WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.520 And I'm going to start by reading out from James. 00:00:02.520 --> 00:00:04.320 So if you have your Bible and I hope you do, 00:00:04.320 --> 00:00:06.440 turn to James chapter three. 00:00:06.440 --> 00:00:08.320 We're going to read from verse 13 00:00:08.320 --> 00:00:11.339 all the way through chapter four, verse 10. 00:00:17.559 --> 00:00:19.879 James 3, 13. 00:00:22.160 --> 00:00:25.400 Who is wise and understanding among you? 00:00:25.400 --> 00:00:26.920 By his good conduct, 00:00:26.920 --> 00:00:29.680 let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. 00:00:30.560 --> 00:00:32.560 But if you have bitter jealousy 00:00:32.560 --> 00:00:35.400 and selfish ambition in your hearts, 00:00:35.400 --> 00:00:38.200 don't boast and be false to the truth. 00:00:38.200 --> 00:00:40.960 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, 00:00:40.960 --> 00:00:45.000 but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 00:00:45.840 --> 00:00:48.920 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, 00:00:48.920 --> 00:00:52.480 there will be disorder and every vile practice. 00:00:53.359 --> 00:00:56.799 But the wisdom from above is first pure 00:00:56.799 --> 00:01:00.759 then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, 00:01:00.759 --> 00:01:05.759 full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. 00:01:06.599 --> 00:01:10.579 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace 00:01:10.579 --> 00:01:12.280 by those who make peace. 00:01:13.599 --> 00:01:16.879 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? 00:01:16.879 --> 00:01:20.560 Is it not this that your passions are at war within you? 00:01:21.400 --> 00:01:24.979 You desire and do not have, so you murder. 00:01:24.980 --> 00:01:28.500 You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. 00:01:29.500 --> 00:01:32.120 You do not have because you do not ask. 00:01:32.120 --> 00:01:33.719 You ask and do not receive 00:01:33.719 --> 00:01:37.439 because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. 00:01:37.439 --> 00:01:39.740 You adulterous people. 00:01:39.740 --> 00:01:43.240 Do you not know that friendship with the world 00:01:43.240 --> 00:01:45.760 is enmity with God? 00:01:45.760 --> 00:01:48.920 Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world 00:01:48.920 --> 00:01:51.900 makes himself an enemy of God. 00:01:51.900 --> 00:01:54.260 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose 00:01:54.260 --> 00:01:57.820 that the scripture says he yearns jealously 00:01:57.820 --> 00:02:00.620 over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us? 00:02:02.060 --> 00:02:05.300 But he gives more grace. 00:02:05.300 --> 00:02:09.180 Therefore it says God opposes the proud 00:02:09.180 --> 00:02:11.140 but gives grace to the humble. 00:02:12.140 --> 00:02:15.099 Submit yourselves therefore to God. 00:02:15.099 --> 00:02:17.540 Resist the devil and he will flee from you, 00:02:17.540 --> 00:02:20.580 draw near to God and he will draw near to you. 00:02:20.580 --> 00:02:22.940 Cunse your hands, you sinners, 00:02:22.940 --> 00:02:25.660 and purify your hearts you double-minded. 00:02:25.660 --> 00:02:28.700 Be wretched and mourn and weep. 00:02:28.700 --> 00:02:31.100 Let your laughter be turned to mourning 00:02:31.100 --> 00:02:33.340 and your joy to gloom. 00:02:33.340 --> 00:02:36.460 Humble yourselves before the Lord 00:02:36.460 --> 00:02:38.780 and he will exalt you. 00:02:40.780 --> 00:02:42.140 This is the word of the Lord. 00:02:43.420 --> 00:02:45.620 Ending on a serious note, isn't it? 00:02:46.820 --> 00:02:48.340 So we'll get to that. 00:02:48.340 --> 00:02:50.780 It's a big chunk of text 00:02:50.780 --> 00:02:52.420 and so we're gonna work through it a little bit 00:02:52.420 --> 00:02:54.060 like we did a couple of weeks ago 00:02:54.060 --> 00:02:57.300 and just go kind of verse by verse phrase by phrase. 00:02:57.300 --> 00:02:58.259 But here's where we're going. 00:02:58.259 --> 00:03:01.580 This is what I want to show you from the text 00:03:01.580 --> 00:03:05.580 that for those of us who are exhausted 00:03:05.580 --> 00:03:10.580 by our own inner constant low-grade fever of selfishness, 00:03:12.620 --> 00:03:16.620 bitterness, that kind of critical spirit toward others, 00:03:16.620 --> 00:03:19.180 for people like that, there's hope. 00:03:20.420 --> 00:03:23.900 And for those of us who don't feel affection for God 00:03:23.900 --> 00:03:27.860 like we should, who sometimes we just don't want God, 00:03:27.860 --> 00:03:31.500 maybe we want to want God, but that's the best we can do, 00:03:31.500 --> 00:03:33.620 for those of us, there's hope. 00:03:34.819 --> 00:03:36.860 That's where I hope to get to today 00:03:36.860 --> 00:03:39.420 and uncover what that hope is. 00:03:39.420 --> 00:03:41.060 So as we walk through the passage, 00:03:41.060 --> 00:03:43.819 I'm gonna kind of contain it in three main points. 00:03:43.819 --> 00:03:44.659 Excuse me. 00:03:44.659 --> 00:03:47.780 Number one is the nastiness of war. 00:03:47.780 --> 00:03:51.060 Number two is hope for rebels. 00:03:51.060 --> 00:03:53.939 And number three is the path to peace. 00:03:55.460 --> 00:03:57.419 So let me share my screen. 00:03:57.419 --> 00:03:59.180 No, I'm not gonna do that just yet, sorry. 00:03:59.180 --> 00:04:00.419 So number one, we're gonna start 00:04:00.419 --> 00:04:02.819 on talking about the nastiness of war. 00:04:02.819 --> 00:04:04.939 So this passage, this whole chunk that we read 00:04:04.939 --> 00:04:08.859 is actually full of words that come under the umbrella 00:04:08.859 --> 00:04:11.500 of war language. 00:04:11.500 --> 00:04:13.859 Let me give you a smattering of what I mean. 00:04:13.860 --> 00:04:17.780 There's, I don't know, 10, 11, 12 or so words. 00:04:17.780 --> 00:04:22.780 So in verse 14 of chapter three, he says that we boast. 00:04:22.780 --> 00:04:23.860 He says, don't boast. 00:04:24.860 --> 00:04:27.980 Now that word for boast is the same word used 00:04:27.980 --> 00:04:31.620 in ancient texts of a gladiator gloating 00:04:31.620 --> 00:04:36.620 over his fallen, you know, battle partner. 00:04:36.620 --> 00:04:38.379 Standing over him with raised swords saying, 00:04:38.379 --> 00:04:40.379 look what I've done, I've won. 00:04:40.379 --> 00:04:41.220 That's boasting. 00:04:41.220 --> 00:04:42.379 It's a war. 00:04:42.379 --> 00:04:44.659 It's a war, it's a battle word. 00:04:46.180 --> 00:04:48.740 In verse 16 of chapter three, he talks about 00:04:48.740 --> 00:04:52.060 how the worldly wisdom breeds disorder. 00:04:52.060 --> 00:04:54.939 Now that's basically the word for anarchy. 00:04:54.939 --> 00:04:57.139 It's mob rule. 00:04:57.139 --> 00:04:59.740 It's battle language. 00:05:02.100 --> 00:05:04.459 For one, what causes quarrels? 00:05:04.459 --> 00:05:08.219 The word quarrels is the word for military skirmishes. 00:05:08.219 --> 00:05:11.899 What causes quarrels and fights or battles among you? 00:05:11.899 --> 00:05:15.179 He says our passions are at war within us. 00:05:16.299 --> 00:05:18.620 Chapter four, verse two, he says that we murder, 00:05:18.620 --> 00:05:22.859 we fight, we quarrel or skirmish amongst ourselves. 00:05:22.859 --> 00:05:26.620 And in verse four, he uses the language of enmity 00:05:26.620 --> 00:05:30.019 and says that we make ourselves an enemy of God. 00:05:31.099 --> 00:05:32.819 So I guess if I were, I didn't title it, 00:05:32.819 --> 00:05:34.139 but if I were titling the sermon, 00:05:34.139 --> 00:05:36.179 I might call it war and peace 00:05:36.179 --> 00:05:39.539 because there's a lot of war language. 00:05:39.540 --> 00:05:44.140 Now what's the point of all of that war terminology? 00:05:44.140 --> 00:05:45.780 James is trying to get us to see 00:05:45.780 --> 00:05:50.780 that our worldly way of living is nasty. 00:05:52.460 --> 00:05:55.620 He's trying to get us to see it for what it really is, 00:05:55.620 --> 00:05:58.480 which is deadly and demonic. 00:05:59.700 --> 00:06:02.460 Now to get at this point, James begins, 00:06:02.460 --> 00:06:05.060 excuse me, I've got a frog in my throat. 00:06:05.060 --> 00:06:07.259 James begins in verse 13 00:06:07.259 --> 00:06:12.259 by contrasting godly wisdom with worldly wisdom. 00:06:13.779 --> 00:06:15.420 So we're gonna look at that now. 00:06:15.420 --> 00:06:16.459 Can you all see my screen? 00:06:16.459 --> 00:06:18.420 Can I get a thumbs up? 00:06:18.420 --> 00:06:19.699 Yes, excellent. 00:06:19.699 --> 00:06:23.139 All right, so we're gonna look at verses 13 and 14 first. 00:06:23.139 --> 00:06:26.139 Who is wise and understanding by his good conduct? 00:06:26.139 --> 00:06:28.740 Let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. 00:06:31.899 --> 00:06:36.779 So we see from that that godly wisdom is made obvious 00:06:36.779 --> 00:06:39.659 by humility and good works. 00:06:41.539 --> 00:06:45.699 Godly wisdom is made obvious by humility and good works. 00:06:45.699 --> 00:06:47.000 Now this isn't a new idea. 00:06:47.000 --> 00:06:49.859 It's the same concept we saw a couple of weeks ago 00:06:49.859 --> 00:06:53.539 about the tongue, namely that when life squeezes us, 00:06:53.539 --> 00:06:57.119 what's inside comes out, right? 00:06:57.119 --> 00:06:59.619 If we're filled with wisdom from God, 00:06:59.619 --> 00:07:02.539 what comes out when we're squeezed is good works, 00:07:02.540 --> 00:07:06.860 humility, right, meekness, good conduct. 00:07:08.020 --> 00:07:09.540 But then he goes into the contrast and says, 00:07:09.540 --> 00:07:12.260 but if you have bitter jealousy, selfish ambition, 00:07:12.260 --> 00:07:14.100 don't boast and be false. 00:07:14.100 --> 00:07:17.340 This isn't the wisdom that comes down from above, right? 00:07:19.300 --> 00:07:20.580 So godly wisdom, 00:07:20.579 --> 00:07:37.579 so that's that word disorder that we see at the end of 16. 00:07:39.099 --> 00:07:41.740 It says we're jealousy and selfish ambition exists. 00:07:41.740 --> 00:07:45.259 There will be disorder and every vile practice. 00:07:45.259 --> 00:07:52.939 There will be mob rule and chaos. 00:07:52.939 --> 00:07:57.779 Now James is continuing his contrast of godly 00:07:57.779 --> 00:08:01.219 and worldly wisdom, but now he's making it really clear, 00:08:01.219 --> 00:08:04.420 verse 17, but the wisdom from above 00:08:04.420 --> 00:08:08.259 is pure, peaceable, gentle, reasonable, merciful, 00:08:08.259 --> 00:08:10.459 fruitful, et cetera. 00:08:10.459 --> 00:08:13.659 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace 00:08:13.660 --> 00:08:16.260 by those who make peace. 00:08:16.260 --> 00:08:19.820 So godly wisdom breeds peace. 00:08:19.820 --> 00:08:24.620 It's not only known and made obvious by our works, 00:08:24.620 --> 00:08:29.900 it actually creates, it's like a source of peace 00:08:29.900 --> 00:08:30.740 in our communities. 00:08:30.740 --> 00:08:32.100 Remember James is writing, 00:08:32.100 --> 00:08:33.620 not just to an individual person, 00:08:33.620 --> 00:08:36.100 he's writing to Christian communities. 00:08:36.100 --> 00:08:38.779 And his goal isn't just individual wisdom, 00:08:38.779 --> 00:08:45.339 it's communities that of peacemakers. 00:08:45.339 --> 00:08:47.339 That's what James is going for here, 00:08:47.339 --> 00:08:49.220 godly wisdom breeds peace. 00:08:49.220 --> 00:08:51.220 But then we see at the beginning of chapter four, 00:08:51.220 --> 00:08:53.819 he asks what causes all these fights 00:08:53.819 --> 00:08:56.100 among these communities. 00:08:56.100 --> 00:08:57.899 Isn't it that we want the wrong things, 00:08:57.899 --> 00:09:01.659 that our passions are at war, our desires? 00:09:01.659 --> 00:09:04.100 We want things and we don't get them, 00:09:04.100 --> 00:09:07.059 so we take what we want. 00:09:07.059 --> 00:09:09.219 We go to war. 00:09:09.219 --> 00:09:10.579 So godly wisdom breeds peace, 00:09:10.579 --> 00:09:13.779 but worldly wisdom breeds war. 00:09:19.899 --> 00:09:22.739 Verse four, he says, you adulterous people, 00:09:24.099 --> 00:09:26.819 do you not know that friendship with the world 00:09:26.819 --> 00:09:28.459 is enmity with God? 00:09:30.419 --> 00:09:33.059 Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world 00:09:33.059 --> 00:09:37.459 makes himself an enemy of God. 00:09:40.019 --> 00:09:43.059 Think about the Second World War. 00:09:43.059 --> 00:09:45.699 If you were an adult in 1945, 00:09:47.699 --> 00:09:52.500 you couldn't both love the Jews and love the Nazis. 00:09:54.979 --> 00:09:56.899 You can't have it both ways. 00:09:56.899 --> 00:10:01.899 Those are mutually exclusive allegiances, as it were. 00:10:03.340 --> 00:10:08.340 You can't be allies with the two parties that are at war 00:10:08.340 --> 00:10:11.019 to shift the metaphor a little bit, right? 00:10:11.019 --> 00:10:12.740 If two countries are at war, 00:10:12.740 --> 00:10:17.740 you can't be supportive allies with both of those countries. 00:10:17.740 --> 00:10:20.100 In God's economy, there's no Switzerland. 00:10:20.100 --> 00:10:23.980 There is no neutral party here. 00:10:23.980 --> 00:10:27.100 We will either be friends with the world 00:10:27.100 --> 00:10:28.779 and enemies with God, 00:10:28.779 --> 00:10:33.779 or friends with God and at war against the world. 00:10:34.139 --> 00:10:36.060 Now remember, we're not talking about 00:10:36.060 --> 00:10:39.740 going to war against people, right? 00:10:39.740 --> 00:10:42.700 This isn't actually inspiring us to kind of take up arms 00:10:42.700 --> 00:10:44.980 and be combative Christians. 00:10:44.980 --> 00:10:49.139 This is talking at a higher plane of reality, in a sense. 00:10:49.139 --> 00:10:53.340 It's a metaphor to show that it's talking about 00:10:53.340 --> 00:10:56.740 our allegiance, who's gonna be our Lord? 00:10:57.780 --> 00:11:01.379 Are we going to let God be our allegiance Lord? 00:11:01.379 --> 00:11:03.420 Are we gonna follow him where he goes? 00:11:03.420 --> 00:11:05.139 Are we gonna live his way in his kingdom? 00:11:05.139 --> 00:11:06.940 Or are we gonna follow the world? 00:11:07.980 --> 00:11:10.660 And remember just a couple of verses ago, 00:11:10.660 --> 00:11:13.019 he says, actually, let me back up and look at that. 00:11:13.019 --> 00:11:14.100 I think it's important. 00:11:16.700 --> 00:11:17.540 Where is it? 00:11:17.539 --> 00:11:22.339 I should have written this down. 00:11:23.740 --> 00:11:24.899 There it is, verse 15, 00:11:24.899 --> 00:11:26.779 the wisdom that comes down from above. 00:11:26.779 --> 00:11:30.899 It's not that, but it's earthly, unspiritual and demonic. 00:11:31.779 --> 00:11:33.819 Now, one of the great tricks of the devil 00:11:33.819 --> 00:11:38.819 is to get us to think that this worldly wisdom way of living 00:11:39.939 --> 00:11:41.259 is just natural. 00:11:43.139 --> 00:11:45.419 But you see how he juxtaposes the phrases 00:11:45.419 --> 00:11:47.620 earthly and demonic. 00:11:47.620 --> 00:11:52.500 This sort of combative fight for your own rights, 00:11:52.500 --> 00:11:57.139 selfish, bitter way of living is actually sub-natural. 00:11:58.059 --> 00:11:59.459 And it comes from hell. 00:12:00.379 --> 00:12:03.379 It's not natural to the human race. 00:12:03.379 --> 00:12:05.659 It's not what God intended. 00:12:09.139 --> 00:12:13.139 So the point here from verses four and five of chapter four 00:12:13.139 --> 00:12:16.779 is we can't be friends with the world and friends with God. 00:12:16.779 --> 00:12:19.980 These are mutually exclusive relationships. 00:12:21.379 --> 00:12:23.019 So what James has just done 00:12:24.179 --> 00:12:27.340 is he's indicted us as war criminals, 00:12:28.580 --> 00:12:30.819 rebels against our rightful king. 00:12:32.379 --> 00:12:33.659 And if we've allied ourselves 00:12:33.659 --> 00:12:37.700 with the world's way of living and thinking, 00:12:37.700 --> 00:12:39.539 we've made ourselves an enemy to God. 00:12:39.539 --> 00:12:44.539 Now, sometimes we do that outwardly and obviously, 00:12:45.459 --> 00:12:47.339 maybe more often it's deep inside. 00:12:47.339 --> 00:12:49.059 It's at the heart level 00:12:49.059 --> 00:12:51.740 and we can be simmering with bitterness. 00:12:51.740 --> 00:12:54.219 We can be critical toward others in our spirit. 00:12:54.219 --> 00:12:56.539 We can be deeply selfish. 00:12:58.819 --> 00:13:01.500 We boast or harsh. 00:13:01.500 --> 00:13:03.699 We can either pick ideological fights 00:13:03.699 --> 00:13:05.059 with people that we disagree with 00:13:05.059 --> 00:13:06.740 or at least we secretly want to. 00:13:06.740 --> 00:13:10.419 And that's the world's wisdom though. 00:13:10.419 --> 00:13:14.100 And it's got an icy grip on our hearts sometimes, doesn't it? 00:13:14.100 --> 00:13:15.539 Now, maybe you read the newspaper 00:13:15.539 --> 00:13:18.259 or you're on Twitter or some other social media platform 00:13:18.259 --> 00:13:20.580 and you keep encountering people who disagree with you 00:13:20.580 --> 00:13:23.180 and they do it vehemently and it's irritating 00:13:23.180 --> 00:13:25.419 and it just gets under your skin. 00:13:25.419 --> 00:13:27.700 People who don't live like you do, 00:13:27.700 --> 00:13:30.820 who critique your lifestyle, who critique your faith, 00:13:30.820 --> 00:13:34.180 who critique all of your beliefs, your ideologies 00:13:34.179 --> 00:13:37.620 and you begin to harbor bitterness in your heart. 00:13:37.620 --> 00:13:41.019 You begin to just grumble in your spirit 00:13:41.019 --> 00:13:44.259 about these other people, about that political party 00:13:44.259 --> 00:13:49.259 or this sexual revolution or whatever it is. 00:13:49.899 --> 00:13:53.219 And we begin to get kind of nasty inside 00:13:53.219 --> 00:13:55.419 and we can begin to grumble to others about it as well. 00:13:55.419 --> 00:13:57.059 And Jesus says, that's demonic. 00:13:58.579 --> 00:14:02.139 James, sorry, James says that's earthly, 00:14:02.139 --> 00:14:04.500 unspiritual, demonic. 00:14:04.500 --> 00:14:07.100 That's the world's way, it's not God's way. 00:14:07.100 --> 00:14:08.220 But we all do that. 00:14:09.539 --> 00:14:11.740 So we've all been indicted as war criminals. 00:14:13.539 --> 00:14:15.379 Now, it gets better from here, 00:14:16.460 --> 00:14:18.539 but we have to understand that in some sense, 00:14:18.539 --> 00:14:22.620 we are rebels against God if we live like that. 00:14:25.299 --> 00:14:28.939 We're rebels against this good rule and his wisdom. 00:14:28.940 --> 00:14:33.780 So that's point number one, the nastiness of war. 00:14:33.780 --> 00:14:35.180 Let's go to point number two. 00:14:37.260 --> 00:14:39.780 Point number two is hope for rebels. 00:14:41.460 --> 00:14:46.460 Verse six, I love verse six, and he gives more grace. 00:14:48.740 --> 00:14:51.180 Therefore it says, God opposes the proud 00:14:51.180 --> 00:14:52.460 but gives grace to the humble. 00:14:52.460 --> 00:14:59.460 Submit yourselves therefore to God. 00:14:59.460 --> 00:15:02.139 Just a few days ago at the Gospel Coalition Conference 00:15:02.139 --> 00:15:06.379 in the States, somebody said something like this, 00:15:06.379 --> 00:15:11.220 that God wants the church to be an island of Shalom 00:15:11.220 --> 00:15:14.620 in a sea of rage and hostility. 00:15:15.620 --> 00:15:17.300 Isn't that beautiful? 00:15:17.299 --> 00:15:22.740 An island of Shalom, peace in a sea of rage and hostility. 00:15:22.740 --> 00:15:25.579 But for rebels and war criminals like us, 00:15:25.579 --> 00:15:27.059 is that even possible? 00:15:28.500 --> 00:15:30.459 After all the damage we've caused, 00:15:31.779 --> 00:15:34.620 after all the forest fires we started with our tongue, 00:15:35.899 --> 00:15:37.539 after we've shown time and time again 00:15:37.539 --> 00:15:40.179 that we'd rather have the world's way than God's way, 00:15:41.979 --> 00:15:45.979 is there really hope for us to become people of peace? 00:15:45.980 --> 00:15:50.980 James 4-6 says, absolutely, absolutely there's hope. 00:15:53.620 --> 00:15:55.180 He gives more grace. 00:15:56.460 --> 00:15:58.300 We have to write that on our hearts. 00:15:58.300 --> 00:16:01.820 God's grace is the key. 00:16:01.820 --> 00:16:04.100 God, here's what this teaches us. 00:16:04.100 --> 00:16:05.340 This is so important. 00:16:06.220 --> 00:16:09.420 God's not eager to punish us for our sins. 00:16:10.620 --> 00:16:13.420 God's eager to give us more grace. 00:16:13.419 --> 00:16:16.539 That's what he really wants. 00:16:18.939 --> 00:16:20.579 So at the beginning of verse seven, 00:16:20.579 --> 00:16:24.899 James can say, submit yourselves therefore to God. 00:16:25.979 --> 00:16:27.620 Note the therefore, right? 00:16:27.620 --> 00:16:29.459 What is the therefore, therefore? 00:16:29.459 --> 00:16:31.099 That's a word of logic. 00:16:31.099 --> 00:16:33.379 And he's telling us to do something. 00:16:33.379 --> 00:16:34.819 He's saying, here's what you must do 00:16:34.819 --> 00:16:36.899 is submit yourselves to God. 00:16:36.899 --> 00:16:41.539 And he's basing that command on, 00:16:41.539 --> 00:16:44.539 the grounds of that command is that God gives grace. 00:16:45.939 --> 00:16:48.179 God gives grace to the humble. 00:16:48.179 --> 00:16:51.259 So why wouldn't you submit yourself to someone like that? 00:16:52.740 --> 00:16:54.459 That goes all the way back to James one. 00:16:54.459 --> 00:16:57.339 I keep referencing it, but we never move beyond this. 00:16:57.339 --> 00:16:58.699 That if any of you lacks wisdom, 00:16:58.699 --> 00:17:00.980 let him ask God who gives generously 00:17:00.980 --> 00:17:03.099 to all without reproach. 00:17:04.420 --> 00:17:06.819 That's giving grace to the humble. 00:17:06.819 --> 00:17:11.819 So James says, therefore we submit ourselves to God. 00:17:12.059 --> 00:17:15.740 So we can humble ourselves and submit ourselves to God 00:17:15.740 --> 00:17:18.419 because God is fuller of grace 00:17:18.419 --> 00:17:20.700 than we are full of anything. 00:17:22.019 --> 00:17:26.259 He has more grace than we have any other characteristic 00:17:26.259 --> 00:17:30.179 or thing he's filthy rich with grace. 00:17:30.180 --> 00:17:35.180 And he's full of grace, chock full of it. 00:17:38.340 --> 00:17:42.500 And gentle and lowly, Dan Ortland has a great, 00:17:43.500 --> 00:17:46.060 he writes this, he says, 00:17:46.060 --> 00:17:48.500 this is deeper than saying Jesus is loving 00:17:48.500 --> 00:17:50.539 or merciful or gracious. 00:17:50.539 --> 00:17:53.779 The cumulative testimony of the four gospels 00:17:53.779 --> 00:17:57.140 is that when Jesus Christ sees the fallenness 00:17:57.140 --> 00:18:00.380 of Him, His deepest impulse, 00:18:00.380 --> 00:18:04.860 His most natural instinct is to move toward 00:18:04.860 --> 00:18:08.060 that sin and suffering, not away from it. 00:18:09.820 --> 00:18:10.740 Do you catch that? 00:18:13.700 --> 00:18:17.740 James is getting at the point that when we humble ourselves 00:18:17.740 --> 00:18:19.980 and come and bring all of our rebellion 00:18:19.980 --> 00:18:21.940 and our sin to God and say, 00:18:21.940 --> 00:18:24.580 look what this mess that I've made, look what I've done, 00:18:24.579 --> 00:18:28.899 God moves toward us, not away from us. 00:18:30.139 --> 00:18:32.819 His impulse is not, how can I punish Him? 00:18:32.819 --> 00:18:34.899 How can I punish her? 00:18:34.899 --> 00:18:37.659 It's how can I give them more grace? 00:18:40.899 --> 00:18:44.619 I wonder what our church, our hearts, our lives would be like 00:18:44.619 --> 00:18:46.980 if we really deeply believed that. 00:18:49.379 --> 00:18:52.460 There is hope for us rebels to get out of this 00:18:52.460 --> 00:18:55.380 warmongering downward spiral that we can get into 00:18:55.380 --> 00:18:56.740 in our hearts sometimes. 00:18:58.579 --> 00:19:00.220 And there's hope for finding peace 00:19:01.460 --> 00:19:05.100 because the heart of God is brimming with grace. 00:19:05.100 --> 00:19:06.700 It's just overflowing with it. 00:19:07.620 --> 00:19:09.779 So there's hope for us who are selfish, 00:19:09.779 --> 00:19:11.299 who are harboring bitterness. 00:19:11.299 --> 00:19:13.900 There's hope for us who don't desire God, 00:19:13.900 --> 00:19:17.539 whose passions are broken and we want all the wrong things. 00:19:17.539 --> 00:19:22.500 And that hope is not rooted in how wise you are. 00:19:22.500 --> 00:19:26.139 That hope is not rooted in how nice you are. 00:19:26.139 --> 00:19:28.059 That hope is not rooted in how much you even 00:19:28.059 --> 00:19:29.420 dislike the war and the sin. 00:19:29.420 --> 00:19:32.579 That hope is only rooted in the free, 00:19:32.579 --> 00:19:35.420 undeserved grace of God. 00:19:36.940 --> 00:19:38.500 That's where our hope comes from, 00:19:40.220 --> 00:19:42.740 that He gives more grace because that's who He is. 00:19:42.740 --> 00:19:48.220 That grace, which just means gift, 00:19:48.220 --> 00:19:50.819 that gift is Jesus, 00:19:52.579 --> 00:19:55.019 Jesus who died for our war crimes. 00:19:59.019 --> 00:20:00.299 So there's hope for rebels. 00:20:01.220 --> 00:20:04.140 Point three, the path to peace. 00:20:04.140 --> 00:20:09.140 Remember, one of the themes that runs through James' letter 00:20:09.140 --> 00:20:14.140 is that we should be doers of the word, not hearers only. 00:20:14.860 --> 00:20:18.580 So when we hear, we hear that God is full of grace 00:20:18.580 --> 00:20:21.940 and that Jesus died for our sins, great. 00:20:21.940 --> 00:20:23.420 Now what? Now what? 00:20:23.420 --> 00:20:28.420 How does that truth that we hear compel us to live differently? 00:20:29.900 --> 00:20:31.860 We can't just hear it say that's nice 00:20:31.860 --> 00:20:33.980 and go back to our old ways. 00:20:33.980 --> 00:20:35.620 God forbid. 00:20:35.620 --> 00:20:39.100 So how do we become doers of the word and not hearers only? 00:20:39.099 --> 00:20:41.539 And that's what I mean by the path to peace. 00:20:41.539 --> 00:20:43.819 Now what path do we have to walk 00:20:43.819 --> 00:20:45.579 as pardoned war criminals? 00:20:50.779 --> 00:20:53.899 So I said that we can humble ourselves and submit to God 00:20:53.899 --> 00:20:56.059 because he's full of grace and we are of anything. 00:20:56.059 --> 00:20:59.980 Now here's how James begins to unpack what that looks like. 00:20:59.980 --> 00:21:01.939 This is the path to peace. 00:21:03.579 --> 00:21:06.819 Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 00:21:06.819 --> 00:21:10.379 Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. 00:21:10.379 --> 00:21:15.259 Cleanse your hands, purify your hearts, be wretched, 00:21:15.259 --> 00:21:19.059 mourn, weep, let your laughter be turned to mourning 00:21:19.059 --> 00:21:21.819 and your joy to gloom. 00:21:23.019 --> 00:21:26.500 So first, we humble and submit ourselves to God 00:21:26.500 --> 00:21:31.500 by realigning our friendships, our allegiances 00:21:31.539 --> 00:21:34.259 to use the war language again. 00:21:34.259 --> 00:21:39.259 We stop looking for friendship with the world. 00:21:40.859 --> 00:21:44.420 We stop trying to live the world's way 00:21:45.420 --> 00:21:48.099 and we start looking for friendship with God. 00:21:48.099 --> 00:21:51.819 So we resist the devil and his way and we pursue, 00:21:51.819 --> 00:21:55.259 we draw near to God and his way. 00:21:55.259 --> 00:21:57.740 And there's this sweet promise, friends, 00:21:57.740 --> 00:21:59.619 that if you draw near to God, 00:21:59.619 --> 00:22:03.500 it doesn't say he'll consider drawing near to you. 00:22:03.500 --> 00:22:05.059 He will draw near to you. 00:22:05.859 --> 00:22:06.699 He'll do it. 00:22:07.899 --> 00:22:10.219 You can put your feet down on that one. 00:22:14.219 --> 00:22:17.219 So that leads us to ask then, all right, 00:22:17.219 --> 00:22:20.059 what does it look like technically to draw near to God? 00:22:20.859 --> 00:22:23.619 Okay, I get resisting the devil. 00:22:23.619 --> 00:22:26.819 You resist temptations, you endure through it, 00:22:26.819 --> 00:22:31.819 you try to find Jesus more beautiful than the sin. 00:22:32.299 --> 00:22:34.619 That we do understand resisting the devil, 00:22:34.619 --> 00:22:37.259 but how do we draw near to God? 00:22:37.259 --> 00:22:42.259 Now, we could say a lot of things, that would be true, right? 00:22:42.579 --> 00:22:44.859 The means of grace comes to mind. 00:22:44.859 --> 00:22:47.779 We sit under the preaching of the word, we pray, 00:22:47.779 --> 00:22:51.099 we read the Bible, we enter into fellowship together, 00:22:51.099 --> 00:22:54.419 we confess our sins to God and to each other. 00:22:54.420 --> 00:22:57.660 All of these things are true and good. 00:22:57.660 --> 00:23:00.019 We're gonna have communion coming up soon, 00:23:00.019 --> 00:23:02.539 in person, at church. 00:23:02.539 --> 00:23:05.660 And that's a way that we draw near to God, that's all true. 00:23:05.660 --> 00:23:09.100 But James has something specific in mind. 00:23:10.940 --> 00:23:12.140 It's a little broader actually, 00:23:12.140 --> 00:23:14.220 it's not specific to the wrong word, 00:23:14.220 --> 00:23:16.100 but he takes a little bit of a broader approach 00:23:16.100 --> 00:23:17.660 and lets us fill in the gaps. 00:23:18.820 --> 00:23:21.980 So what does it look like to draw near to God? 00:23:21.980 --> 00:23:23.940 Well, we draw near to God, 00:23:23.940 --> 00:23:28.940 we humble and submit ourselves to God by repentance unto life. 00:23:30.860 --> 00:23:32.180 Repentance unto life. 00:23:34.539 --> 00:23:38.220 Now, this is where he says to cleanse your hands, youth sinners. 00:23:39.660 --> 00:23:42.700 Purify your hearts, you double-minded, be wretched, more. 00:23:42.700 --> 00:23:43.860 What is he doing here? 00:23:46.259 --> 00:23:49.019 James is not trying to turn us into a gloomy, 00:23:49.019 --> 00:23:54.019 dejected bunch of legalists who try to earn favor from God. 00:23:54.220 --> 00:23:55.779 That is not what he's doing. 00:23:55.779 --> 00:23:59.619 In fact, all of this comes after his declaration 00:23:59.619 --> 00:24:02.420 of God's favor for you in verse six, when he says, 00:24:02.420 --> 00:24:05.220 but he gives more grace. 00:24:05.220 --> 00:24:07.539 So he's saying, purify and cleanse yourself 00:24:07.539 --> 00:24:09.980 because you already have God's favor, 00:24:09.980 --> 00:24:13.660 not do it in order to gain God's favor. 00:24:14.660 --> 00:24:15.819 I hope that's clear. 00:24:15.819 --> 00:24:18.259 And he's ultimately, you could sum all this up 00:24:18.259 --> 00:24:20.220 with this phrase, repentance unto life. 00:24:20.220 --> 00:24:25.220 Now, that phrase was used, I think it's in Acts 16, 00:24:26.940 --> 00:24:28.220 perhaps it's somewhere in Acts, 00:24:28.220 --> 00:24:32.180 but the Westminster Shorter Catechism, question 87, 00:24:32.180 --> 00:24:34.819 is one of my favorites, and I'm gonna read it to you, 00:24:34.819 --> 00:24:35.660 of course. 00:24:36.859 --> 00:24:40.740 So the question is, what is repentance unto life? 00:24:40.740 --> 00:24:44.539 Answer, repentance unto life is a saving grace, 00:24:44.539 --> 00:24:47.940 whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin 00:24:47.940 --> 00:24:51.420 and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, 00:24:51.420 --> 00:24:54.860 doth with grief and hatred of his sin, 00:24:54.860 --> 00:24:58.539 turn from it unto God with full purpose of 00:24:58.539 --> 00:25:01.500 and endeavor after new obedience. 00:25:03.500 --> 00:25:05.779 All right, there's a lot, that's why I color coded it 00:25:05.779 --> 00:25:08.820 to help make it make a little bit more sense. 00:25:08.820 --> 00:25:12.380 So the Westminster Shorter Catechism here 00:25:12.380 --> 00:25:17.019 is actually following the shape of this text in James. 00:25:17.019 --> 00:25:18.980 And that's not because they were particularly 00:25:18.980 --> 00:25:22.500 reflecting James, it's because it's the shape of repentance 00:25:22.500 --> 00:25:23.940 in the whole of scripture. 00:25:25.299 --> 00:25:27.819 Here's what I mean, you know, our three points, 00:25:27.819 --> 00:25:30.259 the nastiness of sin, hope for rebels 00:25:30.259 --> 00:25:32.059 and the path to peace, right? 00:25:32.059 --> 00:25:33.900 Now, if you look at the orange text, 00:25:33.900 --> 00:25:38.420 a true sense of sin, that's that first point 00:25:38.420 --> 00:25:39.900 I'm talking about, that's the first chunk 00:25:39.900 --> 00:25:41.700 of this passage in James. 00:25:41.700 --> 00:25:44.539 James is driving home the nastiness of our sin, 00:25:44.539 --> 00:25:46.779 the nastiness of this war that we've started 00:25:46.779 --> 00:25:48.899 with each other and really with God. 00:25:48.899 --> 00:25:51.139 And we need to see it for what it is, 00:25:51.139 --> 00:25:54.420 is demonic, un-spiritual. 00:25:57.299 --> 00:26:00.099 Then the green text, apprehension of the mercy 00:26:00.099 --> 00:26:04.180 of God in Christ, verse six, he gives more grace. 00:26:07.059 --> 00:26:10.779 The blue and the purple is the path to peace, 00:26:10.779 --> 00:26:15.779 grief and hatred of sin, turning from sin to God. 00:26:15.779 --> 00:26:20.779 Christian repentance, repentance until life, right? 00:26:20.859 --> 00:26:24.099 Repentance until life includes and must include 00:26:24.099 --> 00:26:27.740 action and emotion, you see that? 00:26:28.660 --> 00:26:32.619 We have to actively turn from something to something, 00:26:32.619 --> 00:26:36.019 from sin to God, we have to stop doing this 00:26:36.019 --> 00:26:38.539 and start doing something else. 00:26:38.539 --> 00:26:41.619 So James uses that language of cleansing our hands, 00:26:41.619 --> 00:26:44.539 the hands like this is what you do things with, 00:26:44.539 --> 00:26:48.339 your hands and he says to purify our hearts 00:26:48.339 --> 00:26:52.980 and the heart is what we, it's what we intend from. 00:26:52.980 --> 00:26:57.220 It's the source of our will, it's our wanter, our desire 00:26:57.220 --> 00:27:01.940 and he says, we have to cleanse and purify those things, 00:27:01.940 --> 00:27:05.019 we have to change our actions and our intentions. 00:27:05.779 --> 00:27:09.259 And then, we have to have grief and hatred of this sin. 00:27:09.259 --> 00:27:14.259 So we must feel sorrow and a profound distaste of sin. 00:27:14.859 --> 00:27:18.460 James uses the language of mourning and gloom, 00:27:18.460 --> 00:27:20.180 not mourning and evening, but mourning, you know, 00:27:20.180 --> 00:27:22.539 the sadness and gloom. 00:27:23.619 --> 00:27:25.819 He's not saying we have to be mopey people, 00:27:25.819 --> 00:27:29.859 he's saying we have to hate and be sorrowful about our sin. 00:27:33.180 --> 00:27:34.700 And that's our path to peace 00:27:35.619 --> 00:27:38.140 as we begin to see the nastiness of our own sin, 00:27:38.140 --> 00:27:40.980 the nastiness of world's wisdom. 00:27:40.980 --> 00:27:43.580 Then we preach the hope of Christ 00:27:43.580 --> 00:27:46.180 and the grace of God to our weary hearts 00:27:47.259 --> 00:27:49.820 and then we start to live like it's actually true. 00:27:50.780 --> 00:27:53.660 We turn actively from our sin to God, 00:27:53.660 --> 00:27:56.580 from the world's way to God's way. 00:27:59.259 --> 00:28:03.780 And that is perhaps one of the most humbling things 00:28:03.780 --> 00:28:06.860 we could do, isn't it? 00:28:06.859 --> 00:28:10.219 So verse 10, this is our last verse, 00:28:11.379 --> 00:28:15.299 humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. 00:28:17.219 --> 00:28:19.379 Now, I hope we can get a sense for why he's ending 00:28:19.379 --> 00:28:22.019 this passage with this phrase, 00:28:23.659 --> 00:28:26.339 because this process of repentance, 00:28:26.339 --> 00:28:31.339 this process of turning to God from our sin is humbling. 00:28:31.339 --> 00:28:35.459 It's deeply humbling. 00:28:38.220 --> 00:28:42.539 It makes us feel small and that's good 00:28:42.539 --> 00:28:43.579 because we are small. 00:28:45.500 --> 00:28:49.299 It's about time that we get a true sense of our smallness. 00:28:50.779 --> 00:28:55.779 Now, I don't mean the world's warp on that, 00:28:56.059 --> 00:28:59.699 the world's distortion on that proper perspective, right? 00:28:59.700 --> 00:29:01.980 Because that's false humility. False humility 00:29:01.980 --> 00:29:05.740 turns a proper perspective of smallness into self-pity. 00:29:08.380 --> 00:29:12.620 And self-pity is ultimately self-exalting. 00:29:14.380 --> 00:29:16.900 It's just the reverse side of the coin of pride. 00:29:18.340 --> 00:29:21.140 When we are self-pitying, we feel sorry for ourselves 00:29:21.140 --> 00:29:23.940 because we want to be made much of 00:29:25.259 --> 00:29:28.019 because we want the glory and we're not getting it. 00:29:28.019 --> 00:29:30.539 So we pity ourselves. 00:29:30.539 --> 00:29:32.940 So when I say smallness is good for us, 00:29:32.940 --> 00:29:33.900 that's not what I mean. 00:29:33.900 --> 00:29:35.700 I don't mean self-pity. 00:29:35.700 --> 00:29:39.379 True humility, a true sense of our smallness 00:29:39.379 --> 00:29:40.980 doesn't degrade into self-pity 00:29:40.980 --> 00:29:45.180 because it's more concerned with God's glory 00:29:45.180 --> 00:29:46.379 than with our glory. 00:29:49.180 --> 00:29:52.539 And when we humble ourselves through repentance like that, 00:29:53.539 --> 00:29:55.740 God exalts us. 00:29:55.740 --> 00:29:58.779 So you can either be self-exalted 00:29:58.779 --> 00:30:01.579 or you can be God exalted, but you can't be both. 00:30:03.299 --> 00:30:07.539 God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. 00:30:12.299 --> 00:30:14.019 So the last question I suppose is, 00:30:14.019 --> 00:30:16.460 how do we become more concerned 00:30:16.460 --> 00:30:18.579 than with God's glory than with my own? 00:30:19.859 --> 00:30:22.220 I have to confess this to the Lord all the time. 00:30:22.220 --> 00:30:24.220 To be honest with you, sometimes I realize, 00:30:24.220 --> 00:30:25.860 Lord, I'm walking down this path 00:30:25.860 --> 00:30:28.819 and I'm more concerned about me than I am about you. 00:30:30.460 --> 00:30:32.019 And then what do you do with that? 00:30:32.019 --> 00:30:34.700 It's kind of a helpless realization to have, isn't it? 00:30:34.700 --> 00:30:37.940 It feels like, well, how can I change 00:30:37.940 --> 00:30:39.100 what I'm concerned about? 00:30:39.100 --> 00:30:41.460 How can I change my emotions? 00:30:41.460 --> 00:30:43.980 How can I change my own heart? 00:30:45.980 --> 00:30:48.539 Let's look at one last verse again 00:30:48.539 --> 00:30:50.019 or go back to verse five. 00:30:50.019 --> 00:30:52.019 Do you not know that friendship with the world 00:30:52.019 --> 00:30:53.019 is enmity with God? 00:30:53.019 --> 00:30:55.579 Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world 00:30:55.579 --> 00:30:57.539 makes himself an enemy of God? 00:30:57.539 --> 00:31:00.500 Or do you suppose that it's to no purpose 00:31:00.500 --> 00:31:05.500 that the scripture says he yearns jealously 00:31:05.500 --> 00:31:09.019 over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us? 00:31:13.379 --> 00:31:15.940 Quickly, let me know that's a lower case S. 00:31:15.940 --> 00:31:17.700 He's not talking about the Holy Spirit. 00:31:17.700 --> 00:31:21.299 He's talking about the breath that we breathe in our lungs. 00:31:21.299 --> 00:31:24.259 He's talking about the thing that makes us alive. 00:31:24.259 --> 00:31:29.259 Earlier in James, he says that faith without works 00:31:29.259 --> 00:31:31.820 is like a body without breath. 00:31:32.820 --> 00:31:34.259 That's the breath, the spirit. 00:31:34.259 --> 00:31:36.220 It's the same word that he's talking about here. 00:31:36.220 --> 00:31:39.660 In other words, God does not need you, 00:31:39.660 --> 00:31:41.740 but he longs for you. 00:31:41.740 --> 00:31:46.740 To put it in human terms, God's heart beats for you 00:31:46.740 --> 00:31:48.500 because he delights in you. 00:31:51.859 --> 00:31:54.140 That's how Jesus could face the cross. 00:31:55.140 --> 00:31:57.740 Hebrews 12 says the joy set before him. 00:31:59.140 --> 00:32:01.099 That's why the father sent Jesus to die. 00:32:01.099 --> 00:32:02.700 John says, for God so loved the world 00:32:02.700 --> 00:32:04.220 that he's in his only son. 00:32:06.220 --> 00:32:08.059 He's in the world that he's in. 00:32:08.059 --> 00:32:09.900 He's in the world that he's in. 00:32:09.900 --> 00:32:15.300 And he says, God longs for you. 00:32:15.300 --> 00:32:16.700 God desires you. 00:32:17.900 --> 00:32:21.860 And when we finally start to apprehend, 00:32:21.860 --> 00:32:25.180 to get our minds around God's desire for us, 00:32:25.180 --> 00:32:27.940 then the Holy Spirit begins to fan the flames 00:32:27.940 --> 00:32:29.220 of our desire for him. 00:32:30.700 --> 00:32:33.180 That's what the gospel does in our hearts. 00:32:33.180 --> 00:32:34.019 That's renewal. 00:32:34.019 --> 00:32:35.380 That's transformation. 00:32:35.380 --> 00:32:36.540 That's God's work. 00:32:36.539 --> 00:32:44.539 So we preach the gospel to our hearts, we preach the gospel to each other, we pray and we ask the Lord 00:32:44.539 --> 00:32:50.539 to make Him and His glory more important in our hearts than our own. 00:32:50.539 --> 00:32:57.539 So that's the end of my thing and that's what we're going to pray for together. 00:32:57.539 --> 00:33:08.539 Just now in the large group for a few minutes is we're just going to ask the Lord together to make much of Himself in our hearts, 00:33:08.539 --> 00:33:16.539 in our church, in our denomination, in our countries, in our communities, in our city. 00:33:16.539 --> 00:33:26.539 So let's do that and let's just think about and thank God for His grace for us in Christ. 00:33:26.539 --> 00:33:28.539 Thank you.