Grace to the Humble - The Letter of James - James 4:6-10

1. A never ending ocean of God's grace is ever-ready to those who are humble before him.

2. Humility means submitting to God's ways and resisting the ways of the enemy.

3. Humility means drawing near to God in genuine repentance.

Scripture References:

- James 4:1-10

- Luke 15:20

- Joel 2:12-13

- Philippians 2:8-9

Application:

- Do you see God's commands as condemning, or as empowering?

- Are you constantly struggling with the weight of guilt for all that you aren't?

- What is the state of your heart before God today?

- Are you truly humbled in your heart? Or are you fighting pridefully against him?

- Are you following the path of biblical humility?

- What are the commands of God he is calling you to obey today?

- What are the sins that he is calling you to draw near in repentance?

Read whole passage

Last week we left off a bit of a cliff hanger - we spoke of the power and the danger of our selfish desires.

James shows us that the most extreme problems and conflicts in our lives arise from the most simple and basic source - our selfish desires.

TV, movies and books are loaded with stories of people who's lives spiral into crazy chaos that starts from a small moment or impulse of selfishness.

Our greatest enemy is our own selfishness and this is an enemy we can never escape and must face every day.

And the most dangerous thing about this is that our selfishness doesn't ONLY bring chaos in our lives - it also makes us enemies to God!

It is dangerous to call yourself a christian, and live like that world - not just because sin with bring pain to our lives - but because God is jealous for his holiness and for the hearts of his people!

Last week we spoke of this jealousy - making it clear that Scripture shows us that God's jealousy is not a insecure and selfish jealousy - but that it is a jealousy of love. God demands our whole love not because he is selfish - but because he desires our perfect joy and his perfect glory in our lives.

All of this stacks up to a pretty big list of requirements and pressures.

Are we doomed to be crushed by the failure of our selfishness?

Where do we get the power to have victory over our selfish desires in our daily lives?

1. A never ending ocean of God's grace is ever-ready to those who are humble before him.

6 But he gives greater grace. Therefore he says:

God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

I love this phrase - "but he gives greater grace..."

All these requirements are stacked high and our selfishness is always burning in our hearts

HOW do we have hope to overcome it? to escape judgement?

God is perfect and holy - walking in selfishness and sin while I call myself a christian is dangerous!

If we seriously consider the weight of this truth - it is enough to crush us!

"but he gives greater grace..."

this same God, who asks SO MUCH from you, is the same God also gives the power to do everything he commands of us.

God does not just shower down requirements and commands - he also showers down to us the power and love and grace to stand and live in full obedience to the things that he calls us.

So many christians live a life that sees God as the one who gives commands and requirements but not as the one who also graciously gives the power and strength to do all that he calls us to.

When the Bible says, "You must be HOLY for I the Lord your God am a HOLY God.."

Some people shudder and recoil at this massive commands.

They think - man I am so far from that and I will never even come near to that.

God empowers that which he commands.

He gives greater grace

This means that every challenge and every command in Scripture must fill us with excitement - wow - this could be ME!

how do we get this power?

This is one basic requirement

"God resists the pround, but gives grace to the humble."

this is a quote of proverbs 3:34

To recieve the unending ocean of God's grace to change your life - there is just one simple requirement - you must see yourself as a person who is in need of his gift! You must be humble.

Are you a pretty good person? Or are you a person in desperate need of God's grace? God is an enemy to the proud - to those who think they are good the way they are, without any major help from anyone else.

Ok, but what does a humble person look like? How is it expressed?

2. Humility means submitting to God's ways and resisting the ways of the enemy.

7 Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

what does humility look like?

Its more than just being all pious and quiet and saying you need God and admitting how bad you are.

In our day a lot of christians are all about talking about their brokenness and weakness.

We are a generation that is kind of obsessed with our inner emotions and feelings and many of us have no problem admitting that we are weak poeple and we fail a lot.

We need safety. we need love. we need support and encouragement. we need help. we need therapy. we need doctors. we need medications. we need counseling. we need to figure out how our emotions work and what are the perfect circumstances we need to be in to do what we need to do.

In all of these conversations are often totally void of one core feature - we don't talk about our need and our devotion to obey God.

"submit to God..."

humility is more than just a feeling - it is an active posture of your heart that is devoted to doing all that which God tells you.

Submitting to God means naming HIM as your Lord and Master.

You can't be submitted to God while being a slave to your emotions and fears.

This really is the essence of the life of faith - "I don't need to have all of life figured out - I just want to do what God calls me to do. In every season of life, in every day, in every situation - what does obedience and faithfulness to him look like?"

When we are riding a bike, if we are looking down at the wheels and pedals and chain - and the dirt, and worrying about balance - we will definitely crash.

But if we look up, straight ahead to where we are going - everything down below will be taken care of.

The same with obedience to God.

So often we are consumed with solving our problems and figuring out our future when we just need to focus on one thing - what is God calling me to do today?

James shows us that this the key to resisting the evil power of the devil in our lives is our humility and submission to God.

These are two sides of the same coin - submitting to God and resisting the devil.

People love to talk about all the mystical spiritual things we need to do to have power over the devil and over spiritual evil in our lives.

Scripture makes it very clear - its not the devil we obsess over - its our focus on GOD and his LORDSHIP in our lives - and when our heart is SET to obey.

When we are obeying God we are simultaneously resisting the devil.

James says "when you are focused in your heart to be submitted to God, its not just that you will have the strength to endure evil in you life - you will have total victory to the point that Satan himself will FLEE from you..."

3. Humility means drawing near to God in genuine repentance.

8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

What kind of obedience does God want from us?

"draw near to God and he will draw near to you."

obedience to many is a cold hard word - God has so many requirements and demands.

James shows us the very opposite.

The commands of God, submission that he calls us to - is designed to bring us close to him.

This hits on a core theme in all of Scripture - God created us for intimate, covenant relationship.

I will be your God and you will be my poeple.

Jesus highlights to us the heart of God in the parable of the prodigal son - what was the father doing when the son was far away?

Luke 15:20

20 So he got up and went to his father. But while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him.

draw near to God and he will draw near to you.

Is this not amazing that OUR GOD draws near to us??

What prevents us from drawing near to God and experiencing his love and grace?

So often it is our own sin and selfishness - this is why as James is calling us he is also giving us one of the most thorough and clear calls to repentence found in the NT.

Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

Humility always leads to genuine repentence. It leads us to come before God with a deep awareness of our sin and brokenness.

And it includes our whole life - cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double minded.

You admit you wrong actions AND your wrong attitudes.

9 Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

Some christians take everything way too seriously and think joy is a sin.

But our generation has a different problem. we are too simplistic and just always want good vibes only. we never want to be serious.

We don't like verses that tell us to mourn and weep. Obviously James is not saying we should never be happy - his whole letter started with a call to joy.

What he is doing here is calling us to embrace the seriousness of sin in our lives.

But life is serious. Sin is serious. Our need for God every day is serious.

Repentance and spiritual renewal is a very central part of the christian life.

This is often the KEY to drawing hear to God in the midst of our crazy lives. Repentence.

True and powerful humilty is a humility that comes to God in honesty daily - confessing sin, taking it seriously. feeling the weight of your selfishness and your failures.

what role does repentence play in your spiritual life? Some christians dont think they ever really need to repent because we repent once and God forgives everything.

It is true that God forgives everything and we are justified by faith once and for all.

But it is also true that WE are in need of constant spiritual realignment.

Joel 2:12-13

12 Even now—

this is the Lord’s declaration—

turn to me with all your heart,

with fasting, weeping, and mourning.

13 Tear your hearts,

not just your clothes,

and return to the Lord your God.

For he is gracious and compassionate,

Do you repent regularly? Do you have a healthy seriousness in your spiritual life? Is there an awareness of the evil of sin in your life?

It is this humble repentance that is the key to power and freedom in our lives.

James finishes where he started.

"humble yourselves before the Lord and He will exalt you."

God's goal is always our exaltation, our restoration, our glory.

But he makes clear to us that the path to that is through the path of humility.

The path to resurrection and new life is through the path of humility and death.

This is the whole story of salvation that God himself walks through.

This is the path that GOD Himself has walked for us, and walks WITH us.

We are approaching the christmas season - it is the commemoration of the glorious reality that God entered our world as a child.

He lived a full life. He humbled himself to the level of a servant. Not only that, he took our sins upon himself.

Jesus gave his perfect life for us, he perfect account give to us, our guilty condemned account given to him.

Philippians 2:8-9

he humbled himself by becoming obedient

to the point of death—

even to death on a cross.

For this reason God highly exalted him

and gave him the name

that is above every name

Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you

the ocean of God's grace is ever ready for those who simply let go of their selfishness and draw near to him in humility, obedience and repentence.

Application:

- Do you see God's commands as condemning, or as empowering?

- Are you constantly struggling with the weight of guilt for all that you aren't?

- What is the state of your heart before God today?

- Are you truly humbled in your heart? Or are you fighting pridefully against him?

- Are you following the path of biblical humility?

- What are the commands of God he is calling you to obey today?

- What are the sins that he is calling you to draw near in repentance?