The Test of True Humility: Part 2 - James Lesson 23

 Let’s go back to the book of James this morning. I don’t know about you, but I am being deeply challenged by this study. I am certainly benefiting from the time I spend studying these verses. My prayer is that you are finding some benefit from what I am sharing. Today we are going to be looking into verses 7-10. This is the sequel to the message last week. So, let’s briefly tie all this together then read our passage.

 At the end of chapter 3 we encountered the wisdom test. Remember, James has been giving us test after test of genuine saving faith. In the wisdom test we learned about wisdom from below which is earthly, natural, and demonic. There is wisdom from above, or from God, which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, and without hypocrisy. James told us that the manifestations of these two kinds of wisdom will be clearly different. The wisdom from below manifests itself in selfishness which produces disorder and every evil thing. The wisdom from above produces the fruit of righteousness which is sown in peace by those who make peace.

 As we came into the first part of chapter 4 James confronted us with an ugly reality. Verses 1-5 describe a virtual garbage list of issues with which we all still struggle. As we worked through those verses we were confronted with the reality that these are still things that are associated with our fallen condition. They are manifestations of the influence of the wisdom from below. They are issues we are powerless to conquer in our own strength. They are descriptions of the ugly reality of our sinfulness. Though we are Christians, we still reside in a body that is corrupt and a world that is even more corrupt. All this we learned from an honest self-examination of our hearts as we looked at ourselves in light of James 4:1-5.

 Then we came to verse 6. We encountered the word “but.” And we learned of the greatest encouragement sinful man can find. God gives a greater grace. We learned last week what this grace is and what it does. We already understood from our look at verses 1-5 how desperately we needed this greater grace. Last week we learned that we can have it. We can have it because God gives it. God gives this grace to those who are humble.

 The wisdom from above is the wisdom that produces humility. The real answer to James’ question from verse 13 of chapter 3, “Who among you is wise and understanding?” is “the one who is humble.” This is true because the one who is humble is the one who has received the greater grace. The product of the greater grace is to make us to become those who are first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, and without hypocrisy.

 If we are to walk in wisdom we must be humble. If we are to walk in victory over the problems associated with the wisdom from below, we need the greater grace and in order to receive the greater grace, we need to be humble. So how do we become humble? How do we position ourselves to become the recipients of this greater grace? How do we make sure we are not among those whom God opposes? How do we conquer the pride that brings opposition from God and present ourselves to God as those who want to be transformed by the greater grace?

 James tells us. This is exactly what we find in verses 7-10. We could entitle this message, “How to walk in humility.” These verses tell us what it is to walk in humility. These verses tell us what it means to be wise and understanding. These verses tell us what it takes to put the garbage of verses 1-5 behind us and to begin to show ourselves wise and understanding by our good behavior and deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. Let’s read verses 7-10.

 There are ten imperatives in these four verses. There are ten verbs. These verses describe the actions to be taken and the attitude to be adopted. Because they are imperatives this means these are things we are commanded to do. They are not optional. These are the things to do to demonstrate humility.

 Some of you like a checklist. Some of you like having a list that you can follow, so you can get each thing done and check it off, and move on to the next thing. I have a warning for you. These are not one and done things to do. These imperatives do not constitute a checklist of things we can do and say, “I’ve done these things. I am now humble.” These are things that are ongoing. These imperatives require our constant attention. Each of these imperatives is in the aorist tense. This tense describes action required at a point in time at the very moment as the need arises, or when the occasion presents itself.

 This means that submitting to God, resisting the devil drawing near to God, cleansing our hands, purifying our hearts, being miserable and mourning and weeping, letting our laughter be turned into mourning, and our joy to sorrow, and humbling ourselves in the presence of the Lord, these are all commands that are to be obeyed whenever the opportunity presents itself, or whenever the need arises. At the very moment we find our lives needing to be brought into subjection to God, we do it. At the very moment we find ourselves being influenced in any way by the devil, or his evil world system, we resist. In any circumstances or situation where we would benefit from drawing near to God and having Him draw near to Him, we are to draw near to Him. You get the picture. And immediately, you realize that humility is not an event, or a transaction, or a matter of checking things off a list. Humility is a way of life.

 Let’s understand what we are being taught in these ten imperatives. First, we submit to God. We “submit therefore to God.” The “therefore” is there to connect these things with the previous truth. To those who are humble, God gives the grace, or the power and strength and ability, to submit to Him. The word “submit” is one we have encountered often in Scripture. It is an important truth. It means to subjugate oneself under God. It means to place yourself in submission to Him. To submit oneself to God is to voluntarily bring yourself under the authority of God. This is to say to yourself in any and every circumstance of life, “I am going to let God be God and I am going to assume my rightful place under Him as His willing, obedient, faithful servant.”

 There is one perfect example of this kind of submission to God. There are several good examples, but only one perfect example. The perfect example is who James had in mind as he wrote this. He must have been thinking of the life of Jesus. Jesus is the perfect example of these first imperatives because Jesus is the perfect example of submission. Paul tells us in Philippians 2, Jesus “humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” There is no humility without submission. In the life of Christ humility manifested itself in perfect submission to His Father.

Listen to a quote from “Humility – The Beauty of Holiness” by Andrew Murray.

…it is of inconceivable importance that we should have right thoughts of what Christ is, of what really constitutes Him the Christ, and specially of what may be counted His chief characteristic, the root and essence of all His character as our Redeemer. There can be but one answer: it is His humility. What is the incarnation but His heavenly humility, His emptying Himself and becoming man? What is His life on earth but humility; His taking the form of a servant? And what is His atonement but humility? “He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death.” And what is His ascension and His glory, but humility exalted to the throne and crowned with glory? “He humbled Himself, therefore God highly exalted Him.” Christ is the humility of God embodied in human nature; the Eternal Love humbling itself, clothing itself in the garb of meekness and gentleness, to win and serve and save us. Jesus of necessity was the Incarnate Humility. 

In every aspect of His incarnation, and in every way His earthly ministry, in every way His work of redemption, He was only submitting to God. There was never another so humble. There was never another so fully, completely, and absolutely submitting to God.

Listen to the words in which our Lord speaks of His relation to the Father, and how unceasingly He uses the words not, and nothing, of Himself. The not I, in which Paul expresses his relation to Christ, is the very spirit of what Christ says of His relation the Father. John 5:19, John 5:30, John 6:38, John 7:16, John 8:28, John 8:42, John 14:10

These words open to us the deepest roots of Christ’s life and work. They tell us how it was that the Almighty God was able to work His mighty redemptive work through Him. They show what Christ counted the state of heart which became Him as the Son of the Father. They teach us what the essential nature and life is of that redemption which Christ accomplished and now communicates. It is this: He was nothing, that God might be all. He resigned Himself with His will and His powers entirely for the Father to work in Him. Of His own power, His own will, and His own glory, of His whole mission with all His works and His teaching, of all this He said, It is not I; I am nothing; I have given Myself to the Father to work; I am nothing, the Father is all.

This life of entire self-abnegation, of absolute submission and dependence upon the Father’s will, Christ found to be one of perfect peace and joy. He lost nothing by giving all to God.

We have nothing to fear and nothing to loose by learning and determining to live in submission to God. To live in submission to the will of our Father is the beginning of humility. It is to live as Christ lived, and He is the perfect manifestation of humility. The grace God gives to the humble is given to those who are like Christ.

The second imperative command is to “resist the devil and he will flee from you.” You know James had Jesus in mind when he wrote this. You know that James had in mind the incident in the wilderness when Jesus faced the full frontal assault of Satan as he tempted the holy Son of God while He was hungry. Let’s read this account in Matthew 4:1-11.

We don’t need to re-examine this passage. We looked at the temptation of Jesus when we studied the passage in James 1 that dealt with the test of temptation. We should understand how Satan’s temptations work and we should follow the example of Jesus in resisting him when we are tempted.

The word “resist” means to stand against. We are to oppose the devil. We are to be his opponent. Turn to 1 Peter 5 for a moment. I wanted you to see this just to note that this paragraph begins with the same aorist tense, imperative verb used by James in James 4:10. We see this in verse 6. “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time.” Verse 8 describes the devil as an adversary who prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But we, according to verse 9, are to “resist him, firm in the faith…” Peter gives us some insight into the resistance movement. We resist by standing firm in the faith. This is exactly what Jesus modeled in the wilderness that we read about in Matthew 4. Jesus stood on the truth of God’s word. This is how we stand firm in the faith. The use of the word “faith” here represents the body of divine truth upon which we stand. We resist the devil by knowing and firmly believing and affirming the truth of God’s word in the face of every temptation, every trial, every circumstance where the devil attempts to undermine God’s truth.

This will cause the devil to flee because he knows he is wasting his time. He cannot derail and destroy the one who stands firm on the truth of Scripture. Paul says in Ephesians 4:27, “and do not give the devil an opportunity.” The context there is Paul describing the transformed life of the redeemed, specifically of being angry and not sinning. By sinning, especially with anger, we give the devil an opportunity. We never give the devil an opportunity if we are abiding in the truth regardless of the circumstances we encounter. 

Submit to God, like Jesus. Resist the devil, like Jesus. If you think about these two imperatives, what are they really telling us to do? It is fairly simple and straightforward. Trust and obey God. Trust and obey God’s word. Trust and obey God by living in submission. Trust and obey God’s word and Satan has nothing to work with.

Thirdly, draw near to God and He will draw near to you. (v. 8) I am going to suggest that James does not have Jesus in mind when he writes this imperative. Jesus did not need to draw near to God, nor did God need to draw near to Jesus. Jesus never needed to draw near to His Father because there was never anything that separated them until the time on the Cross when our sins were placed on Him and bearing our sins Jesus endured a time of separation from the Father. It was a time marked by darkness when the judgment of God was fully executed and the infinite wrath of holy God was endured by the infinite Son of God.

James, I am convinced, has another Old Testament reality in mind that fits this verse. James follows the imperative to draw near to God with the fourth and fifth imperatives to cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. James has in mind the Levitical priesthood and the O.T. requirements of washing and preparations for service at the altar daily, and the special preparations for the high priest prior to his entrance into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement.

  I am not going to take time to go back and show you all those cleansing rituals. The significance of those rituals is what they pointed to. They pointed to the necessity of repentance from all the sinful deeds, done with the hands, and the sinful attitudes of the heart, which made one double-minded. The problem with the people of the Old Testament, even the priesthood, was that they often forgot what was really required to draw near to God. As a result, their sacrifices became meaningless ritual. This is why Isaiah confronted them in Isaiah 29:13 with this rebuke, “Then the Lord said, “Because this people draw near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote.”

 The Psalmist understood the importance of the nearness of God. Asaph wrote in Psalm 73:28, “But as for me, the nearness of my God is my good; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all Your works.” And there is a beautiful promise in Psalm 145:18. It says, “The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth.”

 Humility then, is walking in submission to God, resisting the devil by walking in truth, and drawing near to God by the ongoing, sincere, consistent, pursuit of righteousness and purity of both the deeds of our hands and attitudes of our hearts. Cleansing your hands is a command to do everything you do as unto the Lord. It is to consider what God requires in everything we put our hands to do. Purifying our hearts requires bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. It is to examine everything our hearts desire and turning from those things that are not pleasing to Him.

And, then we come to verse 9. We are told to “be miserable and mourn and weep…” These are active voice imperatives meaning that we are responsible to do these things. Then the voice changes to passive voice imperatives when we are told to “let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.”

 Is James telling us that we ought to be the most miserable people on the planet? What about joy? What about contentment and thankfulness and rejoicing? What is James talking about here? James is describing the proper mindset of the child of God regarding the residual sin which he battles. This is the attitude which will accompany the actions of cleansing your hands and purifying your hearts.

 The word “miserable” is found only here in the New Testament. It connotes being broken and miserable because of one’s circumstances. It is the attitude of the heart of the one who “mourns.” Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount in the Beatitudes, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” What does Jesus mean? This is the second of the Beatitudes. The first says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Many times we have explained this. This is where the understanding of our sinfulness brings us. We are poor in spirit when we find that we are utterly spiritually bankrupt before God. We have nothing to offer by which we can stand before Him justified. Understanding this brings us to mourn over the fact that we are helplessly and hopelessly and eternally separated from God and deserving only of judgment and condemnation. We mourn because if our fate is left to us, we are doomed.

 The ideas of being miserable and mourning were the exact attitudes of the tax collector who went to the Temple to pray with the Pharisee. He would not approach the Temple. He would not lift his eyes to heaven. He beat his breast in contrition and sorrow and misery. He cried out to God for mercy. To be miserable and mourn is to be overwhelmed with deep despair because of our sin and the realization of how offensive it is to a holy God. The weeping will be the outward manifestation of the inward sorrow. It reflects the attitude of the humble toward his or her sin.

 Those who are truly humble will let their laughter be turned into mourning and their joy to gloom, knowing that this is the attitude that marks the true child of God when he or she remembers the condition from which we have been saved. This is the attitude of Paul when he cried out, “O wretched man that I am…” in Romans 7. He was brokenhearted that his sin remained and he knew he must have the grace of God as his only remedy.

 There is no question regarding Paul’s salvation. He was a ransomed and holy man. But he was a child of God in whom there remained a deep consciousness of his having been the worst of sinners. He said of himself, “I am the least of the apostles, not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church.” He said, “I was a blasphemer and a persecutor of the church.” He said, “Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.” Paul knew he had been saved by grace and that God remembered his sins no more, but he could never forget how terribly he had sinned against God.

 The true work of salvation fills us with remorse over the sins against which we struggle. The more we hate our sin, the more we will be miserable and mourn and weep over our sin. The more our laughter will be turned to mourning and our joy to gloom. These attitudes reflect a love for righteousness as much as a brokenness over sin. The humble will love righteousness and hate sin.

 The final imperative is found in verse 10. “Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.” James began this paragraph with the truth that God gives grace to the humble. He describes how to walk in humility before God with these first nine imperatives. Then he closes this paragraph with the tenth imperative by telling us to humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord.

 Humility is the displacement of self by the enthronement of God. We submit to Him, letting Him be God, placing ourselves willingly and lovingly under His sovereign hand. Where God is all, and self is nothing, the devil has nothing with which to work. He is resisted. Drawing near to God brings us requires that we accept our place as dependents, those who learn to live by faith, knowing that God is faithful and good and loving and patient and abounding in mercy and grace.

 To humble yourself before God is follow the footsteps of Jesus. It is to live as He lived. Even though He existed as God, He did not regard equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

 We must stand persistently under this unchanging command. When God brings the trials and suffering and pain and sorrow and disappointment that humble us before Him and man, we rejoice. We rejoice because we consider humility as our virtue of first priority, our principle duty before God, because humility is the safeguard against the one thing that will cause God to withhold the greater grace. God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

 James closes this with a promise that first came from the lips of Jesus. Jesus said in Luke 14:11, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Jesus repeated these words exactly as I just read them in Luke 18:14 at the conclusion of His parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. 

“Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will exalt you. And wherein does the exaltation consist? The highest glory of the creature is in being only a vessel, to receive and enjoy and show forth the glory of God. It can do this only as it is willing to be nothing in itself, that God may be all. Water always fills first the lowest places. The lower, the emptier a man lies before God, the speedier and the fuller will be the inflow of the divine glory. The exaltation God promises is not, cannot be, any external thing apart from Himself: all that He has to give or can give is only more of Himself, Himself to take more complete possession. The exaltation is not, like an earthly prize, something arbitrary, in no necessary connection with the conduct to be rewarded. No, but it is in its very nature the effect and result of the humbling of ourselves. It is nothing but the gift of such a divine indwelling humility, such a conformity to and possession of the humility of the Lamb of God, as fits us for receiving fully the indwelling of God.

 I believe the exaltation we are promised by James is the greater grace God gives to the humble. What is this greater grace? It is the power to submit, therefore to God. It is the strength to resist the devil. It is the desire to draw near to God. It creates the hunger and thirst for righteousness that makes us willing to cleanse our hands and purify our hearts. Greater grace creates in us the proper attitude toward sin. The more grace we receive the more we are exalted. The more we are exalted, the more we are concerned that God alone is glorified in our lives.