The Book of James, He Giveth More Grace, James 4:4-10 - Lesson 18

James 4:1-17,  From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? ²Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. ³Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. ⁴Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. ⁵Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? ⁶But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. ⁷Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. ⁹Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. ¹⁰Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

We learned in last week’s lesson that there is a war on between what is sensed in this world and what can only be known by knowing the Spirit of God.

There are two worlds, the world of the Spirit and the world of the senses.

Jesus said in John 3:3,  Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Jesus said unless a man is born of the Spirit it is impossible to see.

This means that a man or woman who has not been born of the Spirit is blind to the things of the Spirit of God.

This word "see" means exactly what it says.

Only by being born of the Spirit can a man or woman have eyes to see the first world, the world of the Spirit.

Jesus Christ made it a point to heal those amongst him that were physically blind so as to tell us that we are all blind when it comes to the world of the Spirit of God.

Only by a supernatural act can our blindness be removed in order for us to see the world of the Spirit.

Once our blindness is removed at the new birth we are given spiritual eyes with which to see all that God has prepared for those who love him.

Satan is busy encouraging the worship of that which belongs to his world, the world that is accessed by the senses.

This is his constant promotion as we see in everything around us.

His method is to glorify that which is seen though the eyes, that which is heard though the ear, that which is touched, and tasted, and even smelled.

Christmas is one of his greatest successes as his efforts have resulted in a holiday that is almost totally void of its original meaning, that of the incarnation of Jesus Christ.

Think of this instruction on Christmas Day, as the people of our country are almost totally involved in that which the senses reveal, to the exclusion of that which God’s Spirit reveals.

The trappings of Christmas overrule, the lights glitter, the presents are glorious in their wrappings, the contents are there to satisfy our senses, but where is Christ in all of our celebration?

Paul knew this ploy of Satan for he instructs Christians in:

Col. 3:2 to,  Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. ³For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. ⁴When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

Paul tells believers to reckon themselves dead.

Here he says in fact "Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God."

In other words, Christians, your senses are not to be what you trust and follow.

You are not to build your life with affections toward that which you see, hear, taste, touch, or smell.

The natural man says, I will only believe that which my senses tell me is real.

I remember a popular saying of that decade of evil, the 1960s which told us that if something feels good, do it!

This is the mantra of the world for the world only reveals itself by the senses, it, having nothing of the Spirit of God.

That is why we are to set our affections on things above.

We are to be dead to what our senses tell us, as far as reality is concerned, and alive unto what God tells us in his word.

God’s word, and only God’s word shows us the true reality, the reality of sin, the reality of our lost condition, the reality of salvation, the reality of eternal life with God.

Your senses will not reveal to you your sin, your lost condition, your need for salvation, and your senses will not reveal that life is only found in Christ.

Except a man be born again he cannot see, period!

James in verses 2 and 3 tells his readers they are asking for things to consume upon their own lusts.

They are asking for things which satisfy the eye, the ear, the nose, the mouth, the touch.

Their affections are on things below, not on things above.

They are moved toward Satan’s world rather than that of the Spirit of God.

They ask not as a servant of God, but one who wishes to be served, as one who wishes to consume without benefit to others.

Now James pulls no punches, he softens no blows, as he instructs those who wish to straddle the fence of the two worlds.

In James 4:4,5, he calls believers who are moved by the senses instead of the Spirit, by the names of adulterers, and adulteresses.

Here James uses terms that are not necessarily to be understood in the common way, that of the unfaithfulness of a married man or woman.

But the terms, adulterers and adulteresses are used to be understood in the general way, of that of a person being unfaithful to his or her love.

In this context it is used as being unfaithful to God, the God who opened eyes to see.

Jesus in Matthew 12:30, said in no uncertain terms that He expected absolute loyalty to Him, when He said that:

This means that if the work that you do is not in conjunction with the work of Christ that work is against Christ.

If all you do is to satisfy the senses, then your work is simply wood, hay and stubble, and will not withstand the judgment fires of God.

So James tells us that friendship with that which the senses bring to us, the world, the world that Satan rules over, is a sign of enmity, of opposition, to God.

It is not a gathering but a scattering.

You are not to love the world, you are to love God.

Loving the world and loving God at the same time is impossible according to the instruction of James for whomever is a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

We either stand with our Lord, and in that standing we will find the world against us, or we will stand with the world and that standing will reveal us to be against our Lord.

You cannot have it both ways.

The Apostle John, as directed by God’s Spirit, made this very plain and I read his passage in I John 2:15-17 as expanded in the Amplified Bible,

For all that is in the world-the lust of the flesh [craving for sensual gratification (things that satisfy the senses)] and the lust of the eyes [greedy longings of the mind] and the pride of life [assurance in one’s own resources or in the stability of earthly things]-these do not come from the Father but are from the world [itself].

We see in our day a fear for what is taking place with the earth, do we not?

God will kick away every crutch upon which we lean for all that we see is temporary even including the earth.

God does not wish for us a temporary existence but wishes for us an eternal existence with Him and the message is that the world passes away.

Why love something that will not last the test of eternity?

Why put your affection on that which has a limited life?

The message of James is to put your affections on things above and be like Abraham who looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

And God will go the extra mile to bring back his erring children who are enamoured by the world for James says in:

James 4:6-10,  But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. ⁷Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. ⁹Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. ¹⁰Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

He giveth more grace. God gave grace for the new birth.

And here he giveth more grace.

He gives additional grace to His wayward children who are prone to wander, who are prone to answer the siren call of the world.

Remember that song: Come, Thou Fount of every blessing.

In the fourth verse God’s grace on behalf of a wanderer is extolled.

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

Note the cry of the song, that the heart be sealed, that it be sealed for that which is above.

That word seal means the same as the word "Set" used in the phrase "Set your affection on things above."

Set means don’t have a double mind about your affections.

Seal your affections for the courts above.

Abraham’s affections were for that which was from above for he looked for a city with foundations, the foundation of the Word of God.

We need God’s grace, and God’s greater grace, in order for that setting to take place.

What an encouragement this is to those who have strayed from God for you cannot stray outside of the reach of God’s grace.

For He giveth more grace, and if more than that is needed He has more and more to give.

Remember these verses that we sing:

To access this grace James calls for repentance.

He does not use that word but the actions he describes certainly are actions of repentance.

For he says in James 4:9-10,  Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. ⁹Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. ¹⁰Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

God pours out more grace when we have a godly sorrow for our sin, and humble ourselves in repentance, turning away from our pride, and drawing near to his grace.

When we realize that we have become too friendly with the world, we need to humbly submit ourselves to God, and at the same time we resist the devil who we are promised will flee from us.

For when we draw near to God the devil will find no comfortable place for himself and will therefore flee from us.

In reality he is fleeing from the holiness of God.

God is looking for the humble soul, the soul who sees himself as God sees him.

He is looking for the soul who has nothing to give God but has need of everything that God provides.

Repentance is a recognition that your hands need cleansing from the works that are performed in the flesh, that your heart needs purifying from the lust it has for what this world offers.

Be afflicted means to realize your own wretchedness and your bent toward the things of this world.

To mourn is to grieve over your love of the world, and to weep is to wail aloud so that your joy turn to heaviness.

And in drawing near to God with this humble heart that heaviness will again turn to joy for He will lift you up.

Again I wish to emphasize that these strong and bold words of James are not meant for the lost but are meant for the saints.

This is not repentance that leads to salvation but repentance that accompanies the drawing near to God by His wayward children.

These words may sound like they are only applicable to the lost but God takes all sin seriously for all sins are deadly.

God loves His own and all sin harms His own and our Father, our loving Father, wishes no harm to His children for He is always at the ready to give more grace.

James 4:11-17,  Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. ¹²There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another? ¹³Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: ¹⁴Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. ¹⁵For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. ¹⁶But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. ¹⁷Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.