil. It is interesting that James does not say, cast the devil out. But resist his influence. Resist the propositions, resist the temptation that he will put before you. There is no casting out of devils out of God's people. If God causes the heart to submit, guess what? The devil is not present. The devil cannot consume, possess, Direct the life of God's people may cause some problems, but he has got no authority over God's people. Secondly, draw near to God. Verse eight, draw near to God and he will draw near to you. So again, it's an exposition of verse six. So in verse six, God is set against the proud person. And yeah, he says, as God is working on your heart, as God is drawing you to himself, as God is causing you to submit, there is something that you must do. You must resist the temptation of the devil, but you must actively come near to God. God will change the condition of the heart, but you must come near to him. What does this mean? James is describing how God will change the disposition of rebellion to that of worship. You go from opposing God to now drawing near in worship to God. This term, draw near, is an Old Testament expression in the Alexix, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. It describes worship, it describes fellowship, it describes communion and acceptance before God. So coming near means that not only are you coming to commune with God, but God is coming to commune with you. He is no longer at war with you, but he's willing to accept you in his presence. The point is, if God is crushing the pride, then at the same time, God will make his grace irresistible so that you can come and worship him. It is God that deals with the problem of our heart. And it is God that asks you to come to worship him. The third reality that is seen as a net result of God changing the heart is seen in verse eight. Not only are we to draw near to God in worship, but also we are to cleanse our hands. And notice he says you're sinners because he's still speaking about those who are in transition from going to be proud, from being proud to being caused to submit under God. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. What does it mean to cleanse your hands? We again don't have time to go to the Old Testament, but Isaiah 1.16 deals with this as a call to repentance. Hands had to do with ethic delegation, with ethic relationships. with ethical elements. This was a clear way to call people to repentance and to show that they are repentant. This was visible signs of their hearts being changed by God. Now God in the Old Testament required ceremonial cleaning or cleansing. usually done by the priest. And he's not asking them to perform a ceremonial cleansing here. It is metaphorical language to speak of cutting themselves off from the defilement of sin. Hands are symbolic here to speak about the deeds that are done by it. An ethical element is implied. Hands that are stained are hands that are compromised. Clean hands means a clean heart. So what James is saying is that there needs to be a cutting off of former sins, cutting off of former activity that relates to the old life. Fourthly, there must be a purifying of the heart, Again, active, there needs to be a cleansing of the hands and there needs to be a purifying of the heart. God will cure the rebellion of our hearts, the rebellion of our pride, but we must set our affection on godly things. Whereas clean hands relate to actions, pure hearts relate to attitudes. Not only does God require that there's a change of accent, there must also be a change of attitude. There must be a change in devotion, a change in pursuits. Between the two clean hands and purified hearts, James is after a holistic change. God is not going to change you partly. God is not going to change you just with your hands being clean or just with your heart being clean. He's going to change you holistically. There's going to be a new desire, a new pursuit, and new work that comes from the change. And then lastly, there must be mourning over sin. Look at this nine, be wretched and mourn and weep. God will cancel the debt of our pride, the rebellion of our sin, but we must grieve over our sin. This is a call to demonstrate, to put on display that you are repentant of your sin. You're repentant of your rebellion against God. Your sin must grieve you and it needs to be visible. It's what he's saying. Again, Old Testament way of saying that the change that is taking place in the heart must be visible in an outward display. Now we are not in the Old Testament. We don't use ash. We don't use demonstrations of mourning. But John does speak about the fruits of repentance. And that is what James is after. If God is causing your heart to submit, then there must be evidential fruits that is doing that. In the Old Testament, mourning, wailing and fasting were often signs of a repentant heart. Not only of a repentant heart, but also grief over sin. James is saying that if God is changing your heart, there must be evidence that he's doing work in your heart. Then you have this last command. This nine, let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to glue. Very awkward statement. He went from passive, active, active, active, active, and now passive again. What is he saying? You must be caused to repent. The word at the heart of this nine, the end of this nine year be turned to mourning is what James is after. Let your laughter, let your rejoicing, let your state of comfortableness in your sin be turned to grief, to mourning. Your joy be turned to gloom. Your tendency to revel in your own strength, in your own will, in your own desire, in your own sin, your own ability must be changed to that turning to Him. Yet you are not the one turning to Him. You must be caused to turn from a joyous state of being in sin to mourning over that sin. Another way to say this is your faithless joy must be changed. Your godless expression of laughter must be exchanged. And only God can do that. You cannot turn your own heart from enjoying sin. Have you ever tried that? Ever tried just stopping? Doesn't work. Now, people say, well, you can stop smoking at any time. That's a debate of another discussion. You can stop for a short period of time to do certain things, but you can never change the disposition of your heart. Your heart will always pursue sin. You may stop one element, but you can never stop your own heart from pursuing sin. That's what he's after. Your joy, your state that you're in, your happiness, where you are in your condition must be caused to turn. And only God can turn a sinner into a saint. Only God can turn our pursuit of sin into a pursuit of holiness. Your faithless joy must be changed by God. there must be a change of condition. And that is what James is after. It doesn't mean that you don't get to laugh. It's not literal language. This is prophetic language to speak of God's work of change in the heart of a believer, of a sinner becoming a believer. There must be a complete holistic change, not a partial turn, but a whole 180 turnabout. James calls them to repentance. The proud must submit to God. Let me say it this way. The proud must be caused to submit to God. And if they are forced to submit to God, there will be evidences that they are being changed by God. And as they are being changed by God, they will turn to God. That's what the section is about. Do not go after your own will, but submit your will to God. I have five minutes left on that clock. So let me wrap up my last point in five minutes. The sequence of repentance here. Notice what happens in verse six. God opposes the proud. you must be caused to submit. The breaking down of the individual is the resistance against the devil, drawing near to God, cleansing, purifying, and mourning. You're going from doing what you need to do to come near to God. But notice the last one, be wretched and mourn. There's a systematic breakdown of the individual until he gets to the stage where he recognizes, I have been a hater of God. I have rebelled against His grace and I can no longer rebel against His grace. It is at that stage that God moves from opposing the proud but showing favor to the humble. That is what verse 10 is about. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. The humble will be exalted. Not only will God cause the pride, the proudful heart to submit and to turn, but God will cause the humble to be lifted up. Remember the two words that I gave you in verse six that he is expositing. It is oppose and humble. This is the second word, humble yourself in its verbal form. That repetition is important because James is telling us exactly what he's doing. I'm dealing with repentance, going from being under the judgment of God to receiving the favor of God. Proud people must be humbled. If they are not humbled, they cannot receive God's grace. Humble yourselves before the Lord. What does this mean? The verbal command here, like I said to you, is passive. James requires that they do not resist their humbling. They need to receive the act of humbling. Do not resist bowing the knee to God. The word humble literally means to be leveled, to make plain, to make flat. In reference to people, it has the idea of bowing down so that you are level, to bow low. It has the idea of no longer resisting or opposing. That is what God is doing here. God brings the prideful heart low. God crushes the rebellion of our prideful hearts. He's the one that bridges that problem. And at the stage where you are now mourning over your sin, what does he provide? God gives grace. Does it make sense now when he says, but he gives more grace? Our natural desire in verse five is to pursue what? Our own lusts. But God gives more grace. He knows your problem, he knows your need, and he's the one that deals with your problem. That is grace. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to those who are humble. That is what he is saying. You cannot walk into the presence of God and say, I have humbled myself, I want your grace. It doesn't work that way. The prideful will do that. What is happening here is James is showing that it's God that crushes the pride, but it is God who gives grace to that humbled heart. It is at that stage where he has broken down the resistance. That's where he gives the grace. That's when the sinner is lifted up. Is this not a picture of what God does in our state of death? We cannot go to him, but God being rich in his mercy and with his great love of which he has loved us, gave his son for us so that He may give grace to those who have been humbled. We sing a song. He lowers us to raise us so that we may sing his praises. That is 100% accurate. It is God that crushes our pride so that he may lift us up in life. This is gospel. James beautifully and masterfully lays out the work of God in the soul of a rebellious person. God alone can crush the problem of man's pride and God alone can offer grace that is needed at the state of mourning. It is what you need that he is able to offer. God alone gives grace to a humbled heart because he has humbled their heart, therefore he alone can save that soul. Salvation belongs to the Lord. That is what James is describing. It is all of God. God must save, God alone must save in order that he alone may receive the glory. If man has any part in salvation, if man has any part in breaking down his own will, God is not glorified. Make sense? If man has any work, in breaking down his own rebellion, God cannot apply grace to that heart. Paul says it this way, for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not as a result of works so that no one may boast. Doesn't matter how you wanna translate the gift or that of yourselves. Grace is a gift of God. It is by means of His grace that we are saved. And if you have come on your own steam, I pray for your salvation. If you have made your way into the kingdom of God, you may not be saved. God needs to crush your pride and it is God needs to provide the grace in order for you to be saved. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you are such a gracious God. You see our problem, you see our need, and you do not neglect it. You've given your son as the ransom for our sin. He's the one that paid the penalty to die in our place. And Father, we pray that while some of us are still rebelling in our pride, still rejecting your work of grace, We pray that you will continue to crush their hearts, bow their knee to you, help them to see the need of Christ, they too may become children of God. Thank you for such grace and thank you for such patience. Thank you for saving us, because we know that we cannot save or even choose you. We pray these things as we give thanks for your goodness and your grace, in Jesus' name, amen.