Draw Near to God

Please remain standing and turn in your Bibles to the book of James in chapter 4. I'm going to read the first 10 verses, and I want to remind you that this is God's holy and infallible Word. James chapter 4.

Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet you do not have because you do not ask.

You ask and do not receive because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Or do you think that the scripture says in vain the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously, but he gives more grace? Therefore, he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

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

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up. May the Lord be pleased with our consideration of his most excellent word. Please pray with me now. O Lord, we ask that you would illumine our understanding, not for our pride's sake, that we might feel good about our intellect, but that we might do your will.

O Lord, I pray that you, Christ, would be our treasure, and that our great longing would be for communion with you, and that we would be characterized by love for you, and it would be manifested in our obedience and our walking in your ways.

O Holy Spirit, I ask that you would pierce us through the heart, that you would strike heavy blows upon us where we are sinning and erring against your will, but we also ask, O Lord, that you would comfort us in our affliction, that we would remember that we have a Savior who is Christ the Lord.

And all this we pray, O Jesus, that you would be glorified, and it's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. Please be seated. There is a wonderful rhythm that happens when you are preaching sequentially through books of the Bible, but that rhythm gets thrown off when you are absent for a week and are preaching somewhere else.

The last time we were together, when I was with you, we considered James chapter 4, verses 1 through 4, and it was very convicting to realize that to have friendship with the world is to make ourselves opposite and hostile, to be at enmity with God.

We found out that we had to wage war against our own sinful desires, and that we had to take personal responsibility for our lives and acknowledge that our sin is our fault and our responsibility, that we need to repent of it and draw close to God again.

Today, we're going to consider verses 5 through 10. The title of the message is Draw Near to God. Draw Near to God. It's really one of the bigger applications of this section that I'd like us to consider, that title, Draw Near to God.

And for those of you who are taking notes, I am really fixated on one simple point, and it's found in the text of Scripture in verse 10. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord.

Depending on how you count it, there are ten imperatives in our section, and that's quite a lot for a short passage of Scripture. There's a responsibility that we have to act upon the truth that we have received already in James.

You will remember that James desires that his hearers would possess and practice, therefore, genuine faith in Christ. This is really his objective. And we learn that in part of doing this is we have to understand what the will of God is, and we have to understand our natural proclivity and inclination to not do that will, and to stoke affections of holiness in our own lives.

We need to be those who are feeding our spirits and starving the flesh. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord. Well, we have probably the most difficult to interpret verse in James in verse 5. There's not a lot of controversy in terms of exegesis in the book of James.

There is controversies that people have given to apply the truths of James, but James is a very straightforward epistle. But James chapter 4 verse 5 is a little difficult. Let's get into it. Let's look at verse 5 again.

Or do you think that the scripture says in vain the spirit who dwells in us.

Yearns.

Jealously? The unbeliever in his natural state of corruption who is at one with the world, the very thing here James has just warned us against earlier in the chapter, has a spirit of self-seeking and envy.

This is at the very heart of why he says there are wars and fights among you in James chapter 4 verse 1. In Genesis chapter 6 verse 5 we learn that the thoughts and the intents of men's hearts are.

Evil.

Continually.

Envy and self-interest is at the very heart of our sin nature and the controversy is is the capitalization really of the word spirit. As you know in the New Testament, Pneuma is not capitalized for us in this way.

And the question has been is this the spirit that dwells in a man? A lot of modern commentators hold to that. Or is this properly translated to capitalize the spirit? I believe that the capitalization of the spirit is the better of the two.

This is not a big deal if you disagree with this. But I believe that what James is saying is we have a new spirit within us. We have a Holy Spirit within us that yearns jealously. He seeks that we love holy things and we have an old man and the unbeliever has a heart of jealousy that yearns for worldliness.

That yearns for untoward pleasures. That that longs to do things which are at odds with God. And so for James to say this, however, we interpret it or understand it, the reality is is that for us who are in Christ, we now ought to have a new desire to walk in faith and righteousness.

If we love the world and we're characterized by the love from the world for the world, we are in danger of deceiving ourselves. I don't think James is trying to kick people out of the church. I think he wants us as the Christian to say, I don't want to be like the world that is at enmity with God.

I don't want to be a called an enemy of God. I don't want to be an adulterer and adulterer, adulteress when it comes to my relationship with God. And I think James is spurring us on to flee these things which are contrary to our new nature in Christ.

The natural man has a jealous spirit within him. The believer also has a spirit, a Holy Spirit within him. Christians must recognize the folly of friendship with the world. Instead of feeding the lusts of the old man, he feeds the holy desires of the new man.

The genuine believer is affected by better principles because he has a better spirit dwelling in at work within him. He too is jealous, but his jealousy is for holiness and an unmixed singular devotion to God.

That seems to be consistent with James's message. He wants us to be those who are singularly devoted to our God. That we are not adding mixture of error and worldliness and sinful desires, but we have a purity of devotion for our God.

And it's manifested in our obedience. And now we get to verse six. And I love what verse six says to us. It opens with the statement, but he gives more grace. God in his redeeming love gives an abundance of grace to all who love him.

Isn't that wonderful news? We have been the enemies of God in our natural state. And God has so loved us to draw him to himself and to make us alive and to give us a relationship with his son, which, as we learned this morning in Sunday school, brings us into the very heart and love of the Trinity itself.

This is all God's doing. And none of us would be saved left to our own devices. Our God has reached down and he has touched us and he has redeemed us from the pit. He has been so merciful and so gracious to save us, his people.

And he gives this favor, which is without merit, so freely. And that's what makes the rest of the message, the rest of our section so important. Oh, the wonders of his grace. James is here offering us a proper response to grace.

And really, isn't that part of the overarching theme? The gospel of Christ has come to us. And now what are we going to do? How are we going to live? How are we going to think in light of this gospel grace?

Well, he gives us a warning. There are a series of opposites given. And this is terrifying to consider. We don't want to be on the wrong side of things here, as we've already learned in chapter four and elsewhere in James.

These are the different ways the world reacts to God and his truth versus the Christian. The believer, by definition, is humble. Because he has come to God according to his grace and he's come empty handed.

He knows his salvation is entirely of grace. The unbeliever, by definition, is proud. He is content with his self-determination without God. His judgment is sure. And this part is hard. God resists the proud.

What are we to do with our own pride? Because our new nature is a new nature of humility. God resists the proud. I don't want to be resisted by God. I don't want God coming against me. And the language of resisting is God.

And think of this, children, is setting himself in his battle. Array against them. Can there be a greater disgrace than for God to proclaim a man, a rebel, an enemy, a traitor? To his crown and his dignity.

And then for God to proceed against him as such. The proud man resists God. It's a characteristic of the unbeliever. And I believe this is James's method. He says, essentially, this is what unbelievers do.

They are proud in their heart and they are resisted by God. You as Christians, don't you be proud now. It's contrary to your new nature in Christ. The proud man, in his understanding, resists the truth that God gives.

He resists the law of God, which we just prayed through. Summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments. In his passions, he resists the providence of God. It is no wonder, therefore, that God would set himself against the proud Christian.

We are all in a big war against pride. When we are proud, we are acting like unbelievers. This should cause us to pause and say, I don't want to act like an unbeliever. I want to be a faithful Christian man, woman or child.

We must resist the pride in our hearts. The believer has been saved from his soul damning pride. And the question has to be asked, why would we ever return to it? This is the very substance of what we've been saved from.

And I believe this is the admonition of James to spur us on in the right direction. We can't go back there because we've been delivered from it. The Christian must flee worldliness and pride because they're so contrary to his new nature.

It actually goes against the Holy Spirit, which now dwells within. Worldliness and pride are watermarks of the unbeliever. They are authenticators of unbelief. You and I must continually repent of our pride.

We are to resist our pride and be humble toward God. So the stage is being set. The second part of 6b says, but God gives grace to the humble. He resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. There is a hermeneutical key here that this is the driving force behind this section.

God is eager to give his grace to the humble. And the humble are those who have willingly and joyfully received his grace. Verse 7 says, therefore, submit to God. God gives grace. Verse 6 says he gives more grace.

But pride brings disgrace. And isn't this a cruel irony? Because doesn't pride seek after honor ultimately? It can be internal. And I have news for you. There can be some very humble and very sweet little old ladies who look so beautiful and tender and mild and humble on the outside, but inwardly they are riddled with pride.

This is a matter of the heart. It's not only external, it's primarily internal. We say, oh, that man is so humble in his heart. He may be exceedingly prideful and haughty in spirit. So each of us has to ask the question, am I prideful?

And oh, Lord, would you reveal to us all the myriad of ways in which we're prideful that we might repent and turn away from these things? What a cruel irony. The proud man is seeking after honor and he brings disgrace upon himself.

Verse 7, one of these very powerful, simple imperatives. Therefore, submit to God. That's a very basic command. The whole Christian man must be wholly submitted to God. The Christian must forsake that friendship with the world, which is characterized by envy and pride.

And which is so self-evident in unrighteous men, and he needs to be characterized by submission. Don't resist God, submit to him. The righteous, humble man submits to the truths of God, whereas the proud man doesn't.

He submits to the laws of God. As we outlined before, the proud man doesn't. He submits to the providence of God, which the proud man does not. We believe very strongly that Christ is king, and if Christ is king, then we are his noble subjects.

Isn't it very basic to say that we ought to submit to him? He's the king. He's the righteous one. He's the one who has saved us. He's the one who has loved us. Doesn't it follow, then, that we ought to submit to him?

We are now slaves of righteousness. We have been transformed by his grace. It is fitting that the king's subjects would subject themselves and be submissive to their God. And children, don't be misled.

Submission to our God and humility yields only blessings in the end. All of us have tried, haven't we? Say, I'm going to go get it for myself. In the end, it leads to chastisement or worse, judgment. But those who are humble in the sight of the Lord will be lifted up.

Therefore, submit to God. And in our human nature, our rebellion cries out, but I don't want to submit. We have to think better thoughts and recognize that to submit to God is the path of blessing and joy and thanksgiving and peace and hope.

There's so much good to be gained from submission to God. The next imperative here is resist the devil. The proud man resists God. The opposite. The righteous man resists the devil. How did Christ resist the devil and his temptation in the wilderness?

Let's turn really quickly to Luke chapter 4. I want to read verses 1 through 13. This is the temptation of Jesus by the devil. This is immediately after the baptism of Jesus and is a very important time.

We have the voice of God crying out from heaven saying, this is my son in whom I am well pleased. And Jesus is now about to commence his earthly ministry. This is that moment. And now he's driven by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted.

Chapter 4, verse 1. Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for 40 days by the devil. And in those days, he ate nothing.

And afterward, when they had ended, he was hungry. And the devil said to him, if you are the son of God, command this stone to become bread. But Jesus answered him saying, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by the very, by every word of God.

Children, this is a great illustration to us about how we combat three great enemies, the world, the flesh and the devil. We combat it with scripture. We quote and recite, we memorize scripture that we can combat these great three fronts of this spiritual war of which the devil is a prominent one.

Jesus says, I'm not going to be tempted to perform a miracle for my own comfort to prove something to the devil. There's a humility in this even, isn't there? This is the king of glory. This is the agent of creation.

This is the one who holds it all together. This is the highest one. He could have stopped him right there, but in his humility, showing us the kind of people we should be. Being filled with the spirit, he says, you shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God and the devil taking him up on a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

And the devil said to him, all this authority I will give you and their glory for this has been delivered to me and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if you will worship before me, all will be yours.

And Jesus answered and said to him, get behind me, Satan. For it is written, you shall worship the Lord, your God, and him only shall you serve. And he brought him to Jerusalem to set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down from here for it is written he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you.

In their hands, they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. Jesus answered and said to him, it has been said, you shall not tempt the Lord, your God. Now, when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.

James has given us, we can turn back there, similar counsel. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. The enemy can only be resisted when you are submitted to God. The world and the flesh can also be resisted, but they will not be resisted unless you are submitted to God.

What's so painfully obvious with this, when we consider our own lives, that rebellious part of us raises up, wells up within us. Why in our folly, in our utter stupidity, do we fail to submit to God? Why do we give the enemy or the world, which we've just learned in chapter four, our own.

Flesh?

Why?

Why do we make an occasion, an entree for sin to creep in? As we've learned recently, we have to have holy affections. We have to love the things of God. And, and as you were praying through the 10 commandments, you should have been praying these are treasures for my soul.

God is not excluding any good gift from me. These words are treasures to my soul. This is life and godliness and, and health and salvation here. But we say, I want to be angry with my neighbor. I want to be able to murder him in my heart, as Chad prayed.

But we want to look upon a woman lustfully, want to cherish that and hang on to that. There's nothing good there for us. Well, what can we do? This is why I've entitled the message today, Draw Near to God.

Take a look at verse eight. How are we to demonstrate our humble submissiveness to him? We need to draw near. The formerly rebellious heart now transformed by Christ must bow in the presence of God. There have already been several ways in which we have been given opportunity and occasion to draw near to God.

We're called to worship here. Our liturgy is very good for this. We are called before the tribunal of God and his holiness. And when we confess, we're honest. We have to take responsibility for our real sin.

And he declares back to us, you are reconciled. You are forgiven. And my dear son, Christ, draw near to me. Come and worship me. Come into my presence in the fullness of joy. If we draw near to God. He will draw near to us.

Brethren, the unbeliever has no communion with God and is drawn away and enticed by his own desires. But you who are in Christ have been brought near. We come boldly into his presence in our humility because we're doing it because of Christ.

We look upon Christ and says, if he saves us, if he is our high priest, we can draw.

Near.

We can come with great boldness to God. Why is worship so? Why is it drudgery to us? Some of you are sitting wondering when this is going to end. So you can go to lunch. We don't love the means of grace that God has supplied.

Think about some of the other ways that God has made provision for us to draw near to.

Him.

We can draw near to him in our private, devotional and worship life. We can open the scripture together as a family. Think about our corporate worship gathering, which we're enjoying enjoying today. What about prayer?

Prayer is a drawing near to God and we're distracted. We can't even finish our prayers. This is so hard for us because. We have so much going on. We open the word of God. Do we see it as the gift that it is?

Do we meditate on it day and night as the righteous man of Psalm one? What about the Lord's Supper? Do you draw near to God in the supper? What about in your obedience and in your love and service to others?

When we when we do it to the least of these, we do it to Christ himself. God has given us dozens of ways to draw near to him. And when God seems far away, let it be known today without any question, the reason he's far away is because we have left him.

He's not left us. He cannot deny himself. He has entered into a blood covenant with us. Those cold feelings of devotion and religion are not anything but us drifting away. So James commands us to draw near.

Every spiritual discipline, every Christian duty becomes an occasion to draw nigh unto God. Well, I've got a few more imperatives to cover and then we'll be finished here. Consider verse eight, the second part, cleanse your hands.

This language is found throughout Scripture. And I believe Mitch even prayed for this in our time before the service. He who comes to God must have clean hands and a pure heart. And in first Timothy, chapter two, Paul calls all who are in Christ to lift up holy hands without wrath and doubting.

The hands were symbols of a man's livelihood and therefore his life. To lift our hands up to the Lord is to lift our lives up to him. My life is yours, O Lord. My hands are clean. I don't shed innocent blood.

I'm purging actively every defilement that is within me because my life is yours. And so James is calling his people to cleanse their hands. It's a very significant posture of worship and prayer and praise.

We lift holy hands. He calls us to purify our hearts. This is a warning against double mindedness. The, as we've already learned, the genuine believer has a singular purpose, and that is to please God.

Is that your singular purpose? Or has pride entered in? And finally, we have to accept God's providence and respond appropriately. Yesterday was very sad. We attended a wedding, excuse me, a funeral for a 12 year old boy.

And we have to understand the time, the place that we are. We should be the most joyful and merry and mirth filled people on the planet. But there is a season for everything. And yesterday was not the time for people to make off color jokes about dying, for example.

James is telling us that we have to accept God's providence and respond appropriately. You and I are sometimes laughing when our family member is struggling. You and I do not lament with hope and expectation for a deliverance of our community and our nation.

When was the last time that you cried tears over the sins of your nation or the sins of your children? I think we're far too often. We are too stoic, unaffected. We need to mourn and weep over the wars and the fights that have come up among us.

And we sometimes just joke about it instead. Laughter needs to sometimes be turned to mourning and joy needs to be turned to gloom. Godly sorrow leads to repentance. We are often too flippant, too vain.

You and I, to appropriately worship God and live as believers, must indulge in godly sorrow and actually cry penitential tears. We need to submit to God, humbling ourselves in his sight. Let's consider verse 10, our conclusion and the thesis of our message.

This humility is not merely an outward posture. Those can be faked. It's not just lifting up holy hands and bowing before him. It's chiefly a matter of the heart. Pride can be concealed under a mask of external virtue and the appearance of humility.

But true humility is seen first by God on the heart. I wonder what's really going on in our hearts. Are you truly humble? The Lord sees. Are you prideful? The Lord sees. And we need to pray that God would grant us humility in accordance with his grace that reflects that new nature we have been given in Christ.

And brethren, our God will draw near to those who come near to him. There's nothing more pleasing to me than to be close to my wife and to my children. And I think that's pleasing to the Lord for his bride and his children to come near and draw unto him.

You and I have this privilege of offering the entirety of our lives to him as an obedient, living sacrifice. If you don't sense the nearness of God, I'll remind you again that you have been the one who has drifted.

He beckons you and bids you to come and draw near to him to enjoy the fullness of sweet communion with him. Before there is honor, there is humility. Our Lord humbled himself even so far as to take on humanity.

And he goes deeper into that humility and going to the cross. And now he is the most highly exalted one. Let us no longer pursue our own honor. Let us wait upon the Lord in humility and let him exalt you.

Our text says, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up. Wonderful words, powerful truth. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. May we be those who humble ourselves and are given the privilege and lay hold of that privilege and draw near to God.

Amen.