Click here to view the entire service
Most of you have been through a car wash. The brushes spin and detergent sprays and your vehicle comes out fairly clean. Sunday morning is kind of like a spiritual “soul wash.” Jesus said in Ephesians 5:26 we are sanctified or cleansed by “the washing of water with the Word.” That’s what is happening as we preach God’s word expositionally, going through the Bible verse by verse, applying God’s Word to our lives. Paul put it like this in Colossians 1:28, “We proclaim Him [Christ], admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.”
Martyn Lloyd-Jones said the ultimate goal in preaching is to prepare God’s people to give a good account at the judgment seat of Christ. In 2 Timothy 4:1-2 Paul told Timothy to preach the Word in view of Christ’s return and coming judgment. We are confident that God works powerfully through His Word and does His sanctifying work in the hearts of His people.
This is what James is all about. James writes under the inspiration of the Spirit tells us to divorce from our love affair with the world and calls us back to a loving, obedient walk with God. This morning you may be torn between two lovers, the world and your God, but James says it’s time to repent and come back to God. That’s what God’s greater grace enables us to do. Romans 5:20 says where sin abounds, grace super abounds. Regardless of our messed up lives, God has more grace than we have sin. God’s grace is sovereign and overcomes sin in our lives. And God’s greater, super abounding grace always leads to true repentance in the lives of those He has chosen and predestined to become like His Son.
Last week we looked at the first three marks of true repentance. (1) Submit to God. He wants to rule your heart. Come back under God’s authority. (2) Take a firm stand against your enemy the devil. Resist him. He hates everything about God in you and you need to be aware of his schemes to drag you away from Christ or steal God’s Word out of your heart. (3) Get as close to God as you can. Draw near to God and He’ll draw near to you. God does not reject those who draw near to Him through Jesus Christ. Check out these four Old Testament promises.
- Psalm 34:18, The LORD is near to the brokenhearted, And saves those who are crushed in spirit.
- Psalm 51:17, The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
- Isaiah 57:15, For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite.”
- Isaiah 66:2, “For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being,” declares the LORD. “But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.
So now let us move on to the last four marks of repentance given in this passage.
#4 DEAL RADICALLY WITH SIN IN YOUR LIFE
James 4:8b, Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
James calls us “sinners.” He wants us to see what we are, to wake us up, or as one author put it, “to startle and sting” us (ATR). He may be talking to lost people here; he doesn’t assume all in the assembly are true born again believers. But believers need to hear this too. James doesn’t sugarcoat the message and neither should we. One of the great problems in churches is a light or almost non-existent view that sin is always an attack on God. James says your hands are dirty with the stains and spots of the world and your heart is all divided. You say you love Jesus and sing, “Oh how I love Jesus” on Sundays, but on Mondays you’re living just like the world with the same old nasty attitudes and words. If you’re coming into God’s presence, you need clean hands and a pure heart, which only Christ can give you. Psalm 24:4 gives us the standard for coming into God’s presence.
Psalm 24:3-4, Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? And who may stand in His holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood And has not sworn deceitfully.
Cleanse your hands means to take full responsibility for what you’ve done and what you are doing. Bring those hands to God, to the blood of Christ that cleanses from all sin (1 John 1:7). This is absolutely essential in coming to God. Nothing holds you back from God but your own sin and stubborn willfulness. God is very clear and very direct here. You have sin on your hands and you need God to wash you clean. Sin means missing the mark of God’s glory, of His sinlessness, of His holiness. Don’t blame others; you aren’t a victim when it comes to sin. No one makes you sin. You sin by nature. You are guilty because you are a descendant of Adam. You are guilty of original sin, “by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned” (Romans 5:12). You are also guilty because you personally sin. Coming back to God means hating sin, resisting it, fleeing it. You need to be radical about it. The priests had to wash their hands in the laver between the tent of meeting and the altar before they could present sacrifices, lest they die (Exodus 30:21). You can’t draw near to God hiding pornography on your hard drive or repeating second hand news. James is warning, “Don’t play games with God.”
Purify your hearts. James goes from our hands, things we do physically, to our hearts, thoughts and attitudes. Purify means to be single-minded. A pure heart focuses on pleasing God. You aren’t torn between God and the world. You have one love. When you play baseball, you must keep your head in the game. I remember playing right field in Little League. One day my heart just wasn’t in it and I was more interested in what was going on in the field behind me. During one of those glances toward the other game, I was rudely awakened by teammates yelling at me as a ball came flying out right at me and actually hit my hand! I was double-minded. I neglected the many times the coaches told us to “Keep your eye on the ball.” James tells us to stay focused on God. Keep your heart pure. Don’t be double-minded.
Joshua and Elijah dealt with double-minded people. Joshua charged God’s people in Joshua 24:15, “Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve.” Are you going to serve the Lord or foreign gods? Then he said, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Remember Elijah on Mt. Carmel in 1 Kings 18? He challenged the people in verse 21, “If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” They didn’t answer a word! Israel was constantly falling into idolatry and double-mindedness by trying to serve God and the gods of the nations. The point is that God is Lord, the one and only God Almighty. Purify your heart to live completely and radically for Him. Jesus rebuked the Laodiceans in Rev. 3:16, “You’re neither hot nor cold. You’re lukewarm. I’m going to spit you out of my mouth.” Proverbs 3:6 says acknowledge the Lord in all your ways, set your heart on pleasing Him, and He’ll direct your path.
Psalms 86:11, Teach me Your way, O LORD; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name.
Unite in this verse means “direct all its powers and concentrate them on one thing.” This is what James is talking about. True repentance means not just dealing with your behavior, but also with your heart. The hymn says, “Break down every idol, cast out every foe.” Radically renew your heart with single-minded devotion to God.
#5 GRIEVE OVER HOW YOUR SIN HAS OFFENDED YOUR GOD
James 4:9a, Be miserable and mourn and weep…
The intensity of these commands is startling, intended to shake these double-minded believers. “Be miserable” is to have a deep inner sense of shame or wretchedness that leads to mourning and weeping. This was the feeling of that tax collector who couldn’t even lift his eyes to heaven and pled for God’s mercy. Mourning indicates a grief with such an outward intensity that it cannot be concealed. “Weep” points to the gushing of tears, the visible sign of being crushed and broken in pieces because of sin and guilt. The prostitute’s tears gushed from her forgiven heart onto Jesus’ feet. Just after Peter denied his Lord the rooster crowed and the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter went out and wept bitterly (Luke 22:61-62).
What should bring your hearts to this state of deepest sorrow? Sorrow comes when you realize you have sinned and betrayed your loving God who means only good for you. Imagine being unfaithful to your wife and then coming to your senses and realizing how faithful and forgiving and loving she has been to you. You are stabbed to the heart at what an ungrateful wretch you’ve been. So it is with God. Your heart breaks when you see your sin as a rejection and betrayal of your loving God and how wicked and selfish and obnoxious you’ve been to blatantly deny and attack Him for your own selfish pleasure or lust or desire. You are a miserable lout face to face with the infinite, pure goodness of God, and you kick yourself. David cried out, “Against You, You only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight”(Psalm 51:4). Every sinful thought or deed is first and foremost an attack on the character of God Himself.
I witnessed this outpouring of repentant tears years ago. A couple was attending a liberal church and knew something was wrong. One Sunday they drove into the parking lot of our church but left again. The next Sunday they returned and came in. They left a guest card, so that week I called to see if I could visit them. The husband tried to discourage me saying that they lived way out in the country at the end of a long lane that crossed an upside down bridge. Plus it had snowed about two inches. I said, “Hey, no problem, I love driving in the snow!” So I went out and they welcomed me into their lovely log home. I was just beginning to present the gospel when the husband’s heart melted and though he was a big, burly guy, tears rolled down his manly cheeks and he received Christ that night. I’m still friends with him on Facebook and he and his wife are still living for the Lord. One of his posts this week was a sign that read, “There is .0296% chance your child will become a professional athlete. There is a 100% chance your children will stand before Jesus. Get them to church. Mark 9:42” From his other posts, I can assure you he’s not “woke.”
You say, “I’ve never shed gushing tears like that.” But as Thomas Watson says, “It isn’t so much the weeping eye God respects as the broken heart.” And sometimes tears are not more than emotional tears of the moment. Jonathan Edwards saw many people in his church break down emotionally, weeping and carrying on during some of the revivals in his church, but he grieved that a number shortly went back to their arguing, nasty ways, with no continuing evidence of regeneration.
Paul points out in 2 Corinthians 7:9-13 there are two kinds of sorrow. There is a sorrow that leads to salvation, and one that leads to death.
2 Corinthians 7:9-10, I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. 10 For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.
True repentance mourns over how you’ve hurt someone and especially offended God with your sins, and then it takes radical steps to change. And you can’t fake this. That’s what the Pharisees did – making gloomy faces to be noticed by men. I’ve heard preachers pump up tears for effect in the pulpit and a moment later they are just fine. Frankly, it’s disgusting.
The second beatitude says “Blessed are they who mourn; they will be comforted.” James says mourn over sin as you see how it ruins lives, enslaves people, destroys marriages and other relationships. Mourn as you see what sin means to God, how He utterly abhors it. The mourner over sin finds joy as he becomes aware of his guilt and sinfulness and finds a Savior from his sin in Jesus Christ.
#6 SERIOUSLY AIM YOUR LIFE AT PLEASING GOD
James 4:9, Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.
We’ve all heard the world’s scoffing and joking and laughing about “the Man upstairs” or dirty jokes or jokes about hell. The last thing the world wants to do is mourn over sin. Late night “funny boys” on TV thrive on scoffing and mocking sacred things. James is saying this, “The flesh party is over.” It’s time to see your life as a gift from God to be lived for Him. You aren’t here to please yourself with the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. You aren’t here to use God and other people to make your life one big party. Life is serious. There’s an eternity ahead. People, all people, are going to die and spend eternity in one of two places, in heaven or the lake of fire, forever. That’s a sobering reality. I like to laugh. I’m not a very sober person. But when I think about the multitudes of people living their lives oblivious to the fact they are headed to the judgment of God, it’s sobering.
One of Martyn Lloyd-Jones earlier sermons was about “The Wedding Garment” in Matthew 22. All the people at the wedding feast were required to wear a wedding garment, but one man decided he didn’t need to follow those instructions. He didn’t wear a wedding garment. Suddenly the king appeared at the door, looked over the guests, and spied this one man that stood out from the rest. He went to him and said, “Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?” The man was speechless (Matthew 22:12). The servants bound him and cast him into outer darkness where there is “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Don’t play games with God.
True repentance looks at life as it really is, as God sees it. There’s a hell. There’s a heaven. There’s right and wrong defined by the Bible, by God Himself. Each and every person will give account to God. Grieve deeply when you find yourself straying and rebelling against God. When’s the last time you came before God and confessed, maybe with tears, how wrong you’ve been in how you treated your spouse or those kids? Or how you gossiped and slandered someone to your friends? Or kept watching that movie all the while knowing it was defiling your heart and mind? Or set wrong priorities and influenced others to do the same?
There’s great joy in the Christian life. The joy of the Lord is your strength and that joy comes when you are consistently reading God’s Word and obeying what it says. Sin is no laughing matter. The wages of sin haven’t changed – sin brings death! All those worldly jokesters won’t be scoffing and mocking the moment after they die. Life is a serious matter. There’s a time to laugh, and a time to mourn (Eccl. 3:4).
#7 HUMBLY LIVE BEFORE GOD WITH AN OBEDIENT AND GRATEFUL HEART
James 4:10, Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.
This section began with God’s greater grace that moves sinners to humility and submission before God. Now you are humbled before your God, the right place for a redeemed and forgiven sinner. You can sense the joyful relief and pleasure to have completely uncovered your sinfulness before God, and you are clothed with God’s rich pardoning mercy. Instead of running, hiding, covering, and blaming, you are walking in the freedom of a child reconciled to his heavenly Father. As you humble yourself under God’s mighty hand, He will lift you up. You’ll mount up with wings like eagles. Your heart will soar with the joy of knowing God and being united with your God through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Remember that prodigal. When he repented and returned, his father rushed out to embrace him, gave him new sandals and a special robe, put the family ring on his finger, and had a glorious celebration. John MacArthur in his great little book Brave Dad says, “The father had fully restored the young man’s place as his son…. He had been fully forgiven, and reconciliation was immediate and complete.” Luke 15:24, “My son was dead but has come to life. He was lost but now he’s been found.” MacArthur applies it to us.
God’s forgiving grace is lavish. He replaces the sinner’s filthy rags with His own robe of righteousness…. He calls all who dwell in heaven to come and celebrate with Him when a sinner is reconciled. He does this every time a sinner repents.
James concludes with this assurance, “God will exalt you.” Sometimes God does it in this world, but it is a definite that He will highly exalt you in the very near future. Martyn Lloyd-Jones remarks, “You’re going to see God! Do you not agree that this is the biggest, the most momentous, the most tremendous thing that you can ever be told?” Jesus promised in Revelation 3:21, “I’ll grant him to sit down with Me on My throne.” That’s where true repentance takes you.
SO WHAT?
Where’s your heart? That’s what this passage is all about. What does your heart love? Has the Spirit of God pried your fingers off the world and brought you to the feet of the Savior where there is forgiveness and super abounding grace? Come to Jesus. He will cleanse your hands and purify your divided heart. Grieve over your sin. Embrace the serious realities of life and live humbly with your God. He will lift you up, all the way into His eternal kingdom.