God resisteth the proud but giveth grace.

Take your Bibles with me and turn to James 4. It’s been a while since we’ve been in James. I went on vacation and then had a missionary speak last Sunday night, and so it feels like we’ve out of this for months.

If I were to ask you this question, what would be your answer:

What is the most important character quality of a Christian?

(Take answers and discuss)

All of those are important character qualities.

• Faith is so important. ”this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” (I John 5:4b).
• Charity/love is so important. ”and now abideth faith hope charity, these three but the greatest of these is charity.”

But the character trait James is going to talk about tonight is, I dare say, more important than even faith and love. You could say that faith and love are the door, while this is the hinge. You could also say that faith and love are the train, and this trait is the track that lets those things get there.

In other words, if you don’t have this character trait, God can’t use you, and God won’t bless you. If you do have this character trait, God can bless you.

I’m talking about humility.

Let’s read our text, James 4:6-10.

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

The last verses I preached from, several weeks ago, are about worldliness and double-mindedness. It left us pretty low.

Fortunately, James starts this little section with an awesome promise. He says, ”But he giveth more grace.”

Listen: I don’t know about you, but I don’t always have my act together. I’m not some perfect example all of the time. I can be worldly just like anyone else. Every one of us struggles with sin and worldliness.

Aren’t you glad that God ”giveth more grace.” I believe that there isn’t a sin or a sinner that can exhaust the grace of Jesus. He’s always ready to give more grace and mercy if we but turn to Him for it.

But how do we get that grace? Well, the rest of the verse tells us:

”wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud but giveth grace unto the humble.”

This is probably a reference to Proverbs 3:34 which says:

”Surely he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly.” (Proverbs 3:34)

But this is a major theme in the Bible. If you don’t mind, I’d like us to turn around a bit and look at some of these passages about how important humility is.

Let’s start in Proverbs. I’ve already mentioned Proverbs 3:34. Let’s look at some other proverbs:

Proverbs 15:33 says this:

”The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility.”

Proverbs 18:12 says almost the same thing:

”Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honour is humility.”

Look at Proverbs 22:4:

”By humility and the fear of the LORD are riches, and honour, and life.”

So God is saying if you want to be lifted up, be humble. If you want to learn, be humble. If you want to be successful and happy, be humble.

Think about the people God called and used in the Old Testament and where they were: Moses was a shepherd in Midian; Saul was out chasing down donkeys; David was a shepherd and the lowliest of his brothers; Joshua was Moses’ loyal servant; Elisha was out plowing the fields. They were all humble, and God blessed them. Some of them didn’t stay humble, and that was their undoing.

Let’s look at some more passages. Look at Isaiah 57.

”For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” (Is. 57:15)

God is looking to be close to people who are humble. One more in Isaiah:

”For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.” (Isaiah 66:2)

So you see this pattern in the Old Testament. God is looking for humble people. God can use humble people. God can be close to humble people. God can give grace and spiritual blessings to the humble.

Let’s look at a few more passages in the New Testament, and then I’ll go back to James and give you an outline.

Jesus said in Matthew 23:12:

And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

Probably the most famous verse on humility is 1 Peter 5:5

”Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.” (1 Peter 5:5)

So God values humility. God exalts humility. God gives grace to the humble. This is very, very clear in the Bible.

Now let’s look at our text again, and we’ll stay there a while.

I think what this text does is teach us how to have this humble relationship with God.

How to get to humility:

There are four steps to this: Submit, resist, approach, and cleanse.

Let’s look at each one.

Verse 7 starts with this command: ”Submit yourselves therefore to God, ” so our first task is…

1. Submit (or Stop fighting God)

If you want to be blessed by God and be the recipient of His grace, then it starts with raising the white flag. It starts with submission. It starts by saying, “Whatever you want God, wherever you want, I’m all yours.”

Submit.

Listen: This submission is not a passive thing. It’s not just giving up. It’s an active commitment to do whatever God wants you to do. It’s an active commitment to let God call the shots.

Whenever we chafe against this, it’s a sure sign that we are not humble because nothing is more proud than putting ourselves up against God. You don’t stand in the way of a tornado and say, “Do your worst.” God could wipe you out with half a thought. He’s not merely more powerful than we are; He’s infinitely more powerful than we are. We need to submit to Him.

We need to submit our minds to Him; submit our lifestyles to Him; submit our hearts and our affections to Him; submit all of us to Him.

Submit to God. That’s the first step.

The second thing this verse says is,

”Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

So number 2 is…

2. Resist the devil (Start fighting Satan)

We have to stop fighting God and start fighting Satan. Satan is trying to shape us and pressure us into his way—into the world’s way—and we have to fight back against that. We have to be on guard against that.

Notice what this passage doesn’t say. It doesn’t say, “Give your all to Jesus and then everything will be hunky dory and Satan will leave you alone.” It’s not teaching some kind of total sanctification here. It’s presenting us an ongoing battle. We have to battle against ourselves and our will, and we have to battle against the devil and the forces of darkness.

3. Approach (Get close to God)

4. Cleanse (your hands and hearts)

Grieve (over your sin and double mindedness)

”Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” (Matthew 5:3-6)