Sermon 26-34 Guide Jam4 "Humility Receives Grace"

James 4:6-10 theme verse James 4:6

The praise and honor and glory be to our heavenly Father who seeks true worshipers who worship Him with the Spirit and truth.

On this twenty ninth Sunday of the year 2026, I pray that the grace of the Holy Spirit, who applies to us all the benefits Jesus accomplished for our salvation, and His power to proclaim the good news of the gospel to the whole world, may be full in you. Last week through 1 Peter chapter 4 we meditated on the fact that the grace of God gives us not only the salvation and sanctification, but also the strength to endure suffering and to carry out our calling, yet this week, through James chapter 4, I hope we would like to look at how we can receive this grace of God together.

1)    As its title itself says, the book of James was written around AD 44–48 by James, the brother of Jesus, who served as a leader of the Jerusalem church after Jesus’ death.

I mean, after Jesus’ death, great persecution came upon the Jerusalem church, so that many Jewish Christians fled and were scattered toward the region of Phoenicia, including Tyre and Sidon northwest of Galilee and the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean, and Antioch in Syria. So James wrote this letter to comfort and encourage those Jewish Christians of the diaspora who were wandering and suffering in foreign lands.

Because, even though these Jewish Christians had left Jerusalem to escape persecution and had moved to foreign lands, the situation there wasn’t much different. I mean, there, they still had to suffer persecution from the Jews who had already settled there and from Roman soldiers there, and also their lives were economically very impoverished, which resulted in even quarreling among themselves, due the hardship.

Therefore through this Epistle, since the suffering they were experiencing would ultimately bring about their maturity, James urged them to endure to the end and also that those among them who were wealthy had to care for their poor brothers and sisters, and that especially through prayer, receiving the wisdom that comes from heaven, even in the midst of suffering and persecution, they might discern and obey the will of God to overcome their trials.

2)    Specially in today’s text, James 4:6-10, James says that:

First, in the previous chapter, after he says that there are two kinds of wisdom in this world: I mean, the earthly wisdom and the wisdom that comes from above. And the earthly wisdom that comes from sensual desire and the demon causes jealousy and strife, bringing disorder and every evil practice, while the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality or hypocrisy, so that it produces peace.

And then James says that the reason we fail to obtain this wisdom from above is either because we did not ask for it, or because we asked wrongly, to spend it on our own passions.

Rather he says that God gives greater grace to the humble who submit to God, draw near to Him, and lower themselves before Him and also the Lord will exalt them.

3)    Among today’s text, we would like to look at a few things in details to learn few lessons together. First, what do you think this “wisdom” of today’s text means?

The Bible speaks of various wisdom in several ways. First, as 1 Corinthians 1:30 says, “because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,” it teaches us that the wisdom of God is Jesus Christ Himself, and that this wisdom of God becomes righteousness, holiness, and redemption for us.

And the “Wisdom” also appears in Proverbs 8, where wisdom existed from the very beginning, even present with the LORD God as He created the universe, and also it says wisdom speaks of what is most good, of honesty, truth, and righteousness. For this, the New Testament clearly interprets this wisdom as Jesus Christ in John 1:1-3; 1 Corinthians 1:24, 30; Colossians 2:3, etc.

But in 1 Corinthians 12:8, wisdom is spoken of as one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit; here, the gift of wisdom refers to the ability to correctly know and explain the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, who is the wisdom of God, and also the ability to apply the word of God to real life as Calvin said that the gift of knowledge is the ability to understand the holy word of God, while the gift of wisdom makes the understandings apply to life.

And also wisdom appears in the book of James too which we read today. In James 1:5, this wisdom is spoken of as a spiritual insight that discerns the will of God and enables us to make right decisions in the midst of hardships and trials so that it is a practical wisdom concerning how believers are to respond to the specific situations they face in trial and suffering so that it helps us fully endure the trials of our faith and grow our maturity in this process.

4)    So then, how can we obtain this wisdom?

In James 1:5, James said, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let us ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given us,” and then in the following verse, verse 6, he continued that, “But let us ask in faith, with no doubting.”

And then he tells us, in James 4:2-3, that the reason we fail to obtain wisdom is a) because we did not ask, and also b) because even when we did ask, yet we did not receive, since we ask wrongly, to spend it on our own passions.

In other words, wisdom comes only from above, so that we can obtain it by asking God for it; but we are told that we must ask only in faith, and that if we ask with a wrong motive—such as wanting to spend it on our own passions—we cannot receive it.

5)    And then James continues, in James 3:15 & 17, to say that there are two kinds of wisdom: wisdom that is earthly, and wisdom that comes from above.

The earthly wisdom which comes from the passions and also from demons causes jealousy and strife, and brings about disorder and every evil practice,

but the wisdom from above, I mean, the wisdom of God, is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.

In other words, the wisdom that comes from above makes us pure, and makes us peaceable, gentle, and open to reason toward others so that our lives become full of mercy and good fruits.

Here, “open to reason” can be understood as having a spirit of tolerance, through which we patiently bear with others, as not insisting on one’s own way, and being willing to yield to others.

6)    Now, in today’s text, James says that there are three characteristics of a humble person.

I mean, the humble person who can receive the grace of God, is the person who submits to God, draws near to God, and lower ourselves before God.

To elaborate it more, a humble person submits to God, but resists the devil,

and a humble person draws near to God and God also draws near to him, so that the humble person can enjoy intimate fellowship with God,

and also, because a humble person lowers oneself before God, God not only gives the humble one His grace, that is, His wisdom, but also God will exalt them.

7)    Then since humility makes us receive the grace of God, I think we need to look a little more closely at what humility actually means now.

First, the Greek word translated “humble” in today’s text is ταπεινός (tapeinos), and the Greek lexicon TDNT defines it as, on the basis of self-knowledge, entrusting oneself entirely to the grace of God and becoming like a child again, trusting Him completely, and expecting nothing from oneself.

And also Calvin, in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, says, “if you ask me concerning the precepts of the Christian Religion, first, second, and third, and always I would answer, ‘Humility.’ But, as he elsewhere declares, Augustine does not consider it humility when a man, aware that he has some virtues, abstains from pride and arrogance; but when man truly feels that he has no refuge except in humility.” So “when anyone realizes that in himself he is nothing and from himself he has no help, the weapons within him are broken, the wars are over.”

Therefore humility means confessing and acknowledging one’s own total inability, and wholeheartedly seeking for the grace of God, so that in that sense, only the humble can seek and receive the grace of God, and also that’s why humility becomes both the goal of spiritual growth and the standard of our sanctification.

8)    That is also why Jesus, who is the King of humility, said in Matthew 11:29-30, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls; for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light,” telling us to learn humility, His own character, acknowledging we ourselves can do nothing.

But the problem is that becoming humble is not an easy thing, as even Nietzsche said, “What is heaviest? … Is it not this: to humble ourself in order to injure our pride?”

So then, in order to be humble, the soil of our hearts must first be completely plowed under and turned over through the new birth by God. And second, since our sinful flesh is still alive even after crucifixion, when God caused us to be born again, we are not entirely from the flesh and from the body of sin as long as we are in this life, hence daily sins of weakness arise and blemishes cling to even the best works of the Saints, giving them continual cause to humble themselves before God, and thriving for the grace of Christ to strain toward the goal of perfection by learning the humility of Christ.

That’s why the final goal of our sanctification is precisely the humility which is the character of the Lord and also that’s why the checkpoint by which we can measure how far we have come in the process of sanctification is exactly how humble we have become.

Because it is only when we learn the Lord’s humility in this way, and stand upon the foundation of that humility, the yoke of Christ becomes easy and His burden becomes light (Matthew 11:30) as we fully rely on the power of the Lord.

Therefore, I pray that this year, all of us who have been born again by the Spirit and made into new creations would take up the yoke the Lord has placed upon us, learn humility from the Lord, and by the grace God gives us, obey to God while enjoying intimate fellowship with Him.

Key Questions as Small Group Activity

Q1 Through today’s text, we became to know that humility refers to denying ourselves and depending totally on God in everything. So, after reflecting your life and checking how far your humility has grown, I hope we could share our thoughts and experiences with one another in your small group.

Q2 And also we have learned that the humble person is the one who submits oneself to God, draws near to God, and lowers oneself before God. So, reflecting your life and checking how you are submitting to God, drawing near to Him, and humbling before Him, I hope we could share our thoughts, experiences, and the grace we have received with our team members.

Love you. Thank you. God bless you.

Prayer Note

Dear ( God’s attribute which you found Today ) God!

Thanks for ( something you received through the sermon or  even during the week )

Praise, gratitude and glory be to You, Lord!

Today, I realized my sin (pains) that ( the sin God reminded through the sermon ),

please forgive (or heal) me and help me not to repeat ( the sins you recognized   ).

I learned that ( something you learned through the sermon                                    )

Please help me to live in that (  learned way of life                                                )

I pray in ( Jesus’ attribute you find ) Jesus’ name. Amen.