It is wonderful to be here with you. I see some blurry eyes, which maybe means there was a football game on late into the evening last night, but it's great to be here together.
Folks, if you have a Bible, please would you turn with me to the book of James and to chapter 3.
And just before we begin our time this morning, let's pause just for a moment, just to pray and just commit this time together to God together.
Let's pray.
Father, we would think of the words of that song that we sang, draw me close to you, never let me go.
I lay it all down again.
Father, we pray, Lord, that you would come and bless our time together this morning.
Father, as we turn to your words, Lord, I pray that my words would be your words.
Father, I pray that your spirit would come and would teach us from this text.
Would he illuminate, would he light up the Lord Jesus as we meet him in your word?
So, Father, that's our prayer.
And we make it through the wonderful name of the Lord Jesus.
Amen.
So, my wife, Alex, as many of you know, is training to be a GP.
And I remember when she was studying for her practical exams, she announced that she needed a volunteer to help her as a patient doing practice interviews.
Now, we were just married at this stage.
And I was keen for her to see that she'd married an encouraging and supportive husband.
So, I put up my hand and I volunteered to act as the patients in these interviews.
And we were there for hours and hours and hours as we worked our way through this textbook.
And I think I must have played almost every patient that I could have imagined.
I mean, I played, I wrote it down, Mr. Black, the teacher who was prone to sleepwalking.
And I played Mrs. Brown, the pensioner, who was struggling to read her daily newspaper.
Now, why did we do that?
Why did we spend hours and hours and hours doing that?
Well, Alex, like any good doctor, she wanted to hone and develop the skills that she needed to get good at diagnosing.
Friends, in our verses today, there's a diagnosis going on.
This is James the doctor in full flow.
And his patient is this church that he's writing to.
Now, we've seen that over the last five weeks or so as we've studied this letter.
Together.
We've caught a glimpse of what the life of this church was like.
And it isn't coming out too good.
This is a church behaving badly.
The letter's big theme, double-mindedness.
That's been James' big push in this letter.
What is he said?
He said, stop being people who say one thing and go out and do another.
Stop being people who show such blatant favoritism.
Stop being people who pick and choose which ones of God's laws that you want to obey and those that you do not want to obey.
And stop being people who are so blasphemy and who are so destructive with your words.
But if anything, James has torn up until this point.
It's been firm, but it has been gentle.
I mean, look how he frames all of these things.
Chapter 1, verse 2.
My brothers.
Chapter 2, verse 1.
My brothers.
Chapter 3, verse 1.
My brothers.
But folks, what we see in our verses that we are about to read is that James well and truly turns up the heat.
I mean, he moves from the hug to the headlock.
And chapter 4, verse 4, look at what he calls them.
You adulterous people.
You see, James here, he's got this scalpel in.
The patient's skin peeled back.
And he's going for the root problem.
And as we look at this diagnosis, folks, what we will see is that this church isn't suffering from man flu.
This church is suffering from an infectious gangrene that, if not treated and addressed, it's going to cause this church to rot away.
So let's read our verses together.
And as we read, I wonder if you can spot James's diagnosis.
So this is James chapter 3, verses, sorry, James 3, 13 to 4, verse 12.
Who is wise and understanding among you?
Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.
But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.
Such wisdom does not come down from heaven, but it is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.
For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure.
Then peace loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.
Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.
What causes fights and quarrels among you?
Don't they come from the desires that battle within you?
You desire, but you do not have, so you kill.
You covet, but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight.
You do not have because you do not ask God.
When you ask, you do not receive because you ask with the wrong motives that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
You adulterous people.
Don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God?
Therefore, any who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
Or do you think the scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us?
But he gives us more grace.
This is why scripture says God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.
Submit yourselves then to God.
Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
Come near to God and he will come near to you.
Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Grieve, mourn and wail.
Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.
Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up.
Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another.
Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it.
When you judge the law, you are not keeping it but sitting in judgment on it.
There is only one lawgiver and judge.
The one who is able to save and destroy.
But you, who are you to judge your neighbor?
Amen.
This is God's word to us this morning.
So let's walk our way through this doctor-patient consultation process.
What are the symptoms that this church are exhibiting?
Well, we see from these verses, I think, three symptoms that this church are showing.
Symptom number one at verse 16 of chapter 3.
There is disorder and evil practice.
Now, the immediate context of verses 13 to 17 is teaching.
That's what James has been addressing in verses 1 to 12 of chapter 3.
And he's been warning them as they clamber over each other, competing for the airtime that teaching is going to give them.
He says, don't rush into being a teacher.
Stop and examine your own heart before you share with everyone else your so-called wisdom and understanding.
If you can't control your tongue, then who are you kidding, thinking that you can teach other people?
And folks, the picture that we get is that in the background of this church, there's jealousy bubbling, rivalries developing, and there's restlessness building.
Symptom number two at verse 1 of chapter 4.
There is fighting and quarreling.
And this seems to be the real issue in this church.
There is a culture of bitterness, harshness.
There is finger pointing and there is folding of arms, refusing to budge.
And there is talking, talking, talking, and louder talking, leading to raised voices and raised fists.
As people insist on their own way and as they refuse to listen and reason with each other.
I mean, there is just a complete lack of love and harmony in this church.
This is a church folks who are currently at each other's throats.
Symptom number three.
Slandering and judging.
These people are gossiping.
They are going out of their way to start rumors about people that they don't like.
And they're speaking about people behind their backs.
There is developing a real condemnatory church culture.
Criticizing the speck in other people's eyes, all the while ignoring the log in their own.
And they are judging one another.
Which I think in the context means that they are deciding who is and who isn't a real Christian.
And they are speculating at the eternal destinies of each other.
Which James reminds them is a role that only God the log ever plays.
The symptoms give you the picture here folks.
This church reeks of pride and it reeks of selfishness.
This church is divided.
It is fractured.
And it is tearing itself apart.
And if it continues on the trajectory that it's on.
It's going to spectacularly implode.
Now how does James diagnose those symptoms?
Well if you look at verse four of chapter four.
You find that James the doctor is in absolutely no doubt.
That underneath the surface.
This church is suffering from worldly-itis.
Now we're back to the central idea of this letter.
Double-mindedness.
That the people in this church are talking the Christian talk.
They're doing the religious stuff.
But their hearts are yearning after the things of the world.
Not the things of God.
They are meant to be God's distinct people.
Living as a shining light in the midst of the world's darkness.
But actually.
When you lift the lid off their lives.
They're just like everyone else around them.
Same ambitions.
Same motives.
Same desires.
It was interesting studying this passage this week.
The word desire at verse two.
The original Greek is the word hedonai.
Which is where we get our English words hedonist.
Pleasure seeking.
But these people aren't seeking pleasure in God.
The picture here is that the passions of the people in this church.
Are for the things that the world has to offer them.
And I think that's what James means at verse three.
When he's talking about prayer.
That you do not have.
Because you do not ask.
So their proud and stubborn hearts simply will refuse to pray.
And then the things that you do ask for says James.
You don't get.
Now why do you not get?
Because you ask with bad motives in your heart.
Now I want you to think back to the time when you were a kid.
And you wanted to do something.
But to do it.
It required the permission of your parents.
And you'd had that conversation before with them.
And it didn't go too well for you.
But you thought that you'd give it another shot.
Just in case they happened to have changed their mind.
And you were suspiciously kind to them.
You mowed the garden.
You washed the dishes.
Your room was extra tidy.
Before picking your exact moment to ask your parents.
And then still being met with a resounding no.
That is what James is saying here to these people.
You don't ask God.
You don't pray to God about your heart's desires.
And the things that you want.
Because not only do you fear the answer that you'll get.
But you know what he's already said.
You know what he has expressly commanded.
But so great is your selfishness.
That you don't even bother to ask God.
Or stop yourself from doing it.
You just go ahead and do it anyway.
You are the rebellious teenage boy.
Who has snuck out his window to be at the nightclub with his friends.
You know what God has said about loving your neighbor.
You know what God has said about how you are to treat one another.
You know what God has said to you about coveting.
About jealously wanting the things that somebody else has.
And yet you still go ahead and do it anyway.
You are people driven by earthly wisdom says James.
And that's why he uses that phrase at verse 4.
Probably one of the strongest rebukes that we find anywhere in the New Testament.
You adulterous people.
You cheating people.
You two-timing people.
All the way through the Bible, that's how the relationship between God and his people is described.
It's like a marriage.
God is the faithful, loving husband.
And he calls his people to be his faithful, loving wife.
But history would tell us time and time and time again.
That while God remains the unchanging, faithful, loving, sacrificial, gracious husband.
Who is the same yesterday, today and forever.
His people's hearts are continually flirting and desiring the things of the world.
You know the word adulterer that James uses there in the original Greek, it's in the feminine form.
And he quite deliberately does it like that.
His Jewish audience, they would know their Old Testament.
They would know their Old Testament prophets.
And so the mention of a female adulterer bring to mind Old Testament Israel.
And in particular, the prophet Hosea.
God commands Hosea to marry a prostitute called Gomer.
And Gomer's recurrent unfaithfulness so graphically and painfully illustrates
how God sees his people's constant spiritual unfaithfulness to him.
As they give him their words of love and of flattery.
But then they run off to the pagan temples down the roads.
And they worship the so-called other gods that everyone else is worshipping.
As far as God is concerned, the message is quite clear.
That idolatry is adultery.
Israel's divided hearts and double minds.
And that's what God had said to that generation of his people.
And James says that the comparisons between the two,
between that generation and this generation, they're uncanny.
Your discreet love affair with the world.
Dr. James doesn't need to run any further tests.
He doesn't need a second opinion.
For him, it is so evident by the disgusting way in which this church are behaving towards one another
that the cause is worldly items.
And folks, this is where we need to pause.
We just need to park the bus just for a minute.
And we need to sit in Dr. James' chair.
Now, if he were to do a diagnosis of your life,
if he were to get out his scalpel,
if he was to peel back your skin,
and he was to have a look inside,
what would he see in your life?
If he were to examine
what your life is like
inside these walls,
and compare it with your life
outside these walls,
what would he see?
If he was to look at your thought life,
if he was to look at your personal life,
and if he was to compare it
to the life that everyone sees,
would he see a consistent life?
Would he see consistency,
or would he see
compromised men
and women
who are riddled
with worldly items?
Now, folks,
as I've studied this passage this week,
that is the challenge.
Because,
when we look at this church,
and we see their symptoms,
are we any different?
I don't think we are that much
far removed
from what we see going on
in this church.
And can I make the observation
at this stage
that there is such a close link
between our relationship
with God
and our relationships
with other people?
That's been such a central idea
in this letter of James
already,
that there should be
a holy consistency
to the life
of God's people.
You flick back to chapter 3,
you see James saying
exactly that.
That you can't be
praising God with your lips
one minute,
and then as soon as
you get outside,
you go cursing
the same brothers and sisters
that you've just been with.
That's just not on.
Because their attitude
towards people
and our attitude
towards people,
it reveals an awful lot
about what our attitude
is to God.
You know,
if you find yourself
exhibiting
any of these symptoms,
can I encourage you
to do a self-diagnosis?
If you find yourself
bitter
towards anybody
in this church,
if you find yourself
agitated,
if you find yourself
impatient,
if you find yourself
bad-mouthing somebody
in here
or having a critical spirit,
then God tells you
right here
in his word
to stop.
To examine
your own heart
and see that
the problem
is actually
something within
that you need
to repent of
and bring yourself
to pray
that God
in his mercy
would change you.
Folks,
I know that
is so true
in my own life.
that the things
that get me riled,
the things
that get me going,
actually,
when I stop
to think about it
and when I stop
to examine
my own heart,
I realize
so often,
in fact,
all the time,
I realize
that the problem
is in here.
You know,
that seems to be
the problem
with this church,
that they are
nowhere with each
other corporately
because they are
nowhere with God
individually.
these people
always view
the problem
as being out there
and never in here
because worldly-itis
has well and truly
got under the skin
of these people.
It is rife
in the life
of this church
and if it's not
treated,
it's going to
kill this church.
So what does
James the doctor
prescribe?
For worldly-itis?
What is going to be
the thing
that will transform
the life of this
church
and it will
transform
the lives
and relationships
of the individuals
in the church?
Well,
the prescription
that James gives
is found
at verse 6
of chapter 4.
God's
undeserved
favor,
God's
blessing
and kindness.
It is available
to them
if,
and there is a
massive
if here folks
that we need to
see,
if they will humble themselves before God.
If they will get down low on their knees
and repent of their selfishness.
Now, why is that the case?
Well, it's spelled out in such black and white language
at verse 6.
Now, I know memory verses have gone out of fashion,
but if you wanted a memory verse for this week,
if you wanted a memory verse for all of your life,
then can I suggest go for this one?
One of the most sobering verses in the Bible, verse 6,
that God opposes the proud,
but gives grace to the humble.
You see, what James calls for here
in the life of this church is humility.
Now, I think it's fair to say that humility
isn't an attribute that is envied in our culture.
And it certainly wasn't valued in the culture
that this church are operating in.
It's a word that was associated with lowliness,
of weakness, and of grovelling.
But James says, folks,
that that is exactly the heart stance before God.
That not only is the appropriate and right one,
but it's the one that if you adopt,
God promises that he will see
and he will shower with his grace.
And of course, this humility
that James calls for,
we see it most fully in the life of Jesus.
That Jesus humbled himself
by leaving the glories of heaven
to come down to earth to save us.
He humbled himself while he was here
by washing his disciples' feet.
And he humbled himself ultimately
to death on a cross.
Taking the punishment,
dying the death that you and I deserve to die
because of our sin against the holy God
and accrediting us with his perfect life.
The Bible uses the word righteousness.
And because of his life of humility,
because of his life of obedience,
because of his life of faithfulness
and single-mindedness,
folks, we are the recipients of amazing grace.
And not only has God saved us by his son,
but when we gave our lives to God,
the Bible would say that he adopted us
as his children.
And he put his spirit in us.
His spirit in us,
not to be a casual lodger,
not to be a roommate that we wave to on the stairs,
but right into our hearts
to be a permanent dweller.
That is the gospel.
And brothers and sisters,
can I encourage you
that if we truly capture that
with our hearts and our minds,
then it leaves absolutely no room
for us to be proud.
It leaves no wiggle room
for self-exaltation,
but rather it should produce in us
deep gratitude
and deep humility.
But James says here
that God's grace,
it wasn't exhausted
at salvation,
in salvation, sorry.
James tells his readers
that God's grace,
it is a Niagara Falls
for them to sit under
and swim in.
Because God desires
to give them
more grace.
And God desires
to give them
more of himself.
even though they look
undesirable,
and folks,
let's be honest,
even though we look
so undesirable,
God gives
more grace.
God wants
his people
for himself,
warps and all.
How good
is God?
God.
I mean,
this church
is on the brink.
But James
tells them
the wonderful truth
that God's grace
is their only hope.
But what a hope
it is.
And folks,
listen,
I don't know whether
you paid attention here
or not,
but if you haven't,
can I say that you
jump in here
and remember
this phrase.
It is a wonderful
hope,
God's grace,
because God's grace
is greater,
deeper,
and wider
than his people's
failings,
unfaithfulness,
and weakness.
God's grace
is greater.
Friends,
can I urge you
never to doubt
that God is willing
and desires
to graciously
provide the things
that his children
need.
He doesn't withhold
any good gift
that his children
need.
Not that they want,
but that they need.
But we also need
to see the warning
here
of how God
views a proud
and a stubborn
human heart.
God opposes
the proud,
but he gives grace
to the humble.
So what is the
management
of this prescription
that Dr. James
prescribes?
So how is this
humility that we've
been looking at,
how is it going to
play out in their
daily lives?
And how is it going
to play out in ours
as well?
Because James
isn't saying,
take the grace
pill and kick
back,
go to the armchair,
and everything's
going to work out.
They're going to
have to work at
this.
And if you've got
your Bibles there,
just follow with me
the imperatives
that James lists
at verses 7 to 10
of chapter 4.
This is what it's
going to look like.
Submit yourselves
to God.
So James is calling
them to bow the
knee,
raise the white
flag of surrender,
stop rebelling,
and stop resisting
God in the way
that you currently
are.
you know what
he said.
You know how he
has commanded you
to behave to one
another.
So do it.
Resist the devil
and he will flee
from you.
Now that word
resist, it's a
military metaphor.
And James is
telling them to
say no to
ungodliness.
Say no to
gossiping.
Say no to the
devil when he
tries to get a
hold of your
tongue.
and of your
thoughts.
But rather to
resist him and
stand firm.
Draw near to
God and he will
draw near to you.
Friends, what a
wonderful promise
that God makes
here.
That God is
lovingly
desperate
that these
running religious
rebels,
they turn to
him and receive
his grace.
love for his
returning son.
Now this is the
heart of the
loving father.
That while his
son, the
running rebel,
who had openly
rejected him to
his face, as his
son does a U-turn
and makes his way
back home, what
does it say?
The father sees
him a long
distance off and
runs out to meet
him.
such as the
father's great
love for his
returning son.
Now hear the
promise this
morning, folks,
that God makes to
us in his
words.
A word for you
this morning, if
you currently have
your back towards
God, that if you
draw near to him,
he will draw near to
you.
wash your hands,
your sinners, and
purify your hearts,
you double-minded.
Grieve, mourn, and
wail.
Change your laughter
to mourning and
your joy to gloom.
Now what James is
saying here to
these people is that
you need to get
right with God.
You should be
weeping, you
should be crying
over your sin-riddled
hearts.
And what it's
doing to this
church.
You should mourn
the state of
affairs that are
currently going on
in your church.
And as they do
these things, folks,
as they humble
themselves,
amazingly, God
will lift them
up.
God will
exalt them.
And God
will honor
them.
And why?
Why?
Because God's
grace is
greater,
deeper,
and wider
than his
people's
failings,
unfaithfulness,
and weakness.
so the patient
has been
diagnosed,
and the
prescription
has been
given.
And as we
draw our time
to our
close this
morning,
let's see
what James
says health
is going to
look like.
How do we
know this
patient is
being
rehabilitated?
So as God
pours out his
grace into
their lives
individually and
corporately,
what fruit
should they
see in
their lives?
Well, back
in chapter
one, we saw
James encourage
this church
that if any
of them lacks
wisdom, to
pray and to
ask God who
gives generously.
Now, we so
often read that
and we read it
as asking for
divine wisdom,
for guidance.
So making
life's big
decisions.
Now, of course,
there is an
application there,
but I think
James has much
more in mind
divine wisdom
for conduct.
So wisdom
for how they
are to behave
rightly towards
one another
and how they
are to live a
life that is
pleasing and
honoring to
God.
So in
contrast to the
earthly wisdom,
the disorder
and the evil
practice that
currently
characterizes
this church,
here at
verses 17
and 18,
James describes
for us what
divine wisdom
is going to
look like in
their lives.
Humble,
self-sacrificing,
peaceful,
merciful,
reasonable,
and gentle.
Wonderful
characteristics that
James encourages
them to adorn
and wear.
And we'll
finish, folks,
by reading these
verses together.
And I encourage
you, just like I
was challenged
this week in my
own life,
do you see
divine wisdom
on show in
your life?
And if you
don't,
can I ask you
to seriously
pray to God
who gives
generously
and who
gives
graciously?
Let's read
these verses
together as we
close.
But the
wisdom that
comes from
heaven is
first of all
pure,
then peace
loving,
considerate,
submissive,
full of mercy
and good fruit,
impartial and
sincere.
Peacemakers
who sow in
peace reap a
harvest of
righteousness.
Let's pray
together, folks,
as we close.
these are the
ones I look
on with
favor,
those who
are humble
and contrite
in spirit
and who
tremble
at my
words.
Father, we
come before
you, Lord,
as people
knowing that
we have
unclean
hearts.
Father, that
our thoughts
are full of
unclean
things, that
our hearts
are wicked
and deceitful.
But Father,
thank you this
morning that
you've reminded
us in your
words that
you give
more grace.
And so,
Father, it's
that grace
that we
throw ourselves
on.
Father, we
ask for that
spirit of
humility.
We ask for
that wisdom
from above as
we seek to
witness for
you, as
we seek to
live for
you in
this world
this week,
we pray.
Amen.