[0:00] James chapter 4. James is speaking to the Jewish Christians, the Jews among the dispersion, who are professing Christ.
[0:14] ! He starts off his chapter by bringing up what is a friendship with the world, a type of worldliness in them that he confronts very directly.
[0:28] And we'll see as we go through this how James deals with them and hopefully draw some conclusions for our church this day and age.
[0:40] Before we dig into the text, I'm just going to pray and then we'll walk through it. Sound good? All right. Lord, I thank you, God, for your word. Thank you, God, that in your word is power.
[0:54] Thank you that it is a living word that is alive and active. I pray, God, that you would help me to speak truthfully from your word, that you would give me your mouth, Lord, to only speak what you are saying.
[1:09] I pray that you would encourage us, Lord, and build us up today, that we would walk away more sanctified, Lord, more trusting of you, more repentant, God.
[1:20] In true and earnest repentance, Lord, we would turn back to you where we have gone astray. In Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, James chapter 4, beginning in verse 1.
[1:32] It says, Okay, so there's a lot in here.
[2:59] As I was praying and thinking about how I would present this before you. James is writing to Christians who are duplicitous in their living and acting as Christians.
[3:21] He starts off with a question. He says, So he poses a question.
[3:32] Obviously, there's not perfect unity. At least that, you know, he can maybe see. He knows that there's tension. And then there's a little bit of fighting.
[3:44] There's a little bit of arguing. There's a little bit of obvious quarreling. And he asks the question. He's like, What causes this? Okay. And then he almost rhetorically answers just after.
[3:56] He says, Isn't that this, that your passions are at war within you? In other words, you fight because you want to fight from deep within.
[4:09] You have a genuine reason for fighting. It's not happenstance. It's not, well, you know, like, I just don't get along with this person.
[4:21] And, you know, so we bicker, you know. He clearly gets to the heart of the quarreling and the fighting by saying, There's something within us or within you that drives the fighting, and it's your passions.
[4:39] He says, Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? In Mark 7, verse 14, Jesus says, And he called the people again and said to them, Hear me, all of you, and understand.
[4:54] There's nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him. But the things that come out of a person are what defile him. Okay, so Jesus doubles down in a very similar manner to James, saying that it's not the externals that frustrate us and cause us to quarrel and fight, but the internals.
[5:17] Okay, out of our, Jesus later says, Out of our heart come all these things, envy and malice and greed and lust, and all these things from within, out of our own hearts. James is doing the same thing as Jesus.
[5:30] He's doubling down and saying, I know exactly what's going on here. And I think you can see later that they actually do as well, but there is a suppression of that truth, or maybe a sharing, even though they do know the truth that's within them, there's a sharing of, or being okay with that, that's letting them go on and quarreling and fighting.
[5:57] And so, you can see here in Mark 7, when Jesus speaks, he's almost reminding the people. You can see it, he says, he called the people again to himself.
[6:14] And then, he's very direct. He says, hear me all of you, and understand that it's not, there's nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him.
[6:25] Okay, so he's reiterating, he's like, you have to remember something about what comes from within, and what issues from within outward, not merely outward in.
[6:37] Okay, and then he explains how that person is guilty from within, and not from the outside causes.
[6:48] So, a lot of the times with us, you know, in our day-to-day life, we're tempted to think that we get ripped off by so many different things.
[7:00] You know, if only I made more money, if only I had, you know, a different boss, maybe different spouse, you know, if only he understood me, if only she didn't nag me, all these things.
[7:18] I am this way because of the outside. Okay? Well, Jesus says, no, you're not this way. These frustrations within you aren't merely, only causal from the outside.
[7:35] There's another acting thing, and that's called your passions within you. Paul gets at this when he says that our passions are aroused by the law.
[7:46] So, when the commandment comes, sin comes as well. It comes alive in us. Not in the other person, but in us, Paul says in Romans 7.
[7:59] And so, it's really important for us to remember as we're reading James, is that we are the same, you know, these people were born after Adam in sin, and so are we.
[8:12] So, this type of quarreling, this type of struggle, is the same struggle that we are vulnerable to. Okay? And these aren't maybe degenerate unbelievers.
[8:25] These are professing Christians. So, this is our category as well. So, when we read this, let's hear the words of James and examine ourselves. Amen? Amen? Okay.
[8:37] You see this all the time. I think, honestly, with parenting, it's even more clear. Parents love to make excuses for their children's misbehavior, even if there's some truth to them.
[8:57] You know, I hear a lot, you know, he just didn't nap. Sorry. It's just like, well, yeah, it makes sense. I would probably be a little crabby if I was tired, but, in the end, his lack of napping is not the causal agent for his screaming.
[9:16] Right? They come out of the womb disobedient, and it's not merely that the world is against them. It might be, but we as parents are supposed to teach them how to master their passions within them.
[9:33] Okay? You know, I was listening to, actually, an unbelieving parent talk to his son, probably three or four years old, and his son was really fussy, would not calm down, and all the dad was saying is basically, son, like, you ate a lot of sugar.
[9:54] You know, that's what happens when you have too much sugar. You know, you hit a low, and you need to learn from that. I'm kind of thinking, like, he probably did eat a lot of sugar, but that is not the reason for why he's acting this way.
[10:10] You know, in fact, if I ate a lot of sugar, I would probably be super stoked. You know, like, maybe I'll hit a low later and be like him, but the problem is not the externals.
[10:21] I think you guys get that, but it's not merely that, you know, it's all external, but we frustrate ourselves, you know. This dad was trying to convince his son that he really valued not fussing, which was pretty much pointless for his son because his son clearly didn't have that as a category for value.
[10:43] You know, he valued sugar, you know. Not fussing, he was cool with not fussing because he wants something completely different. That's an easy illustration for us, but we, like children in Christ, if we are not sanctified by the Holy Spirit, are not mature and are like children, okay, in that we want to do the things that we should not want to do.
[11:12] From within, we don't have self-control, you know. We might have it put together on the outside, but where is our hearts? Are we like children in our hearts, wanting, maybe even lusting, as we're going to examine the way that James speaks?
[11:32] So it's good to ask ourselves and even pray, Lord, make us not like children, as the Apostle Paul said. Let us grow up into maturity. Save us from the ways that we are throwing inner tantrums.
[11:46] Okay, and so James says, is it not your passions that are at war within you? All right, and he says, you desire, so that's the passion element, you desire and do not have, so you murder.
[12:05] You can even hear James chapter 1 in here, the progression of sin. First comes desire, and then it gives birth to sin.
[12:17] It says, you desire and 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.
[12:28] So we fight and quarrel because we want to. We fight also because we're empty. Okay, notice how James says, you desire and do not have, okay, emptiness.
[12:46] You don't have, and so you murder. Now, emptiness doesn't necessarily lead to only the sin of murder, as we can see when James says, you also covet and what?
[12:59] And cannot obtain, so you don't have something again. Okay, you do not have, can't obtain, you don't possess, because you do not ask.
[13:11] So, we see James is going hard, he's saying, he's like, you fight because you want to, and you fight because you're empty. You fight because you don't have something.
[13:23] The emptiness always comes from a place of not being satisfied. It always comes from the lack of satisfaction, lack of having enough, and so, that makes our passions eager to fill the lack, right?
[13:39] And James says, you do not have, almost shockingly, in a way, shockingly simple, that is, you do not have simply because you don't ask.
[13:52] So, he turns it away from their passions and their emptiness and now turns it towards God. You don't, you don't have something because you don't actually come to the one who possesses it, who owns everything, who is God, who created you in this world with everything in it.
[14:10] You don't have because you don't come and ask. You ask, verse, in verse 3, you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly.
[14:25] Okay, now he's doubling down on even the asking. It's not merely asking, but it's, why do you ask? What do you ask for? With what motive? He says, you do not ask, or you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your own passions.
[14:41] He says, there is a way that you come to the Lord that's genuine.
[14:53] That doesn't say, okay, James, we get it. Pray to the Lord, you know, and we'll get something. I'll pray to the Lord. Lord, give me what I want. You know, just, just make, make my wife less this way.
[15:08] It's like, well, the Lord's just like, maybe I called you to love her, right? And vice versa. We pray all the time. Maybe we don't, maybe we don't call it prayer.
[15:18] Maybe we just offer up thoughts to God of accusations of the things in our life. But this is an asking, this is an asking that's wrong. This is asking wrongly.
[15:31] And we need to watch out with how we approach God. And we're going to see as James walks through this, how we actually do truly come to the Lord and ask genuinely. that we receive.
[15:43] So he says, you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly. Spend it on your own passions. This reminds me of when Jesus fed the 5,000.
[15:57] He gave them all bread, performed the miracle. And he, he brought a crowd with them as he left. and then he started to speak to them and he's just like, I know why you're seeking me.
[16:10] It's because you enjoyed the bread I gave you and you probably want some more of that. Maybe it wasn't a bad thing, but you can kind of hear a tone in there of childlike following.
[16:27] You're only seeking me because I fed you. You know, you don't really want to ask of me for my teaching. You don't really care about my teaching. You want to be fed again.
[16:39] And that's when he, of course, says, I am the bread of life. I am the one who comes down from heaven and feeds you. Not in a mere temporal sense, but I feed your soul.
[16:51] You know, and so you can hear that even as James speaks with the asking of the Lord. Do we ask in the mere temporal sense for a temporal bread, so to speak? Or are we seeking the Lord because we want Him?
[17:05] We want the satisfaction that comes from Him as the bread of life. So in verse 3, he says, you ask and do not receive because you want to spend it wrongly. And then James keeps going.
[17:18] He says, you adulterous people. He brings His rebuke just almost to its antithesis. He calls them an adulterous people.
[17:30] Okay? I mean, this is, so if you're a Jew, even if you're a, now a Messianic Jew, follower of Jesus, you don't forget all that you were raised and born with from the Old Testament scriptures.
[17:47] These people are well keyed into the law. And that is one, as we know, one of the Ten Commandments, you shall not commit adultery. Okay? So he just straight up, doesn't seem like he cuts any corners.
[18:02] He spares the temperate speech. And he just says, you are an adulterous people. Okay? Sure, if I would hear this and I had a little bit of pride in me, I would be very offended.
[18:14] So James says, you're an adulterous people. And both the Old Testament and the New Testament speaks of God in a way, many times, as our husband, we are his bride in a covenant, in a marriage covenant, so to speak, spiritually.
[18:32] And, the Jews know this. And so James says, you are a people having an affair. there's something grossly unfaithful about you.
[18:49] There's an infidelity that has snuck into your hearts with how you live, with how you say, I live for the Lord. I live for God.
[19:00] And he's saying, you are an adulterous people. You fight and quarrel. You let your lust and your passions rule you. Okay? We want to say, and I would caution even myself as I read this, we want to say, surely not me.
[19:18] You know? Or surely not to the degree that I would put other people in the category of. You know, that's not me. I know who it is. They're in that category.
[19:28] And so, I think I'm good with the Lord. James, watch out. So as to not actually be found genuinely in the category that James is speaking to.
[19:41] The Lord wants us to be humble and receive what the Lord is saying to James. Examine ourselves. He spares no expense. He says, you are an adulterous people, unfaithful in the way that you are living and acting.
[19:55] And the reason that I know this, he says, is because you are fighting and quarreling. Okay? Now, that doesn't mean that we're off the hook if you have a merely externally non-quarreling marriage, friendships, etc.
[20:13] Because remember, he doubles down on the passions. You know, there is a way, and I'm sure all of you have experienced this, where you can hold it together, but you are angry on the inside.
[20:26] Okay? James is also speaking to us. Who know that and struggle with that. Maybe we'd be humble. Okay? This is the exact language, actually, that Jesus uses in Matthew 12, when he's talking to the Pharisees, essentially the proud ones of his day, professing Christians, maybe, they would say, or at least followers of their father Abraham.
[20:55] He says, an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given, except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
[21:06] So he uses, again, to the Jews, this image of evil and adulterous infidelity. and we must take heed that we understand where James is going.
[21:23] So, moving on, what does he say after his strong abuse? Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
[21:41] in what ways do we live our lives that are, that we know, what areas are we neutral to the world so that we can have maybe some pleasure and mostly, we might say, living for the Lord, that sort of thing.
[22:07] I would, I would, I would press this that there is no neutrality to the world. that we can share. Neutrality to the world ends in serving two masters.
[22:19] We, we can't be neutral. We either have to be enemies of the world so as to not be drawn in by the world. Friendship with the world is enmity with God.
[22:34] You know, a lot of examples of this is, obviously, we're put in, we're in the world. Jesus says, you know, we're in the world but not of the world. We're called to preach the gospel to the world so we have to interact with the world, much of the world, all the time.
[22:50] But, obviously, I hope it's obvious that James is speaking about the state of our souls with the world. Our souls must remain untouched by the stain of the world.
[23:02] And he's speaking of the world in this sense, not in the all-encompassing general world but the world that is in rebellion against God and the ways of God that doesn't accept God's Son, Jesus Christ.
[23:18] And we must watch out that we don't become neutral. Obviously, not share, but the neutrality is difficult.
[23:29] That is where the schemes of the devil want to sneak in and let us think like the world. We're born into it. We're born into actually already having a carnal mindset.
[23:41] And praise be to God that if we're in Christ, we are daily being sanctified, saved from that carnality, but take heed. You know, Corinthians says, if any man thinks he stands, let him take heed lest he fall.
[23:56] Okay? God is saving us, no doubt. And we should have assurance on God's promises that he will indeed cleanse us, but God does not want us to be unaware and passive.
[24:10] And so, that leads me to the next part of James where James starts to begin his solution to their problem.
[24:24] He kind of just went on a mini saga of explaining, diagnosing, and then rebuking them hardcore for what's going on. And he says in verse 6, right there, yeah, verse 6, but he gives more grace.
[24:46] Therefore, it says, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. This is the first part of his portion that we kind of get a little bit of a lift, right?
[24:57] At least on the back end of that. He says, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. A lot of this comes from simply not knowing God as he truly is and the pride of life as 1 John says, the love of the world, things like money, things like just ways of thinking that are carnal.
[25:23] all these things are desirable but when we actually think about God, we seldom have a true fear that extinguishes our pride.
[25:35] If we truly feared the Lord, we would regard the ways and the methods of the world as nothing in comparison to the ways of God. God, as in the prophets, I think Isaiah the prophet says that the Lord says that I am not like you.
[25:59] My thoughts, what I think as God, are not your thoughts. We are not God. Now a lot of us may be like, well duh, we're not God.
[26:12] But we act as though we have the final say, that we are the masters of our own destiny, so to speak.
[26:23] We determine the ways and methods of our life. But let me remind us that God is not like us. Okay? God is not like us.
[26:35] God is not a man that he should lie, the scripture says. We lie to ourselves and are tempted by the king of lies, the devil.
[26:46] He speaks and we listen. Okay? God is not like us. God is so far different from us. And make no mistake, God is condescended to where we can know him and become like us in the sense that in the face of Jesus Christ that we can know God.
[27:05] But make no mistake that God is not one of us. Okay? God is completely other. He is completely holy without stain, without threat of neutrality to the world.
[27:17] He would have to not be God to lay down his divine nature in order to be like us. And I'm saying all these things that are the fundamental things in Christianity that we should yes and amen and even you know in the general sense we do.
[27:36] But I'm reminding us because we're forgetful. Okay? It means that all of our methods, all of our principles, all of our practices, beliefs, opinions, preferences, tastes, styles, must in the end come into subjection and must bow prostrate before the true and living God.
[27:59] Okay? His name is the King of Kings. And he will have that written on his thigh when he comes. We're forgetful. The reason I bring this up is because to not live and regard God as such is to be proud.
[28:16] Okay? James says in verse 6, but he gives more grace. Therefore it says God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. So, this is also another weighty verse.
[28:33] God opposes the proud. God straight up opposes our prideful selves. I don't know about you, but I do not want to be opposed by God.
[28:47] Even as we build this church, it would be a lot of sorrow if in our pride God opposed Christ's church.
[28:58] Lord, save us and help us that we be not lifted up in our own souls. That we not care so much for the things of the world or the thoughts of men that we care less about the thoughts of God.
[29:15] God So, let's really consider the severity of this. It's not merely that our spouses oppose us, our friends when we're prideful or in some general way that life is of less quality and worse for us because of our pride, but it's actually, maybe all those things are true, but it's actually that the almighty true and living God who created us opposes us in some way.
[29:42] God stands against us when we're proud. You see this throughout scripture many times. I mean, you could even say that that was the origin of evil. It was the pride of Lucifer that made him be cast down.
[29:56] It was the pride of Adam and Eve in the garden that brought humanity with him into the grave. It was the pride of Saul that he became wise in his own eyes, Samuel said, and he lifted himself up that he was removed as God's anointed.
[30:13] This lives very close at hand. O Christ Church, may we not build God's house with pride in our hearts, for God will not build with us.
[30:26] So what are some examples of pride? There's so many examples of pride. When I was praying specifically for our body and the Lord to speak, like, Lord, if you would convict us of this sin of elevation and loftiness in our own selves and in our own pride, what would it be?
[30:48] And a couple things came to mind that I think maybe aren't concrete but could be for our body. One of them is when we have a culture that speaks the truth in love, as we should, or we confront one another as we should, there's kind of two acting parts in that equation.
[31:11] One is the deliverer, right? Pride in bringing the confrontation, pride in getting it across, right? Trusting in yourself to make something happen, right?
[31:24] So that's pride in the deliverer. But also, let's say there is true speaking the truth in love. So that is without pride. That's truly loving the person, truly caring for them.
[31:38] But then there's the other side of the reception, the receiver of the word. Oftentimes what can happen, I think it's always the case where I'm tempted when I'm confronted with pride, is to immediately be offended.
[31:56] Immediately say, you know, you're wrong, or even if you're right, you're still wrong. You know, kind of attitude. A type of cringe that pushes you to go with your passions, right?
[32:14] And I think this is a way that God would warn us as a church when we are confronted, even with small things, seemingly small things, not to be lifted up in our pride, so as not to receive what the Lord might be saying.
[32:36] Okay? It might seem like on the outside, like, everything can be cordial and temperate and good, but examine our hearts with how we actually believe when someone comes to us and say, hey, I think this might be a little off, or I think there might be, maybe even not like straight up confrontation of sin per se, but maybe even just bringing up our personal ways, bringing up a better method of something, a better way of doing things.
[33:08] If we bring something up and say, hey, I think it would be best to do something this way, X, Y, and Z, insert your own scenario, and the other person is just like, nah, my way is better, kind of reaction in your heart, or, this guy doesn't know what he's talking about, like, I think I'm, you know, my way is better, and your way might be better, but your heart is not, okay, and watch out lest we lift ourselves up, even in the small things, even in the ways and the methods and the principles, okay, the Lord stands against the pride of our hearts, and so, are we immediately offended, do we stay offended, do we provide ourselves with a sort of purgatory, a time where, you know, I'm offended until I'm not, you know, a certain amount of time passed, or my relationship's bad right now, but it'll get good type of attitude, it's like, no, make it right, confess your sin, resist your sin, resist those feelings that rise up within you, okay, we're all susceptible to this,
[34:24] I know myself that I'm tempted many times to be offended, and to think, to elevate my way above others, and God forgive me, and give me a heart after his, lack of submission to God, or the authority that God has appointed, either authority in the church, or authority in the home, husbands, and wives that relationship, one of the worst, one of the worst things to be is a person in authority that although someone submits to your authority and yet disagrees, is kind of begrudgingly goes along in that sort of submission.
[35:22] That's not submission, because full submission actually says, I'm stating what I disagree, if it's not, you know, obviously sin, and things that God tells you to oppose, but if it's mainly things that you have differing opinions, methods, principles, one of the things that's the worst is when you say, you know what, I'll go along with you because you're the guy in authority, you're my husband, but I'm not going to be happy the whole time.
[35:53] I'm just going to go along with you because I have to, and you know what, I disagree, so I don't have to be happy about it. Well, that's not real submission. That's simply trying to appease God and the person you're under just to get by, and the Lord wants us actually to submit with joy, to say, you know what, this is not on me.
[36:19] God has appointed the authorities that be, and I am going to champion their way, even though I disagree, even though it's not how I want it, but I will with joy support them because in doing so, I am obeying the Lord.
[36:36] And when we say we have submission, when we say we, you know, we are obeying, when in reality our hearts are far from obedience, we betray our own selves and the Lord.
[36:51] Another area I think pride can sneak in, or maybe just, this is a little bit at a different angle, but discounting yourself and your gifting.
[37:03] We have some exceptional people in this room, exceptionally gifted people by the Lord. the Lord has given people gifts in this room. And I think sometimes we can discount ourselves and say, no, the Lord, you know, the Lord uses people, but probably not so much me, and I'm fine with that, and maybe I'll just kind of just sit my whole life type of thing.
[37:31] that sounds slightly humble, but the problem is if the Lord gifts you, if it's the Lord who gives and you say, no, I won't, you can see the pride in that, right?
[37:48] You can see the disobedient aspect towards how the Lord gifts us. And so don't discount yourself. If the Spirit of God truly lives in us, then we will want His Spirit to be dispensed from us.
[38:06] Okay? And so where are we at? I think I'm still on verse 6. It says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
[38:19] 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. Purify your hearts, you double-minded.
[38:32] So, he opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Now we're getting into the good news of this passage, which James prepares us for, I think, in exposing.
[38:51] Every time the gospel comes with good news, it always comes with conviction, with a type of repentance. If the gospel is good news to you, but your sin is nowhere in sight, and there's no evidence of repentance, it's merely good news.
[39:11] It's not the gospel. And so, he says, God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. So when we know that we're sinners, when we know that we lift ourselves up, what do we do?
[39:24] Do we stay there, like I said, or do we humble ourselves? Humility is always way easier and way better. I mean, easier in the sense where it's not easy that you have to deny your pride, because that's hard to do, but it always goes better.
[39:45] It always is easier in the sense where humility, when someone genuinely confronts you, for example, and says, hey, you sinned in this area, or hey, you're not great at this, you know, speaks the truth and love to you, and you have an option.
[40:02] Do I be lifted up? Do I entertain my pride and offense? Or do I say, this is an opportunity for me to be humble? I can be humble right now.
[40:13] I can say, you're right, I did do that, or yes, that's not my strength. Thank you for bringing this to me. I'll pray about this, you can pray for me, and I'm going to seek the Lord and be better.
[40:31] That's humility. That's humility. That always brings the Lord into it. There's no opposition from God on that.
[40:42] God does not oppose that person that bows and says, Lord, you know you're right, I am but a man, and you are God. Okay? James in verse 7 says, submit yourselves therefore to God.
[41:00] After he says all this, he says, what do we do now? We submit. We come underneath the Lord. We agree with the Lord. We agree that only the Lord is right. Submit yourselves therefore to God.
[41:10] Resist the devil and he will flee from you. The author of pride you might even say, the devil tempts us to be proud, tempts us to come in, agrees and partners with our flesh to lift us up.
[41:23] James says, resist him and he'll leave. That's a promise. If you say, I will be humble, even though it's painful, even though my offense is real and strong, I will submit to the Lord and Satan must be gone.
[41:41] He will flee from that person. Verse 8, draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double minded.
[41:56] This is one of my favorite verses in James, honestly, in the whole Bible. It's a promise.
[42:08] If we draw near to God, he will draw near to us. Okay? How many times are we tempted to feel distant from the Lord, alienated from God, when the scripture says, in fact, that if we were in Christ, we were once alienated, Ephesians says, but now we have been brought near.
[42:28] Okay? Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Malachi chapter 3, 7 says, return to me, Lord speaks to Israel, return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.
[42:42] Similar thing, right? And someone will say to me, well, how do I draw near to God? How do you do that? You know, like, what's the way?
[42:57] And the way is through the gospel. At one time, we were alienated, far from God, but now, you don't have to, there's no amount of works you could do, no amount of sacrifices to offer, there is no holy site that you could travel to and do a pilgrimage to.
[43:19] In fact, actually, you can come to the Lord now, presently. That's the good news of the gospel, is that you don't have to rely on your good works, you don't have to rely on someone else to mediate for you, but the gospel preaches to our hearts and says, you can draw near to God now, presently.
[43:42] And someone will say, how do I draw near to God now? Well, thankfully the Bible explains to us how. In Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6 says, and without whoever would draw near to God, okay, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
[44:07] So how do we draw near to God? Whoever would draw near to God, you must believe that you are drawing near to a God who is there, who is approachable, and you must expect something from him, that he would give you something.
[44:21] You can see that throughout all of James speaking. You don't have because you don't ask. Go get what the Lord has. If you draw near to the Lord and believe that he will give it to you, in other words, he rewards those who seek him, then you will draw near.
[44:39] He will give it to you. And so you can't draw near to God unless you believe that he exists. You can't draw near to God if you believe that he will give you nothing.
[44:52] You have to draw near because you know that he is good essentially. And when we draw near to God we should do what the apostle did what Paul did in Romans 8.
[45:02] He says in verse 32 he who did not spare His own son but gave him up for us all! How things okay he will give us all things if we draw near to him through faith.
[45:29] In Luke 11 he says for whoever asks receives and the one who seeks finds and to the one who knocks it will be open what father among you if his son asks for fish will instead give him a serpent or if he asks for an egg will give him a scorpion if you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your heavenly father give the holy spirit to those who ask him and so James is bringing it all the way back to true repentance if we find ourselves proud if we find ourselves lifted up he says draw near to God he says to cleanse your hands okay this means we actually have about our sin if you find yourself after you sin saying it's all good God forgives me moving on almost as if you forget God I think James is kind of like not true repentance okay we're not into condemnation we're not into beating yourself up but the
[46:38] Lord wants us to be serious about our sin he wants us to genuinely cleanse our hands he says let your laughter be turned to gloom in other words we have to be seriously sorrowful that we have sinned against the holy God and then the promise comes in verse 10 humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you or in other words and he will lift you up Jesus says whoever exalts himself will be humbled!
[47:14] God will come with sincerity in our hearts and we could ask the Lord earnestly to cleanse us in our humility and he will and so I would exhort you guys if any of you be in pride in any way even if you deem it to be small do not deem it small enough so that you do nothing repent cleanse your hands and ask the Lord to forgive you draw near to him who gives grace and he will draw near to you I pray that Christ's church is built that this church is built off of a foundation of humility before the Lord and I believe that the Lord will do that I close with Hebrews chapter 10 it says let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and their bodies washed with pure water let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful and let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works not neglecting to meet with each other as is the habit of some but encouraging one another as we see the day drawing near as