He Giveth More Grace

Our Bible passage, introduction to Sunday 8th February service and hymns are below.

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Our principal verses are:

Jas 4:1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?

Jas 4:2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.

Jas 4:3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

Jas 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

Jas 4:5 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?

Jas 4:6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.

He Giveth More Grace

There is something comforting and challenging for us all in these verses. The apostle is ministering to the Lord’s people on a matter of great pastoral importance. He is encouraging humility amongst us. James is writing to men and women saved by grace. Yet, he ascribes to these people a catalogue of sins so serious as to appear, at first reading, to be utterly antithetical to a Christian believer and contrary to a holy life. He speaks of war, fighting and killing; envy, lust, adultery, pride and enmity with God. We may interpret these sins actually and spiritually.

Soul trouble

How does such excessive wickedness relate to a child of God? James is digging deep into the soul-trouble of believers. He is speaking to men and women who have genuinely experienced the blessings of divine grace yet wrestle daily with sin in their flesh. Converted souls who yet, as fallen creatures, struggle with the harsh realities of daily life in this corrupt world, with the trials and temptations that afflict the renewed man. In this section of this practical book the apostle is bestowing hands-on, real-life wisdom to the church. He is warning and explaining the pitfalls and dangers that beset the redeemed of the Lord. He is calling for humility that grace may abound.

The sin of envy

The key to this passage is found in verse five where James asks rhetorically, ‘Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?’ James’ reference does not appear to be a specific quote from the Old Testament. He is summarising the tenor of the scriptures concerning the corruption of the natural man from the time of the Fall. We may paraphrase, ‘Do you think the scriptures are wrong when they constantly expose the evil nature of man and the enmity that exists between the flesh and the Spirit?’ ‘These are the lusts that war in your members.’

A united testimony

Here, again, James is in full agreement with Paul in Galatians 5:17 where that apostle tells the church, ‘For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would’. James is addressing a struggle felt personally by the Lord’s apostles and which every believer encounters in their Christian life, walk and conversation. Paul says, ‘what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I’.

A holy war in our soul

It is not national battle or armed conflict James is referring to in these verses, nor perhaps even open, profligate adultery, but the continuing war in our affections as experienced by God’s people. From the moment of regeneration to the day of our natural death the old man of flesh and the new spiritual nature created in Christ Jesus, are locked in a fight for supremacy and survival. James is addressing the reality of the contradictions every believer discovers in their own heart; pointing out the source and directing us how to obtain help and strength to overcome this list of evils with good.

Grace for today

It should come as no surprise that fighting with the powers of darkness requires divine assistance. We need help from God and the Lord Jesus Christ. The surprise is, at least to James, that we misuse these gracious resources. The Apostle rebukes us first for failing to ask at all for help and then for asking amiss when we do, finally. We ask for God’s help for the wrong reasons and apply His goodness to the wrong end. The Lord’s bountiful supplies are for His glory and service, not to ingratiate ourselves to this world or confer them on our lusts.

Abounding grace

James would have us informed that we might be wise in seeking God’s help and employing His mercies properly. Like the widow’s oil there is no end to the grace and goodness of God except what we can contain. The Apostle reassures the Lord’s people there will ever be sufficient grace for our needs, then more grace to be supplied. Our loving God will always better what the world can offer, always improve upon that which our old nature desires, always surprise with more grace than we can ask or think.

A call for humility

Finally, James tells us, ‘God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble’. Here is a lesson many of us struggle to learn. God passes by the self-reliant who are too proud to seek His help. James is telling us, ‘Ye have not, because ye ask not’. God withholds from those who imagine they can adequately do for themselves, while the humble poor are blessed. May the Lord grant us greater humility and implant right desires for what is truly good for us in our Christian experience and what should be left behind.

Amen

Hymn 312

Temptation. Matt. 4. 3-10; 1 Cor. 10. 13; Heb. 4. 15

J. Hart                          S.M.

1
Ye tempted souls, reflect
Whose name ’tis you profess;
Your Master’s lot you must expect –
Temptations more or less.

2
Dream not of faith so clear
As shuts all doubtings out;
Remember how the devil dared
To tempt e’en Christ to doubt.

3
“If thou’rt the Son of God,”
(O what an IF was there!)
“These stones here, speak them into food,
And make that Sonship clear.”

4
View that amazing scene!
Say, could the tempter try
To shake a tree so sound, so green?
Good God, defend the dry!

5
Think not he now will fail
To make us shrink and droop;
Our faith he daily will assail,
And dash our every hope.

6
That impious IF he thus
At God incarnate threw,
No wonder if he cast at us,
And make us feel it too.

7
To cause despair’s the scope
Of Satan and his powers;
Against hope to believe in hope,
My brethren, must be ours.

8
Buts, ifs, and hows are hurled
To sink us with the gloom
Of all that’s dismal in this world,
Or in the world to come.

9
But here’s our point of rest:
Though hard the battle seem,
Our Captain stood the fiery test,
And we shall stand through him.

Hymn 313

“The spirit … lusteth to envy.” James 4. 5

J. Hart                          148th

1
What tongue can fully tell
That Christian’s grievous load,
Who would do all things well,
And walk the ways of God,
But feels within foul envy lurk,
And lust, and work, engendering sin?

2
Poor, wretched, worthless worm!
In what sad plight I stand!
When good I would perform,
Then evil is at hand.
My leprous soul is all unclean,
My heart obscene, my nature foul.

3
To trust to Christ alone,
By thousand dangers scared,
And righteousness have none,
Is something very hard.
Whate’er men say, the needy know
It must be so, it is the way.

4
Thou all-sufficient Lamb,
God blest for evermore,
We glory in thy name,
For thine is all the power.
Stretch forth thy hand, and hold us fast,
Our First and Last, in thee we stand.

Our Lord Jesus Christ gives grace to His people sufficient for all our daily needs, even when we don't know what to ask for and pray for as we ought. James calls us to be humble in our requests, trusting the Lord who knows knows what we need better than we know ourselves.