God’s Grace
#15 in the Book of James Series
By Pastor Jim May
James 4:6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
Last week we learned that whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. We also learned that friendship with the world is a product of our own pride envy, because we want what the world has to offer more than Jesus.
The natural, inborn spirit of man is full of lust and envy, and it ever drives him into deeper depths of sin if it is allowed to go unchecked. We need the grace of God to overcome that sin nature, and that’s what James says that God is good at – giving grace.
God’s grace is freely given to his children. You don’t find much grace in the world. It’s a dog eat dog world out there with every man for himself most of the time, but in God’s kingdom, his grace is sufficient for all of us.
Every day people in the world are begging for grace, but all they get is more condemnation and judgmental attitudes. You can really see that in a court room. Every defendant is seeking for the judge’s grace, but most find his wrath instead.
One such man was in court one day, answering charges of insurance fraud. His case was bizarre. There seemed to be many discrepancies. After swearing in the witness, this is supposed to be truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth:
Judge, my accident was just a case of poor planning on the job. Let me explain to you just what happened so there is no question to the validity of my claim..
I am a bricklayer by trade. On the day of the accident, I was working alone on the roof of a new six story building. When I completed my work, I found that I had some bricks left over which, when weighed later were found to be slightly in excess of 500 lbs. Rather than carry the bricks down a few at a time, I decided to lower them in a barrel by using a pulley, which was attached to the side of the building on the sixth floor.
I anchored the rope at ground level and then went up to the roof, swung the barrel out and loaded the bricks into it. Then I went down and untied the rope, holding it tightly to let the load of bricks down slowly.
You will remember that the bricks weighed over 500 pounds, but I weigh only 135 pounds. Due to my surprise at being jerked off the ground so quickly, I lost my presence of mind and forgot to let go of the rope and proceeded at a rapid rate up the side of the building.
Near the third floor, I met the barrel which was now proceeding downward very quickly. That explains my claim for a fractured skull, minor abrasions and a broken collar bone, as listed in my claim.
I couldn’t let go of the rope without a disastrous fall to held on for dear life and continued my rapid ascent. I finally came to a stop when the fingers of my right hand became jammed deep into the rope pulley at the top. I was able to hold tightly to the rope, in spite of the great pain.
At approximately the same time, however, the barrel of bricks hit the ground and the bottom fell out of the barrel. Without the bricks the barrel now weighed only 50 pounds. Again, I weigh 135. Suddenly I began a rapid fall down the side of the building. In the vicinity of the third floor, I once again met the barrel coming up. This accounts for the two broken legs, broken jaw and missing teeth, along with some pretty bad cuts and bruises in my claim.
The barrel slowed my fall so that when I finally hit the ground on the pile of bricks I didn’t break my back, but I did crack three vertebrae. But as I lay there bleeding, cut , broken and in severe pain, I just couldn’t hold on any more and let go of the rope. I just didn’t think of the barrel that was still tied to it and down it came, breaking my nose and my arms.
I beg of you, judge, to consider my claim and give me grace. I need all I can get. I don’t know if he found grace, but I do know he needs to change occupations.
God gives us His marvelous grace, unmerited favor, undeserved love and compassion. That’s just something that you don’t find in the world.
God scorns the scorners and rejects those that trust in themselves and their own righteousness. He rewards the humble, those that will bow before him and serve him willfully, but he can only judge and condemn those whose pride won’t let them serve the Lord.
While the world says, “I want to be the Captain of my own ship, the Master of my own destiny”, the people of God must say, “Jesus pilots my ship and He is the Master of the Wind, therefore I will serve him.”
God’s eye is ever over his children and he listens for their cries, ready to extend his grace, but when he hears and sees the proud with their fists raised in defiance the laughs at their antics and frustrates their plans, and allows them to run wild in their own imaginations.
Because God is so good to his people James says in 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
When we submit ourselves to God and learn to be content in Him life can be so much simpler and more enjoyable. We need to learn to leave it all in God’s hands.
All the striving, struggling and worrying doesn’t really change anything and you can be left feeling cheated with empty hands and nothing to show for all that work. Life can really be unfair sometimes when you work all your life to enjoy life later, then when later comes all that you’ve worked for goes to someone else because you are too old, too sick and too weak to enjoy it.
The only thing that will last is what you have done for Jesus. Everything else will be left behind.
We talked about resisting the devil this morning, so I won’t say too much here, but just remember that Satan doesn’t have grace to give. Don’t expect anything of value from him. Jesus has the words of eternal life and no one else.
James 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
Drawing nigh to God means more than just bringing your body into the house of the Lord. I can get close to you, but does that make us really close friends? No, in fact it sometimes makes us uncomfortable and we tend to back off.
When you draw nigh to God, it means that you are getting a closer walk with Him, a better relationship; you are getting intimate with God so that you can feel His heart and you walk with him as one in the Spirit. God took the first step toward us when he sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. He took the first step when he saved your soul. He took another step toward you when he filled you with the Holy Ghost. Now its our turn to take a step toward him. Remember, this is a free-will service kingdom. God won’t draw night until we begin to move in his direction. The closer we get to him, the more he becomes a part of us.
James is talking to the church when he says to cleanse your hands and purify your hearts. He calls people in the church sinners and double minded, hypocritical and double-tongued.
He knew that many were claiming to be close to Jesus, but most were not. They were there in body, in mind perhaps, but their hearts were not in their work for the Lord. They needed to wash the filth from their hands – clean up their lives so all the world could see that they lived a holy life.
Cleansing their hearts meant that they needed to clean the sin out of their lives and make things right with God so that they could be genuine in their service to Jesus.
Double mindedness meant that they were constantly riding the fence between serving the Lord and living in the world. There was no real commitment to either side and therefore there could be no grace extended, because they were living in willful sin.
James 4:9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
James isn’t talking about having to be suffering and sorrowful all the time. Some people interpret this to mean that Christians can’t have fun or laugh. That’s not it at all.
This is all about sin in our lives. It’s all about realizing that we are afflicted by sin, and we live in a sin-sick world. We need to be sorry for our sin, and cry out against that sin, whether it’s in us, or around us that God will destroy its power over us.
Jesus doesn’t want to you be mourning in sackcloth and ashes all the time. He wants you to rejoice in his grace, and trust in his mercy, and then go out and enjoy the abundant life that he gives you, as long as you stay in his will.
The laughter of the world will be turned to mourning one day, so don’t be caught up in the ‘good times’ of the world. The pleasures of sin may last for a season but their end is death. Mourning may last for the night, but joy comes in the morning – that resurrection morning!
James 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
Don’t forget that we are vile, sinful, wretched creatures and we need the grace of God to have a chance. We are nothing without Christ, nothing within ourselves.
There is a little character in the comics named Ziggy. He is so loveable in part because, like Charlie Brown of the old Peanuts cartoon, he is a loser and we can identify with him. There is one Ziggy strip in particular that sort of epitomizes this loser existence. He and his puppy are standing at the window in their second floor apartment looking out on the busy city streets below. Ziggy says, “Well, it’s you and me against the world, and I think we’re gonna get creamed!”
Except for the grace of Jesus, we will get creamed. This world and all that is in it is headed for destruction. We need Jesus. When you place your hope and trust in Him, then he will lift you out of the shadows, out of the miry pit and set your feet upon the rock. It’s all Jesus; not me or you. We can’t do anything without him.
In the end, He will lift us up. Even when we get to Heaven, he will lift us up and welcome us into his eternal kingdom. But before you can go up, you must go down – on your knees before the Lord and confess that He is Lord.
James 4:11 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.
James once again refers to the power of the tongue that comes forth when we gossip, or speak evil one of another.
He that is a talebearer and backbites his brother, his fellow church member, and tries to ruin his good name and character, and then takes it upon himself to judge another man’s heart is violating the Law of Grace. If we are going to try to be judge of another person, we had better be ready for God to judge us with the same measure.
James 4:12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?
There is only one Lawgiver. It is God the Father, who gave the law to the people of Israel, both the judicial, ceremonial and the moral law. God gives us commandments to obey and laws to live by.
Only Jesus can save a soul. Only he can make you whole. Who are we to judge another?
