Drawing Near to God, Pt. 1
James 4:6‑7
Let's open our Bibles again for our study of God's Word tonight to the wonderful epistle written by James...James chapter 4. I want to read to you verses 7 through 10 and then we'll look together at what the Spirit of God intends for us to understand from this text. James chapter 4 beginning in verse 7, "Submit yourselves therefore 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. Be afflicted and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He shall lift you up."
What you have there is a series of commands, ten to be exact...all aorist imperative verbs in the Greek language. James in the middle of this epistle marshals ten straight commands which really draw our attention, I believe, to the focal point of the whole epistle. This in my judgment is the heart of everything. It is one of the great and one of the clear and one of the precise invitations to salvation in all of Scripture.
You know, as well as I do, that there are many invitations to salvation throughout the Scripture. Since God is a saving God, since God is a Savior God, He desires that all men would come to know Him, to worship Him, to adore Him. God, our Savior, wills that all men come to the knowledge of Christ...Paul says to Timothy. And throughout Scripture there are many invitations of a very general nature. Now we acknowledge that God is sovereign. We acknowledge that God has all authority and that God has absolute prerogative within Himself to choose whomsoever He will to be saved. And in fact does that before the foundation of the world. And yet from a human viewpoint paradoxically there are a myriad of invitations throughout Scripture in which He calls generally to sinners to respond. For example, in Deuteronomy chapter 30 verses 19 and 20 we read these words, "I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse, so choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice and by holding fast to Him, for this is your life and the length of your days that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to give them."
And then we have in Isaiah 55, also in verses 6 and 7 a very familiar invitation, "Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near, let the wicked forsake His way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord and He will have compassion on him and to our God for He will abundantly pardon."
Another familiar invitation comes in Matthew chapter 7 verses 13 and 14. The Lord says, "Enter by the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction and many there are who enter by it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life and few are those who find it." Then there is the invitation of Matthew 11:28 to 30, "Come to Me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me for I am meek or gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls, for My yoke is easy and My burden is light." And then the invitation of Matthew 16:24 and following, Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me for whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake shall find it."
And then that beautiful invitation of John 14, "Let not your heart be troubled, believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house there are many dwelling places, if it were not so I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself that where I am there you may be also and you know the way where I'm going." Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but by Me."
And then the very very direct and personal invitation of Acts 16:30 and 31 where the Philippian jailer said to Paul, "What must I do to be saved? And Paul and Silas replied, Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household." And then the invitation of Romans 10:9 and 10 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. And then the invitation of Revelation 22:17, "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come and let him who hears say come and let the one who is thirsty come, let the one who wishes to take the water of life without cost."
Invitations...those are just a few of many many invitations. None of them, either the ones I read or other ones, are any more complete or comprehensive than the one I just read to you in James chapter 4. Unfortunately throughout the years of interpreting the epistle of James, most commentators and Bible students have assumed that verses 7 to 10 referred to Christians, that this is a call to Christians to get their act together. And because they have approached it that way they have therefore missed the greatness of this invitation to salvation.
Now as you know, in studying through these rich chapters in this great epistle, James is confronting a people who are made up obviously of possessors of eternal life and professors of eternal life...those who really know God and those who are just deceived and deceiving...those who are possessors of true and living faith and those who are possessors of a false dead faith. And the heart of this epistle is to call out to the reader and the hearer and say...be sure your faith is real, test it. His objective is stated in verse 19 and 20 of chapter 5. The whole idea is to convert someone, convert the sinner from the error of his way and save his soul from death. The church, as we have been saying, is always occupied by those whose faith is not real. And it behooves the rest of us to be about the business of bringing in to true salvation those around us in our fellowship whose salvation may not be real. He wants no one to be deceived. He wants no tares among the wheat. He wants no soil where the plant seems to spring up but no fruit is ever born. He wants not hearers but doers, not professors but possessors. So James has definitely the heart of Jesus, for this was of grave concern to Jesus as well. Those who would say Lord, Lord, but who didn't really have any relationship to Him at all.
So the epistle then is really the burden of the heart of Christ through James that no one would be deceived about the reality of their salvation. And also the corollary thought that believers would then live up to the things that are true of believers. Throughout this epistle we've been looking at the tests of true faith. We saw in chapter 1 how a true faith handles trials, how a true faith handles temptation, how a true faith responds to the Word, how a true faith is concerned with purity of life. In chapter 2 we saw how a true faith is concerned about people in need, people who are poor and is no respecter of persons. We saw how a true faith produces works, good works, righteous works, righteous deeds. In chapter 3 we saw how a true faith can be made manifest in the use of the tongue, in the patterns of speech and also in the matter of wisdom, that is the behavior by which your life style is identified. And then at the beginning of chapter 4 we saw how true faith is separated from the world. It does not love the world, it is the friend of God and the enemy of the world, not the enemy of God and the friend of the world.
So James has been saying put your life up against the tests. And having said all of that down through chapter 4 verse 6 he now calls for a proper response to saving faith and gives in a sense his invitation before he goes on with some closing things in this epistle. If we have studied cautiously and carefully through the epistle of James and particularly if we've been listening to what has been said since chapter 3 verse 13, we are very much aware that he has been speaking about unbelievers who, for example, back in chapter 3 verse 13 have a wisdom that is not of God. In fact, he says it's characterized by bitter envying, strife. It is not from above, verse 15, earthly sensual demoniacal, again mentioning envy, strife, confusion, every evil work. If that's the kind of life style you have, if that's the kind of behavior, if that's your approach to life, you give evidence of a wisdom that does not come from God. And then in chapter 4, very clearly says in verse 4 that people who are friends of the world are enemies with God. That doesn't mean from the person's viewpoint they are God's enemy, that means from God's viewpoint the person is His enemy. So he's talking about people who have a worldly wisdom, a worldly affection and who are the enemies of God.
Clearly then when you come to verse 7, this is an invitation to those people to come to saving faith. If you didn't pass the test of trials and you didn't pass the test of temptation and the right response to the Word being a doer and not a hearer and the right attitude toward purity of life and people in need and respect of persons and good works and use of the tongue and wisdom and the matter of relationship to the world, then here is an invitation to you. The invitation is directed at those who are not saved...those who are still captive to earthly sensual demonic wisdom, those who love the world and are the enemies of God, those who in the terms of verse 5 still are governed by the inner spirit which lusts...in other words they're driven by their fallenness. To those, according to verse 6 are proud, not humble. Those who to sum it up are in desperate need of God's grace. And as I tried to point out to you last time, two weeks ago, this cannot refer to believers for believers are nowhere in Scripture ever called the enemies of God. Even Abraham back in chapter 2 verse 23 is called the friend of God. And 1 John 2 says if any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. So clearly he has been giving his passionate appeal throughout this epistle to that person who is sort of occupied mentally with the gospel but whose faith is not genuine and been saying test yourself.
It's not that he doesn't have anything to say to believers because secondarily he has been calling to believers to fully live up to the things which are characteristic of them. It's as if he says believers know how to handle trials but they still ought to handle them better. Believers know how to respond to the Word and be doers but they still ought to do it better. Believers pursue purity of life but they ought to pursue it more. Believers are gracious to people in need but they ought to be more gracious. I mean, there's word here for us as well. We too speak the Word of God with our mouth but we ought to do it more often and speak evil less often. Secondarily then these instructions definitely come to bring impetus on the life of a believer but primarily they have to do with that person who may be a professor of something he or she does not possess. And if that's your case the promise of verse 6 is wonderful. Even if you're a person who is characterized by worldly wisdom, characterized by the lust of the flesh, an enemy of God, driven by your own fallenness, even if you're a proud person God gives more grace. That's the wonderful promise of verse 6. That's the grace of salvation I believe. He is saying no matter what your life is like, if you're proud and you love the world and your wisdom is earthly, demonic and sensual, if you're a person who didn't pass the tests, God has grace for you. He gives more grace. I believe it's justifying, sanctifying, glorifying grace that he's talking about, the grace of salvation, saving grace.
Literally verse 6 says He gives greater grace...greater grace. A comparative word is used. What is grace? What do we mean He gives grace? You know what it means, don't you? It is God's favor given to sinners who are undeserving. That's what it is. And within that favor is forgiveness and love and the promise of heaven and the Holy Spirit and all spiritual blessings and understanding of God's Word and joy and peace and all the fruit of the Spirit. And all of that comes as God's favor given to sinners who do not deserve it. And God has that grace available to all who will come in faith to Christ...greater grace than the strength of depravity, grace greater than the power of sin, grace greater than the might of Satan, grace greater than the pull of the flesh, grace greater even than death. No matter what your life is like, no matter how sinful you are, no matter how much you love the world, no matter how proud you are, no matter how your lusts drive you, no matter how your wisdom may be that of the world and even below the underworld, still God has grace. I love what Alec Moteur(?) says, "What comfort there is in this verse. It tells us that God is tirelessly on our side. He never falters in respect of our needs. He always has more grace at hand. He is never less than sufficient. He always has more and yet more to give. Whatever we may forfeit when we put self first, we cannot forfeit salvation for there's always more grace. No matter what we do to Him, He is never beaten. We may play false to the grace of election, we may contradict the grace of reconciliation, we may overlook the grace of indwelling but He gives more grace. Even if we were to turn to Him and say...what I have received so far is much less than enough...He would reply...well you may have more. His resources are never at an end. His patience is never exhausted, His initiative never stops, His generosity knows no limit...He gives more grace."
Wherever the sinner is, wherever the saint is, when the sinner and the saint come to Christ, He first gives justifying grace and then He gives sanctifying grace and there is no limit. To support that glorious statement at the beginning of verse 6 he quotes from Proverbs 3:34, "Wherefore," he says, "God resists the proud but gives grace unto the humble." He uses a verse out of the Old Testament to prove his point. And again the major thrust here, as I said, is related to unbelievers. When it says in this verse, "God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble," He's not talking about two classes of Christians, okay? To make that clear, go back for a moment in your Bible to Proverbs 3 and let's just make sure we understand this very vital interpretive matter. And we back up to verse 33 in Proverbs 3 and we read this, "The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked, but He blesses the habitation of the just." In other words, He's contrasting the regenerate and the unregenerate, the redeemed and the unredeemed, to use New Testament terminology, the saved and the lost, the wicked and the righteous. The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked, the blessing of the Lord is in the house of the just. Then verse 34, "Surely He scoffs at the scoffers but He gives grace unto the lowly."
Now the point is that the obvious contrast in Proverbs 3:33 and 34 is between an unbeliever and a believer, a wicked man and a righteous man, not two kinds of believers. And we can be sure that James assumes the same context and when he refers to that passage and says God resists the proud he is saying essentially what we just read, God scoffs at the scoffer but gives grace to the humble. In other words, He treats the wicked one way and He treats the righteous another. He treats the non‑believer one way, He treats the believer another.
When James, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, says God resists the proud, he could never be talking about a believer. You say, "What about a sinning believer?" Read the rest of the verse, "He gives grace unto the humble." Does that mean if you're not humble you don't get grace as a Christian? Now think it through. God doesn't hold back grace from His own. Whenever we sin He gives us what? Grace, if we confess our sins He's faithful and still righteous to keep on forgiving our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness. Constantly God's grace flows to us. He gives grace to the humble, the humble then become a category. That's not a kind of Christian, that's a definition of a believer. And all who have humbled themselves in coming to God through Christ for salvation are the ones who continually receive grace. To say that God is talking about two kinds of believers and that God doesn't give grace to proud believers would damn those proud believers. Do you understand that? Once you come into the category of being a believer, you receive all His grace. So this must be as it is in Proverbs a contrast between how God treats unbelievers who are called the proud and how He treats believers who are called the humble. Every believer, listen carefully, every believer, everyone who comes to God in Jesus Christ is in a sense part of the category...well I should say in reality, not in a sense, but in reality is among the humble. Why? Because you humbled yourselves in coming to God. You acknowledged your sin, you affirmed His Lordship and sovereignty in your life, you humbled yourself.
So the humble refer to believers, the proud refer to non‑ believers. If you're in the category of a non‑believer, God's going to resist you. If you're in the category of the humble or the believer, He's going to pour out grace for every sin...saving grace, forgiving grace, sanctifying grace. So what you have here is a contrast not between two kinds of believers but between the proud scoffing wicked cursed person of Proverbs 3:33 and the blessed righteous believer who instantly receives grace and more grace for every sin. He gives greater grace, greater grace to those who are among the humble. By the way, the word "resist," I mentioned it two weeks ago, antitasso, means to place oneself in battle against an enemy. God places Himself in battle array against the proud. He is the active aggressive enemy, antagonist to the proud, lovers of the world, the proud purveyors of human wisdom, the proud who are driven by their own envying lusting spirit, as verse 5 defines it. But on the other hand, He gives grace to the humble.
We ask ourselves again, who are the humble? And the answer is they're believers of all generations. Let me give you a little bit of a study on that, all right? This is, I think, just very fascinating and really seals our understanding of the passage. Humility is linked with saving faith in Scripture. Do you remember the words of Jesus, "Except a man become as a little child he cannot...what?...enter the kingdom." So humble yourselves, He says in the very next verse, that's in Matthew chapter 18 verses 3 and 4. The only way into the kingdom is the way of humility.
Let's look at that for just a minute, capturing that thought. Go back in the Old Testament to Job chapter 22 and let's do a little bit of a Bible study and see if we can't enrich our understanding of this. In Job 22:29 just a very simple but true statement...."When men are cast down then thou shalt say, There is lifting up and He shall save the humble person." There is a truism about God stated there in Eliphaz's speech that God saves humble people. That is carried through in much of Scripture. For example, Psalm 69...Psalm 69 verse 32, it says, "The humble shall see and be glad and your heart shall live that seek God." Seekers of God then are related to people who are humble. Humble people and seekers of God, one and the same. Isaiah 57 and verse 15, I believe it is, and you have the same idea. "For thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity whose name is holy...that, of course, is almighty God...God says I dwell in the high and holy place and who do I dwell with...mark it...with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the spirit or the heart of the contrite ones." In other words, God gives life to humble people. Humility is linked constantly with this matter of saving faith and salvation.
In Micah 6:8 we read, "He hath shown thee, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of thee? But to do justly, to love mercy and walk humbly with thy God." And then we come into the New Testament and we read, as I quoted a moment ago, from Matthew 18 that if anybody comes into My kingdom he comes like a little child and the next verse says, "Humble yourselves as a little child."
Then God grants...now keep this in your mind, this is the heart of the whole passage...God grants, verse 6 says, God grants to the humble His saving grace. God grants to the humble His saving grace. Now listen carefully, we realize and the Bible affirms that God saves sovereignly those He chooses to save. Yet there must be a response on the part of man. And here James is not concerned to discuss the theology of God's sovereignty, he is concerned to plead for the response of man. And so James gives clear unmistakeable commands that call for the proper kind of humility.
Now think this through with me. We've established so far that when the Bible says in verse 6 God resists the proud, He is saying I stand against those who are unbelievers. They are identified as proud. Why? Because they will not submit to whom? To God. On the other hand, He gives grace to the humble and they are those who have submitted to God. The question then comes, if grace is only for the humble, how do you get to be humble or who are the humble? How can I receive saving grace? How can I take the gift of salvation? If I were to title this message I think I would title it, "How to receive saving grace...How to receive saving grace." And the overarching answer is to be humble...that's stated in verse 6 and it's repeated in verse 10, "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up."
But the question then is how do you...how do you act humbly? How do you do that? James give us very clear instruction in verses 7, 8, 9 and then sums it up in verse 10. Now let me read you those verses again...okay?...follow very closely. Verse 7, "Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil he will flee from you, draw near to God, He will draw near to you, cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded; be afflicted and mourn and weep, let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up."
Now you say, "Well are you sure he's directing that to unbelievers?" Yes, because we've already seen that the people he's talking to are people driven by internal lust, that's not true of a believer, that's not the dominant force in a believer. They are people who are the friend of the world. They love the world therefore they're the enemies of God. They are the people whose wisdom is that which is not from above, but is that which is earthly, sensual, demonic. They are people who are proud and against whom God sets Himself up in battle array. They cannot be believers. But if you took nothing but verses 7 to 10, he could never be speaking to anybody but unbelievers, just reverse it. These are people who by virtue of these commands, these are people who have not submitted to God. These are people who have not taken a stand against the devil. These are people who are far from God and need to draw near. These are people who are corrupt outwardly and corrupt inwardly. These are people called sinners. These are people who are double minded, trying to hold on to God and on to the world at the same time. These are people who laugh and party when they ought to be weeping over their sin. They are specifically labeled as sinners. Now how could that possibly be a description of a Christian? There's no way. And yet I am amazed...I read about 15 commentaries this week...not one of them said this passage was directed to unbelievers. One commentator who is usually the most lucid in James says, "Every use of the word hamartolos, sinners, in the New Testament refers to unbelievers except this one," period, paragraph, with no explanation he said that. Why do you say that? Why does this have to be to believers? It can't be. And yet we've lost this great invitation because for some reason it's been interpreted that this is directed at Christians.
Let's look at the word "sinners," do you see it there in verse 8? "Cleanse your hands, you sinners." Let me do a little bit of a study of that word for you just so you get your feet on the ground as to who he's talking about if you still have any doubts. The word hamartolos, the word for sinners, is used in the gospels and not only in the gospels but it's used predominantly in the gospels of the New Testament to refer to the harden sinner, the one who openly disregards the law of God, the one who had a reputation for public immorality. When they really wanted to lambaste Jesus, they said He hangs around publicans and what? Sinners. Those were publicly immoral people, people who defied the standards of morality, who defied propriety, who defied the law of God, they were openly bad people whose wickedness was very apparent...they were sinners. The Jewish people hearing James when he writes this, hearing as they listened to the reading of this, would never have assumed those sinners to be believers. Sinners in their environment were always those people openly wicked, openly bad, openly apart from God and His law.
For example, if you go back in to the Old Testament, Psalm 1:1, do you remember this? "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly nor stands in the way of...what?...sinners." In verse 5, "The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous." What is he saying? Sinners are one category that is exclusive of the righteous. In the twenty‑fifth Psalm and verse 8, "Good and upright is the Lord, therefore will He teach sinners in the way." In other words, He'll bring the saving message to sinners.
In Genesis 13:13 the men of Sodom were called sinners. In Proverbs 11:31 the wicked and the sinner will be judged by God. In Proverbs 13:6 wickedness overthrows the sinner. And you come into the prophets even, in Isaiah 1 and verse 28, "And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed." Sinners are transgressors, sinners and transgressors are those who forsake the Lord and will be consumed in judgment.
Chapter 13 of Isaiah and verse 9, again the same emphasis is made. "Behold, the day of the Lord comes cruel both with wrath and fierce anger to lay the land desolate, He shall destroy the sinners out of it." And then in Amos chapter 9 verse 10, same thing, "All the sinners of My people shall die by the sword." You come in to the New Testament and it's the very same thing. All throughout the New Testament, in fact I could not find one use of the word sinner in the entire New Testament to refer to a believer...it's patently obvious that the use of that word is strictly given to unbelievers. Jesus says in Matthew 9:13, "I will have mercy and not sacrifice for I am not come to call the righteous but...what?...sinners to repentance...sinners to repentance. That's repeated in Mark 2:17, Luke 5:32.
One passage you might look at, just to follow along for a moment, Luke chapter 7. And I'm not in an