I please the Lord to bless us
together this evening as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
epistle of James, chapter four, and we'll read verse six. The
epistle of James, chapter four, and reading verse six. But he
giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth
the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. I'm sure most of you know that
grace really means the unmerited favour of God. It's a very beautiful
word. It's a very attractive word,
to know that the Lord is so gracious to bless us and to give us of
his grace. And the apostle says here, or
rather James says here, that he giveth more grace. That means
that we may have received grace and he continues to give grace. Now the truth is that God doesn't
give a surplus of grace. He gives grace when we need it. We can't actually lay up a stock
of grace as it were. It's that which the Lord gives
us when it's needful in our lives from time to time. You may remember
the Apostle Paul in his life. He was blessed and he had a difficulty
in his life and we're told what it was. Well, we're not told
what it was, we're told the situation. He says, unless I should be exalted
above measure, Paul would be wonderfully blessed with gracious
revelations from Almighty God and naturally he would become
probably proud of that condition and situation. I think what a
wonderful person he was, how God had revealed so much to him.
And we need to recollect and realize that we are no different
today. But the Apostle tells us, unless
I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the
revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh the
messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted
above measure." So God had come to Paul and God had given him
something which is obviously painful. It's described here
as a thorn in the flesh. It's probably not a physical
thorn. It was probably something else. But nonetheless, it was
painful to bear. And it was with him all the time.
And he wished he could get rid of it. So what did he do? Well,
he did what I hope we would all do. And that was, he said, for
this thing, I besought the Lord thrice. That's three times he
prayed to God that it might depart from him. And we might think,
well, surely Paul is a very gracious man and the Lord would hear and
answer his prayers. Well, God did answer his prayer. And we must remember sometimes
God answers our prayer in a different way to what we sometimes expect. We always expect, I suppose,
when we pray for something, that God to answer yes and that prayer
be given an answer of favour. But sometimes God answers us
And he says no. We may not like an answer like
that. But sometimes it's good to hear a word from God which
says no. And the reason why it's good
is because God knows everything which is going to occur in our
life. He knows the end from the beginning. And we may be asking
for something which may not be good for us. And so there may
be those occasions when the Lord really says no. Well that's what
happened here in the Apostle's life. He asked that this irritation,
this thorn in the flesh, might depart from him. He asked three
times and we're told, the Lord said unto me, my grace, that's
his unmerited favour is sufficient for thee. That's what I'm giving,
the wonder of grace. He tells us, for my strength
is made perfect in weakness. That means that the Apostle had
to rely on God's strength, not his strength. He was made weak. It may have been this thorn in
the flesh that brought him into a weak physical condition. It
may have been a problem in his mind, perhaps a problem with
his speech. We're not told. But we do know it was a problem.
And the Lord answers in this way, for my strength is made
perfect in weakness. Now then, what was Paul's response? What was Paul's response to that?
Was he going to say, well, that's not good enough. I'm not content
with an answer like that. What does he respond? He responds
in a beautiful way. He says, most gladly. He didn't
say, I'm reluctant to hear that. I don't really want to hear that.
He said, most gladly, therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities
that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take
pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions,
in distresses for Christ's sake. That is the secret, isn't it?
He's willing to receive these tremendous difficulties if it's
for Christ's sake. And it is a wonderful example,
isn't it? As he says, that the power of Christ may rest upon
me. That was why he was glad. And
so he then goes on to tell us, He says, therefore I take pleasure
in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions,
in disgraces, for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am
strong. He tells us, I am become a fool
in glorying. We perhaps sometimes should remember
a statement like that because we can become fools in glorying,
glorying in our own ability and our own adequacy for the various
situations and think that we're perhaps better than others. Well,
the Lord will deal graciously with his people. He was dealing
graciously here with the Apostle Paul. And may we recognize the
great blessing that it was, and it centered on God's grace, my
grace. So what did Paul receive? he'd
received more grace to endure that which the Lord had seen
fit to place upon him. Therefore let us not be disappointed
sometimes in our lives when perhaps God doesn't hear our prayers,
or at least he does hear them and doesn't answer them in the
way that we expected or perhaps the way we hoped for. us be thankful
the Lord does answer our prayers and does give us a direction
as he very clearly gave to the Apostle Paul. And so here we
have James now speaking to us in this way and telling us, but
he giveth more grace. Now this was needful in this
situation here, because James is speaking about the various
difficulties that come upon people. And he says some very straightforward
and solemn things, as the beginning of this chapter tells us. He
says, from whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they
not hence even of your lusts, which war in your members? You
see there's that desire for things perhaps which we don't have and
we think we want them and we go after them, but we're really
lusting after something which won't be of any real benefit
to our souls. And how important it is that
you and I constantly are reminded that we have a body of sin and
death which will perish, which is perishing, which is dying,
that will die, and yet there is that eternity before us. And
how necessary that you and I are directed to view the vast difference
between time and eternity, and seek for those blessings which
are eternal, and not be carried away with lusts after the things
of time. Ye lust, ye have not, ye kill,
desire to have and cannot obtain, ye fight and war, yet ye have
not, because ye ask not, ye ask and receive not, because ye ask
amiss. And there's another good word
of instruction, isn't there? We may often ask for things,
we want things, but do we ask in a right way? And by that,
do we have a right motive in our asking? And is that motive
that if we receive an answer, it will be for God's glory, or
would it be that we're just going to consume it as the word tells
us here, consume it upon our lusts. You know, it's wonderful
that the Lord gives us this gracious instruction in the word of God
to direct us in our lives. And then he comes and tells us
ye adulterers and adulteresses. Well, you know, this can be physically
as we understand it, but it can also be in a spiritual sense,
because he tells us, 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. We perhaps don't like
to read words like that, but here we have words of instruction
to us. And we read, do ye think that
the scripture saith in vain? The spirit that dwelleth in us
lusteth to envy. That's the heart of man. These
few verses describe really the heart of man by nature. And therefore
we need grace to turn away from such And that's why James tells
us here, he giveth more grace, wherefore he saith God resisteth
the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. What should we desire? We should desire a right spirit. We should desire a humble spirit. And surely a humble spirit is
a Christ-like spirit, is it not? What a good word it is to think
that if the Lord helps us to be humble, and we are told to
humble ourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that
he may exhort us in due time, casting all our care upon him,
for he careth for us. That's in the epistle of Peter. good it is if we receive that
grace to humble ourselves. Naturally, we are not humble
people. Naturally, we are proud people. We like to be thought well of.
We like people to speak well of us and to perhaps encourage
us in certain aspects of our life which may not necessarily
be good for us. We need to always weigh everything
up in the light of scripture. It's very easy to listen to people's
views. People's views are often views
of the world. And that's not the way that we
should assess our position or situation. We should weigh ourselves
up in accordance with the word of God. And the Bible encourages
us to examine ourselves. It's a good thing to do, to examine
ourselves. Because, you see, we always think
we're right. We always think our views are
right. And the way we want people to
believe are the ways that we think are right. But of course
it may not be so. We may be wrong. What it means
is we're not really humbling ourselves. We're not really seeking
the guidance and the direction of Almighty God. And so here
we have this statement that God resisteth the proud. And perhaps we realise in our
own lives how that's been so. God's resisted us because we
haven't had a right spirit. We haven't had perhaps the answers
that we may have hoped for. And it may have been that if
we'd had those answers, well, we would have been proud. Proud
of our wonderful prayers. You see, God will have all the
honour and all the glory. And in our spiritual life, we
should always be found being directed to the life of the Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now if God gives us this grace,
he giveth more grace, it is surely indeed to direct us to the Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ. In the epistle of Peter in the
fifth chapter we read this, but the God of all grace who hath
called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus. After that ye
have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen,
settle you. This is a gracious word of instruction
and encouragement and exhortation by the Apostle Peter. Remembering
here. It's the same God we read off
here the same God that James was referring to he giveth more
grace and Here we have this great statement, but the God of all
grace Who has called us? unto his eternal glory The Apostle
Paul tells us that he was called by the grace of God called by
the grace of God and here the Apostle Peter is referring to
that in this situation, who has called us unto his eternal glory. So what does that mean? That
means that all of us need to have received that call, that
spiritual call, that call which comes through the grace of God. We will never be able to claim
that we are worthy of God's favour. We should never be able to come
and say, well, the Lord looked upon me because he realised I
was such a wonderful person and I was going to do this and going
to do that. We only have to refer to the life of the Apostle Paul
who told us what he thought of himself. He told us this, I am
less than the least of all saints. He was low in his own estimation. but he had received the grace
of God insofar that God had called him, called him. And that was
an amazing call, wasn't it? In the life of the Apostle Paul,
I expect you will remember, there he was, walking contrary to God,
doing everything opposite, and calling men and women to prison,
those who professed the name of Christ. He was so anti the
Christians. He was doing everything he could
to exterminate Christianity. But the day came when there was
the apostle, were letters of administration in Damascus to
commit the believers to prison, and God met with him. God called
him in a most amazing way. Paul, why persecutest thou me? Well, perhaps we've been persecuting
the Lord. We may be tonight, I don't know.
You may be persecuting the Lord because of your hatred, perhaps,
to some aspects of the Word of God. And you may be walking contrary
to the Word of God. Paul was, but God had mercy on
him. God called him, as he tells us
by his grace. And it changed Paul's attitude
completely. I believe that's what occurs.
When God's grace comes into our lives, into our hearts, it changes
our outlook, it changes our desires. It changed Paul to such a situation
that instead of carrying on as he was determined to do, he fell
down on his face and cried, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
He threw away all his plans. They were dispensed with. Now
he was a willing servant to do the will of God. The grace of
God had come into the Apostle's heart. He'd been called by God,
just like we have here, by the God of all grace who has called
us. And the wonder of it is, when
God calls us by his grace, he's calling us to an eternal life
of blessing, an eternal glory by Christ Jesus. You see, there's
no Glory apart from the calling which is in Christ Jesus by Christ
Jesus. And the Apostle in that instance
was just made willing to do the will of the Saviour, whom he
had persecuted. I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. Well, have you and I been persecuting
the Saviour? We have, you know. We have, all
of us, have been persecuting the Lord Jesus until he comes
and calls us by his grace and we may still perhaps sometimes
persecute the Saviour afterwards. We're so hard-hearted and so
rebellious and so unwilling to come and to bow down before Almighty
God and yet we have this wonderful and gracious word before us in
this epistle of James where he says, but he giveth more grace
More grace to acknowledge the Lord's right in our life. Grace
to realise and to know and to desire the Lord will be our Master. Without any doubt, God will be
our Master. But it's a wonderful blessing
to be able to submit to Him and be able to come and say, nevertheless
not my will, but Thine be done. Be sure of this. God's will will
be best for us. Left to our will, it won't be
best. We'll continue to make many mistakes. And also, that
which is our will will fail to do one thing, and that is to
bring glory to God. But God's will in our lives will
direct us to the Saviour. so that he will be lifted up
and he will be exalted and we will desire to praise him for
his great and glorious work in redeeming our soul. He giveth
more grace, that grace to observe what the Lord Jesus has done
in redeeming our souls. More grace to understand what
a wretched and vile sinner we've been. How we walk contrary to
God. How we turn our back upon God.
We won't be any better than the Apostle Paul. We won't be able
to say, well Paul, I'm not as bad as you. Because when the
Spirit of God convinces us of our sin and shows us the sin
in our heart and shows all the evil there, we'll understand
what the Apostle said when he said he was the worst of sinners.
But God had mercy upon him. Oh, what a wonderful thing it
is when we can say that God has had mercy upon us. He hasn't
left us to carry on, but he's stopped us. He's come to us. He's called us by his grace. He's shown us our lost condition. He's shown us where we're going. He's shown us the direction we're
going and points us in the right direction. and brings us into
the right way, the narrow way, which leads to eternal life. And he never leaves us, and he
never forsakes us. He brings us safely through life,
and he brings us safe to glory. And it's all because of the great
and glorious finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, when
this grace is revealed to us, We see the gracious saviour came
into this world and lived that perfect life and died that sin
atoning death that our souls might be redeemed and that by
his grace we may come safely home to glory and be safely found
with the saviour throughout eternity, and it's all through His grace. I believe when you and I view
this rightly, we shall be humbled, our hard hearts will be melted,
we shall bow down before Almighty God, and we shall have to say
in the words of the hymn writer, why me, O blessed God, why such
a wretch as me? who must forever lie in hell
were not salvation free. What do we then rejoice in? We
rejoice in the sovereign grace of God, that grace of God which
found us out, that grace which came to us, that grace which
called us, that grace which set us upon a rock, that grace which
established our goings, That grace which put a new song in
our heart, in our mouth, even praise unto our God. Oh, what
a blessing it is to be a recipient of this grace of God. But my
friends, it's so needful. It's so necessary. It's so essential. And so as we read a word like
this, he giveth more grace. May we have the evidence that
you and I have received this grace in our souls. And therefore, it is well indeed
with our soul. The apostle, when he wrote to
Timothy, you know, he gave a wonderful word of encouragement. And that's
with regards to the effect of God's grace. because the effect
of God's grace, I believe, in large measure will give us Christian
contentment. And by that I mean we'll be willing
to be found serving the Lord, doing his will, following him. And it really is the great gift
of God. And the apostle, when he wrote
to Timothy, he tells us, He says, perhaps at the beginning of the
sixth chapter, he tells us, let as many servants as are under
the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour. In the
name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that
have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they
are brethren, but rather do them service because they are faithful
and beloved, partakers of the benefit these things teach and
exhort. And he says, if any man teach
otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, even the words
of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according
to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions
and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings,
evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men, of corrupt minds, and
destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness, from
such withdraw thyself." Well, those who have received God's
grace to hear these gracious words spoken to Timothy by the
Apostle. And then he tells us this, but
godliness, what is godliness? Godliness with contentment is
great gain. Great gain to be content with
the things that God has done for us, the things that God has
given us, And the Apostle goes on further and he tells us, and
having food and raiment, let us be there with content. Well, it's a great blessing to
be content. And if the Lord gives us this
grace, and he gives more grace, he giveth more grace, I believe,
that is to give the grace of contentment, to walk in the path
the Lord has ordained for us. I suppose it's true to say that
the path of the true Christian is never easy. The path of the
true Christian is always facing opposition, because the last
thing Satan wants you and me to do is to walk in accordance
with God's Word. He wants to drag us, to sidetrack
us into the broad way which leads to destruction. And let us not
forget that he knows everything which is a temptation to you
and to me. And those temptations may be
different to different people. But the devil is very aware of
what they are. And he'll do everything he can to track us into the broad
way. And we would therefore need this
wonderful grace of God to keep us. The Apostle Peter He knew
it and he said, kept by the power of God. How? Through grace. It was God's grace to the Apostle
Peter and he knew painfully how he'd fallen, didn't he? He knew
when he was relying on his own ability, when he told the Lord
that he would even die with him. A few hours later, what did we
find? Denying the Lord with oaths and curses. Let us not forget,
we cannot keep ourselves kept by the power of God through grace. Under salvation, that has been
revealed in the last time, it is God's wonderful grace that
keeps us. And sometimes we may know, and
it's good to know, when God has delivered us from some temptation. And God does come and he does
deliver us. He makes ways to escape. Sometimes
we may not be very keen to escape. Sometimes we might want to indulge
in some wrong and lustful pleasure. And we may perhaps regret really
that the Lord has made a way of escape, but as we ponder these
things we will realise it's God's grace toward us which has made
a way to escape. We've been able to avoid the
cunning plans of the devil. Because God's watched over us.
How humbling and how merciful that is. Yes, we will then say,
yes, this great God, he's given more grace to me. I haven't deserved
it, but he's given it to me. And to recognize the blessing
of it, yes, the free unmerited favor of almighty God. He giveth more grace. It's God himself, the author
and finisher of our faith. That's the one who gives us this
grace. The apostle speaks, doesn't he,
when he came towards the end of his epistle to the Hebrews,
and he tells us, wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with
so great a cloud of witnesses." He was, of course, referring
to that long list in the 11th chapter of all those who had
been blessed with glorious faith, been able to do wonderful things. And so we have here, he's telling
us, wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great
a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the
sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience. The race set before us, looking
unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, for the
joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame,
and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." So,
here we have this blessed exhortation by the Apostle, and to realise
that in this situation he says then, for consider him. The Lord God gives us grace.
He gives more grace to consider him. This one who has done so
much to redeem our souls. For consider him. We find opposition,
we find temptation. It's a wonderful remedy to come
and to consider the Lord Jesus Christ. Consider him like this. Consider him that endured such
contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and
faint in your minds. You may perhaps sometimes feel
tired and feel, well the battle is so hard, it's so hot, And
so it is, the battle of spiritual life is difficult, it is hard,
but what we need to do is to receive grace, more grace, to
look to the Saviour, to see His great and wonderful example. Did He turn back? Did He refuse
to do the Father's will? Did he say, well, I'm not going
to go any further? No, he submitted himself to the
gracious will of Almighty God. Remember in Gethsemane's garden,
those wonderful words when he said, if it be possible, let
this cup pass from me. He knew how agonizing it was
going to be to endure all the opposition and finally the crucifixion. if it be possible, let this cut
pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thine be done." A total submission to the will of his Heavenly Father. What a mercy tonight, if we know
this, grace of God, he gives more grace to do his will. We might be saying, oh Lord,
There's this mountain before me. There's great difficulty
before me. If it be possible, let this escape,
let me not have to go this way. Remember the life of the Saviour. Remember what He endured. Remember
the great and glorious statement that we have here, for consider
Him. that endured such contradiction
of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your
minds." We come to that situation, and it's clearly put here because
there are those occasions when we do come. We're almost tempted,
we are tempted, to give up, to give up our religion, to throw
it all overboard, to think, well, there's no purpose in continuing. Everything seems against me.
But you see, they're not. Remember the case of Jacob in
his old age, when he was told that, well, he'd lost, as he
thought, Joseph, and then they kept Simeon back in Egypt, and
they'd come and they'd said, and we aren't gonna be able to
go down again unless Benjamin's with me. And what did he say? He said, all these things are
against me. But they weren't. They were all
working together for his good. Because the time of deliverance
was close at hand, he didn't realise it. What did he receive? The grace of God. He giveth more
grace. Yes, Jacob received it. The time of deliverance came,
didn't it? When Joseph sent the wagons, And he saw the wagons
and he realised the things that he'd been told were true. And
he was willing to go down into Egypt. Well, it's good to realise
the wonderful truth of these things and to know that here
we have such statements. We have here, be not wearied
and faint in your minds. This grace which the Lord gives,
he giveth more grace. Yes, you see, Jacob didn't receive
the grace until it was needful, and we don't receive the grace
until it's needful. But we do receive it when it is needful.
And so the Apostle goes on in this epistle to the Hebrews and
he tells them, Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving
against sin, and ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh
unto you as unto children. My son, despise not thou the
chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him."
We don't like being chastened, don't we? We don't like being
told we're wrong, do we? But here, you see, if we submit
ourselves, we fall down under the mighty hand of God and it's
receiving His grace which directs us to realise our condition,
that we are not to despise the work of God upon us, for we're
told, for whom the Lord loveth. He chasteneth and scourgeth every
son whom he receiveth. What is it? It's he's giving
us grace. It's his favour. Why? He hasn't
left us. Did us carry on in our wrong
path. He's looking upon us and he's
correcting us. And it's because of his grace,
because of his love to our soul. He giveth more grace, whereof
he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. And therefore he says, submit
yourselves therefore to God. What a gracious word of exhortation. How important it is that we pray
for grace to be able to do this and to then receive this grace.
That we do submit ourselves to God, just like the Saviour did. Not my will, but thine be done. Resist the devil. What good words
these are. Resist the devil and he will
flee from you. You may think, well, I don't
think that's true. Well, it's as the Lord gives
us that grace to resist the devil. He enables us to turn against
him. He enables us to do that which
is right and to ignore the temptations of Satan. The word here is true. Draw nigh to God and he will
draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners,
and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. And so we can go on as we read
together in that fourth chapter. There's much instruction we have
to read in the little book or the epistle of James. May it
be a blessing to us as we read it. Well, here then we have these
words before us, but he giveth more grace. And so tonight, as
we've gone through one or two illustrations, to be able to
recognise that yes, I can say also, by God's grace, he's been
gracious to me. He has not left me. He's called
me. He's corrected me. He's shown
his mercy to me. He's shown his love to me. What
is it? His grace. What is true? He's given more grace. You see, if we've received grace,
we shall receive glory, eternal happiness. What an evidence it
is for us to have some humble hope that it is well with our
soul. My friends, we're often concerned
how well it is with our body. The great thing is, is it well
with our soul? Are we ready? The Lord should
come to take us home. Have we received his great grace? Have we the wonderful evidence
of it? So that we can bow down and acknowledge the Lord's wonderful
favours award us in showing himself unto us as He does not unto the
world, revealing Himself unto us as our great and glorious
Saviour, that One who died upon Calvary's cross, who shed His
precious blood to take away all our sins. Yes, the blackest sins,
what we might think little sins, but my friends, they all need
to be atoned for and to rejoice in the great work of the Saviour.
Never forget, consider Him. but he giveth more grace. Wherefore, he saith, God resisteth
the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. May we enjoy the
wonderful favour and the wonderful privilege of this grace of God. Amen.