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By James Barnes
[Editor's Note: This is part two of a two-part article by Dr. James Barnes]
VI. v.9 Be afflicted. What does that word mean? It means to feel wretched, to feel absolutely totally miserable. That is the feeling that follows the true estimate of one's sinfulness. I mean you have to feel bad before you can feel good. It is a shame over your sins.
VII. v.9 and mourn. Mourn over what? Mourning over your sinfulness. It speaks of a broken spirit. It speaks of this self-contained grief that makes ones heart ache. One writer said, "To repent is to accuse and condemn ourselves. To charge upon ourselves the dessert of hell. To take part with God against ourselves and to justify Him in all that he does against us. It is to repent or be ashamed of our sins. It is to ever have them before our eyes and at all times in our hearts so that we may daily sorrow for them. To repent then is to depart from those pleasurable sins that have been dear to us all our lives." So a Christian isn't someone who just signs on a dotted line or makes some emotional response to the gospel, it is someone who is overwhelmed with a sense of misery due to their sinfulness and their inner spirit is in deep lament and grief.
VIII. Weep Misery is a recognition of the state. Mourning is how the spirit responds. Weeping is how the body responds. What did Peter do when he had just betrayed Crist? Mark 14:72 says he went out and wept bitterly. Tears are the outwards evidence of brokenness over sin. Tears are the way penitence is very often released. Tears are a gift from God to release the aching heart. One writer said, "There is a tear that spots the cheek and speaks more than any tongue can speak in words without a name that tells of many a pang within, of many a foul and deadly sin, it is the tear of shame."
IX. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. He is speaking to those people that are living it up in the world, those people who are friends of the world, those people whose wisdom comes not from above, those good-time partygoers who are laughing and having a good time. The word laughter indicates the leisurely laughter of men indulging in their desires and pleasures. It is the laughter of fools who reject God. It is the silly laughter of a pleasure-loving gang of people indulging themselves up to their proverbial ears in the things of the world. It pictures people who give no thought to God, no thought to life, death, sin, judgment, or holiness. James says stop that! Stop getting caught up in the music and the parties of the world and turn your laughter into mourning. Why? Because you see your sin. Be like the publican in Luke 18 who would not even turn to lift his face toward heaven but bowed his head, looked down and cried, God be merciful to me a sinner. Jesus said that man went home justified. Why? Because he had turned his laughter into mourning and his joy became heaviness because he was overwhelmed with his own sin.
X. Humble yourselves in the sight of God and he will lift you up. He will save you with his grace. The word humble means to make yourself low, to voluntarily put yourself down in the sight of the lord. This consciousness of his presence, that he is watching. The holy, perfect, great and mighty God who is so pure sees your sin. We must be like Isaiah who in seeing God cursed himself and said I am a man with a dirty mouth and I dwell among people with dirty mouths. When you come to that kind of brokenness, God will lift you up. What does he lift you up to? To the dominion of God, to the dwelling place of Christ. He raises us up together and seats us in the heavenlies. Doesn't mean he will immediately take you to the actual heaven yet, but he will put you in his kingdom and all through the ages he will pour out his grace richly through kindness to us. George Whitefield, a great evangelist wrote, "Every man by his own natural will hates God, but when he is turned to God by repentance, then his will is changed. Then his conscience, now hardened and benumbed, shall be quickened and weakened. Then his heart shall be melted and his unruly affections shall be crucified, thus by that repentance the whole soul shall be changed, he shall have new inclinations, new desires and new habits." What is James' message? It is a message to submit yourself to God, to take a stand against the devil and he will flee from you, to draw near to God and he will draw near to you, to cleanse your hands, to purify your hearts, to be afflicted or be miserable, to mourn, to weep, to let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to grief, and to humble yourself in the sight of God and he will lift you up.
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Dr. James Barnes has pastored the White Memorial Church in Milroy for 25 years. The church is located on 68 S. Main St., Milroy.