All right, good morning, church family.
As you guys find your seat, let me encourage you to open your
Bibles to the book of James This morning.
We're going to be in James chapter 4 and just two verses,
verses 5 and 6. These are two dense verses and
so I plan to do a longer text, but as I finished these two
verses that I was filled up with material and hopefully you will
see what I am referring to as we go through them.
James chapter 4, verses 5:00 to 6:00 this morning.
I'll give expedition of the text and then I'll give us a context
and then our context, the next position of the text, and then
I'll give us application. So let's read the text, open us
a word of prayer and we'll jump into the sermon this morning.
James chapter 4, beginning in verse 5.
Here's what James writes. Or do you suppose the Scripture
says He yearns jealously over the Spirit that he has made to
dwell in us, but he gives more grace.
Therefore, it says God opposes the proud, but gives grace to
the humble. Would you pray with me?
Father, as we close out 2025 and as we look forward to 2026, I
pray God that there's one thing that would be evident among all
of us this morning, and it is this.
We need your grace. We need your grace to, to
breathe. We need your grace to, to do
anything in this life. Lord, we recognize that there is
nothing we can do apart from you as your son said.
And so God, I pray that you would give us grace in the new
year. Lord, you would give us grace
and, and our marriages and our parenting and our ministries and
our, our, and our housing and, and our communities and our jobs
and our personal lives, our fight against sin.
Lord, please give us grace. Lord, please help us to to
humble ourselves that we would position ourselves to be able to
receive this grace. So Lord, come and teach us now
what you require of us and how we can have access to this
grace. Lord, I pray this in Jesus name,
Amen. Recently our air compressor in
this room behind us that runs it's connected to our sprinkler
system was running constantly. I I came here one Friday and I
noticed it was just running and running and running.
I was trying to figure out why is it running and turns out that
the only way to shut it off was to cut off the breaker.
So I cut off the breaker, called the company that came out and
they said that there is the pressure switch was broken, that
that would turn it on and off. Not to bore you with all the
details of it, but essentially there's air that goes in the
lines. This air holds back the water
that keeps it, you know, so that it's mainly water is is not
flowing through all the lines all the time in case there's a
leak or anything. And the danger with the
compressor running is that it would put too much air in the
lines and there's too much air in the lines.
If there ever really was a fire, it would be difficult for the
water to make it to the fire. And as I was thinking about this
as came out and they fixed the pressure switch so that the
thing wouldn't run all the time. I was thinking about this of
this is such a picture of of us and our pride and God's grace
that when we are prideful, we get filled up with, with air.
Pride puffs us up. And the problem with that is
that it puts us in a place where we are not able to receive the
grace that's intended to be dispensed.
Pride acts as a buffer to God's grace.
God is opposed to the proud and we need a pressure switch.
We need the Holy Spirit to come and turn off our compressor that
we are able to receive the grace that God intends to give us.
God opposes the proud. It gives grace to the humble.
So we're going to talk about this morning.
We have a lot to get to. So let's start with the
expedition of the text because verse 5 is a very difficult
verse and I'll get there in just a minute.
Let me get the context so you kind of know where we're at if
if you were not here last week. Here's the context.
Last week we saw that James is rather blunt and direct with
these churches that he's writing to.
He starts off the text last week with this phrase.
You adulterous people. Now why would James use such a
drastic term? What appears that some of the
church have become friends with the world.
And when James says friends, he means that they have aligned
themselves with the philosophies and the values of the world.
But James warns them, he says, brothers and sisters, if you
make yourself a friend of the world, you will also make
yourself an enemy of God. Now, the beauty of our God is
that he is not complacent. He is not content to just sit
back and watch his people go and prostitute themselves out with
the world. He does something about it.
And this morning we're going to see God's heart.
We're going to see what God feels, if you could call it
that, when his people stray. So let's look at our text this
morning. We'll start with verse 5, where
James writes. Or do you suppose it is to no
purpose that the Scripture says he yearns jealously over the
Spirit that he has made to dwell in US?
Now, almost all commentators agree that this is the single
most difficult verse in the book of James, and it's actually one
of the most difficult verses in all of the New Testament.
This verse raises several questions and the reason is, is
because there are many ways to interpret this verse which are
quite different from each other. What I want to do is I want to
look at just two different interpretations.
There are many. I just want to look at 2:00
because these are the 2 main ones and they are captured by
the NRSV, the New Revised Standard Version, and the NIV,
the New International Version. And I and I'll read both of them
to you. Here they are #1 this is the
NRSV. Here's how they translate it.
Very similar to ESV. God yearns jealously for the
Spirit that He has made to dwell in US.
And so there, if you translate it that way, James is referring
that God is jealous for His people.
He is jealous for you and me for his children.
That's the first way to interpret it or translate it.
Here's the second way. This is from the NIV.
The spirit he caused to live in US envies intensely.
There. If you translate it that way, it
means that James is referring to the human tendency to be
envious. Now, how can there be such
differing translations, interpretations, because those
are very different. Those are two totally separate
meanings. It boils down to three items.
Here are the three items. Number one, in the Greek, the
word for spirit numa. The Greek word for spirit numa
can either in this sentence can either function as the subject
of the verb or the object of the verb.
You guys are going to get a grammar lesson this morning.
It can either function as the subject of the verb or the
object of the verb. The NRA takes spirit as the
subject of the verb and therefore spirit.
If you take it that way, it means the natural spirit of the
human right. It means our spirit.
The the the NRSP takes spirit as the object of the verb.
If it is the object of the verb, it can refer to either the
spirit that God breathed into us to give us life, right?
What separates a dead person from a living person is just one
has spirit, one has breath and the other doesn't.
Or it can refer to the Holy Spirit.
Either one is can work. Now, from a grammar standpoint,
the NRSV is preferable here if you understand what I know.
Most of us, if not all of us, do not understand Greek grammar the
way we should, if at all. But from a grammar standpoint,
the NRSV is preferable here. That's number one.
Number two, the Greek word for jealousy is used nine times in
the New Testament. In all of the other 8 usages, it
always has a negative sinful connotation.
All 8. It's always negative and simple
for this word. In the New Testament, where
jealousy is used in a positive sense and sometimes it is used
in a positive sense, a different Greek word is used.
So this point seems to favor the NIV interpretation.
And #3 the Greek word for yearns is used nine times.
Also in the New Testament. It is always used with a
positive sense, but it is never used of God.
It's always used of humans. And so the fact that it's
positive but it's always used of humans seems to be a draw
between the two translations. So we have one point for NRSV,
we have one point for NIV, and we have a Third Point, which is
a draw. So where does that leave us?
It leaves us at a tie. So what's the next thing we do
whenever you're doing this? Context is our next best
determining factor. We want to look at context.
How should we understand this in terms of context given that
verse 4 where James accuses them of having a being adulterous
with the world, I think the NRSV interpretation is better.
I think James is arguing that you are adulterating yourself
out with the world and James is arguing that God is jealous over
his people. The NRSV is better I think.
But given verse 6, well James says he gives more grace.
I think the NIV interpretation is better.
James appears to be contrasting our sin of envy that we have a
spirit that envies intensely. And he seems to say that even
though you have a spirit that is so prone to envy, he gives more
grace that seems to favor the NIV.
So where does that leave us? Confused.
There is no good way to be dogmatic about this.
But on the whole, I'm going to slightly favor the NRSV
interpretation, which is also how the ESV translates it as
well. I think in this verse James is
arguing that God jealously desires the Spirit that dwells
inside of us. I think that's what he's arguing
for, though the other one would be possible as well.
Now, that is not the end of the confusion of this verse.
There are three other questions that are still in order here.
They are #1 if we take the NRSV view.
If we go with that view, should spirit be lowercase S or
uppercase S? Whenever the Greek word pneuma
occurs, translators have to decide whether to treat it as
Holy Spirit or our spirit. In other words, is God jealous
for our spirit or is he jealous for his spirit?
Right. Either one.
There, there's no capital letters in, in, in the middle of
a sentence in, in, in Greek. So you got to decide which it,
which is it? What does James intend?
Given that James never mentions the Holy Spirit anywhere else in
his letter, He never talked about the Holy Spirit in his
letter. I think it's most likely
referring to our spirit, but I don't think it would be wrong as
the NASB, if you have the NASB translation.
They capitalize spirit here and interpreted as Holy Spirit, that
God jealously desires the Holy Spirit that dwells inside of us.
I don't think that would necessarily be wrong.
Second question, where does it say this in the Scriptures?
James writes. Do you suppose it is to no
purpose that the Scripture says? Where does it say this?
Now, normally when a New Testament writer quotes from the
Old Testament, there's a cross reference there.
If you know what a cross reference is, those little, your
Bible may not have them, but if your Bible has like little
numbers and letters in your verses, those are called cross
references. They're had to kind of help you
understand where like they're referring to and so forth.
My Bible has, it's filled with cross references, but in this
verse there is not one. I'm not sure if you have one in
yours. I don't know if you have a
little letter or number there and your verse, but there's not
one in mine. And the reason there is not one
in mine is because there is no Old Testament passage that says
this. There is no Old Testament
passage that says this. So is James lying?
Is he referring to another set of Scriptures?
Is he referring to the Apocrypha or the Pseudepigrapha?
I don't think so. I don't think so.
Sometimes when the New Testament writer quotes an Old Testament
scripture, they do not quote a direct reference, but a general
idea. Now the author of Hebrews even
does this where he says somewhere it says, right.
So sometimes they don't quote a direct reference, they just
quote a general idea. We know that the Old Testament
teaches that God is a jealous God.
Exodus 25 For I the Lord your God, am a jealous God.
Exodus 3414 For you shall worship no other God.
For the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God.
So I think James is saying that Scripture as a whole testifies
to this truth. Scripture testifies that our God
is a jealous God. That's the second question.
Third question, final question for this verse.
Why does James ask, Do you suppose it is to no purpose?
Why does he say that? Do you suppose it is to no
purpose? Literally how it translates?
Do you think it is in vain that Scripture says this?
Do you think it's in vain? Why does he ask this question?
It appears that James is accusing them of dismissing
God's commands. The churches are kind of acting
as though God doesn't really care if they become friends with
the world. It's kind of mentality, you
know, hey, as long as I go to church, as long as I tithe, as
long as I serve, as long as I sing wholeheartedly, it doesn't
really matter what I do outside these walls.
And James is saying no, no, no, no, no, he cares.
He cares. He told you in Scripture that he
is a jealous God. He cares.
Look at verse 6A. But he gives more grace.
But he gives more grace The but here you guys have heard me say
this before. Prepositions matter.
Conjunctions matter. This conjunction matters.
The but here tells us that verse 6 is connected to verse 5.
The butt tells us they're connected, but how in what sense
are they connected? Well, how we connect these two
verses will depend on how we interpret verse 5.
This is why I say that you know when you read verse 5, it it
matters how you interpret this because it's going to tell you
how it's connected to verse 6. If we go with the NIV
interpretation, which says, do you think Scripture says without
reason that the Spirit he caused to live in US envies intensely?
If we go with that interpretation, James is
suggesting that even though our flesh is strong, even though our
natural proclivity is to envy, is it not?
Do we not all have a natural proclivity to envy, even though
that is true? God gives more grace.
In other words, our envy may be strong.
God's grace is stronger. That's what James is saying.
If we go with NIV, If we go with the NRSV, God yearns jealously
for the Spirit that he's made to dwell on us.
James is saying that God's jealousy requires much of us,
doesn't it? God will have no rivals.
He will not compete with the world.
God will have no rivals in your life and in my life.
He won't compete with any idol in your life.
He won't make space for it. He won't tolerate it.
And this type of jealousy, it can seem suffocating to a
fleshly people. It can seem suffocating, it
could even seem terrifying to a godly people.
But God gives more grace. Grace here is not being used in
the forgiveness or mercy sense. When you see the word grace in
the Bible, it has many different meanings and, and it's not being
used here in the mercy sense of the forgiveness sense.
Here Grace James is using it and the empowering sense, the
empowering sense. God gives us grace in order to
have the power to defeat envy in our life and to submit ourselves
to a jealous God. Either one, both are true.
Look at 6B. God opposes the proud.
Therefore it says God opposes the proud.
Now here James is actually quoting a direct verse.
The verse he's quoting is Proverbs 334.
You might have a cross reference in your Bible now because he's
quoting from Proverbs 334. Now if you read Proverbs 334, it
reads like this. Towards the scorners he is
scornful, but to the humble he gives favor.
Why is that different than our English?
Because almost always in the New Testament, when they quote the
Old Testament, they're quoting from the Septuagint.
The Greek translation, not the Hebrew Scriptures that quote
from the Greek translation and and so that's why it sounds
different. There are two parts to this
verse. Let's break them down
individually. The first part is this.
God opposes the proud. Now we first have to ask who are
the proud? Who is this?
If God opposes somebody, he's opposing the proud.
Who are the proud? Proud here means arrogant or
haughty. It essentially means to think
highly of oneself. And I want you to notice what
James says is God's disposition in regards to proud people.
How does God think about prideful people?
He opposes them. He opposes them literally to be
hostile towards them. Now certainly God is opposed to
all sin in some measure. That's true.
But what's interesting is that there's only one sin that the
Bible explicitly says that God opposes, and that's pride.
Look at verse 6C. But he gives grace to the
humble. James previously wrote that God
gives more grace, but to who? Who does God give this more
grace to? The humble He gives grace to the
humble. When we see the word grace, it
can have a few different meanings.
I've alliterated them for you. A can mean favor.
B It can mean forgiveness. C It can mean fortitude.
Give me. Neither is giving me favor,
forgiveness or fortitude. So when James says that God
gives grace to the humble, which sense of grace is he referring
to? Well, clearly all senses are
true. God gives favor to the humble.
God gives forgiveness to the humble.
God gives fortitude to the humble.
But which of these does he intend in this passage?
It the context would lead us to to believe that he is talking
about the fortitude sense. The fortitude sense.
I think the idea here is that James is trying to tell the
church, church body, I recognize you all have desires, you have
strong desires, We have desires, we have strong desires.
And sometimes it feels like putting those desires to death
is impossible, doesn't it? And what James is saying is that
if we are prideful and defend our desires, if we say well,
well, I, I need this, you don't understand, I need this.
If we are prideful and defend our desires, God will be opposed
to us. It is only when we are humble
and we recognize I. I must put these desires to
death and I cannot do it on my own.
It is only then that God gives us grace.
We'll stop there. With exposition of the text
application. I have 6 exhortations. 6
exhortations #1 Be careful that we don't turn parts of scripture
into terms and conditions. Be careful, careful that we
don't turn parts of scripture into terms and conditions.
James asked an interesting question.
He asked the question, Do you suppose it is to no purpose that
the scripture says this literally?
Do you think the scripture says this in vain?
What does that mean? What is he getting out of that
question? It appears that some of the
church were treating parts of the scripture like terms and
conditions. What do you mean by that?
You know how when you sign up for something, you go to sign up
for a new app or you sign up for a new subscription or something,
you fill in your name and your phone number, your e-mail, your
address, and at the bottom it has a little box and that's
terms and conditions. Does anybody read that?
Do we not just click the box and move on?
Right. This.
Do we not just just move on and be like, I don't know.
So the danger is that we can turn parts of the Bible into a
set of terms and conditions, things that we rarely, if ever
read or consider. We're all guilty of this.
On some level, the churches here were guilty of ignoring God's
warning that he is a jealous God.
They were guilty of ignoring the fact that God will not share his
people with the Word, with the world.
And we too can be guilty of ignoring parts of God's Word.
But James reminds us that all Scripture has a purpose.
None of this book is written in vain.
And if we ignore parts of it, we are playing with fire.
Recently, our van, we, we got a new van.
We still have the old one. We have two vans now.
Hopefully one of our sons will drive it.
Drive one of them recently got a new van and, and it's, it
started just shutting off while we're driving.
We'd be driving down the street going like 45 miles an hour and
the thing would just shut off. And it's very dangerous because
when your vehicle shuts off, you have no power steering if you, I
don't, if you've ever driven without power steering, but like
it's very difficult to steer. And so I was like, we got to get
this fixed because this is dangerous.
So I took it the Firestone because they were right, you
know, like I was able to get it to restart and I don't want to
take it far away. So I get the Firestone.
They kept it for five days and at the end of the five days,
this was their diagnosis. We don't know what's wrong with
it. So I brought it home and I
turned to my favorite mechanic, YouTube, and my new favorite
mechanic, ChatGPT. I decided I was going to fix it
myself and by God's grace I was able to.
Turned out it was the ignition switch.
I had to take the steering column apart and replace the
ignition switch and YouTube and ChatGPT led me in the way I
should go and I was able to fix it by God's grace.
But as I did this, I'm meticulously, meticulously
watched video after video after video and ran scenario after
scenario and AI. Why?
Because I realized if I get this
wrong and we're going down the mountain at 70 miles an hour and
our van shuts off, we might die. I need to get this right.
That is how we are to read and consider this book meticulously,
with great care, with the fear of God that I need to get this
right. Be careful that you don't turn
this into a set of terms and conditions where it's like I
would like, would you like to sign up for Christianity?
Yes, I would, please read this check.
Where can I serve? What do you need me to do?
Go back and read the terms and conditions.
Your life depends on it. I don't mean that figuratively,
I mean literally. Your life depends on it #2 It is
God's jealousy that keeps us from dying in a whorehouse.
It is God's jealousy that keeps us from dying in a whorehouse.
The churches were frequenting the red light district known as
the World. Some had become friends with the
world. They had propped their feet up
on the coffee tables of the world and they felt very at
home. But their husband was not
content to sit by. Their husband was not complacent
to sit by and watch his bride prostitute themselves out to the
world. Their husband yearned jealously
over the Spirit that he made to dwell in them.
And it is this jealousy and only this jealousy that keeps them
from dying in the whore houses of this world.
And the same is true for you and me.
God is jealous for His bride, and this is a good thing,
Brothers and sisters, this is a glorious thing because God is
not dating us. He is united to us in a
covenant. What do you mean by that?
Here's the difference. Suppose I was 20 years old and I
started dating a girl and after dating, one week I see her
flirting with another guy. I give her the benefit of the
doubt. Then after another week I see
her flirting with another guy. What do you think I would do?
Break up with her. I would be a fool not to, but
suppose I am 44 years old and I have been married for 16 years
and I see a guy trying to flirt with my wife.
What do you think I will do? I will not leave her.
I will go and protect her. I will go and pursue her.
Why? Because she is mine, she is
mine. God is not dating us.
He has united us to Him in the New Covenant and it is His
jealousy alone that keeps us from dying in a whore house #3
The Holy Spirit is a daily reminder of how invested God is
in His people. The Holy Spirit is a daily
reminder of how invested God is and His people.
Now, as I mentioned, the exposition translators have to
decide whether the translate pneuma as either capital spirit,
like Holy Spirit, or lowercase spirit, meaning our spirit.
So it's either our spirit or the Holy Spirit.
The NASB and the ISV are the only major translations that
translate with a capital S. And I think it's entirely
possible that James does intend the Holy Spirit here.
I don't know if that's true, but I think it's entirely possible
if he is intending that he is saying that God jealously
desires not just not our spirit, but the Holy Spirit that He has
caused to dwell in us. We know the Spirit dwells inside
of us. So meaning that God doesn't want
to share his Holy Spirit with the world.
This is the idea of like, you know, if if we live as
Christians in this room, but then we go out there and we go
and dwell and become friends with the world others.
The Spirit stays here, you know, and then we like, we pick them
up. When we come back, the Spirit
comes with us. Whatever we're doing, whatever
we're watching on the computer, the Spirit is watching with us.
Whatever our hands are touching, the Spirit is touching with us.
Whatever we're putting in our mouth or drinking, the Spirit is
doing those things because we are the temple of the living
God. Paul addresses this idea in
First Corinthians 6. He says, do you not know that
your bodies are members of Christ?
Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of
a prostitute? Never.
Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute
becomes one body with her? For as it is written, the two
will become one flesh, but he who is joined to the Lord
becomes 1 spirit with him? Or do you not know that your
body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have
from God? Have you ever stopped?
You considered how amazing it is that God gives us His very own
Spirit. Here are something thought about
that. How amazing it is that the
Spirit of God, the member of the Trinity, God himself, is
dwelling inside of us. I was thinking about this this
week. As parents, we don't even let
our boys have sleepovers at friends houses.
We don't. They've never slept over anybody
else's house. Why?
Because I know the type of sin they will be exposed to or
potentially be exposed to and be tempted to engage in.
I know this because I slept over at friends houses.
I got introduced to pornography having a sleepover at my
sister's house. So we don't let them sleep over
at anybody's house, but God gives us His Spirit to have a
permanent sleepover in this house, even though He knows what
type of sin we will engage in. God says, I know all of the sin
that you are going to engage in and that you are going to bring
my spirit to engage in, and yet He still gives us His spirit.
Now here's why this is such good news.
Here's why we should praise God that He is willing to make us
temples of the living God because it means that he is
highly invested in us. He is highly invested in us.
It means that when we stray from him, when we start to rub elbows
with the world, what keeps God pursuing us?
Sometimes we may think, you know, like, why does God pursue
me? I'm not worthy to be pursued.
Yeah, that's exactly right. Neither am I.
Why does God pursue me? What keeps God pursuing us is
that which lives inside us. We are the temple of the living
God and he jealously desires the Spirit that dwells inside of us.
You see, the Spirit is our assurance that God will stay
invested in US. Even you know, it's not like a
stock, you know where stocks is tanking.
You know they tell you like cut your losses, get out.
When we start tanking, it's not like God's like I'm cutting my
losses with Matt. I'm getting out.
Not if I got a spirit inside me. He will stay invested in me.
He will stay invested in you. Four.
Our desires are strong. God's grace is stronger.
God's jealousy is thick. His grace is thicker, James
writes in verse 6. But he gives more grace.
As I mentioned in the exposition.
This is clearly connected to verse 5 because of the word but
but how it is connected depends on how we interpret verse 5.
If we go with the NIV, then James is essentially saying our
desires are strong, but God's grace is stronger.
If we go with the NRSV, he is saying that God's jealousy is
thick but His grace is thicker. Our desires are strong, are they
not? I mean, is that not why we sin?
Because if if the desires like I have never engaged in gluttony
of durian because my desire is weak, but I've engaged in
gluttony of other things many times.
Isn't that why we sinned? Because our desires are strong.
Desire for approval, sexual satisfaction, financial
security, control and power, physical pleasure, getting new
possessions, being made much of feeling loved.
These desires can feel so strong that sometimes it feels
impossible to not let them have complete control over our life.
Right. Like my desire for this is so
strong it feels like I cannot, I have no other option just to let
it run. Run wild.
But James reminds us that God's grace is stronger.
His grace is stronger. God will give us sufficient
grace to put our sinful desires to death.
Church, family, whatever grace you need in the new year,
whatever you need, whatever sin in your life, whatever desire
your life you need to put to death, God will give you the
grace to dig a deep grave. In addition, God's jealousy is
thick. If we go the NRS feed, God's
jealousy is thick. You ever had a friend who was
jealous for your friendship? You ever had a child who was
jealous for your affection? You ever had a Co worker who was
jealous for your time? It can feel suffocating, right?
It can feel suffocating sometimes we can feel, we can
sinfully feel this way towards God, right?
Like Jonah, we can thank God. Just let me live my life in
Tarsus just for a season like just this.
Just stay over there. Like I'll come back.
I'll come back, God. OK, Like, just for like this
next hour or just for this next week, like, just let me have
some fun and Tarsus, and then we'll talk about Nineveh.
Jonas, you ever consider that Jonah's desire to not go to
Nineveh was so strong that he was willing to commit suicide to
get away from God's will when he told him to Dome off the boat,
He can't swim to shore. He's committing suicide.
That's how strong his desire was to not go to Nineveh.
But God would not let him go. Why?
Because his jealousy is thick. It's as thick as a whale.
And Jonah might thank God, I'm suffocating inside here, but his
grace was thicker. God gave Jonah the grace to do
the one thing that he really didn't want to do.
The last thing in the world I want to do is go to Nineveh, and
God gave him the grace to do it. The same is true for you and me.
There may be a time, maybe in this coming year where God is
going to call you to do something and it's the last
thing in the world you want to do.
You say to God, God, I'd rather do anything.
I don't care what it does. Give me anything but this.
If God calls you to do it, He will give you the grace to do
it. Five.
God's grace is manifested and His active opposition to our
pride. God's grace is manifested and
His active opposition to our pride.
Now, I want to be clear about something here.
I didn't mention this earlier. I want to mention it now.
I want to be clear that James is primarily referring to a class
of people here, not a description of God's people.
In other words, when James writes God opposes the proud, he
is referring to the lost world. Here he's referring to the lost
world. This is important because from a
position standpoint, from a position standpoint, from a
categorical standpoint, God is never opposed to us.
God is never, but he is always for us.
Always. God is opposed to his enemies,
but he is always for his children.
But don't take that to mean then that that means what?
What God doesn't care about. I mean he cares about my pride,
but just like anything else. No, no, no, that also means that
in some measure God also is opposed to his children's pride.
God can be for us and yet opposed to us at the same time.
He can be for us positionally and opposed to us in our
behavior. How many times do we see in
Scripture where God disciplined his children for their pride?
Remember when Moses pridefully struck the rock?
He said, must we bring you water from this rock?
And what did God do? God disciplined him by saying
you won't go into the promised land.
Remember when Aaron and Miriam pridefully challenged Moses?
Moses, you've gone too far. We are all holy to the Lord and
God gave Miriam leprosy. Remember when David pridefully
ordered Joab to take a census Joab against Joab's counsel,
Joab said do not do this thing David Dave said no do it and God
put 70,000 people to death. Remember Hezekiah?
He pridefully showed off all the treasury to the king of Babylon,
wanted him to know what all the glory of of of their gold.
And what did God say? God said now Israel will be
carried off to Babylon. Remember Uzziah pridefully
burned incense, a task that only priests are allowed to do, and
God gave him leprosy. And of course we all remember
when Peter pridefully boasted that he would never deny Christ.
God made sure the gospel writers recorded all three times.
Over and over again we see that when God's people took a posture
of pride, God took a posture of discipline.
But listen to me, that too is the grace of God.
It is a grace of God that He is actively opposed to our pride.
6th last point. If grace were rain, humility is
the only bucket without holes. If grace were rain, humility is
the only bucket without holes. Imagine if you were in a very
hot desert. There's nothing in this.
There's just sand. That's all there is.
You're stuck in this desert and it rained only once a week.
That's a problem because you need water every day, so you
need a way to collect this rain. When it rains to a miracle, you
find a bucket. You walk up to it, you're so
happy. You look inside this bucket and
it's filled with holes. You find another bucket.
It also has holes in it. You find a third bucket, a
fourth bucket, 1/5 bucket. They all have holes in them.
How are you ever going to collect this rain?
Well, on the day that it, you could just open your mouth, but
all you're going to get is a small amount and how long will
that last? You need a way to collect a
large amount of rain so that you can go to this bucket and drink.
This is how it feels sometimes when it comes to God's grace,
doesn't it? We get drip after small amounts.
It feels so little. We think like, how can I ever
collect enough every day? I mean, there are there not so
many scenarios in our life where every day we need God's grace.
And yet so often I feel so thirsty.
I feel so dry. It's like, I mean, every time I
turn around and we talk about this in Sunday school this
morning, right? Like I read an e-mail where
somebody accuses me of something, Man, I need God's
grace. Then my kid is bugging me.
Man, I need God's grace. Then my spouse is bugging me,
Man, I need God's grace. Then something breaks in the
house, Man, I need God's grace. It's just over and over and over
again. How do I get it?
How do I find a bucket where I could have this grace that I can
have access to? Brothers and sisters, if grace
were reign, Humility is the only bucket without holes.
God opposes the proud and everyone.
I say this self-sufficiency, self-reliance is pride.
God opposes the proud, but He gives grace to the humble.
If we desire God to give us grace, we must humble ourselves.
Nobody can receive rain if they are above the clouds.
How often do we pray? God, please give me grace to be
patient in my marriage. God, please give me grace to not
discipline my kids and anger. God, please give me grace to
minister in the power of the Spirit.
God, please give me grace to not complain at my job today.
God, please give me grace to be disciplined in my studies.
What will determine if God actually gives you grace?
What will be the deciding factor other than the the will of God
on your end? What will be the deciding factor
as to whether you get this grace or not?
Are you humble? Are you humble?
The text does not say God might give grace.
It says God gives grace to the humble.
That's a promise. That's a promise.
Do you believe that, church family?
Next week our church name will be Grace and Truth.
Let that be a reminder that God will give us all the grace we
need in 2026 if we humble ourselves.
Let's pray.