Humility Cures Pride

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Pride is huge in our culture today isn’t it? Is pride not as prevalent today as it has always been. Our culture today says to have pride, encourages pride. Now when I say pride… that is pride linked to our culture today, I am sure most of us go to thinking the same thing right?? Homosexuality right? Homosexuality is as prevalent as it has ever been… I don’t know if it is anymore popular or anymore practiced than other times in history… but I do know it is more widely talked about and more widely accepted… People are encouraged in our culture to have pride in their sin… And we know Homosexuality is sin! Pride promotes sin… not just the sin of homosexuality but pride promotes all sin. James address the issue of pride here in our text today. Lets read the text.
James 4:1–10 NKJV
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. Yet 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.
So here this morning James gives us the benchmark of pride. He gives us yet another way of judging our faith… of measuring our faith if you will so that we can be sure that our faith is living! Throughout the epistle of James he gives us benchmark after benchmark so that we can be sure that our faith is genuine.
Notice in verse 1 James poses a question to us. He encourages us to question our selves and by this question he tries to promote thought. The first part of verse 1 James poses this question and then he gives us an answer to direct our thoughts.
James 4:1 NKJV
Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?
Where do wars and fights come from among us? Now remember James is writing to believers here… or at least to professed believers. That is those that profess faith in Christ. So where do disagreements and where does strife come from among us as a body? Now I may be biased but I don’t think we have a lot of strife or disagreements here at deroche but we know that we don’t all agree on everything… We are not going to all wholeheartedly agree on every decision we make as a body. James suggest that our pride may have a lot to do with these disagreements. It is easy for us to think: I wouldn’t do that like that or to think I would do that instead of this.... And those thoughts are not totally inherently bad… but what do those thoughts most often cause… if we are not careful they can cause strife and disrupt unity in the body. And alot of times those thoughts are caused by our pride.... The thinking that I know better than someone else.
So what is our attitude towards the world? Notice in verse 4 James gives us the central truth, if you will, of this passage… James 4:4 “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.” So are we to take pride in the world? Are we taking pride in our wordly knowlege or our worldly success. Genuine sprititual life and faithful Christian living involve Separation from the world… Separation from the world.
Now this separation from the world is what James was referring to earlier in this epistle when he said James 3:17 “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.” This is wisdom and humility that the world can’t provide. This is wisdom and humility that lost people can’t have.
So James essential says that continuing friendship with the world is human wisdom and is evidence of unbelief or evidence of un-saving faith.
Now some of your translations will say quarrels and fights in vs 1 and that is probably the best translation… and the greek here indicates the idea of prolonged conflict, serious disputing. This is often translated war in the new testament. Both terms (wars and fights) being used here indicate violent personal relationships which in the extreme can result even in murder. James here says these behaviors are “among you” indicating that these behaviors where among assembled believers. Now I believe this is a decent indication that some of the members of the assembly where not saved… and we can understand that right? We know that there may be visitors here that are not saved… we know there are some long term visitors that may of not ever professed Christ and followed the obedience of being baptized and joining the church… There may be members here who have professed Christ and have been baptized and joined the Church who are not genuinely saved… remember many will say on that day...”Lord Lord… and Jesus will say to them what… Depart from me I never knew you. So James gives us here another benchmark that we can use to judge our faith… a benchmark to make sure that we don’t deceive ourselves.
We know that conflict in the Church is not God’s will right. We know that it is not God’s design for His Church.
In John 13:34–35 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.””
and later in John Jesus prayed to the Father John 17:21 “that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.”
So it is the will of God that we be of one accord… an assembly without wars and fights… an assembly without selfish pride… without worldly pride.
Now James doesn’t leave us hanging with that information… He provides us ways to identify inside ourselves if we have this worldly pride or not. Lets look on at the text.
James 4:2 “You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.”
Now in order for this personal inventory to work we have to be honest with ourselves… I think that is a given but James is writing this for you and me… His intention is to help us and we have to be honest with ourselves.
One writer said “Friendship with the world not only creates conflict with other people but also conflict within the worldly person himself.”
And I believe that James really address both conflicts here in this passage… He starts with the internal conflict by asking Do you lust and not have… That is are we content. This is an internal conflict inside ourselves… a conflict of desires… a conflict of lust. We know that as believers in Christ that God will provide for us… Are we content with what we have or are we lusting after things that we do not have. Unreginerate perople are slaves to their desires… that is they are driven by their lust and desires.
We know that when the Gospel is presented to selfish lustful people often times we get the results our Lord talked about in Luke 8, the seed of the gospel that fell among thorns.... our Lord said
Luke 8:14 “Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.”
These are people who hear the gospel and think man that sounds good… how lovely it would be to be in fellowship with God… to be shown grace by God… Ultimately though they are not seeking God though… they end up seeking the things God can provide… they want wisdom, peace, mercy and all the good fruits that come from God when we believe… They want what God can provide… they seek what God can provide instead of seeking God… and in that they get choked out, if you will, by their desires and lust of the world.
When people surrender to their fleshly pleasures they give themselves over to sin… Many people do this under the ruse of freedom… we see that in our country and culture today right? Our culture says you are free to do whatever you want… free to be whatever and whoever you want..and we, just in general, place a high premium on freedom in our culture… Ultimately though when people surrender to these fleshly pleasures and lust they become slaves of those lust and slaves to the world and the world becomes their master… We understand that we can not serve two master right?
James says these ungodly pleasures and this ungodly lust will wage war with our members… they come to control us and become our little g god.
Now we as fallen humanity have a tendency to view someone who prevents us from satisfying a desire as an obstacle to be overcome or as an enemy to defeat… But as believers in Christ we must learn to bridle these desires and as believers we must adhere to the word of God and trust God. But worldly people will have a tendency to view God as an enemy when in their pride they want to fulfil a worldly desire that He blocks either by the condemnation of His word or by literal action. Just a side note here… God is in control right? God is still on the throne! God is sovereign… God can do what He pleases and He can stop what He pleases. So it is not inconceivable to us that God can block some things and help us by making it harder to fulfil our worldly desires… Now for an example I want you to think about abortion in our country. People who advocate abortion, who support abortion, see Christians as obstacles to overcome to push their agenda forward. God working through His word, through His Spirit, through His people are simply an obstacle to them… an obsticle to overcome so that they can legalize their sin… so that they can commit their sin.
Now all of this comes back to pride… selfish pride that says, I know best, I can do whatever I want, I’m the head honcho.
That is simply not the truth though is it? We do not know best, we can not do whatever we want, we are not the head honcho are we? No, God knows best, we follow Him in His word, God is the head of our households and the Church… we are to humble ourselves before the Lord.
Notice vs 4 James 4:4 “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.” Notice here James says that as professed believers when we give into this sinful pride we are adulteresses… we are adulterating God to serve the world.... and when we serve the world we are enemys of God… now James was writing to converted Jews abroad remember… in chapter 1 vs 1 he said James 1:1 “James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad: Greetings.” Now I think that in vs 4 here James is really addressing two types of people… and not just in verse 4 but throughout the epistle but I am going to make this illustration for you in verse 4 so that you can see it. Now notice at the beginning of verse 4 he says adulterers and adulteresses.... now what is an adulteresses? is it not someone who is married to someone but unfaithful… So James is talking about genuine believers and Jews who are married to Christ who are being unfaithful by taking selfish pride in the world and who are giving into their lust and giving into the sinful pleasures of the world. We understand that an unbeliever, that is someone who does not belong to Christ can not be an adulteress right.... So James is talking here to genuine believers… but notice the second part of vs 4 he says “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God” This friendship with the world can not be a Christians sin… James can not be referring to sinning Christians here because he said its a sin that makes someone the enemy of God and we know that Christians are never the enemy of God… Christians are the friends of God. Jesus called us His friends. So this friendship with the world would reveal false faith… un-saving faith.. This is James trying to help people that may be self deceived into thinking they are saved. This would be someone with dead faith. Now I want to point that out because several commentaries I read after made statements that the book of James was purely instructional to the believer and was not evangelistic and I believe that to be totally false. I believe all of God’s word is evangelistic and can be used for converting sinners. You may not take someone to the book of James that has never been exposed to the word of God before. That is the book of James may not be your first choice but that does not mean the epistle is not useful in evangelizing.
Now with that said I see verses 6-10 as a call to salvation for anyone who may find that their faith is dead. Now in verse 6 James reminds the readers of this letter that God gives His grace to the humble, that is those that humble themselves before God… and to remind them of this he quotes Proverbs 3:34 “Surely He scorns the scornful, But gives grace to the humble.” James 4:6 “But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.””
And then James goes on to say in vs 7 to therefor submit to God… so that you can receive this grace. When someone humbles themselves before God and receives this grace they in turn resist the temptation of the devil and he flees from them. Lets read verses 7-10 again
James 4:7–10 NKJV
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.
This therefore signifies the turning point… the turning point that says, this is how to humble yourselves. Submitting to God is submitting to the sovereignty of God. Submitting to Jesus Christ as Lord. To submit to God is to recognize your weekness, to stop fighting, and to surrender to him as your ultimate and final authority… what does this submission to God look like? Turn to Romans Chapter 12… There is not better example in my mind than Romans Chapter 12 verses 1-2 of what true submission to God is… and what true submission to God looks like.
Romans 12:1–2 NKJV
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
To draw near to God is to come into His presence with prayer, with praise and obedience to His word. Submission to God is to resist the devil. And how do we resist the devil? The same way our Lord did… wielding scripture… wielding scripture… that is our knowledge of the Word of God. One writer said:
The Tony Evans Bible Commentary IV. Hostility or Humility (4:1–17)

When the devil whispers his lies to your conscience, proclaim the truth of the Word of God, and he will flee from you (Jas 4:7) as he fled from Christ (Matt 4:11). But you can’t proclaim what you don’t know.

Notice in verse 8 James says to Cleanse your hands… in other words, repent of your sins… turn from your sins and purify your hearts. To repent of our sins we have to humble ourselves and admit our sins right? If I deny my sins in pride I can not repent of them…
James: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Chapter 15: Drawing near to God (James 4:7–10)

Jesus promised, “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 gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matt. 11:28–29), and that, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (16:24–25).

Folks when we humble ourselves we sure make it easy to accept the Gospel… when we humble ourselves we ready our heart for the gift of salvation… God truly desires that all men be saved. Remember bro. Chris’ sermon from the other week on John 3:16… for God so Loved… That He gave… that whosoever… whosoever.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
The entire Word of God is evangelistic… if men would just put their pride away.... in closing lets look at one of the last appeals or calls to salvation in the bible… Turn to Revelation Chapter 22
Revelation 22:16–17 NKJV
“I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star.” And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.
Whoever… whosoever chooses… Let us not let our pride get in the way of serving the Lord or from coming to the Lord to recieve salvation… Pride… such a downfall.
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