Scripture Reading: James 3:13–4:12
James chapter 4. James 4. The passage tonight is verses 7 to 12, James' call to repentance. Remember that last week we saw his condemnation of the people of God for their conflict with one another and their enmity with God.
Well, tonight we will notice how he encouraged, exhorts, commands the people of God to repent from their ways, to seek the Lord, to seek to repair the breach between them and God and between them and one another." I'll begin reading in chapter 3 at verse 13 and read through 4.12. It's beginning in chapter 3 at verse 13. "'Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom.
But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.
Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. 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 that 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. Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.
There is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another? Amen. Well, let us pray.
Opening Prayer
Father, we thank you for this, your written word. We pray again for the ministry and the power of the Holy Spirit. We pray that you would help us to take these things to heart. We pray, God, that you would help us to repent and help us to forsake sin, help us to see peace with our God through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Help us as well to conduct ourselves toward brethren in a godly and Christ-exalting way. enable us to bridle the tongue, enable us to operate according to that wisdom that comes from above, and we pray these things through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Introduction
Well, remember that in James 3 at verses 1 to 12, he highlights how bad the tongue of man is. The tongue is an unruly evil. No man is able to tame it. And then in James 3, beginning at verse 13 to 18, he speaks about the two types of wisdom.
There is a type of wisdom that comes from above. There is a type of wisdom that produces godliness and righteousness and peace and unity and all those sorts of things. But there is a wisdom that James calls demonic. And if you look specifically there at James 3.15, this wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic.
For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there." And then as we move into chapter 4, there is still a strong connection to what has preceded. James in 4, verses 1 to 6, condemns the rotten fruits of demonic wisdom. The people to whom he is writing are operating according to that wisdom that's not from above, but that wisdom which is from below that produces confusion, that produces chaos, that results in NVN self-seeking. We see where James addresses the two-fold problem of the people of God in verses 1 to 6.
In the first place, they have conflict with one another. There is wars, there is fights, there is battles going on among the people of God. Again, not literally, but metaphorically. In the way that they treated one another, the way that they spoke to one another, it was indicative of a battlefield and not a good church service or church services.
He then addresses their enmity with God. in verses 2b to 6, and essentially what was happening is that the people of God were not having their prayers answered, so James condemns them or tells them the reason why. He then highlights specifically their enmity with God vis-a-vis their spiritual adultery. They had played the harlot against God. They had engaged in spiritual whoredom. they had indeed engaged in turning away from the Lord.
And that is precisely what James says in verse 4. Adulteress says, 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. And then verse 6 functions transitionally.
As James cites Proverbs 3, I believe that this statement in the first part of the verse, God resists the proud, further condemns the people of God that are conducting themselves in the manner described in verses 1 to 5. But the fact is that God gives grace to the humble. So the transition has seen that now this provides the basis for the call to repentance. You'll notice that repentance isn't just do these things, but rather it is first and foremost Seek the God who gives more grace." In other words, we need that provision in order to enable us to repent.
There's a series of 10 commands, 10 imperatives that James gives from verses 7 to 10. The only way to comply with those is by the grace of God. These are not things given to man that he can do in and of himself. Certainly, it does highlight our responsibility, and certainly we do need to engage. but we need to do so in dependence upon the grace of Almighty God.
Repentance Toward God
So we'll look at this call to repentance under two considerations. First, repentance toward God in verses 7 to 10, and then secondly, repentance toward brethren or one another in verses 11 to 12. But notice verse 6 and this provision of grace. Verse 6a, but he gives more grace.
In the context where He is addressing the sinfulness of His audience or of His hearers, He never leaves them without hope. He doesn't leave them broken, battered, and bruised, but He points them to the reality that God gives more grace. That is our God. That is the mercy that we have in Him through our Lord Jesus Christ.
There is divine provision to remedy our sinful conduct, and God has that grace available for His people. It says that at the end of verse 6, with God gives grace to the humble. Now, that doesn't mean we need to go out and master humility and then we'll be fit to earn God's grace. That's not what he means there.
It's not the case that you go out and you walk old people across the street and you carry dogs or you help little, you know, kitties out of the tree and you really, really humble yourself and then you'll be fit and deserving of God's grace. That's not sort of the connection. God gives grace to enable compliance with the series of commands that are going to follow. But it is imperative upon the people of God to resist pride themselves and to seek, by the grace of God, to cultivate humility.
One of the overarching sins that James is dealing with is the sin of pride. And God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. Motier says that James, having pointed to God's sufficiency with reference to He gives more grace, points on to our responsibility. So the foundation is the provision of God's grace according to verse 6.
And now the responsibility of God's people is outlined for us in great detail in verses 7 to 12, in our repentance toward God and in our repentance toward one another. But note this repentance toward God, verses 7 to 10. It's very similar to what we find in 1 Peter chapter 5, where the apostle Peter cites the same proverb in a very similar context in which Peter is telling the people of God to cultivate humility. In 1 Peter 5.5, likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders.
Yes, all of you be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility. That's imperative for the people of God to be clothed with humility. I think the background, at least I have read it, suggested that the background was Peter's remembrance of the upper room. Remember when the Lord Jesus Christ took off his outer garment and wrapped himself with a towel so that he could get down on his knees and wash the feet of the disciples.
Perhaps that image is riveted in the mind of the Apostle Peter, and he uses this verb choice, be clothed with humility, the way the master is clothed with humility. For God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you." So what James writes, Peter writes, essentially, to the people of God to call us to a faithful life of humility before our great God. Now, let's look at these particular imperatives.
Submission to God
In the first place, there is a necessity for submission to God. Now this shouldn't surprise any of us. None of the particular imperatives that are in this section, they shouldn't come as a shock or as a surprise. Remember that these people had gone away from God.
They had gone a-whoring from God. In their friendship with the world, they had embarked on a pathway of spiritual adultery. They had engaged in a departure from Him. And so the divine response or remedy by God's grace is to submit to God.
The way to fix your situation, brethren, is not to continue to run from Him. The way to fix your problem is not to continue to hide from Him. The way to fix your problem is not to absent yourself from corporate worship. The way to deal with your problem is not to skip the Lord's table.
The way to deal with your problem is not to ignore your Bible or to ignore prayer. This seems to be a fundamental default setting for God's people. They engage in some particular sin, or perhaps it's a pattern of particular sin. They find themselves at a distance from God, and the very thing that they most desperately need, they will not apply themselves to.
They will not submit themselves to God. Perhaps it's just more of an evidence of pride. I'm not going to go to God. I'm okay on my own.
Peter, or James rather, says, submit to God. Bow before the King of kings. Manton, I think, describes this submission in a very excellent way. He says, there must be subjection to God's will, the whole man to the whole law of God.
I love that, the Puritan emphasis on a universal obedience to God. You see, it doesn't do for us to obey God on Sunday but live any old way we choose, Monday through Saturday. It doesn't do for us to sing our hymns of praise on a Sunday night and then go live like the devil on a Monday morning. It is the whole man to the whole law of God.
We are not those who pick and choose. James will indict or condemn, rather, that approach to God's law in verses 11 and 12. So, Manton says there must be subjection to God's will, the whole man to the whole law of God. To submit to God is to give up ourselves to be governed by His will and pleasure. our thoughts, our counsels, our affections, our actions, to be guided according to the strict rules of the Word.
Now, we might interpret the following imperatives as an illustration of, or a fleshing out, what it looks like to submit oneself unto God.
Resist the Devil
The second thing that James says is to resist the devil and he will flee from you. It's an interesting place to put that. I think there's probably a couple of reasons why he does so. When is the devil likely to launch a counterattack?
When you are a whoring from God, when you are bowing to Baal, when you have neglected the Father of lights and whom there is no shadow of turning, no variation whatsoever, is the devil seeking to keep you, or is the devil molesting you as earnestly when you're already far from God? I submit, brethren, that when you submit to God, you will sense resistance. You will sense assault. You will sense the opposition trying to keep you from God Almighty.
And so James says, therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. The devil is the antithesis to God and therefore must be resistant. He must be opposed.
The devil will launch these counterattacks when you hear a sermon and you say, hey, I'm going to actually take James seriously and I'm going to seek to submit to God and get my life in order. Now, it doesn't usually happen that you'll hear the hallelujah chorus and the heavens open and the birds, bluebirds attending your way. There is opposition. There is resistance when you seek to do that which is good.
Paul, dealing in a bit of a different context, nevertheless illustrates the same point. Go back to Romans 7 for just a moment. Romans 7, 14 to 25, we don't have time to look at all of it, but our focus is on verse 21. Romans 7 is Paul's treatment concerning remaining corruption in the life of the believer.
In other words, Paul is a godly man. Paul is a Christian man. Paul has been conquered by sovereign grace. Paul is a believer.
He is one who is rightfully connected to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He's been justified by faith. He's living the life of sanctification. But as Paul has found, as we all have found, the life of sanctification is no easy thing.
In other words, trying to live a godly life, trying to be faithful to the Lord is not always easy or simple. In fact, look at Paul's words in 719, for the good that I will to do, I do not do, but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now, if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. You see there's this sort of opposition within Paul himself.
There is this principle, this spirit, this desire to do what God calls him to do. There's also this remaining corruption that opposes every step of the way. He brings this out in Galatians 5.17, the spirit lusts against the flesh, the flesh lusts against the spirit. These two are contrary to one another so that you don't do the things that you want.
There is this battle raging in the hearts of God's people. Now note verse 21 when we really I evidently see this situation. Notice in verse 21, I find then a law that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. When do you find this law that evil is present with you, Paul?
When I will to do good. You have to appreciate what he's saying there. You have to understand what the issue is. I find this law not when I'm reading the morning paper.
I find this law not when I'm building tents. I find this law not while I'm wandering down the street in the marketplace buying apples. and, you know, whatever it is that Paul ate on a given day. I don't find that law then. I find the law when I will to do good.
I find the law when I go to my Bible. I find the law when I go to pray. I find the law when I go to church. I find this opposition present in my own heart when I seek to do that which is pleasing to God.
Perhaps you've had that experience in your own life. You know you ought to pray. You know you ought to get on your face before the high king of heaven and lay out your petitions before him. But I should check Facebook first.
I should see who tweeted lately. I should update my profile. I should go have another cup of coffee. I should check on the baby.
That's not always a bad thing. I should do anything and everything but pray. You see, when you go about to read the paper or update your Facebook profile, is there opposition? Is there resistance?
Is there this inner struggle or turmoil? Probably not. It's when you will to do good. I find that a law. that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good." I think James, again, making a similar observation in a bit of a different context, is highlighting the reality that when you go from the place of conflict with brethren and enmity with God, where Satan is very satisfied for you to be, and you therefore then submit yourself to God to try and fix the mess by His grace that you have created, expect some opposition, expect some resistance.
So the exhortation is to resist Him, but note the blessed promise, and He will flee from you. I love the sublimity of this statement. I love the simplicity of this statement. There are those out there in the name of Jesus that have made a lot of bank on teaching people how to deal with the devil.
On teaching people through CD, well it used to be CDs. Kids today, what's a CD? We're at the point where that's all gone. But guys used to sell cassette tapes on how to deal with the devil.
They would have conferences. In fact, I went to one at the bequest of a friend. I went to one of these conferences, it was all day, in a very nice hotel conference room, and the purpose of it was that the guru was going to teach us how to cast out demons. And it intrigued me that persons that were demon-possessed knew to buy tickets and knew to go to this hotel room and knew to go to this particular conference so they could have their demons cast out.
It just really perplexed me. But there's a lot of money to be made in teaching people this whole idea of spiritual warfare. James is cheap. James is free.
Resist him, and guess what? He will flee from you. For greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. You see, you cannot ever fall into that particular pit of saying, the devil made me do it.
The devil may have enticed, the devil may have set up some temptations, the devil may have assaulted, the devil may have resisted, the devil may have opposed, but the devil cannot make you sin. In fact, if you resist the devil, James tells us, in this beautiful sublime statement, he will flee from you. Imagine that conference, get a bunch of people in a nice conference room at a place in Vancouver, have them pay their fee, have them show up and say, resist the devil, he will flee from you, drop the mic and leave. They'd feel gypped, they'd feel shorted.
There's always got to be something more that we can do. Just obey God. When all else fails, brethren, just obey God.
Draw Near to God
Now, thirdly, note the necessity to draw near to God. It goes along with submission, but it has more of a religious connotation. It has more of a intimate connotation, more of a union connotation, the command to draw near to God. It is absolutely appropriate and fitting in the context because in James 4.4, he has said that you have become friends with the world.
So your departure from God now necessitates, by way of repentance, drawing near to God. In fact, Manton points that out beautifully. We withdraw our hearts from God, and therefore, no wonder if we do not feel the effects of His grace. So God, or rather James says, draw near to God and he will draw near to you.
Now, structurally, it's the same pattern as we find in verse seven. We have this command and then we have a promise. Resist the devil, that's the exhortation. And then the promise is, he will flee from you.
Verse eight, draw near to God, that's the exhortation, and he will draw near to you. Again, the sublimity and the simplicity of this statement. What do I have to do in order to get God to draw near to me? Draw near to Him.
How do I fix the breach between me and heaven? Go to church. How do I repair the ruins that are my life? Pick up your Bible and read.
Brethren, draw near to God and the promise affixed is that He will draw near to you. Again, Manton points out, this isn't supposed to be a one-shot thing. He says, drawing nigh to God is not the duty of an hour or in season only at first conversion, but the work of our whole lives. If you have not accepted the reality yet, as a believer in Christ, these are your marching orders.
This is the way you're supposed to conduct yourself. Now, James prescribes it here to a particular situation where brethren were rotten toward other brethren and where they, by their spiritual whoredom, had drawn away from God. But this is essentially the way we need to live each and every day. Every single day we need to submit to God.
Every single day we need to resist the devil. Every single day, we need to draw near to God. Every single day, for every single week, for every single month, for every single year, that we continue on the face of this earth. Christianity is not a flash in the pan.
Christianity is not a hundred-yard dash. Christianity is a long-haul race. It is a marathon, and you need to get running, and you need to follow this path, and this needs to be your marching orders. It is that simple.
Draw near and He will draw near. Resist the devil, he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and what does God say? He will draw near to you.
Isn't that beautiful? God draws near to us. Yes, most certainly He draws near to us in His grace and mercy and kindness, because as James says in verse 6, He gives more grace.
Cleanse Hands, Purify Hearts
Notice then, fourthly, the necessity of moral purity in verse 8b. He says, cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Now, some take odd, you know, not odds with James, but find it odd that James calls Christians sinners. In fact, I think MacArthur says there's no way he's dealing with Christians.
I think he's absolutely dealing with Christians. The context hasn't changed. We're not dealing with a different class of people now. He's not said, OK, conflict with brethren, enmity with God.
I'm going to tell the believers how to get right with God. I'm going to bash the sinners over the head, and then I'm going to come back and deal with the Christian. No, these are Christians, brethren. Who of you doesn't remember or doesn't know very keenly that you're a sinner?
I mean, if somebody were to say, you sinner, what, would you get offended? How dare you call me that? Of course I'm a sinner. That's what I need Jesus for.
Of course I'm a sinner. This is the reason for the gospel. If I wasn't a sinner, I wouldn't need Jesus. Of course I'm a sinner.
Our sinnerhood isn't good. It's not something we ought to be proud of, but it is that sinnerhood that connects us to God through our Lord Jesus Christ because Jesus came to save sinners, not the righteous. So James takes aim at the people of God and he uses extremely pointed language. I mean, this is, if there's one thing we can say or should say about James, he really doesn't care if you're offended.
He doesn't want you to be a delicate snowflake. He doesn't want you to run from his church crying because you dared call him a sinner. James wants to get the job done. James wants to shock his readers, his hearers, his audience.
He wants to shock us, slap us in the face like we deserve, metaphorically speaking, to show us our need. But there is this necessity of moral purity. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. James deals with double-mindedness in James 1.8.
He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. It's the same word that he uses here. While he doesn't use the word in James 3 with reference to the tongue or with reference to the two types of wisdom, double-mindedness, I think, comes to the forefront. There's this double use of the tongue.
There is this two kinds of wisdom. James wants the people of God who profess the true religion, faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, to be of one mind, to be consistent, to be faithful, to be what you say you are, to pony up. Don't live like the devil. Don't live like the world.
If you sin, go to God. He gives more grace, but don't be duplicitous. Don't be divided in your allegiance to God Most High. The cleansing of the hands indicates our actions or our deeds.
The purification of the heart indicates disposition. In other words, it's a whole cleansing that's in view. It's not just the heart, it's the actions as well. It's not just the actions of the externals, but it's also the heart.
It's the whole man. coming to the whole God, seeking to obey or comply with His whole law. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded." I think temple imagery is in the background. When they went to the tabernacle or they went to the temple, the priests had purification rites before they went and worshipped at the altar. We read at the outset of worship, Psalm 23, 3 and 4, who may ascend into the hill of the Lord, or who may stand in his holy place, he who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully.
You see, there is a moral purification that is in view here. In other words, if you are genuinely repenting, that involves cleansing. That involves, ultimately, it's Christ who cleanses. He's not suggesting that somehow we can cleanse ourselves the way those old covenant priests put their hands into the laver.
We seek cleansing, we ask for cleansing, we pray for forgiveness, we fetch mercy from God Most High. But it is intriguing in this particular context, the order. I suggest that many of us would say, cleanse your hands, you sinners, purify your hearts, you double-minded, and then draw near to God. Wouldn't we?
Well, tough question. I haven't given you any time to think about it. What's our default sort of response to God? I have to fix things before I draw near.
I have to stop this sin before I go back to church. I have to get things in order before I pick the Bible back up. I have to cut off this particular association or get rid of this particular wicked thing before I seek the Lord. No, James' order is conspicuous.
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. It's in that context, it's in that intimacy, it's in that union and communion with God that you are now fit to cleanse your hands, you sinners, and to purify your hearts, you double-minded. In other words, the presence of God is absolutely crucial for moral purity. Alec Motier makes the observation, I think he's right on.
He says, logic might suggest that we must clean up our lives and then draw near to God. James' logic is otherwise, for it is when we know the reality of His presence and come under its holy influence that we are at last in a position to face the demands of holiness and find ourselves motivated by the desire to be like our God. You see, here's the devil's logic, whispering in your ear on a Saturday night, don't bother going to church tomorrow, because it's the Lord's table, and you have not lived like you ought in this past week. You have been quite the wretch.
You have engaged in this particular activity, this particular activity, so you ought to sit tomorrow out. You wouldn't want to be a hypocrite now, would you? James' logic is contrary. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
When that unity or that communion or that intimacy is had, then you by grace will be able to deal with your sins. I just still can't get it. I'm not going to go to church because I've sinned this week. Well, first of all, church isn't a reward for having not sinned during the week.
You hear this with people outside the church. Well, the church is full of hypocrites. Absolutely. Praise God, hypocrites have somewhere to go.
Praise God Almighty. I never hear of anybody standing outside a hospital saying, don't go in there, it's filled with sick people. Well, thankfully, there's a place for sick people to go. Thankfully, there's a place for hypocrites to go.
Thankfully, there's a place for double-minded to go. Thankfully, there's a place to seek, fetch cleansing and purification. It's in the corporate means of grace, oftentimes through the supper, that God does these things. So never let your sin keep you from the Lord.
Always go back. Now again, you gotta deal, you gotta cut off hands, you gotta gouge out eyes, you gotta deal radically with your sin, but the answer to your sin problem is not a distance with God. The answer to your sin problem is closeness with God.
Mourn Over Sin
Fifth, the necessity to mourn over sinfulness. Notice the three terms he uses in verse nine, lament and mourn and weep. Boy, what a killjoy. Lament and mourn and weep.
Manton comments on why the three verbs. Why so many words to one purpose? The whole verse in the next is of the same train. It is a hard duty and needeth much enforcement.
Lamenting and mourning and weeping over sin? I mean, that's not probably on our top 10 things to do in a day, is it? OK, I need to lament, mourn, and weep over my sin this morning. We just don't typically think this way.
But drastic times call for drastic measures. And James says, look, you need to get things right. You need to quit looking at sin as something joyful, enjoyable, pleasant, and happy. and you need to lament over it, you need to mourn over it, you need to weep over it. James, in many respects, is very much akin to the prophet Amos and also the prophet Joel.
In Joel 2.12 we read, Now therefore, says Yahweh, turn to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. So, rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and He relents from doing harm. Who knows if He will turn and relent and leave a blessing behind Him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God.
You see that same emphasis there in terms of our repentance toward God, our approach to God, our ascent to God into the holy hill of Zion. Turn to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. The Apostle Paul highlights the types of sorrows or the sorrow that is fitting for Christian believers in 2 Corinthians 5. You can turn there, 2 Corinthians 7. 710.
He says, those who lament and mourn and weep, those who are affected by their sin in such a way that it provokes from them a response of sadness. That's what James says. Isn't that good remedy for people that are living like the world? You'll get by yourself and you just cry over your sin.
So we just don't think that way. I've got to deal with my sin. I need to buy a book on how to deal with sin. Why don't you go cry in the corner about your sin?
That might be, you know, balm to the soul. See your sin for what it is in the sight of a holy God. Take out, you know, Deuteronomy chapter 5, Exodus chapter 20, and read through those commandments and see yourself as a transgressor of that law and a wanter of conformity unto that law. You see that and let it produce in you lamentation, mourning, weeping.
And then he goes on to say, let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Again, I don't think James is suggesting that if your grandchild does something funny, you can't laugh. It's a laughter, it's a frivolity, it's a shallowness with reference to sin. Jesus says the same thing in the Beatitudes in Luke chapter 6.
Those who laugh now will weep later. Those who weep now will laugh later. You see, far too often sinners treat sin the way Solomon describes in Proverbs 10, 23. To do evil is like sport to a fool.
So James' admonition, lament, mourn, and weep, let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom. In the context of repentance, have a change of mind and heart about this conflict with brethren and about this spiritual whoredom and lament over it, mourn over it, weep over it. Stop laughing about it. Stop writing it off.
Stop belittling it. Stop pretending like it's not an issue. You need to quit your laughter. You need to quit your frivolity.
You need to repair the situation with God via this a set of instructions according to His grace.
Humble Yourselves Before God
And then finally, the necessity of humbling ourselves before God in verse 10. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up. It's not the same word as submit, but conceptually very similar. So you've kind of got the ends of a loaf of bread here.
You've got in chapter four at verse seven, submit to God. Chapter four, verse 10, you have humble yourselves before God. You see, what's the point? God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.
Therefore, James ends this series of imperatives with reference to our approach to God with this particular statement, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord. And again, he affixes or he attaches a promise to it. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up. It's an intriguing thing.
Every time God gives us a command, he gives us a blessed reason why we should obey that command. Oh, Christianity is harsh. There's all these commands. Yeah, rejoice in the Lord always.
Again, I will say rejoice. That's rough. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Wow, that's terrible.
Submit yourselves to God or draw near to God, he will draw near to you. I mean, these are the kinds of commands that we find in this particular section and they're all affixed or attached with a promise. Humble yourself in the sight of God or in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up. Manton again says, we are all by nature proud and would be exalted.
The way to rise is to fall. That's great. The way to rise is to fall. I remember Ryle, on blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
He says, if you want to build high, you must begin low. It is pride that God opposes, it is humility that God delights in. So that's repentance toward God.
Repentance Toward Brethren
Let's look finally at the repentant response to brethren in verses 11 to 12. I would suggest the background here is Leviticus 19, 15 to 18. James quotes Leviticus 19.18, calls it the royal law in James 2.8. We don't have the time to sort of flesh all that out, but most likely that's what's behind the scenes in James' treatment here.
The Prohibition Against Evil Speech
Notice the prohibition. Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. That's the prohibition. Don't do that.
Chapter 3, verses 1 to 12, he's dealt with the tongue, the unruliness of the tongue. Chapter 3, 13 to 18, he's dealt with this demonic wisdom where there is envy and self-seeking and this bitterness and this confusion and this strife and all those sorts of things. So the prohibition by way of how we repent with reference to our brothers and sisters is to not speak evil of one another. Now, it's a broad statement.
He doesn't say do not gossip, do not slander, do not backbite, do not generate false charges, but he does because this idea of speaking evil is comprehensive. No evil, no gossip, no slander, no backbiting, no tail bearing. Everything you find in scripture that is condemned with reference to the tongue is included by James in this statement. Do not speak evil.
Manton says, the word implies any speaking which is to the prejudice of another, be it true or false. You see, you may relate something about somebody that's actually true, but it's not your business to relate it. Just because somebody tells you something doesn't mean you have carte blanche to post it on Facebook. So it could be something true, but it may serve to prejudice or be prejudice toward that particular person.
When somebody says, can I ask for your confidence in something? Now, if they confess to murder, you can't keep confidence. You gotta report that. But man, brethren, you don't have to tell everybody everything that everybody always says.
It's just not the way it goes. He says, the Scripture requires or requiring that our words should suit with love as well as truth. Now, I've said that this speak evil is a broad and sort of generic way to condemn everything that has to do with the sins of the time. Calvin applies it very narrowly and very specifically to the sin of judgmentalism.
And I think in some sense, I think the connection is strong, because Paul deals with a similar situation in Romans 14. And 4, verse 4, he says, who are you to judge the servant of another? In other words, there is this tendency in the people of God to lord their opinions over everybody else and make them submit, not to God, but to them in terms of their own preferences. As well, it seems to jive with what Jesus teaches in Matthew 7, verses 1 to 5.
Do not judge lest you be judged. Again, Jesus is not condemning all judgment. Neither is James in this particular context. But the idea of judgmentalism, This censorious spirit, this nitpicking way that we have with one another.
Calvin says, we see how much labor James takes in correcting the lust for slandering. For hypocrisy is always presumptuous, and we are by nature hypocrites, fondly exalting ourselves by calumniating. That simply means to speak evil of others. It's an old word that means that.
Calumniating others. He says, there is also another disease innate in human nature, that everyone would have all others to live according to his own will or fancy. This presumption James suitably condemns in this passage. That is because we dare to impose on our brethren our rule of life.
Again, I think it's broader than that, but I think Calvin's point needs to be taken into consideration, along with Romans 14 and Matthew 7, 1 to 5. This idea, this attitude that everybody has to do what we say. When James goes on to speak of us serving as judges instead of doers of the law, I think that adds a bit of more sort of credence to that interpretation. The people of God are simply not God.
I know that's a tough one for us, but that's what he says in 11b and 12. You're not God, brethren. You cannot function as God. That is not your calling, not your task, not your job.
So the general prohibition is do not speak evil of one another, brethren.
Speaking Evil Judges the Law
Note the reason. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother speaks evil of the law and judges the law. I think this goes two ways. When he does this, he speaks evil of the law and judges the law because he doesn't do what the law says.
The law says he is to love his neighbor as himself. And if he is not loving his neighbor as himself, he is saying, suggesting, or tacitly implying that he doesn't care one whit about the law. He is judge over the law, speaking evil of the law by not obeying the law. And as well, if it is this idea of judgmentalism or this censorious spirit, he is setting himself up as over the law.
You see, we need to allow God the Holy Spirit to allow or to guide his people according to the law of God. That doesn't mean we can't encourage. It doesn't mean we can't remind. It doesn't mean we can't help.
But brethren, when we jump over the law of God and start cramming our preferences down others' throats, we are now saying that the law of God is not sufficient. We're now saying that the law of God isn't going to work. We're now saying that in order for you to be really holy, you've got to obey me. It has become Pharisee-ism.
We don't want to break the Sabbath command, so we'll set up all these stipulations and rules that you can only walk so far. Now, there's an appearance of wisdom, there's an appearance of sanctity, but it's bondage, it's legalism, it's to suggest that God Most High doesn't know how to protect the Sabbath command. It is to suggest that God Most High doesn't know how to deal with His unruly people. We do.
We're better at sanctifying our brethren than God is. Our rules are more effective than the Decalogue. Do we really want to stand in that particular position? No, says James.
This is absolutely positively not how you want to stand. Note the result if we assume this posture. I'm sorry, verse 11, he who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. Now, here's the result.
If this is your pattern, if this is your way, if this is your manner, if you are the Lord, the brethren in the church around you, the Lord of the brethren in the circles in which you run, if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge. The one who, speaking evil of his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law, demonstrates he is not a doer of the law, but a judge. He has set himself up as a rival lawgiver. He has set himself up as a rival sanctifier.
He is actually contended with the Holy Spirit in terms of how best to serve the people of God in being holy. And James says, don't do that. Absolutely, positively, 100% don't do that. You need to know the difference between the law of God and a preference that you hold to.
You need to know the difference between what is commanded clearly and explicitly by God and an application that you make of that law and how you plan to put it into practice in your home. When you take that application that you plan to put into practice in your home, and you put that on par with the law, and say that everybody who seeks to apply this law must do it in the way that I do it, you are a rival lawmaker against God Most High. That's not where you want to be. Again, we can help, we can encourage, we can be kind, we can be gentle, we can say, you know, I have found this to work for me.
But typically, brethren, it doesn't come out that way. Typically, it's my way or the highway. You don't do it the way I do it, I'm going to treat you differently because I think you're in sin. On preferences, I've often said, I think I said it probably when I first started off here, what's going to kill the church is probably not Pastor Porter or me standing in this pulpit and preaching that Jesus is a creature.
I don't think that's going to happen, God willing, the Lord keeping us in his grace and his mercy. What kills churches are the sorts of sins that James is dealing with in the trenches, this preferential attitude, this cliquish way, this four churches in one sort of a thing. The homeschoolers here, the public schoolers here, the Christian schoolers here, the everybody else here. Brethren, we have to guard our hearts when it comes to matters of preference.
You may be lock stock convinced that your way is the right way, but if it is not explicitly revealed thus in scripture, you are not a rival law giver. And notice how James goes on.
One Lawgiver and Judge
He makes this declaration in verse 12, there is one law giver. The ESV and other New Testaments have, there is one law giver and judge. And I think that's probably appropriate here. There is one law giver and judge who is able to save and to destroy.
Do you really want to assert yourself as a rival lawgiver to this one who is God? Do you really want to assume the role of judge of the brethren in light of the lawgiver judge who is able to destroy? Probably in James's mind is Matthew 10. Fear him who has the power to kill both body and soul.
In hell, that lawgiver is able to destroy. You don't want to contend with him. You want to back it down. You want to stop speaking evil of the brethren.
And he ends with this rhetorical note, who are you to judge another? If I could just tease that out for him for a moment, who are we to judge another? Who do we think we are, sinners that we are, wretches that we are, malfunctioned, dysfunctional human beings that we are? I mean, we put on a good front, we all clean up well, we come into this place on Sunday, and everything looks beautiful.
Well, maybe not beautiful, it looks decent. But we're a mess. Who here has mastered sanctification? Who here has mastered obedience to the Decalogue?
Who here never covets? Who here never lusts? Who here never has a bitter heart or resentment toward others? Who here has never engaged in ideology?
We say, I'm not bowing to Baal. The moment you put yourself before God, you are an idolater. Who here hasn't blasphemed? Who here has perfect Sabbath observance?
In other words, who are you to judge another? Thank the Lord God that he gives more grace, stand in line, hold out your hand, and praise him from whom all blessings flow. You simply are not the kind of person you think you are to be able to judge others. You're a mess.
Embrace your mess and take it to God and watch him do kind things with you. So thus the exposition, the instruction here is not meant to do away with the civil magistrate. If the idea is judging in verse 11, this does not mitigate against the role of civil magistrate. No more judgment whatsoever.
Of course the civil magistrate must judge. It doesn't do away with ecclesiastical judgment. Matthew chapter 18, if your brother sins and he doesn't repent, take two or three witnesses. If he doesn't listen to them, tell it to the church.
If he refuses the church, then treat him as a tax collector and as a heathen. That's not an imposition of our preferences upon a brother. That is the execution of godly discipline in the context of the church that Jesus sanctions and Jesus is for. This passage does not call us to be non-discriminating.
Remember in Matthew 7, 6. A passage interesting where people think Jesus is teaching us not to judge. And then in Matthew 7, 6, Jesus says, don't throw your pearls before swine or take holy things and cast them before dogs. Isn't that a judgment?
Isn't that discrimination? Doesn't that indicate that we're able, at least at some level, to determine who's a dog and who's a pig and not to throw holy things before them? Jesus is not dealing with what people commonly think he's dealing with in Matthew 7, 1-6. But this does not mitigate against that.
If there's a dog or a pig, you don't throw holy things before it. James is talking about the context of God's people wherein there were fights, there were wars, there were battles. James says, knock it off, quit speaking evil of one another, and quit acting as judge and jury over your brethren because there's one lawgiver and judge who is able to destroy. If you want to set yourself up against him, you are going to lose.
Application
Well, brethren, we see in this section the gracious basis of the call to repentance. God, who delights in mercy, gives more grace. The one who bids us submit to Him, to resist the devil, to draw near to Him, to cleanse our hands and purify our hearts and to lament and mourn and weep and let our laughter be turned into sadness or gloom, that God That God gives us the grace and enables us to comply with these particular imperatives. Secondly, we ought to observe the conspicuous connection in the call to repentance.
Now for those of you who are interested, at least the way I have treated the subject matter, it's what's called a chiasm. You have an A section, a B section, a B section, and then an A section. We go from conflict with brethren to enmity with God, fix the problem with God, and then deal with the problem with men. A, B, B, A.
That's for those who are so inclined in the chiastic structure, at least as I've treated the material. But you need to appreciate the specific order. You've messed it up with the brethren, you've messed it up with God, fix it with God, then fix it with brethren. What's the point?
There is a priority in the Ten Commandments. There is a priority in the way that James treats these matters. In other words, we are not going to fix our horizontal relationships until, by the grace of God, we fix the vertical relationship. We are no good to our brethren unless we have drawn near to God.
We are no good to one another unless we are communing with our God. Now, brethren, you see that through the prophets, they had turned away from God, and as a result, adultery, murder, all manner of barbarity is going on in the Commonwealth of Israel. Well, there's a theological reason. When you abandon the first four commandments, why would you care about the last six?
If you disregard and reject God, why in the world would you be kind to your fellows? There is a conspicuous order here, and it is specifically that God facilitates us fixing relationships with one another. And then finally, we ought to appreciate in the larger context the continual need for bridled tongues and wisdom from above. The specific command in verse 11 and the necessary implication of a failure to comply in verse 12 reiterates James' emphasis upon the tongue, James 3, 1 to 12.
It also reiterates James's emphasis upon the two types of wisdom. We want to shun demonic wisdom and we want to pursue eagerly this wisdom from above. These are things essential for the proper maintenance of the people of God in the context of the church of God, also in the family, in the home. We ought to make that application as well.
You want things to go well in your Christian life? You want things to hum smoothly along? Brethren, mortify the tongue, cultivate the wisdom that is from above by the grace of God, and seek to comply with his word. When there's no other way to figure out how to do what we're supposed to do, we ought always come back to the owner's manual, seek his instruction, and by his grace, put it into practice.
Well, thus the exposition, thus our encouragement. It is an encouraging message, too. I know I didn't smile a lot, but it's a call to repentance fortified by a provision of grace. And that grace is available to God's erring people.
That grace is available to those who have engaged in conflict with brethren, who have gone a-whoring from God. He gives more grace. That grace is available for unbelievers, too. The way of approach to God isn't fundamentally different for the unbeliever.
Submit to God. draw near to God. Of course, by faith, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, looking to him who has, by his life, by his death, by his resurrection, provided redemption for sinners. So the same instructions, at least to a degree, are for non-believers. Come unto the Lord draw near to Him, and He will draw near to you.
Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank You for Your Word, we thank You for the clarity and the pointedness of James, and I pray that You'd help us to take these things to heart, help us in the context of our local church to put these things into practice, Help us to not speak evil of one another. Help us not to set ourselves up as rival lawmakers and as judges. Help us to fear you and to love one another and to proceed in a way that is pleasing in your sight. Thank you that you not only call us to repentance, but you surround it with grace.
You tell us that you give more grace, that you give grace to the humble, that you call us to humble ourselves in your sight, and you will lift us up. All of these encouragements, God, may they indeed cause us to move forward, to move on to heaven above. And we pray these things through Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
We'll close with a brief time of meditation and then be dismissed.