GOD ONLY SAVES HUMBLE PEOPLE
James 4: 1-10
INTRODUCTION
You will notice that in your program today’s sermon is titled, "Anger:
It’s cause and it’s cure." But the title on the sermon outline is, "God
Only Saves the Humble". Also, the text for today is not in Genesis, even
though we are in a series from the book of Genesis. When I was planning
out the sermon schedule last December, I knew that I would be out of town
this past Thursday and Friday and therefore would not have time to study
the passage in Genesis and write a sermon on it. So, I picked a text that
I am very familiar with and have studied and used quite often. However
it is a text I have never preached a sermon from. I took my original title
from how I usually use this text. When people come to me who are angry
and fighting with each other, I always turn to this passage to help them
see what is causing their anger and their fighting. That is a very legitimate
use of this text, as you will see. However, as I thought about this passage
during the week, it occurred to me that the main point is not the answer
to the question he asks in v. 1 but rather v. 6. "God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble." He begins with the fights and quarrels
of Christians in order to show a central point of the gospel—God only
saves humble people.
The other thing that occurred to me was that this passage is an excellent
follow-up to last week’s sermon. Last week, we saw in the life of Isaac,
that only God can guarantee a safe arrival in heaven. What this passage
in James teaches is how God gets us to heaven. If it is true that
God only saves humble people, then I need to know if I am humble. I also
need to know what to do if I am not humble.
In Luke 18 Jesus tells a story that shows that God only saves humble
people. This is on page 742 in the red bibles. (Read vv. 9-14) I want
you to notice v. 14. Do you see how it is saying what James 4:6 &
10 say? The word "justified" means that God declares the tax collector
not guilty of his sins and treats him as if he has always perfectly obeyed
all of God’s laws. Jesus is saying that the tax collector is going to
be saved because he knows he doesn’t deserve to be saved and so casts
himself on the mercy of God. He does not depend upon himself at all. He
is depending entirely on God’s work. He is humble and God gives grace
to the humble. The Pharisee, on the other hand, is going to end up in
hell even though he did many good things and avoided many bad things.
Why? Because he is confident he deserves to be rewarded with heaven because
of what he has done. He is not depending on God’s mercy because he doesn’t
see that he needs mercy. He believes he is adequate and capable of his
own salvation. He is proud and God opposes the proud. Most of us, when
we read a story like this, automatically presume we are humble like the
tax collector. We automatically presume we are not proud like the Pharisee.
James 4 gives us an infallible way to know whether we are proud or humble.
If you care about where you spend eternity, then you need to pay very
careful attention to what I’m going to say.
MAIN POINT
God only saves the humble therefore…
I. He uses conflict to expose pride (vv. 1-4)
James begins with a question that parents ask children all the time.
If you have more than one child in your home, you regularly ask, "why
are you fighting?" Every parent knows the answer they are going to receive.
We don’t always know the details in advance but we do know the form the
answer will take. One child will say, "She called me a name." To which
the other will reply, "Well, she called me a name first." Or, "I had the
remote and he took it from me." Then the other child will say, "Well,
he was watching a bad show." And then you’re off to the races. When you
ask two people, "why are you fighting?" the answer you will get from both
parties is what the other person did that was offensive. You will be told
why the other person’s behavior is wrong and why it is right for the party
to whom you are talking to be angry.
If you are the disinterested third party called in to arbitrate, you
will often discover that one of the parties has indeed been treated unjustly.
Or perhaps you will discover that the conflict is more a matter of miscommunication
and misunderstanding. But notice what James does not say in answer to
his question. He does not say the reason you are fighting is because you
have been treated unjustly. He doesn’t say, the reason you are fighting
is because you don’t understand each other. He doesn’t say you are fighting
because you never took a class in conflict resolution or anger management.
He says the reason you are fighting is because you want something and
you are not getting it. You have all these desires churning around in
you that must be fulfilled if you are going to be happy. People however,
don’t cooperate and your desires remain unfulfilled and so you fight.
You want your children to respect you but they talk back to you or ignore
what you tell them to do. You want to watch a football game and your wife
wants to watch ice-skating. You want your co-worker to do more or to do
it your way and she does it her way on her schedule. You want your husband
to listen to you and he wants to have sex. You want your friend to call
you and he doesn’t. You want to spend the night at your friend’s house
but your parents won’t let you. You want your wife to speak respectfully
to you but she calls you names all the time. You don’t want anyone to
slow you down while you’re driving on the interstate and you get behind
someone going the speed limit. You want people to notice your new hairstyle
and they don’t.
James says that when we want something and we don’t get it, we murder
and are jealous. That’s harsh language, especially when he’s talking to
professing Christians. I mean, he didn’t write this letter to the local
Mafia, so why does he say, "you murder"? He is referring to what Jesus
said in Matthew 5:21-22. "You have heard that it was said to the people
long ago, ‘Do not murder’ and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.
But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject
to judgment." (NOTE: if you have the King James or New King James version,
it says, "angry without cause". The "without cause" is not in the best
manuscripts and that is why you will not find it in any other translation.
If you want to know why the KJV has it, talk with me later.) The point
that Jesus is making is that when a person does something that offends
you and you are angry with that person, your anger, in God’s sight, is
the same as murder. James takes this word from Jesus and shows where the
anger comes from. You have all these desires and longings in you and when
your desires are not met then you get mad at the people you believe are
responsible for not fulfilling your desires. That anger you have, even
if you don’t act on it, is the same thing as murder.
The other emotional response you will have when your desires are frustrated
is jealousy. When your desires for happiness are frustrated you become
jealous of others who are getting what you want. "It’s not fair that you
get to stay up to 10pm and I have to go to bed at 9pm." So you fight.
"It’s not fair that the boss gave you a raise and not me." So you gossip,
spread rumors and look for ways to hurt and reject the other. "It’s not
fair that you get to go hunting and I have to stay home with the kids",
so you fight with your spouse.
So here is the explanation for why we fight and quarrel. Our hearts are
full of desires and longings that must be satisfied if we are going to
be happy. These longings are not fulfilled and so we become angry and/or
jealous. In our anger and jealousy, we strike out at others; we fight
with them to get what we want. But notice in v. 2 what happens. "You don’t
get what you want." But, that’s not always true is it? You get what you
want lots of times. Sometimes you get it without fighting and sometimes
as the result of fighting. Ah, but how long does the contentment, the
happiness last? Until another desire is frustrated. What you don’t get
is what you really want, lasting happiness. What you don’t get is all
your desires being met all the time right when you want them to be met.
So, it’s only a matter of time before we’re back where we were before,
full of a desire that isn’t being fulfilled and then angry or jealous
and fighting with someone else.
Here’s how this works in my life. I have a desire that my children go
to bed when I tell them to. They don’t always go right when I tell them.
So, I am angry. I fight with them to go to bed. After one of them goes
and I’ve got what I want, then I am happy. But then 30 minutes later,
I tell another one to go to bed and the same thing happens again. I’m
not getting what I want, all of my desires fulfilled right when I want
them fulfilled and so I quarrel and fight. I have a responsibility and
the authority to send my children to bed. However, my anger shows that
I am not simply discharging a parental duty. I NEED my children to obey
me or I cannot be happy.
Then James gives us the first hint at the solution. He says you don’t
have because you don’t ask. In other words, you don’t have lasting happiness
because you’re depending entirely upon your own ability and understanding
to get it. Your life is not oriented to God, but away from him and so,
you never get what you’re really looking for. But now see what he says.
Eventually people get to the end of their rope and they finally say, "I
can’t do this anymore. I’m tired of the conflict. I’m tired of the anger
and jealousy and of not having my desires fulfilled. So I’ll ask God to
meet my needs." That sounds so good, doesn’t it? But, according to v.
3, that is the wrong way to live. What happens is the person starts asking
God to meet his needs but God doesn’t answer. Why? He doesn’t answer because
he is asking for evil. He asks God to provide the resources so that he
can then go out and buy what he wants. What is it that we want? Well,
we want to watch the TV shows we want to watch. We want children that
do what we want them to do. We want co-workers that do things our way.
We want spouses that meet our needs. We want healthy bodies so we can
enjoy the good life. We want cars that run. God doesn’t answer us because
he’s not interested in fulfilling our desires. Our desires are what have
gotten us into trouble in the first place. He’s not the local drug dealer.
That is how most of us treat God. You want a fix of your drug of choice,
respect, love, a hassle free life, a big bank account, whatever. Then
you go to God and ask him to give it to you. Guess what, he’s not going
to do it.
Verse 4 shows us what we are truly doing whenever we fight and quarrel
with another human being. We are being adulterers. The metaphor James
is using is a very common one in the OT. God is the husband of his people
but we prefer someone else to him. Why do spouses commit adultery? They
are dissatisfied with how their spouse is treating them and believe that
another person will give them something that their spouse will not or
cannot give them. When a person commits adultery, regardless of what they
say, they hate their spouse. Adultery is the consummate expression of
hatred toward a spouse. You cannot do more to demean or show contempt
for a spouse than commit adultery.
James says that when we fight we are showing that we love the world,
need the world, desire the world, and believe the world will make us happy.
This is adultery because we were made by God and for God. You cannot want
what the world has to offer and want God at the same time. You cannot
demand that your desires be fulfilled and be God’s friend at the same
time. You cannot do that anymore than a person can have a lover and claim
to love his wife at the same time. Every time you are angry or jealous
or fight with another person, you are declaring that there is someone
or something other than God that you must have to be happy. I want you
to notice that we are not just regular adulterers. We are like the wife
who has a lover, goes to her husband, and says, "My lover and I would
like to go on a Caribbean cruise. I would like you to pay for it." What
James says is that there is only one thing you must have to be happy and
that is God himself. When you are angry or jealous and then fight with
others, you are simply declaring you don’t believe that to be true. You
hate God. Someone or something else has taken God’s place in your life.
The emotions of anger and jealousy and the quarreling that these emotions
produce are an infallible indication that we love something other than
God.
God only saves the humble, therefore…
- He uses conflict to expose our pride
- And…
II. He doesn’t immediately destroy the proud (vv. 5-6)
In verse 5, James reminds us of something that is true of God. We know
this is true because God has revealed this about himself in the Old Testament.
What we are told is that God is a jealous God. He yearns for the whole-hearted
love of his people. He wants people who are faithful spouses, not adulterous
ones. Repeatedly he says that he is jealous for our love because he cannot
let himself be treated with contempt. He says, "For my own sake, for my
own sake I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield
my glory to another." (Is. 48:11) What would you say about a husband whose
wife committed adultery and when he found out, he didn’t care? He said,
"I don’t care. She can do what she wants." We would say that husband doesn’t
really love his wife. We would say he doesn’t really value his reputation.
So, in the same way, God is a jealous husband. He loves his people and
he wants us to love him back. He is committed to the glory of his own
name.
Normally, how would a husband respond when he discovers that his wife
is having an affair? He would be very hurt and very angry and his first
inclination would be to divorce her. He’d kick her out of the house. Notice
verse six. The NIV is not very helpful here. The NAS has it right. "But
he gives a greater grace." There is no "us". We are told what God
gives but not to whom he gives it. The reason is that the grace
that God gives is different for different people. He gives one kind of
grace to the humble and another to the proud.
We are people who profess to believe in the glorious Lord Jesus Christ
and yet we discover that we still engage in adultery. We know we are adulterers
because we are angry, jealous, and fighting people. We know that it would
only be right for God to condemn us for our adultery. But he has unmerited,
unearned favor that is greater than our adultery. Rom. 5:8 says, "God
demonstrates his very own love for us in this: while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us." If you are a person who has placed his faith in Christ
then there is greater grace available for you in him. It is the unmerited
favor of having God kill Jesus instead of killing you for your sins. It
is the favor of having Jesus’ righteousness given to you. It is the undeserved
kindness of having a new heart that wants to believe and obey God and
that grieves over sin. But even for those who have not yet placed their
faith in Christ he has a greater grace. He continues to provide them with
food, clothing, homes, families, jobs, and the enjoyment of his creation
even though they continually commit adultery. God, right now, is being
enormously kind to every human being who lives on the face of planet earth.
He cares for his entire creation, even that part that scorns his love
and treats him with contempt by loving everything else but him.
But now we are told that this greater grace is not going to be available
to everyone all the time. God, we are told, is fundamentally opposed to
the proud. He is against all those who persist in adultery. There is a
final day of reckoning coming. A court date has been set and all who refuse
to humble themselves, who continue to insist on their right to have their
desires fulfilled, will face his stern opposition. In Proverbs 30:20 we
are told this: "This is the way of the adulteress. She eats and wipes
her mouth and says, ‘I’ve done nothing wrong.’" People who are angry or
jealous or fight but persist in saying, "I’ve done nothing wrong. Other
people have wronged me but I’ve not wronged others. I deserve to be treated
better than this. I have a right to be angry. I will make others pay for
what they’ve done. I will fight for my rights. I will not put up with
this anymore." People who live like this to the end of their lives can
count on God’s opposition when they stand before him at the final judgement.
"God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble."
God only saves the humble, therefore…
- He uses conflict to expose our pride
- He doesn’t immediately destroy the proud
- And…
III. He requires humility (vv. 7-10)
What does it mean to be a humble person? It doesn’t mean that you are
never angry or never jealous or never fight. It does mean that whenever
you are angry or jealous or fight you do what vv. 7-10 tells you to do.
If vv. 7-10 don’t describe your way of life, then you are not a humble
person, you are a proud person and God is against you.
Verse 7 begins with a "therefore". As you’ve heard me say dozens of times,
when you see a "therefore", you must ask what it is there for. The "therefore"
looks back at vv. 1-6 and makes us ask, "Why should I want to be a humble
person?" I should do vv. 7-10 because my angry fighting shows that I am
an adulterer. Because I know, that anyone who is a friend of the world
is an enemy of God. Because I know, that God is jealous for my love. I
owe him everything I am. He alone is worthy of my trust and love. Because
I know, there is a grace greater than all my sin. I know that Christ has
died and risen and sent his Holy Spirit. Because I know, God opposes the
proud. Because I know, God gives his unmerited favor only to the humble.
If you put that all together what you know is that God is what you need.
If I can have Jesus and nothing else in the world, I have everything.
I don’t need anything but Jesus. I can be happy only in him. That is why
I will do vv. 7-10.
Submitting to God means, I give way to his assessment of my life. When
he says my fighting shows that I love the world, need the world, and am
an adulterer, I don’t say to him, "But didn’t you see what she did to
me?" I say, "You’re right sir. I will not fight for my rights. I will
let others take advantage of me. I will give myself to others in love
and not require anything back from them." Submission to God means that
he gets to call all the shots. He is in charge. If he wants me to have
something, that’s great. If he doesn’t want me to have something, that’s
OK to. Whatever he wants, that’s what I want. I don’t need anything
but him to be happy.
What does it mean to resist the devil? I am going to tell you what it
does not mean first. It does not mean commanding evil spirits to leave
you alone. There is a teaching that is all over the Christian church that
uses this verse to tell Christians they are to resist the devil by talking
to the devil and telling him to leave them alone. That is not what this
verse means. What v. 7 tells us is that there are only two ways to live.
You either submit to God and resist the devil or you submit to the devil
and resist God. When you are angry, jealous and fighting, you are submitting
to the devil and resisting God. "Resist" is used in Ephesians 6:13.
It says there (NAS), "Therefore take up the full armor of God that you
may be able to resist in the evil day and having done everything to stand
firm." In the context of Ephesians 6, resisting means believing, holding
fast to, counting upon the promises of God. It means that I counteract
the lies of Satan with the truth of God’s word. Why do I get mad when
my children don’t respect me? I believe a lie that has its origin in Satan
himself. I believe that if my children do not respect me I cannot be happy.
I resist Satan when I remember, "Your love, O Lord, is better than life.
It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man." Your ability
to resist Satan is directly related to your knowledge of his word and
your aggressively holding to his word. Notice the promise, if you will
resist the devil with the word of God, he will flee from you. In other
words, you will see a reduction in how often you get angry and fight,
as you trust God’s promises more and more.
Drawing near to God is James’ way of describing prayer. We are turning
away from the lies of Satan, holding fast to God’s promises to us in Christ.
Then we draw near to God, not to get him to fulfill our desires like an
adulterous wife, but in order to be near him because that is what faithful
spouses love to do. I draw near to him because I want to be with him,
not because I want him to do something else for me. We don’t draw near
to God in order to get something else. We draw near to him because we
want him. Then look at this gracious promise. If we will draw near to
him, he will draw near to us. There is nothing the Christian wants more
than this. Is this the best thing you can imagine happening to you? Does
your heart cry out with the psalmist, "The nearness of God is my good"?
Or does your heart cry out, "Having $5000 in the bank is my good"? "Having
a husband that pays attention to me is my good"? "Having good children
is my good"? Are you drawing near to God because he is what you want or
because you want him to give you something else?
Notice what happens as we submit to God, resist the devil, draw near
to God and he draws near to us. You become aware of your true condition.
All the fighting and demanding is seen in its true ugliness. We are eager
to cleanse our hands of all the evil we have done. We are eager to get
rid of all the impurities in our affections so that we have only one affection,
one love. We see that we are sinners and that we are double-minded and
we want more than all else to not be either. So, we wash in the blood
of Christ and allow his dying and rising to wash away our sin and give
us new strength and new desires for God and for holiness. Oh to be like
Jesus. To live in obedience to God and to love people, no matter how they
treat us.
Then, v. 9, we are overcome with sadness. As we see the great love of
God in Christ we are overcome with how far we are from him and from what
we want to be. We feel like people who have a tornado sweep away their
home. We feel like a beloved son who has just lost his father. We weep
as people weep when they suffer some great loss or pain. There is a progression
in these verses. We feel the sorrow after God has drawn near to
us and we’ve sought Christ to cleanse us. The love of God and the grace
of Christ cause us to mourn. It is a fact of Christian experience that
the more I know God and the more I know myself, the more aware I am of
how unworthy I am of God’s love.
This is how Jonathon Edwards talks about himself, after being a Christian
for about 25 years and a pastor for over 15. What I am going to read here
is not the ranting of some mentally ill person. He doesn’t say what he
says because of his personality. He is expressing exactly what James says
all of us must experience. He is describing the normal Christian life.
"Often… I have had very affecting views of my own sinfulness and vileness;
very frequently to such a degree as to hold me in a kind of loud weeping,
sometimes for a considerable time together; so that I have often been
forced to go into the room and close the door. I have had a vastly greater
sense of my own wickedness, and the badness of my heart, than ever I had
before my conversion. It has often appeared to me, that if God should
mark iniquity against me, I should appear the very worst of all mankind;
of all that have been, since the beginning of the world to this time;
and that I should have by far the lowest place in hell. When others, that
have come to talk with me about their soul concerns, have expressed the
sense they have had of their own wickedness, by saying that it seemed
to them, that they were as bad as the devil himself; I thought their expressions
seemed exceeding faint and feeble, to represent my wickedness.
My wickedness, as I am in myself, has long appeared to me beyond words,
and swallowing up all thought and imagination; like an infinite deluge,
or mountain over my head. I know not how to express better what my sins
appear to me to be, than by heaping infinite upon infinite, and multiplying
infinite by infinite. Very often, for these many years, these expressions
are in my mind, and in my mouth, "Infinite upon infinite ... Infinite
upon infinite!" When I look into my heart, and take a view of my wickedness,
it looks like an abyss infinitely deeper than hell. And it appears to
me, that were it not for free grace, exalted and raised up to the infinite
height of all the fulness and glory of the great Jehovah, and the arm
of his power and grace stretched forth in all the majesty of his power,
and in all the glory of his sovereignty, I should appear sunk down in
my sins below hell itself; far beyond the sight of every thing, but the
eye of sovereign grace, that can pierce even down to such a depth. And
yet it seems to me, that my conviction of sin is exceeding small, and
faint; it is enough to amaze me, that I have no more sense of my sin.
I know certainly, that I have a very small sense of my sinfulness. When
I have had turns of weeping and crying for my sins I thought I knew at
the time, it seemed that my repentance was nothing when compared to my
sin."
The last verse is such a comfort to the humble. Here we are told that
God is going to lift us up. This is a promise that will only be completely
fulfilled in heaven. But we also know that there will be a lifting up
of our heads now. But, we will not experience this "lifting up" of God
in our lives until we have experienced the bowing down of v. 9. Psalm
145:14 says, "The Lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who
are bowed down."
God only saves the humble, therefore…
- He uses conflict to expose our pride
- He doesn’t immediately destroy the proud
- He requires humility
© Copyright
2001 John Swanson.
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