James’ desire throughout his writings has been to get some important truths across to his fellow Christians regarding what being a Christian entails.
James’s purpose is for professed Christians to test their faith to find out whether it is genuine or false.
James was concerned that the Jewish Christians he was writing to were practicing spiritual adultery by giving their allegiance to an idol…that their attitude towards each other was less than Christ-like…and they were living a double standard lifestyle that resembled more of a worldly one than a Christlike one.
James is encouraging his readers to act like God’s people…he has already accused them of…fighting…quarrelling…and coveting…calling them murderers and adulterers…James’ desire is for those who are true believers to act in accordance with their faith…do your actions mirror the faith that you proclaim?
Christians evidence their faith by the way they live their lives…and for James…a faith that does not produce real life changes is a faith that is worthless.
What they needed to experience was a revival…a restoration of their fellowship with God….so in verses 7-10 of chapter 4 James gives eleven imperatives… meaning commands…that convey a sense of urgency and demand immediate obedience if we are to enter into a true relationship with God.
7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. cleanse your hands…and purify your hearts, you double-
minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and weep. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.11do not speak
against one another…
This morning I want to look at just the first two imperatives.
First thing James says is to (7) Submit to God…in the Greek ‘submit’ is a military term meaning ‘to align oneself under the authority of another’ …like troops arranging themselves in an orderly manner for roll call.
Here’s the problem with that statement…it’s the easy believism idea that I’ve submitted to God because I prayed a prayer and that’s all there is to being a Christian…that’s not submitting to God.
Satan loves it when people think that’s all there is to being a Christian…that’s the very issue James is addressing in this letter…a faith with no substance.
So how do we submit to God?
- We submit to God by knowing and obeying His Word.
At conversion…when we make the decision to trust in Jesus as our Lord and Savior…along with that decision is a commitment that we will be obedient to Him…that we will submit to Him by giving Him authority over our lives.
As a Christian God has sovereign authority over you…He created you…He paid your sin debt…you now belong to Him… He has the right to tell you what to do.
Here’s what’s important to know about God’s sovereign authority over you… it’s not to make you His servant…it’s not so He can boss you around…it’s like the Disney movie Aladdin.
Aladdin…is a story about a poor outcast boy who finds a magical lamp…when Aladdin rubs the lamp a genie appears and tells the boy… ‘You’ve never had a friend like me.’ …a friend who will stick closer than any friend before or after.
That’s a staggering concept if we let that sink in… a friend like you’ve never had before…who will stick closer than any friend before or after.
That is exactly the kind of friend God wants to be…but that requires a little more than rubbing a magic lamp…so what must we do to become friends with God?
It’s hard to submit to someone you don’t know…the only way we can come to the place where we whole-heartedly trust in God is by getting to know God.
Knowing God can only be accomplished by knowing God’s Word…by listening to it…by memorizing it…by studying it…by attending Church.
- We submit to God when we trust in His will for our lives.
So…how does this ‘God’s Will’ thing work?…preachers like to talk about God’s will so how’s that pertain to my life?
The Four ‘Wills’ of God
- God’s Perfect Will…it never changes…it will always come to pass… everything will run its appointed course at its appointed time until God ends everything exactly according to His plan.
- God’s Revealed Will….defines our duties and responsibilities…the Bible.
- God’s Will of Desire…what God ‘wishes’ or desires to happen…but not always does…God desires all to be saved…there be no sin…not happening.
- God’s Permissive Will…the things God allows in our lives to accomplish His purpose in our lives.
Here’s the key thing about God’s will if you’re a Christian…trusting in God is hard because you’re trusting in something you can’t see…sense…feel…or smell…which leaves you believing that in this life you’re on your own…how hopeless is that?
Here’s the promise when we Submit to God…it means we can trust that what He wills for our lives is what is best for us even when things don’t make sense.
Things will go bad in your life…more frequently than for someone who’s not a Christian…Bible says so.
The only way I can know God’s will for my life is doing what I said earlier… that can only be accomplished by knowing God’s Word by listening to it…by memorizing it…by studying it…by attending Church.
James then states…Resist the devil, and he will flee from you…for many the Devil is just a mythical symbol depicted with horns…dressed in red… having a pointed beard running around carrying a pitchfork…far from it.
For those people Satan and evil is something of our own making…evil is nothing more than humanity’s inhumane treatment of one another.
Been said the devil’s greatest trick is to make people believe he doesn’t exist …I don’t need to spend time arguing for the existence of Satan because Scripture reveals the existence of him and his angels who are just as real as Jesus.
Scripture provides clear evidence for the existence of the devil and his demons… that he is indeed a personal being and not a mere symbol of evil.
Throughout the Bible he is presented as a functioning being capable of engaging in a number of different capacities.
There are accounts of the devil’s attempts to thwart the coming of God’s Kingdom…a major theme throughout the New Testament is the clash between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan…this is depicted in the last book in the Bible… Revelation…which describes the final climactic battle between Satan and God.
SIDE BAR—Here’s the problem with the great majority of American Christians: they’re not in touch with reality…they’re totally unaware that a deadly conflict is occurring in the spiritual realm…a conflict that is not against flesh and blood but against forces of wickedness in heavenly places.
Ephesians 6:12 describes the spiritual battle we’re engaged in better than any other place in Scripture…it clearly describes an enemy that is not physical.
For our wrestling match is not against persons with bodies, but against…spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
What heavenly places? …thought there was only one ‘heaven’ …wrong…Bible clearly says in the beginning God created the heavens (plural)…more than one… and the earth (singular)
בראשית ברא אלהים את השמים ואת הארץ׃
In fact, Paul even mentions a man who was caught up into the third heaven …the place God dwells.
Logic tells me if there is a third heaven there must be a first and second…you cannot have a third of anything without the first two.
The first heaven is the visible heaven we can see…the sun…moon…stars and so on…the second heaven we can’t see…that is where the conflict takes place… because there is no conflict in the third heaven where God dwells.
Three times in Scripture this is played out…in Ezekiel…in Daniel…and in Revelation where human rulers are influenced by evil forces in the heavenlies and attempt to gain control of human rulers and use them to carry out their purposes.
This is not fictional…it’s occurring worldwide…and on a personal level it’s happening in your life everyday…as Christians we are involved in a wrestling match and in order to be victorious, we must understand the origin of this conflict and realize how it wants to defeat us.
One reason Satan is viewed as mythical is in how we as humans are led into sin.
The idea that he actually whispers a lie or an accusation in our ear is thought of as a little elementary…people’s response to that concept is ‘how childish is that’ but that is exactly what happens…then we react to these satanic emotions.
Satan’s main goal is to drive a wedge between us and God.
So…what if anything can be done to resist the devil?
- We resist the devil by knowing and applying His Word.
I’ll say it for the third time…the only way that can be accomplished is by knowing God’s Word…by listening to it…by memorizing it…by studying it…by attending Church.
When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness He resisted Satan’s temptations by quoting Scripture…you’re not going to out debate Satan…you’re not going to out argue Him…you’re not going to win your case by using logic…over the course of thousands of years he’s heard every excuse imaginable…hence the importance of memorizing Scripture.
The more we know and apply God’s Word the more we will defeat the devil and send him on his way.
- We resist the devil through righteous living.
Trusting in God’s will for our lives begins by living a righteous life.
Sin and unrepented sin causes a break in our fellowship with God…we resist the devil by choosing to live a righteous life as we faithfully apply Scripture to life’s situations.
- We resist the devil through faithful fellowship
Since we are in a spiritual war with demonic forces who rule this world [Eph. 6:16] it only makes sense that we need as many people on our side as possible… the body of Christ…the Church is there for spiritual protection. - We resist the devil through prayer
Prayer is one of the most important things a Christian can do not only individually but corporately as a body of believers.
Let me reiterate on something I said a couple weeks past regarding prayer…we talk about prayer as if God hears us regardless of what our relationship is to Him. We have the mistaken idea that we can just go to God anytime we want in prayer with no thoughts about how we’re living our lives…that’s not so.
God has given some conditions in which He will not listen to our prayers.
People say God’s promise is ‘I can ask God for such and such and I will receive it’ —BUT they often overlook the CONDITION…when we choose to hold on to sin rather than repent God will not hear our prayers.
Here’s the key thing about prayer most people fail to understand…we often think prayer changes God…or causes God to do something…that isn’t the case.
When we spend time with God in prayer…the more we are like Him…our habits and lifestyles change…we no longer live a self-centered life…but one that is focused on one another…with motives that are pure from a sincere heart… prayer changes us from the inside out…that is the benefit of a persistent… consistent prayer life.
We cannot be stagnant in our Christian life…if we are going to overcome Satan and the temptations of the world we must always be moving forward…pursuing intimacy with God.
If we’re not pursuing God we will be pursuing something else…and slowly over time we will lapse into spiritual decline.
BUT…if you go after God He will go after you…it is the only way we can stand against the spiritual warfare of the devil.