How Do We Experience Grace When We Have Sinful Hearts? (Virtual Sermon Notes)
GIST: Submit to God by loving and clinging to Him and throwing off and despising everything that is dishonorable (sin).
SCRIPTURE: James 4:7-12
James has been walking us through what a true Christian faith looks like. Here, he has been addressing believers who are living in the midst of circumstances where it would’ve been so easy to just try and hide their faith, living in circumstances where being a Christian wasn’t easy or natural or expected. In fact, they were in circumstances they never expected. Nonetheless, he tells them what they need more than anything is real faith. Our circumstances are very different, but I think we can relate to the sentiments. And our need is no less than theirs.
As he develops his thoughts, what has become more and more clear is the reason we need this instruction in the first place. We need to be told to control our tongues because we don’t. We need to be reminded to show indiscriminate compassion because that doesn’t always come easily. We need to be directed to pursue Godly wisdom rather than our own earthly wisdom because we are by nature self-seeking, and that selfishness always leads to destruction for us and those around us.
And this isn’t just a set of laws we need to keep that we’re terrible at. Following after Him in humility is where we’ll experience true joy and true fulfillment because this is what we were made for! Life with Jesus isn’t just drab rule following. It’s abundant, and us missing out on that is the context of this series of verses. How do we live like that if we have a sinful heart? Look first at verses seven through ten with me this morning.
“7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”
Last week, we saw that Grace comes to the humble, those who are seeking his purpose instead of their own. How do we do that? Here’s the gist: Submit to God by loving and clinging to Him and throwing off and despising everything that is dishonorable (sin). Let’s break this down again with two major points: what we should do, and how we should do it.
I. What Should We Do? (7a)
Simply put→
Submit. Saying it is easy. Knowing we’re supposed to do it is obvious. Not only is it literally right there at the beginning of verse 7, “7 Submit yourselves therefore to God”, but it’s also clearly spelled out throughout the entire Bible. Our lives are meant to be lived for Him! Period. It’s simply put, but it’s not simple to put into practice. In fact, even that word “submit” is unwelcome in our fiercely independent American culture. We don’t like the idea of having to submit to anybody or anything, and the submission being called for here is complete. We are talking about giving Him complete control, putting ourselves under His command, and doing so willingly!
This is the starting point because this is literally the defining decision of your life. First and foremost, this is what salvation is all about. You’re a sinner who needs salvation, and that salvation isn’t just getting you out of some sticky situation so you can continue living like you always have. You’re sick and you need a cure, not a bandaid. That cure comes as a complete heart transplant. You won’t be who you once were because you’ll surrender your life to Him and experience hope and joy and direction as you were always meant to. As you give Him control, you’ll be free for the first time from the sin trying to destroy you from within! That’s the choice. Come to Him and live, or cling to yourself and watch everything crumble.
Submission is the first step of salvation. It’s also the daily life of every believer. It’s the foundation of you denying yourself, taking up your cross, and following Him. In fact, the rest of this passage kind of breaks down what that will look like in our lives. Submission is what we should do, so →
II. How Should We Do That? (7b-12)
Let’s walk through the rest of these admonitions. These next two go hand-in-hand. You could summarize this as a call to→
Resist By Drawing Near. Right after being told to submit, that’s our big picture context here, we’re told to “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Now, that’s a word we actually like to hear. We’re all about resisting. That plays right into our underdog mentality. We like thinking about ourselves as overcomers, and this one even comes with an awesome promise. If we resist, he will flee. Let me make at least two observations on this one.
First, we are to stand against the devil and our own sin actively. We have a responsibility here. As we submit to God as the Lord of our lives, we can’t also submit to the temptations that keep coming our ways. We are meant to say no to sin.
However, this isn’t a self-motivator or an internal strength kind of mantra. Our resistance is the direct result of our submission to Jesus. We’re not strong enough to stand against Satan, but Jesus is! That’s why this call is right before the call to “8 Draw near to God” and the promise that He will in turn “draw near to you.” That’s the context of our resistance— intimacy with God! Are you trying to face your trials in your own strength? It won’t work. You’re not meant to. Do you feel like God is too distant? Are you drawing near to Him? I’ll go back to the Sermon on the Mount here again. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6). Are you living that? My little kids are very brave when I’m in the room (warranted or not ☺️). In the same way, but with absolute confidence, we can only resist the devil if we’re standing on the feet of Jesus! We can stand firm because of His strength! So resist by drawing near.
Then basically these last couple admonitions develop a central thought, as well. In your submission, you should resist as you draw near and →
Take Your Sin Seriously. The end of verse 8 tells us to, “Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” This verse seems pretty timely. See, James was telling us to wash our hands well before the CDC ☺️.
While reminding us that we’re double-minded sinners, James tells us to Clean up our actions and our attitudes. This means we should be actively repenting of both things we do and ways we think. Get the junk out of your life completely! Don’t go places or do things you know are sinful, and don’t even allow thoughts of lust or bitterness or envy to grow in your heart.
And do it because you can’t stand for it to be there any more! That’s what’s being expressed in verse 9. “9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.” You guys know I talk a lot about joy and how, as Christians, we should live lives that reflect the amazing grace we’re experiencing! This verse isn’t contradicting that. Instead, it’s telling us to see our sin for what it is. Instead of rejoicing in our corruption, we should weep over it.
See it’s when we see our sin like that that we’re ready for verse 10. “10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” We’ll live humbly before Him while experiencing His grace! Our exalted position is not that of personal, earthly gain. We are raised from sinners to saints—from enemies to children.
Here’s a quick look at how that will change your life in a very practical way.
11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?”
If you’re humble, you’ll realize that you’re not God. You’ll realize that you, like everyone else in this life, don’t yet have it all figured out. Therefore, you won’t go around actively engaged in the sin of slander. You won’t be trash talking people because you know they are sinners who need the same salvation you need. And you won’t try and take their judgment into your own hands because you realize the only hands worthy of casting ultimate judgement are the hands of the one who took the punishment you deserved!
In other words, if you’re submitting to Jesus, drawing near to Him, and taking your personal sin seriously, you’ll treat other people with more compassion as a direct result.
TAKEAWAYS
Submit to God...
1. By loving and clinging to Jesus...
2. And throwing off and despising all that is dishonorable (sin)...
3. Only then can you rest in His amazing and unfailing grace. As you let go of yourself, you’re in a perfect position to hold on to Him.
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