But He Giveth More Grace

[Posted by permission. Chippenham Old Baptist Chapel.]

Prayer Meeting Address given at Old Baptist Chapel, Chippenham by Mr. G. D. Buss on Wednesday evening, 31st January 2018 

“But He giveth more grace.”—James 4:6

Martin Luther said that the Epistle of James was the ‘Epistle of Straw.’ In other words, it was not very comfortable to lay down upon. This is true. If you read this epistle from beginning to end, it has some very sharp and pointed things to say about man’s fallen nature, and about those dispositions that fallen nature displays. And, there is not a child of God who is awake to the things of God but will read through the Epistle of James and find those things that condemn and convince him or her of sin. That does not mean we should not read it; it is all the more reason we should read it. “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.”

In the previous verses to the words I have read, James gives an accurate description of fallen nature in its worst state. We will read the first five verses together. “From whence come wars and fightings among you?” (The margin reading is ‘brawlings’). “Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and 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, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. 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 ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?”

In these five verses, James, by the Holy Ghost, uncovers the deep root of the fallen nature that is in us each. That fallen nature may not have shown all its true colours in your life (and God grant that it may not). But the root of it is there. And, unless God permits, dear friend, you will find you are no different and no better to the picture that James has painted of fallen nature.

Now, if we were writing the Epistle of James in our own natural wisdom, what would we have written next, after those five verses? I think we would 1 have thought that condemnation, hell and damnation would surely be the next deserved words to write. But, no. We have these five words:

“But,” despite what has gone before, despite the truth of what James has said about fallen nature; there is a remedy. And the mercy is, dear friends, that what God shows His dear people of what they are by nature, they have to prove more and more as they go on in the way of faith and grace that there is a remedy. It is in our text this evening: more grace.”

“But He giveth more grace.” 

Friends, if God did not give more grace, we would be left to the dictates of the fallen nature within us; we would be hastening on the broad road “that leadeth to destruction.”

I want, with God’s help, to bring before you just five points out of the five words we have before us. I hope they may be an encouragement to one and another here who, perhaps, have been mourning over what they are by nature; those who, perhaps, stand aghast at what is sometimes revealed as the Holy Ghost searches the nooks and the crannies of their heart, mind and soul, and say with the good hymnwriter:

“Can ever God dwell here?”

Can He? “But He giveth more grace.”

J. Hart

The first thing we have is what we would call a divine intervention. That little word, ‘but,’ is the hand of sovereign grace stretched out against this torrent of the fallen nature, in saying: “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed.” God Himself, sovereignly, effectually, powerfully and determinedly sends a decree from His throne: “But He giveth more grace.” A divine intervention. My dear friends, that is what is needed, isn’t it? You may have tried to intervene with your vows and resolutions. You may have promised that you would reform, modify, adapt and amend what you are by nature; all to no avail. Others may have advised you, condemned you, and counselled you as to how to overcome this, that and the other, but still all to no avail. Friend, there is only one arm that can do it. There is only one hand that can conquer. That is the divine arm and the divine hand in our text. “But He giveth more grace.” The wonder of it is that when that hand is put forth, it matters not how busy the devil has been and what havoc he has made in the life of that sinner up to that point. What is displayed more and more by the Spirit’s uncovering of what we are by nature: the “But He giveth length, the breadth, the depth and the height of it, is not hindered by this blessed word: “But He giveth more grace.” What is needed, friends, is a divine intervention. Nothing less will do. “But He giveth more grace.”

The second thing we have before us this evening is a divine source: “He.” “He” is spoken of in another place as “the God of all grace.” Think of that word, “He.” Only two letters, but how vast it is! It comprises of each of the three Persons of the glorious Trinity. We read of the covenant of grace. The covenant of works is trampled underfoot by the first five verses here. It lays in ruins! Not because God is weak, not because God has failed. But man has failed. Man has broken that covenant again and again.

However, the covenant of grace, blessed be God, entered into between the three Persons of the glorious Trinity, is everlasting in its source and everlasting in its purpose. It cannot be broken. As David said as he lay dying, it is a covenant “ordered in all things, and sure.” There are no weak links in it. The weak link is, that man is solemnly, awesomely, dreadfully weak because of his love of sin. Yet that solemn part has been taken up by the God-Man, Christ Jesus. In the covenant of grace, the Lord Jesus Christ has taken up the part that man could not accomplish for himself. So, we bless God the Father for appointing His dear Son to be the One in whom should dwell the fulness of grace, and we bless the dear Son of God for being willing to be that fulness of grace and that He should come into this sin-cursed earth, as we read in John 1: “And of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.” And we bless the Holy Spirit who makes known these things and conveys this grace into the hearts of poor sinners. And it comes through the shedding of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is why in the benediction it is spoken of as the “grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Yes, it is the grace of God the Father; it is the grace of God the Holy Spirit. But it is especially spoken of as the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ because He is the channel of mercy. He is the channel of grace.

“’Twas Jesus, my Friend, when 

He hung on the tree, 

Who opened the channel of mercy for me.”

J. Stocker

So said one good man who knew what this word “but” meant. God had intervened in that good hymnwriter’s life. He had plucked him as a brand from the burning. He had given him the grace in our text, and he knew where it came from: from above, from the dear Saviour.

“Every grace and every favour

Comes to us through Jesus’ (precious) blood.”

J Hart

“But He;” this great God the Father, in sending the Son. “He;” God the Son; willingly, lovingly and tenderly coming. And “He;” the blessed Spirit, who takes of the things of Jesus and reveals them unto poor sinners. “But He giveth more grace.”

There is an inexhaustible fulness here. Although sinners from the day of Adam have been drawing from this well of salvation, it is still as full as it ever was. It is not in the least diminished by all the hundreds and thousands and millions of sinners who come to its rich fountain and find it to be full and free. And, it is still open, friend. The door is not shut. The river is still running freely for needy sinners, even this evening hour. Sinners who mourn over what they are, as James describes in those previous verses. “But He.” He is still willing, still able and still ready to give more grace.

Thirdly, we have a divine donation. “He giveth.” In this world in which we live, if something is free, it is almost certainly cheap. But grace is free for the very opposite reason. Firstly, it is because no earthly currency could ever purchase it. We read in the Song of Solomon: “If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.” You cannot purchase love that way. And, you cannot purchase grace that way, either. Friends, it is a free gift. It is:

“Free grace to such as sinners be.”

C. Cole

If only we could realise this more! Some of you dear saints (you are saints while you are seeking), if only you could realise the blessing of the word, ‘free’! It is not free-will. God forbid you should think that. Your own wretched will is a plague. It is free grace. It is for:

“The vilest sinner out of hell, Who lives to feel his need.”

W. Gadsby.

So, we may come empty, we may come poor, we may come bankrupt and we may come lost and ruined, feelingly, in the fall. And it is for that character for whom this blessed, divine donation is made. “He giveth.”

The second reason why it is given is because, dear friend, it has been purchased. It was purchased by the dear Son of God by the shedding of His precious blood. “He giveth.” “He giveth more grace.” Think how willingly the dear Saviour hung on that cross! Think how willingly, in all the insurmountable sorrows that surrounded Him, those intolerable agonies and conflicts that we have only the slightest hint of; He hung on that cross until the fountain of grace was fully opened for poor sinners. When the soldier “pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water,” there was blood to atone and water to cleanse. It is as if the dear Son of God, now having laid down “His life a ransom for many,” says: ‘Here is the stream. I am that smitten Rock.’ Moses smote “the rock and the waters gushed out.” Force! Power! And so, my dear friends, this river, I say it most reverently, freely gushes out with divine power to poor sinners. It is that power that you need to soften your heart and melt your spirit; that power to subdue what you are by nature, that power to resist the devil and that power to be overcomers. “But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” And, the wonderful thing about grace is this:

“And when we are wounded by sin, 

And scarcely a prayer can repeat,

The mercy (or grace, we might say) that heals us again, 

Is mercy transportingly sweet.”

R. Burnham

Grace reaches that poor, repeating sinner. Not that he should be a repeating sinner; it is to our shame that we are. But, blessed be God, grace goes so deep, as it were, in its work. It freely heals backsliding sinners. And, when a backslider is healed, how humbled he is! To think that God should turn again to this poor wretch, this rebel of a man who is plagued with sin and hampered with temptation; completely unable to bring himself out of the snare into which he had walked! To think the Lord should come to that man fallen among thieves! He was robbed of his comforts and robbed of his profession. It seemed he was robbed of anything he had spiritually, as it were. The poor man was half dead. But the Lord restored him by His free restoring grace, all because “He giveth.” Were it not free there would be no restoration and no recovery. Is there a poor sinner here needing recovering tonight? Here is a word for you. “But He giveth more grace.”

The fourth word in our text is a very wonderful word. “More.” There are many aspects to it. First of all, it is more than you can measure. You cannot measure grace. It is that river that Ezekiel saw that was so wide he could not swim over it. That is the river of grace. It is more than all our sins. It is more than all our temptations. It is more than all our wants and needs that could ever be. More! What a word that is! It is more than you can ever repay. You will always be a debtor to grace, child of God. You will never outlive this debt. Eternity itself will not repay the debt that is in this blessed word, grace. No. More grace than you can ever repay!

Thirdly, it is more than you deserve. An atom of grace is more than we deserve. Think of that solemn character in the parable with the rich man and Lazarus. He wanted one drop of water to touch his parched tongue in that lost eternity. But it was denied him. There was no grace there! But there is grace this side of the grave. There is grace for the thirsty. There is grace for that longing soul, bless God for that. It is more than you deserve. And, it is more than you expect. We sing in one of our little hymns:

“To praying souls, He always grants 

More than they can express.”

J. Newton

It is always more. And so it is; when you get a fresh touch, or your first touch. Words fail you. You cannot describe it. That God should be so gracious to such a wretch as you! “More grace.”

“More grace” in this respect: there is always more to follow. Wherever the Lord has given grace, there is always more to follow. My late grandfather, when he was pastor at Bethersden in the time of the great depression, lived off the collection which was taken at the door. At that time the collections were very small. And, although he had a reasonable congregation, they were very poor, like him. He had a job to make ends meet. So much so, that when he wrote a letter, he had to leave it on the mantelpiece until he had enough money to buy a stamp to send it; that is how poor he was. One day an envelope was pushed through his door. In it was a ten-shilling note. In those days, a ten-shilling note was worth a lot. There was a little note with it: ‘More to follow.’ And all that while he was in that need, every so often a ten-shilling note would anonymously be put through his door. ‘More to follow.’ Well, that is a faint hint, my dear friends. There is more to follow. You have not outstripped grace; you have not run it dry. The Lord says: ‘I know you are a wretched sinner. I know you are unworthy. I know all about that.’ But, still: “He giveth more grace.”

“But He giveth more grace.” What about this short, expressive word, grace? As I pondered this, it seemed to me that it could be summed up in this way. It is what the Lord said to Moses in the cleft of the rock: “I will make all My goodness pass before thee.” That is what grace is. It is God’s goodness. You read in Psalm 23: “My cup runneth over.” That is the cup of God’s goodness running over, as it were. I say it most reverently: it is overflowing from a Triune God and coming down, down, down to the needs of these poor unworthy, needy sinners. “He giveth more grace.”

“Thy goodness how immense

To those that fear Thy name!

Thy love surpasses thought or sense, 

And always is the same.

Thy judgments are too deep 

For reason’s line to sound.

Thy tender mercies to Thy sheep 

No bottom know, nor bound.

J. Hart

“But He giveth more grace.” What grace do you feel to need tonight? I quite expect if we went around this little congregation quite a spectrum of grace would be felt to be needed. Grace to pardon sin, grace to subdue sin, grace to soften a hard, unfeeling heart, grace to bring you near in your soul to the very foot of the cross, grace for your day, grace to be patient, grace to be humble, grace to be upright, grace to hold on your way and grace not to give way to that wretched opposer of grace; unbelief. Oh, what need there is of grace, isn’t there? Grace to live and grace to die, we will need that. But friends, when we draw our last breath, grace will have done its work and will land us safe in glory. A blessed thought, isn’t it? “The LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.”

‘Oh, but that is the very thing I don’t do!’ you say. No, and you cannot, without grace. That is quite true. None of us can. Yet, with grace the fear of the Lord is in evidence, and there is an upright walk, although there is many a conflict and many a battle.

“He sees me often overcome,

And pities my distress;

And bids affliction drive me home, 

To anchor on His grace.”

T. Greene

And, it is His grace. We make a big mistake here. We keep looking for our grace, and we fail. We look within, and we don’t find our grace. We find anything but. We are destitute. Friends, it is His grace. In other words, we must come as empty, emptied vessels to receive grace. Yes. “Therefore, with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.” “But He giveth more grace.”

The final point we could say is this. Wherever grace is in evidence, it brings humility. You cannot separate the two. This is an essential part of the work of grace: it humbles. “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.” Is that, dear friends, why you and I seem to lack grace so much? Are we among the proud? Oh, the wretched pride of man’s heart! We have no reason to be proud, have we? None whatsoever! Yet, that great ‘I,’ as the Puritans used to say, rises up in us. It is there! I understand my late predecessor, Mr Carr, was a very meek man. But it was said that if you trod on his toes, you would know it. And we may think we are very meek and of a pleasant disposition, perhaps. But, if someone treads on your toes, something rises up within you, doesn’t it? Self-justification! Pride! What is needed then? Grace. It is grace that humbles. Grace puts us where we ought to be; among the chief of sinners. It is grace that brings us to the point of our text: “But He giveth more grace.” It is grace for grace. Grace that humbles brings us to more grace that we may be humbled yet more under the wonder of it all. ‘Why me, Lord? Why should grace be bestowed to such a wretch as me?

“Why me, why me, O blessed God, 

Why such a wretch as me?

Who must for ever lie in hell, 

Were not salvation free.”

D. Herbert

But it is free. It is free to the vilest, blackest wretch that lives to feel his need. Oh, that the Holy Ghost might reveal that to you tonight! Oh, that each one of us might know what James rejoiced in here! You can be sure the dear man was writing from his own experience; what he had tasted, handled and felt of the Word of Life. He knew he needed more grace. Do you know it?

Amen