Part 10: True Faith is Humble

Introduction

300 Illustrations for Preachers Wife Going Deaf?

A man thinks his wife is losing her hearing. A doctor suggests that he try a simple at-home test: Stand behind her, ask her a question from different distances, and see when she can hear it. The man goes home, sees his wife in the kitchen facing the stove, and asks from the door, “What’s for dinner tonight?” No answer. Ten feet behind her, he repeats, “What’s for dinner tonight?” Still no answer. Finally, right behind her he says, “What’s for dinner tonight?” His wife turns around and says, “For the third time—chicken.”

1. Humility Toward God (4:8-10)

Radical Repentance (v.8)

James 4:8 NASB95

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Three commands here: “Draw near to God,” “cleanse your hands,” and “purify your hearts.” All are a reference to repentance

“Draw near to God”

OT: Hosea 12:6 “Therefore, return to your God, observe kindness and justice, and wait for your God continually.”

NT: Hebrews 4:16 “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

“Cleanse your hands” & “purify your hearts”

Psalm 24:3–4 “Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? And who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood And has not sworn deceitfully.”

An OT phrase that is equivalent: “circumcise your hearts” = repentance

Deuteronomy 10:16 “So circumcise your heart, and stiffen your neck no longer.”

Jeremiah 4:4 “Circumcise yourselves to the Lord And remove the foreskins of your heart, Men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, Or else My wrath will go forth like fire And burn with none to quench it, Because of the evil of your deeds.”

Why does James basically say the same thing 3 times? For emphasis. True faith plays out in radical repentance.

Note too: “cleanse hands” is outward action; “purify your hearts” is inward action: this is a call to complete and utter repentance of the whole person—radical reptentance.

In turn, repentance is an act of humility toward God. It recognizes that God is the holy, perfect, sovereign Creator of the universe and we are nothing but sinful, imperfect, finite human creatures.

In short, then, true faith shows humility toward God through radical repentance.

What does this radical repentance specifically look like? => It acknowledges the seriousness of sin.

Serious Sorrow for Sin (v.9)

James 4:9 NASB95

Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.

“miserable” = lament, be sorrowful. Lament = moan and wail; bemoan and lament over your sin.

“mourn” = feel grief, sorrow

“weep” = cry profusely from sadness

This is a serious sorrow for sin. As if this is not enough, James goes on:

“let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.”

Laughing to sorrow and grief; joy to dejection (no hope)

God is always calling out to us to repent by mourning and weeping. E.g.,:

Joel 2:12 “‘Yet even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘Return to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, weeping and mourning.’”

A true faith is humble toward God through true repentance, i.e., a repentance that acknowledges the seriousness of sin by being miserable, mourning, and wailing.

Application:

Do we take sin this seriously? Do we weep, wail, and mourn over it? Are we miserable because of our sin?

We do not believe in sin anymore.

George Barna, American Worldview Inventory 2023; Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, one of the questions:

“All humans are not basically good; everyone, including you, is a sinner.”

Take a guess what percentage of Americans agree: 27%

Augustine in his Confessions: “It flattered my pride to think that I incurred no guilt and, when I did wrong . . . I preferred to excuse myself . . . . The truth, of course, was that it was all my own self, and my own impiety had divided me against myself. My sin was all the more incurable because I did not think myself a sinner.”

Cornelis Plantinga in Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be:

“To rebel against God is to saw off the branch that supports us. . . . Rebellion against God and flight from God remove us from the sphere of blessing, cutting us off from our only invisible means of support.”

“Thus sin dissipates us in futile—and self-destructive—projects. Sin hurts other people and grieves God, but it also corrodes us. Sin a form of self-abuse. Promiscuous persons, for example coarsen themselves. They disqualify themselves for the deepest forms of intimacy, the ones bonded by trust, and ‘condemn themselves to social superficiality,’ . . . Something similar is true of liars and cheats. As Christopher Lasch remarks, ‘Whoever cheats his neighbor forfeits his neighbor’s trust, imprisons himself off from his fellows. Envy . . . traps and torments the envier, turning her life into a hell of resentment. Proud persons isolate themselves. Pride aborts the very possibility of real friendship or communion—namely, ‘benevolence toward being [others] in general.’” [pp 123-24]

“Sin corrupts. Corruption spreads and kills.” (ibid., 125)

True faith is humble enough to take one’s sin seriously.

But this is a grim view, is it not? We are in a terrible position as sinners. This is why we must be humble to repent of our sins and come to God. We must have a:

Determined Dependence upon God (v.10)

James 4:10 NASB95

Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

“Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord.”

“presence” = lit. face to face

We have the privilege of coming to God face to face. Jesus makes this possible.

Hebrews 7:24–25 “But Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”

This is utter dependence upon God to save us: “. . . and He will exalt you.”

The picture we get here is one where we are on our knees, with head bowed low to the ground, in the presence of God. In humility we confess our sins and recognize that we having nothing to give to God. We recognize that we are entirely dependence upon our Lord and Savior to save us. And in our lowly, humble state as we are prostrated before the throne of God, He stretches out his hand, and by his power, lifts us up. We cannot lift ourselves us; he does it.

Douglas Moo:

The Letter of James V. A Summons to Spiritual Wholeness (4:4–10)

We gain spiritual vitality and victory not through our own strength or effort but through giving ourselves completely to the Lord. When we try to “exalt ourselves” by relying on our own abilities, status, or money, we meet with inevitable failure and even condemnation—God humbles us.

True faith is humble toward God. This humility is shown through radical repentance, a serious sorrow for sin, and determined dependence upon God for our sins to be forgiven.

Application

So here’s the question: are you entirely dependent upon God, not just for salvation, but for everything?

American Christianity has compartmentalized faith. This has become such a way of life that we do not even recognize it.

During the week, does the name of Jesus ever come up in your home, place of employment, anywhere?

“Come to worship; leave to serve.” Although well intentioned and true to some extent, it leaves the impression that worship of Christ occurs only here. This idea is entirely foreign to Scripture. The Lord desires us to “come to worship and leave to worship.”

We must be radically dependent upon the Lord for everything.

True faith is determined to be dependent upon God. It is humble enough to acknowledge that we have no power in this life to sustain ourselves or save ourselves.

But true faith is not just humble toward God, but it is even humble toward others.

2. Humility Toward Each Other (4:11-12)

James 4:11–12 NASB95

Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor?

James discusses here what humility toward each other includes. This not meant to be all inclusive of what humility looks like. He gives us just three identifying factors.

First, humility toward others is shown by:

Avoid Slander (v.11a)

“Do not speak against” = lit means “slander” “speak evil of”

Webster: “the utterance of false charges or misrepresentations which defame and damage another's reputation”

Note that this is a command: “Do not speak against . . .”

In our society, slander is our native language. Is it in the church?

Humility is also shown by:

Avoid Judgmentalism (v.11b-12)

Did you note that James equates speaking against a brother or sister in Christ as “judging them?”

v.11b: “He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it.”

There is a lot of talk today about “judging,” so we want to make sure we understand correctly what James has in mind here. He is NOT talking about making judgments about what is right and wrong, and whether a person has committed a sin or not. We are to judge these things.

What James has in mind is ultimate judgment—that is, condemning a brother or sister by what you say about him or her.

This is judgementalism. It is a Pharisaical attitude; it is an attitude of superiority. It is the opposite of humility.

Judgmentalism, unfortunately, can run rampant in the church, esp about things that do not matter, and it drives people away because they have been effectively condemned for what they have said or done.

We have known or know churches like this, don’t we? A person is slandered or judged for wearing jeans to church; wearing a hat to church; drinking coffee in church; changing the order or worship or not playing the kind of music or songs they want; the list goes on and on.

This is all judgementalism. And judgmentalism comes from a puffing up the ego. It is not humility.

Furthermore, did you notice what we are actually doing when we are not humble toward one another? “He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it.”

In short, you are not speaking just against your brother or sister in Christ, your are speaking against the commands and laws of God. What you are effectively saying is, “I know better than the law that says to love my brother or sister in Christ; I will instead judge/condemn my brother or sister in Christ.”

When we fail to humble ourselves before our brothers and sisters in Christ, we contradict/judge the second greatest commandment: to love our neighbor as ourself. In doing so, we are sinning, breaking the law of God.

James reminds us that it is not up to us to condemn others:

v.12: “There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor?”

Humility toward other believers avoids slander and judgementalism. Stated positively, humility toward other believers is about loving them.

Love Your Neighbor

Isn’t this really the whole point here about being humble toward each other?

What is probably in the back of James’ mind is the law God gave to Moses:

Leviticus 19:16–18 “You shall not go about as a slanderer among your people, and you are not to act against the life of your neighbor; I am the Lord. You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.”

John 13:35 “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition: Paragraph Version Chapter 3

1 John 3:10

Do we get the idea?

True faith is humble toward one another. How can we be humble? If we truly love one another.

Conclusion

There is story recalled by Jerome about the Apostle John. Jerome was a Christian who live in the 4th-5th centuries and is known for his Latin translation of the Bible known as the Latin Vulgate. We do not know for certain whether the story he tells us about the Apostle John’s waning year of life is true, but it certainly is consistent with what we know about John. Jerome writes in his commentary on Galatians:

The blessed John the Evangelist lived in Ephesus until extreme old age. His disciples could barely carry him to church and he could not muster the voice to speak many words. During individual gatherings he usually said nothing but, “Little children, love one another.” The disciples and brothers in attendance, annoyed because they always heard the same words, finally said, “Teacher, why do you always say this?” He replied with a line worthy of John: “Because it is the Lord’s commandment and if it alone is kept, it is sufficient.”