And what James' goal is, is for believers to become wise. And how do you become wise? You have a single-minded, whole-hearted commitment to seeking God and growing in maturity and wisdom. Don't live in your sinful, carnal desires, but live a life that is committed to the Lord. Live a life that seeks wisdom from above. James is like a spiritual heart surgeon who cuts deep into our heart and he exposes those desires in our heart that have a love for the world and a love for God. And he's saying, here's what a wise person is. They are making choices in their life, not based on their sinful emotions, but based on their whole-hearted, single-minded commitment to following and serving God.
And that's what it takes for you to be a wise person. Welcome to The Daily Platform, a radio program featuring chapel messages from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. You've just heard evangelist Steve Pettit, who has been teaching us in a study series in the book of James called Wisdom from Above. In Steve's previous message from chapter four, James has been showing the believers the true nature of their choice to be the world's friends. But today, we'll see God's desire to bring believers back into spiritual oneness with him because God is gracious.
James chapter four this morning, James four. One of the great love stories of history is the story of Nicholas and Alexandra of Russia. Nicholas inherited the Russian throne at the end of the 19th century and during his teenage years, his parents started looking for a suitable mate for him. At age 16, contrary to his parents' wishes, he became obsessed with Alexandra, who was a beautiful princess then living in England with her grandmother, Queen Victoria. Despite parental objections, cultural differences, and separation that spanned thousands of miles, Nicholas was determined to capture Alexandra's love. Alexandra, however, found that Nicholas was a bit dull and did not enjoy the thought of moving to the harsh climate of Moscow, Russia. So, she rejected his advances. Well, in 1892, Nicholas had just turned 24 years old and having loved Alexandra for nearly eight years, he resolved to make one final effort to win her heart. However, he was devastated when she wrote saying that she had definitely decided not to marry him. And so, she asked him not to contact her again and everything seemed lost. So, Nicholas decided to leave Moscow immediately.
He traveled across Europe through difficult terrain and treacherous weather in his journey to London. And although exhausted from the travel, Nicholas immediately began to pursue Alexandra with great passion. And after two months, she finally relented and agreed to marry him. And the young couple became husband and wife and the rulers of the Russian Empire and their marriage became an example of passionate love up until the day that they died. This morning, as we look in the book of James chapter four, we are going to see that God has a passionate pursuit in love for his own people. The reason that we love him is because he first loved us. And this is a passionate love that never dims and it never fades over time because the love of God is not only perfect, but it is unchanging in its nature. And I think it's no wonder then that when God's people are worldly, as we learned last week, that God responds in the way James describes it. Because God is not indifferent and he is not apathetic to our unrequited love. And James shockingly describes us as Christians if we are seduced by worldly affections for what we truly are. He says we're adulterers and adulteresses. But why does he say that strong statement?
It's for a reason. Because he actually wants to expose to us the nature of his own heart. And that is God is both jealous and gracious towards his own people. And this morning I want us to look at how God responds to believers when they are worldly.
When they drift away once in the very heart of God. And we see that this morning in James chapter 4, note verses 5 and 6. He says, do you think the scripture sayeth in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy, but he giveth more grace.
Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. How does God respond to us when we drift away from him? And everybody here if you're honest have drifted away from God. Maybe some of you right now are away from the Lord. So how does God feel?
How does he think? Well he tells us, number one, first of all God tells us that he is jealous. That's what I believe verse 5 is teaching us. Do you think the scripture sayeth in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? The Old Testament declares that God is a jealous God. When the Jewish people turned away from the true worship of Jehovah to the worship of idols, what did God do? He relentlessly pursued his own people by calling them to repent. To come back to him with a broken heart and with a submissive will.
Why? Because God is jealous for our hearts. And I believe in verse 5 that what James is communicating to us is the truth that God is jealous. But as we look at this verse we have to understand that verse 5 in James 4 has some definite interpretive challenges. Fact is this has been considered to be one of the more difficult verses in the entire Bible to interpret.
And there's two reasons for that. The first difficulty is found in the opening phrase. Notice it says, do you think that the scripture sayeth? Now normally when that is used in a statement it refers to a direct quote from the Old Testament. However, the problem is you can't find the statement where he says here that when he speaks of the fact that the spirit that dwelleth in us lusts at the envy, you can't find that direct quote in the entire Old Testament. But then there's a second difficulty and that's the phrase the spirit that dwelleth in us lusts at the envy. This issue with this phrase is understanding what it means exactly because it can be interpreted in a number of different ways.
So let's try to resolve these two interpretive difficulties. First of all, since we know that this verse is not found as a specific quote in the Old Testament, then either one James has made a mistake, that is the scripture doesn't say this, or there's another way to look at the phrase the scripture sayeth. That is the phrase is not referring to a specific quote. In other words, he didn't go to the Old Testament and pull a quote out, but rather it's referring to a general principle that is found in the Old Testament and then it's written in a unique way by James to summarize the truth. Perhaps you could say it this way, being Jewish, James midrashed an Old Testament truth.
So what is the general truth that I think James is speaking about? It is the fact that God is a jealous God. Listen to what the Old Testament states. Exodus 20 verse 5. When he speaks of idols, Moses writes, thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God. Exodus 34 14, for thou shalt worship, know the God for the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God. Zechariah 8 2, thus saith the Lord of hosts, I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy and I was jealous for her with great fury. Over and over in the Old Testament, God states that when his people worship idols, he responds with jealousy. But not only do we have an Old Testament statement, but we definitely have Old Testament stories and one of those stories is this somewhat convoluted story of God's command to a prophet named Hosea to marry a prostitute named Gomer. It's the book of Hosea and honestly it's weird. Here's an Old Testament prophet who is commanded to marry a prostitute. But what is God doing?
He's teaching a lesson to his people through an object lesson. And the main reason for the marriage was to illustrate the way God responds to Israel when they turn away from God and worship idols. God wants his own people to know that he loves them like a husband loves an adulterous wife and is jealous for her affections. So what it looks like is James is taking the overall truth of God's jealousy and he's describing God's passion for his people in the statement, the spirit that dwelleth in us, lust it to envy. So that leads to this question.
I want you to hang on with me now because I think you'll see it very clearly. How do we interpret the phrase, the spirit that dwelleth in us, lust it to envy? This is probably the biggest tension point in the verse. And how do we interpret it as a reference to God's jealousy? Well, there's basically two primary ways to look at this statement and it's based on the subject of the statement. And the first way of looking at it is that the subject is the spirit of man.
So it reads like we read it in the King James. The spirit that dwells in us lusts to envy. So the natural way to look at it is the human spirit lusts with envy.
Now we know that's true. And this lust is the cause for all the conflicts that were mentioned in the earlier verses that we've been studying. So verses five and six would be interpreted this way. Our human spirit lusts with envy, but God's grace is sufficient to overcome this lust if we humble ourselves.
Now, we all know that that's true. God's grace empowers us to overcome our sinful desires. But is that what this verse is saying?
Well, there's a second way to look at it. And that is the subject is not the spirit of man, but the subject is God. And we see this in the way the Greek reads, and it reads this way.
And I'm going to read it literally. It reads to desire jealously the spirit that dwells in us. And interpreting that phrase, there are two questions. Who makes the spirit to dwell in us? We're not just talking about the Holy Spirit, we're talking about our own human spirit. Who breathes into us the breath of life?
It's God. So God puts our spirit in us at creation. But then there's another question, and that is who then desires jealously the spirit that dwells in us? And the answer is God does. So God then is viewed as the subject in this verse, and that's the way it reads in the ESV.
And let me read it to you in the ESV because it comes up quite differently. It reads, or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the scripture says he, speaking of God, yearns jealously over the spirit that he made to dwell in us? So the way it is interpreted is that God puts in us our own human spirit, and he jealously desires that our spirits be passionately committed to him and not to the world. And I believe that this interpretation is consistent with James' idea of the whole book of James.
And what is that? He doesn't want us to be double minded. God wants us to be single mindedly and wholeheartedly committed to him.
Think about it. When we are worldly, we are drifting away in our hearts from God. And by the way, what is the tendency to think when we drift away from God?
What is the natural tendency? We think that God is against us. I think some of you sometimes live with a sense of guilt either because you've drifted away from God or somehow maybe you have in the past and you wonder how God feels towards you. And what is James trying to say to us? James is saying, look, God is a passionate lover. He loves you. Fact is, God is not against you. He wants you. God is never going to change his mind, just like a husband will never change his mind towards a wayward wife. God is passionately jealous for the hearts of his own people.
He wants you inside out. How do you think the father of the prodigal son thought when his son was wasting his life away on worldly pleasures? When you read the story that Jesus gives us of his son taking his father's inheritance, he goes out and he wastes it on parties and on prostitutes. How do you think the father felt? Do you think he was mad and irritated and ticked off? Do you think he was against his own son? Well, how did the father respond when the son came home? Do you think he was against him when the father ran out and fell on his neck and kissed the neck of his own son and took his son who was naked and robed him and put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet and had a banquet in his honor? Do you think the father was against his prodigal son? No, he was jealous for him. Why?
Because he loves him. Do you see that this morning? Do you feel that in your heart? Those of you who are now away from God, and some of you are very worldly and you've got a lot of sin in your life, and days go by and you go through the motions and you go through spiritual, external motions, but very little spiritual, internal heart. Do you think God is actually against you? May I say to you this morning that God is jealous for you. And that's why we should all run back into the father's arms. Just like a wayward wife would run back into the arms of her loving husband, or a wayward husband would run back into the arms of his loving wife. This is exactly what God wants.
This is what James is saying. Because the motivation to follow God in the end is not the fear of God's judgment, but it is the love of God for us. But notice not only is God jealous for us, but notice what he says, but God is gracious towards us. For he says in the next verse, but he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resists at the proud, but he giveth grace unto the humble. How does God respond to his wayward people, these worldly people?
Not only is he jealous, but he is gracious. Perhaps at this moment you may feel reluctant to come back to God. Maybe it's not, maybe it's not the fear of coming back to him that he's going to reject you. You know God loves you. But now you are in a different situation. You're overwhelmed with the worldliness of your own heart. I've seen it many, many times that when God does a work in people's lives, it's like he does open heart spiritual surgery.
It's like he so exposes your sin that you're overwhelmed. I've seen it happen many times where people are so humbled over the way they think and their attitudes and their responses and their reactions. And so therefore you're fearful to come back to God not because God doesn't love you, but you're wondering can I change? Can I really be different? The problem is not that you don't feel conviction.
The problem is that you don't have confidence that you can change. And that's what James is speaking about when he says he gives more grace. Douglas Moo writes, God's grace is completely adequate to meet the requirements imposed on us by his jealousy. Just like James confirms the truth of God's jealousy, he also confirms the truth of God's grace, but in this case James directly quotes from Proverbs 3 and verse 34. But he giveth more grace, wherefore the scripture saith, and what does Proverbs 3, 34 say? It says, surely he scorneth the scorners, but he giveth grace unto the lowly.
James is showing us how God responds. He receives the humble and he resists the proud. John Stott said, pride is your greatest enemy and humility is your greatest friend.
It's interesting to me that the book of Proverbs doesn't use the word pride, it uses the word scorner. Do you know what the word scorner means? It means somebody who talks big.
They're big talkers. It's a person who shows no respect to people. They discredit them. It's a person who makes fun of others. They are mockers.
They are cynical people. And it says God resisted the big talkers. And he does it in a very powerful way, just like an army arranges itself in battle formation to fight against the enemy. Or just like a running back will stiff arm his would be tackler. So in either case, God says if you're a big talker, then you're fighting a battle and you're playing a game that you cannot win.
Big talkers are big losers. God resists the proud. But what does he do? He gives grace to the humble. What does the word grace mean?
He uses it twice. Think of it this way, grace is enablement. Grace is the supernatural ability to do that which you cannot naturally do by yourself. Grace is God's super abundant strength to live a life that overcomes the incredibly strong desires of one's evil nature.
Is that not what James has been talking about from the very beginning? As he pulls up out of our heart, he shows our lusts. He shows our covetousness. He shows our passion for pleasure. And he does this spiritual heart surgery on us and he shows us for what we really are.
And we're overwhelmed. But he says, I have grace. Because grace says I can't, but God can. And because of my grace, you can change. You can love me. You can love me sincerely. You can love me with all of your heart. You can walk in my ways.
You can keep my commands. You can glorify my name. And the way God responds to us when we're worldly is that he is very, very jealous for our hearts. And if we come to him broken, he is very gracious to enable us and give us the power. I got saved when I was 19 years old. And the first, I would say, first three or four months of my Christian life, you would have never known I was a Christian by the way I lived because I had one foot in the church and one foot in the world. I was definitely worldly. I was really struggling with surrender to God and giving up all of my personal rights to the Lord and being completely open and honest before the Lord.
I went through a chastening experience where I broke my left ankle playing soccer. God used that to break my heart and to bring me back to him. And I remember as I came back to the Lord, I began to experience a refreshing empowerment because as I obeyed God, as I waved the white flag of surrender to God, I learned that as I humble myself before God, that he gives me an overcoming power to overcome the lust of my own heart. This is the way God responds to us. And as we seek to humble ourselves before God, James beginning in verse seven to verse 10, like a commander barks out 10 commands of how we humble our hearts.
And that's what we will look at as we continue our study and how to grow in wisdom. May we bow our heads together for prayer. Father, we want to humble ourselves before you. Lord, we are overwhelmed that you are a passionate, jealous God who wants our hearts. We thank you, Lord, that you're a gracious God that gives us all the power that we need to live our lives.
Lord, I pray that every student at Bob Jones University will get this truth. They'll get it, Lord. Help them to get it, Lord.
Help them not to rebel in their hearts, but help them to open their hearts to both your jealousy and your grace that they might live a life that is single-mindedly and wholeheartedly committed to you. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you. You've been listening to a sermon from the book of James by evangelist Dr. Steve Pettit. Steve is now utilizing his gifts as a compelling communicator and expositor of Scripture and travels to local churches with preaching, concerts, and conferences emphasizing gospel-centered evangelism and Christian leadership development. You can get more information about Steve's ministry at stevepettit.com.
That's stevepettit.com. My name is Wyatt Smith. I'm a senior here at Bob Jones University studying multimedia journalism and I want to tell you a little about my experience here at BJU. I've been here a little over three years and I truly cannot say enough about the community here at BJU. Whether it has been in the halls of the dorms, in my incredible society, or even in the classroom, I have always felt a very strong sense of community around me that has aided in my growth as a person and as a Christian. BJU's commitment to academic excellence has also pushed me to discover and refine the skills and talents needed to succeed in life after school, such as communication, critical thinking, and problem solving.
My time in the classroom has allowed me to gain hands-on experience in my field of study, all while giving me the freedom to think creatively and build my skills. One aspect of BJU that I have really appreciated is that I have been continuously challenged to develop and grow my faith in Christ through the preaching of God's word and chapel and the daily discipleship of those in community around me. I have truly loved my time here at BJU and I hope others will be able to share the experience I have had. If you or someone you know is interested in an experience such as mine, I would encourage you to check us out online at our website bju.edu and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at bju.edu. For any further information, please feel free to give us a call at 800-252-6363. Thank you for listening. Thanks for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue the study in the book of James from Bob Jones University Chapel Services in Greenville, South Carolina.
