Alright, brethren, James chapter
4. I'll focus us right here on verses
5 and 6. Let's just read these two verses. Do you think that the Scripture
saith in vain, the Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? Not necessarily specific scripture,
that's all of scripture. That's what all of scripture
declares. The natural spirit that's of Adam and us lusteth
to envy, to covet, to strive, nothing but sin. Verse 6, but
he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth
the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. The Sunday before
Thanksgiving, we were looking at the message out of John, 1
John, on Christ the Advocate, and I referenced James 3 and
4. And when I referenced that, and
I was looking at those scriptures for that message, the Lord very
much convicted me in the heart with these passages. And He hasn't
let me stop thinking on these passages ever since then. And the Lord keeps on making
me think on these and He keeps on showing me what this means. You know, whenever the Lord gives
His preacher a message, He's going to apply it to the heart
of His preacher first. While you're studying it, while
you're walking around thinking on it, it's what makes you want
to preach it. He's going to apply it to your
heart first. He's going to convict you in your heart if it deals
with a subject like this. He's going to make the preacher
see his own sin and humble you in your heart knowing that you're
the sinner. And then He's going to give you
more grace in Christ and make you see everything that we need,
everything that God requires is the Lord Jesus Christ in Him
and by Him, through Him. And he does this so that when
you go preach, you are only a sinner saved by the grace of God. And
you know that. And you know to minister to others
who are only sinners saved by the grace of God. And so this
passage has been on my mind since before Thanksgiving. I've been
writing things down. as they come to me, and so I
want to try to preach from this, if the Lord will enable me. I
want to try to preach from this, and I want you to remember now,
James is writing here to God's saints. This is written to the
12 tribes of Israel. He's writing to holy children
of God, sanctified by God, chosen, redeemed, regenerated believers.
That's who he's writing to, and it's applied. Everything that's
said here applies to you who the Lord has given faith to know
Him. It applies to me and you. This
is true of God's regenerated children. I got my title from
these two verses. I titled this, God resisteth
but God giveth. It says, God resisteth the proud
but giveth grace to the humble. Now, that's so in one person. That's so in the child of God. That's so in you. Because you've
got an old man that's proud. God's going to resist him. And
you've got a new man that's of God that God's going to give
more grace to. And this is so in one believer,
he resists the proud, he gives grace to the humble. God resisteth,
but God giveth. Now, I used alliteration for
our divisions to help us remember. I want to show you, first of
all, the cause of our problem. Secondly, the cure. And then
thirdly, the commandments of God. Now, let's begin, first
of all, with the cause. When we have strife with another,
and we're talking here about strife between brethren, when
we have strife with one another, the cause is our own sin nature. That's the cause. God makes this
word effectual in our hearts so that we're going to see the
cause when He makes it effectual to you. He makes you see the
cause is our own sinful flesh. I know that when we're in a situation
like this, we think we're right, we think we're just, we think
we're doing it for the glory of God. That's what the scripture
means. One of the things it means when
it says, our heart is deceitful, it's desperately wicked. Who
can know it? And we can be so deceived to
think that we are right in the right, and yet, is nothing but
the pride of our sinful flesh. Now look at it right here, James
4.1, from whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they
not hence even of your lusts that war in your members? You
lust and have not, you kill and desire to have and cannot obtain,
you fight and war yet you have not because you ask not. You
ask and receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume
it upon your lust. Now he's talking to God's children
here. He's talking to believers here. 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. Do you think that the scripture saith in vain, the spirit that
dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? This is true of wars between
nations. It's true of wars between, you
know, rich men oppressing poor men and dragging them into courts
of law. James dealt with that in chapter
2. But he's talking here, and this is the Spirit of God, this
is God the Holy Spirit speaking here of strife between brethren.
He doesn't waste time with the externals. We want to go to law
and say who's right, who's wrong, who did this, who did that. He
doesn't waste time with that. He gets right to the heart of
the matter, the root cause, the fountain. When we have strife
with a brother or sister, it's from the lust of our own sin
nature that wars in our members. It's our own sin nature. This
is God's Word to you and me, brethren. This is so of me, it's
so of you. This is God's Word to us. Before the matter becomes an
outward war with another, before it becomes strife outwardly with
somebody else, the war is in us, in our own selves. Look, come they not hence even
of your lust that war in your members? Scripture says, only
by pride cometh contention. That sums it all up. Only by
pride come with contention. If there's contention, pride's
involved. That's the sole cause of it,
is pride. The fountain is our old sinful
fleshly man. That's the fountain. That's where
it's coming from. Now look back at James 3 and look at verse
13. Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let
him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and
strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from
above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envy and
strife is, there's confusion and every evil work. If it goes
on long enough, that's what it's going to result in. That's what
is going on within us is confusion. And we're going to see here in
a moment every evil work. But if it gets out and it boils
over, it's going to result in confusion, just confusion. Nobody
making sense, everybody yapping, everybody, you know, trying to
shoot one another, and then just nothing, confusion, and every
evil word. But the wisdom that is from above
is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated,
full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy,
and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that
make peace. You know, God's preacher and
his people are sowers. We're sowers. We're preaching.
We're sowing and seeking peace. We're seeking God to reconcile
his people to himself in their heart, to call out his lost sheep,
make you be reconciled to God. We don't war. We just preach
the gospel. We sow in peace. And it's so
between brethren. We sow in peace. And God makes
peace. He makes peace. For whence come
wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence even of your
lust at war in your members? Every child of God born of God
is two men in one body. You got an old man of sin that's
of Adam and a new man that's of Christ. The new man's holy
and without sin because Christ is the life of the new man. He's
the righteousness and holiness of the new man. The old man is
nothing but sin of Adam. Paul said, I delight in the law
of God after the inward man. We worship God in the inward
man. We delight in every word of God after the inward man.
But I see another law in my members, in my fleshly man, warring against
the law of my mind, warring against my new man. Our text says, wars
and fightings, they come of your lusts that war in your members.
There's a war going on within us before it ever results in
us being at war with somebody else. The war starts within us.
There's the old man and the new man, and there's a war. And he
said, and it wars against the law of my mind and brings me,
the new man, the new man that's of God, brings that new man,
the new me, brings me into captivity to the law of sin which is in
my members. John Gill wrote this on James 4. He said, pride, envy,
covetousness, ambition. They're like so many soldiers
and they're stationed and they're quartered in the members of our
body and they're warring against our soul. It's like a pride,
envy, covetousness, ambition, like soldiers surrounding the
new man just warring against our new man all the time. That's
a pretty good description. Pretty good description. Now
look at the progression. So it starts in us, it's in us,
this warring's in us. Pride, envy, strife within us,
warring in us, the old man and the new man. But look at this
progression, verse 2, James 4, 2. You lust, and you have not. You covet, you lust, you begin
within to covet something. In your old sinful man you start
wanting something. Maybe it's wanting another to
do something. Maybe it's wanting to be something
that you're not. Maybe it's wanting to achieve
something. Maybe it's to have something
you don't have. But you begin to lust and you
have not. That's within us. That's in our
sinful nature. Then it comes out. He says you
kill. But it starts within, anger in
the heart, anger in the heart, whether we have even spoken a
word or committed an act or done anything, anger in the heart,
Christ said, without a cause, is murder. And then it usually
comes out, and you desire to have and you can't obtain, you
fight and you war, but listen to this next word now, but you
have not because you ask not. I've been in this place many
times and I've thought, well, I asked. I've asked God, somebody
will say, but I've asked, I've begged the Lord. Have we? When I've been in this place
and asked the Lord and He didn't do for me, I really wasn't asking
Him. Look, look, you ask and receive
not because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your
lust, that you may spend it upon your lust. That word consume
there, that's the same word that's used to describe the prodigal
son who wasted his inheritance, wasted his living. You want to
spend it. You want to just waste it on your flesh, he said. What
is asking God a right? He said here you ask God amiss.
What is it to ask God a right? It's to ask God's will to be
done. It's to ask his will to be done. It's to ask God to do
whatever's going to glorify Christ. Ask him to do what's going to
be good for my brethren. What if it's this brother that
you feel in the strife and envy toward? Asking God what's best
for him or her. asking God for grace to submit
to His will. Not only asking God to do what
He will, but asking God for grace to submit to it. We can't submit
to it unless He gives us grace to submit to His will. It's asking
God for grace to be thankful for His providence. Whatever
He's willing to do, whatever He does, to be thankful for what
He does. Even when it seems like it goes against us. It doesn't
go against us, it never does, but we need grace to be thankful
even when we feel like it does go against us. You see, the point
is this. When we truly pray to God, we're
not changing God's will. We're not turning God from doing
what he's already purposed from the beginning that he's gonna
do. The purpose of God making his child pray is to change our
will, is to bring us to submit to God's will. and be content
with knowing God's doing what's right and we're going to trust
His will. The Holy Spirit says when we
merely ask for what we want, we just want our lust to be fulfilled. That's all. He calls us spiritual
adulterers. Actually, spiritual adulteresses.
The word here, verse 4, ye adulterers and adulteresses, in the original,
adulterers is not in there. It's just adulteresses. And I'll
tell you why. Let's read it. Ye adulteresses,
know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?
The friendship of the world is enmity with God. Well, I'm not
trying to be friends with the world. I'm just having a strife
with my brother. Whosoever therefore will be a
friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do you think that Scripture
saith in vain, a spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
The reason the original just says adulteresses is because
we're talking here about God's saints, the church, who is the
bride of Christ our husband. He's referring to all of us in
the feminine because we're the bride. Christ is the husband.
For creation, God our Father. Now think of this. Here's what's
the problem with us being discontent and lusting for something we
don't have. Think of how much God's done for us. God our Father
chose his son to be our husband and he chose his people, chose
whom he would and gave us to Christ for Christ to come and
be our faithful husband and save us. And Christ our husband came
forth and laid down his life for us, gave his life for us.
and put away all our sin and redeemed us. And then He came
and He gave us life through this Word, and He gave us faith and
robed us in His righteousness, made us holy within by His sanctifying
presence within us, so that the king's daughter, her raiments
of needlework, she's beautiful without and within, all by Christ
our Husband, what He has done for us. Now knowing that's what
He's done for us, knowing the promises we have of Him and knowing
everything God's ever done for us, when we were without strength,
when we didn't know Him, when we didn't want to know Him, when
we hated Him, knowing everything He's done for us, why would we
be discontent with anything He's doing in our lives? We know it's
going to be for our good. And we know that, brethren, so
why would we ever lust for something we don't have? Even if it seems
like it's, even if it's afflicting to us and it's painful to us
and it's a great trial to us, we know it's exactly what we
need or it wouldn't be happening. Our God's doing it because He
doesn't err and He's sovereign to bring His will to pass exactly
as He will. It's just what we need. It's
just what we need. It's to keep us trusting Christ
alone. So when we're lusting, coveting for something God has
not given us, something our great husband has not given to us,
we're being a friend of the world. You remember, it's like what
our Lord said when he said, when he gave that in his Sermon on
the Mount, he talked about, don't worry about what you're gonna
eat or what you're gonna drink, what you're gonna put on. He said,
that's things the Gentiles seek after. That's things the heathen,
ungodly, who don't know God, the world, that's what they seek
after. And he's telling us here, when we're striving, and that's
what all striving with a brother or sister is, we're not content.
with what God's done in them. We're not content with what God's
given to us. We want something we don't have.
And he's saying here, we're being like the world. We're being heathenish. Not one child of God can hear
this word right here and say I'm innocent. Not a one. I'm talking about you that he's
made holy and righteous in Christ. In ourselves, not a one of us
can hear this and say innocent. And if we hear this and we say,
well you're saying that about such and such, or you're saying
that about me, or you're saying that about this one, or you're
trying to defend yourself. If we think that, we're saying
I'm innocent. And it ain't so. I'm not innocent,
you're not innocent. You're guilty and I'm guilty.
That's how we are in our flesh. But here's the cure. That's the
cause. The cause is us. Here's the cure. Verse 6, but he giveth more grace. We're talking about his children
here. We're talking about you and me, but he giveth more grace.
He, for wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth
grace unto the humble. Now this does not mean that by
humbling ourselves, we're going to make God give us more grace.
That's not what it's saying. Because you and me, when we try
to humble ourselves and we think we've humbled ourselves, that's
when we're in our proudest moment. That is not humility. That would
be the sinner first given to God. That would be the sinner
taking the first step. That would make grace no more
grace. It would be a work. We'd be earning His grace if
that was the case. All things are of God. He giveth
more grace. When we're full of our prideful
lust, and we're striving and we're killing and we're committing
spiritual adultery and we're acting like the world, the very
thing God hates. Christ our husband sends this
gospel to us just like he has sent it to you right now. I want to know how's God going
to do that. Are you hearing this word right
now? That's how he's going to do it. He's going to send his
word to you first. It's in this word. In the first
hour, he saved you. In the first hour, he made you
to know you're the sinner. In the first hour, he revealed
this in you. He did it through the foolishness of preaching.
And every trial and every time that he brings us low and brings
us to Christ's feet and lifts us up in Christ and shows us
what he's done again and again, every time, he does it through
this means. It pleased God through the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. God resisted the proud. This is how he's going to do
it. He's going to resist the proud. He's going to resist our
pride-filled old man of sin. That's what Christ was saying
when he told Paul. He said, Saul, Saul, it's hard
for you to kick against the pricks. You can kick. You can keep kicking. You can go out here and beat
your hand on the asphalt if you want to, but you might move that
asphalt, but you're not going to move Christ. He's going to resist the proud.
He's going to resist us, but He gives more grace. He gives
more grace. He gives more grace by making
us hear that first word that we just looked at. He makes you
hear that word and He makes you realize, I'm the sinner. He makes
that word come to you just like the first time and the law enters
that the offense might abound. He makes that word come to you,
that very first word, those first five verses there. He'll make
that word come to you just like you just heard it and when it
does, the law enters and the offense abounds. yourself the
sinner. But we thought we were only striving
with a brother or sister. Why is it we separate? We were
talking about this at dinner. Why do we separate what God teaches
from things we do every day? We're talking about everyday
stuff here now. We thought we were just striving
with a person. We just thought we were striving
with a brother or sister. And God makes you know, no, you're
striving against God. That's so. He makes us see we're the adulterous
sinning against Christ, our husband, that what the true issue is is
we're discontented with Christ, our husband. And when we're discontented,
that's the issue. And here's the good news. Here's
the good news, and this is such good news. He always wins. He always wins. He gives more
grace, He resists our proud flesh, and He gives grace and renews
us inwardly so that we don't have a rebuttal. We can't continue
warring against Him. He brings us to be reconciled
to Him. He brings us to put down our
weapons and shuts our mouth. He does it by giving more grace.
Listen, but He giveth more grace Listen, what is that word, he
giveth more grace? He does keep giving you more
and more and more and more grace, but where your sins abounded,
he gives you grace that abounds much more over your sin. That's
what Paul said in Romans 5.20, the law entered that the offense
might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. that a sin hath reigned unto
death. It's been reigning over you, brought you into captivity.
Even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. There we are in captivity, we
can't free ourselves, we're just bitter, we're full of envy and
strife, and it's not of the Lord. We saw that in chapter 3, and
there we are. But God gives grace in our new
man that much more abounds over our sinful man. And he makes
us see our sins and he brings us to cry out what Paul said
in Romans 7. He really truly, when he does
this, if he blesses this word to anybody's heart tonight, and
you need to hear this and he's making you hear this. He gave
it to me for some reason. Somebody needs to hear it. and
he's gonna say, he's gonna bring you to the place where you're
going to say, oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver
me from this body of death? It's not gonna come out in them
exact words, but that's the gist of it. You're gonna hit your
face and just beg God, please save me from me. Please save
me from me. I can't do this, I am a wretched,
miserable, I am just wretched, Lord, save me from me. I'm telling
you something I know. I've cried it many times, still
cry it. But He's going to renew that
inward man. Christ is that life reigning in our inward man. He's
the life that's reigning through grace. He's the righteousness
reigning He's going to renew us inwardly to see God's grace
has not changed toward us. We've sinned. He's going to make
you see you've sinned. You have sinned. And He's going
to make you think, I can't possibly be a child of God, but He's going
to make you know, no, my grace hasn't changed toward you. You're
still mine. I didn't love you because of
anything in you. I didn't show you my favor in the beginning
because of something in you. I called you because I loved
you. I called you and chose you and made you mine because I would.
The reason my grace doesn't change is because my grace is in Christ.
He's looking to Christ. He's trusting his son. His son
is our righteousness. His son is our advocate. His
son is our propitiation. And everything He's doing for
us is for the sake of His Son. It's because His Son already
come and put our sin away. His Son already entered into
glory, and we're seated there with Him in glory. And He's gonna
come, and through this process is so needful, because He's making
us see over and over, brethren, that we can't trust us. There's
nothing good in us to trust. And He brings you to see again
Christ is all. Absolutely everything you need.
And oh, it endears your heart to Christ. It makes you see Him
as your life and your righteousness and your strength and your provider. Because there you were. You just
lost sight of Him. And you just started thinking
you just had an issue with this person and an issue with this
this problem and this thing you wanted or this ambitious goal
you had and you didn't see you were departing from Christ and
if you would have just been left alone you would have completely
left him and he wouldn't let you and he brings you to see oh I was this close to stepping
off a cliff I was this close to to plunging myself in an endless
sea. I was this close to drowning
and being cut off. If it had been left up to me,
that's what would have happened. But Christ came and He kept me
and He showed me. He resisted my proud man and
at the same time renewed my inward man and made me see Him that
He's right there with me, helping me and saving me and providing
for me. And brethren, He does this again and again and again
in His people. Now, we saw the cause is our
sinful flesh. We've seen the cure is Christ. He comes and He works this and
He saves us. Now I want you to hear the commandment.
Now when he does this, if we just preach this and I just gave
you these commandments and I didn't preach to you this gospel, it
would be nothing but a work that you think you could do and you'd
go about doing it and you'd end up proud and it wouldn't help
you at all. But when he works what I'm telling
you in your heart, And he speaks his commandment of faith to you,
verse 7. He says, we can fix and look
here at just a list of commandments, a list of precepts, exhortation,
whatever you want to call them. These are what he's going to
bring his child to do. And he says to you in verse 7,
submit yourselves therefore to God. And I'm telling you something,
God's grace humbles. God's grace makes us contrite.
When he does this work, he gonna bring us down to Christ's feet.
What does the script say? We're made willing in the day
of his power. And you don't have the power
and the willingness until he speaks this. But when he showed
you and resisted your proud man and renewed your inward man and
he says to you, submit yourself to God, you gonna bow down. You're
going to bow down. You're going to hit your face
and you're going to beg God, be merciful to me the sinner. And then by him bringing you
to submit to Christ, this is how we do these other things.
Right here. Resist the devil and he will
flee from you. Peter said resist him steadfast
in the faith. All Peter was trying to resist
him in the power of his strength when he pulled that sword, cut
that soldier's ear off. He was going to prove to the
Lord, I won't forsake you. No, that's not how you resist
the devil. That devil was having a hay day with him. You resist
the devil by submitting to Christ and trusting Christ to save you.
Looking to Him alone. Draw nigh to God and He will
draw nigh to you. He makes you draw nigh. He works
this work I just told you and He makes you willing to draw
nigh to Him. And when you do, He draws nigh
to you. He draws nigh to you. It's by
Him that the devil will flee from you. That's when He draws
you and makes you willing to draw nigh to Him. He'll draw
near to you. That's what's going to make the devil flee. Cleanse
your hands, you sinners. That means let go of the strife
and the bitterness. Wash your hands of it. How do
I do that? In the blood of Christ. Come
and just immerse yourself in this word and this gospel in
Christ and trust Him and believe Him. And literally let go of
whatever it is. Just let it go. Now I can't make
you do that. You can't make you do that. But
when he works this work and he speaks this word affectionately,
he'll cleanse your hand. He'll cleanse your hand. He'll
make you let go of whatever it is, the strife and the bitterness.
He says, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. You were trying
to partly look to Christ and partly try to strive after your
lust and strive with whoever or whatever, but he set your
affection. Your heart and your mind single
on Christ. He turns you and sets you on
Him. And then He says to you, now purify your hearts, you double-minded. That's how your heart's purified.
It's by Him turning you and setting your affection on Him. We don't
give these commandments separate from declaring God's work and
how He works this in us. Because otherwise, we just be
preaching works. And no man can do that. This is what he's going to do.
Look, be afflicted and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be
turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. That's not you
putting on a show of weeping and like you're heavy and all
that stuff. No, when he does it, you're going
to be afflicted and you're going to mourn and you're going to
weep. It's an afflicting work we're talking about here. It's
going to make you mourn. It's going to make you weep. You're going
to be in heaviness. But when He brings you there,
He brings you to verse 10. Humble yourselves in the sight
of the Lord. You come down. He just knocks
the winds out of your sails. And you're not so proud and arrogant
and going to have your way. He just brings you down. But
when He does that, now, He shall lift you up. See that? And He
shall lift you up. Remember, see here's the problem
with our striving and our proud, we're trying to exalt ourselves
in our time, in our way, by the strength of our hand. That's
what we're trying to do. We're gonna make somebody do what we
want them to do and most of our, what we say and what we do in
those situations is we're trying to get the effect we want. We're
trying to get out of somebody else what we want out of them. Peter said, you submit yourselves
to one another. He learned this. Peter went through
all this with his trial. He said, submit yourselves to
one another. See, when you submit yourself
to one another, he said, you're submitting yourself under the
mighty hand of God. When you submit under the mighty
hand of God, you'll be able to submit to one another. because
you're trusting the mighty hand of God. He's ruling your brother,
your sister, whoever it is. You're trusting the mighty hand
of God, and you're submitting as unto the Lord. You're submitting
to that brother or sister, but you're submitting as unto the
Lord. You're trusting the mighty hand of God. That's what Peter
said. Casting all your care on Him. that He may exalt you in
due time. That's what He says here. Humble
yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up
in His time. What He's doing is when we're
trying to try to lift ourselves in all our striving, He's gonna
resist that and bring you down to His feet, strengthen you in
that inner man with a broken and contrite heart, and you're
gonna submit to Him, you're gonna submit to one another, you're
just gonna trust the Lord. And then He's going to lift you
up. He's going to lift you up in the heart. He's going to make
you behold Christ and how you're seated. That's how He's going
to lift you up. He's going to make you say, I'm not even right
here. I'm right there. I'm at God's
right hand. I'm already risen. I'm already
exalted in Christ. I'm sitting there with Him. And
He's ruling everything. He's doing everything in this
world for me. And I know it now because He
just did something for me. He resisted me. And He brought
me down and then He renewed me and lifted me up to see Him.
And I see His power to save now. And here's the next thing. He's
not only going to make you do this to Him, He's going to make
you do this to your brethren. You're not only gonna be brought
to love the Lord, you're gonna be brought to love your brethren.
Submit to the Lord and submit to your brethren. Verse 11. Speak
not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his
brethren, judges his brethren, speaks evil of the law, and judges
the law. But if you're a judge, if thou
judge the law, you're not a doer of the law, you're a judge. Now
there's one parallel verse I'm gonna give you that sums up what
he's saying here. Romans 2.1. Thou art inexcusable,
inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judges, for wherein
thou judgest another, where you lay the blame on somebody and
condemn them, you're condemning yourself, because thou that judgest
doest the same thing. You know, when we're in this
place driving, it's always the other person's fault. We're blaming
somebody else. We're condemning somebody else.
It's always their fault. And the Lord says, Now, everything
you're blaming them for, you're the guilty one. You're guilty
of it. You're guilty of it. But by saving
us out of this captivity and bringing us to submit to the
Lord and seeing Christ and what He's done for us, He makes us
know again, Christ is able to save. He just saved me out of
this. And He makes you submit and trust
your brother to Christ. Verse 12. He makes you know there's
one lawgiver who's able to save and destroy, and who are you
to judge another? I'll give you another parallel
verse. It's Romans 14, 4. Who art thou that judges another
man's servant? To his own master he standeth
or falleth. He makes you remember that brother
or sister, he's not my master, I'm not his master. Christ is,
and he said, yea, he shall be holding up for God's able to
make him stand. And you know how you know that?
When he worked this work, because he just made you stand. When
you were dead out falling and running straight away from him,
and he resisted your proud man and renewed you and made you
stand, and now you know, I can just trust my brother to Christ.
I don't have, look, I can't make this Word have any effect in
you. I can't make you come here. I
can't make you hear it. I can't make it bring fruit in
you. I can't do that. But the Lord
has shown me by doing it to me and in me and not letting me
have my way of my sinful flesh. He showed me He can do it. And
so I trust you to Him. I wasn't trying to draw you here.
I want to see brethren come, but I can't draw you here. He
drew you here. And if people run away, I don't want to see
them go, but I can't make them come back. It won't do me no
good to chase them. But if there is, He'll bring
them. What I'm saying is when He's made you know this work
is all of Him, you're going to stop striving and trying to get
somebody else to do what you want to do. You're going to trust
the Lord and He'll do it. Turn to Psalm 73. I'm going to
end with this. Here's what he brings you to
say. I preached on this down in Danville. We submit. We're content to wait
on him. Because now, he makes you snow
a little bit better. He's able to deliver his people.
He delivered you. And it makes you content with
your husband, with Christ your husband. Because you see, he's
given me everything I need, when I need it, just how I need it.
And you're content. But it makes you see this about
yourself. Psalm 73, verse 21. Thus my heart
was grieved and I was pricked in my reins. So foolish was I
and ignorant. I was as a beast before thee.
Nevertheless, here's what I learned. I'm continually with thee. Thou
hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy
counsel and after will receive me to glory. Oh, whom have I
in heaven but thee? And there's none upon earth that
I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth.
I can't put any confidence in me, but God's the strength of
my heart and my portion forever. For lo, they that are far from
thee shall perish. Thou hast destroyed all them
that go whoring from thee. I know I played the adulterous,
but it's good for me to draw near to God. I put my trust in
the Lord God that I may declare all thy works. That's where he's
going to bring you. And when he does that for you,
you can go telling people, let me tell you what he did. Let
me tell you what he did. All right, Brother Greg.