James chapter 4, these are the
verses that made me want to go over this with you, to deal with
the book of James with you. Now, because these are so needful,
beginning with me, I know you need these things because I do.
James chapter 4, read with me, verse 7. Well, let's read verses
7 through 10. 7 through 10. Submit yourselves,
therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will
flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will
draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners,
and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Be afflicted and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to
mourning and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight
of the Lord. And he shall lift you up. Verse 7 is our text tonight and
our sentence. Submit yourselves, therefore,
to God. Resist the devil and he will
flee from you. Do you remember verse 5? Sunday. It says, Do you think
that the scripture says in vain the spirit that dwelleth in us
lusted to envy? In other words, the scriptures
don't say this rightly, that this old man, this nature in
us, wars or lusts against us, and this old man is a devil himself. and a subject to the temple of
the God of this world. He doesn't say that in vain because
this is a very real and terrible and dangerous struggle that we
go through. Look with me to Ephesians chapter
6. Very quickly, Ephesians 6. I have much to share with you
tonight. I believe it will be very profitable. At Christ's honor, in Ephesians
6, this one named Satan, Lucifer,
the devil, and his team of devils, is not fictitious. He's not a
fictitious character. He's real. Look at this in verses 11 and
12, Ephesians 6, "...put on the whole armor of God, that ye may
be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, the craftiness,
the tricks, and the deceptions of the devil. For we wrestle
not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities,
against the powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this
world, against the spiritual wicked, and high places. So this is very real, number
one, because the Lord Jesus Christ sets up. He spoke of the adversary
forsaken quite often, more than anyone else. He dealt with demons. Quite often, in fact, the parable
we perform most is a question out of the devil's contention,
an identity, and according to the Word of God, very real, and
according to the experience of God's people. If you look at
our text in James 4, he says, verse 6, but we give it for grace. He said, now don't think Scripture
says this likely, or this is some fable, but this evil nature
wars against us. That's where these findings come
from. He said, but God gives it for
grace. And he resisted the crowd. You
know, the Scripture talks about those who have fallen, who are
lifted up in pride and fall into the condemnation of the devil. You ever read that? That's what
it says, that pride is the condemnation of the devil. But he gave a grace
unto the humble, it says, a grace unto the humble. Thank God salvation
is by grace. Thank God that we are saved by
grace from start to last, from beginning to end. Thank God he
chose us, called us, regenerated us, justifies us, constrains
us, teaches us, restrains us, keeps us by his grace. You know the question rose in my
mind. We're saved by grace and God
has determined as purpose, as purpose, that nothing evil shall
happen to his people, his children, that they're not going to fall
into the hands finally and completely of the adversary, that he is
not going to have the mastery over them, not have the dominion
over them, their sins, nor Satan himself. The question popped
into my mind, then what have we got to worry about? Then there's
no need to worry, and let's just go on. We live by faith. We live by
faith. And faith honors God. Faith takes
God at His word. Faith glorifies God. Faith that resists. Faith which takes God at His
word. Faith of men. which enables them to resist
such wantons. That gives a great reward to
mankind. This is a God-given faith. You
remember Hebrews 11? It says, through faith, faith
can stop the mountain of fire and the rock of Jerusalem from
quenching the violence of fire and the sword. So, we're going to live by faith.
We're going to go through trials, and we're going to be faithful
to the will of the adversary. Thank God's salvation. Isn't that great? And God was just as proud to
say, proud. You know, one way that I know,
and perhaps the most revealing way that I know, that we are
in the very last of the last days. is according to Scripture,
according to 1 Timothy 3, in the last days, men shall be lovers
of self, covetous, boasters, proud, and blasphemers. And that describes our day more
than anything else does. Pride. Another word for young
people, another word which Laura, you're about it. Another word
for pride that's used today is, Blair, there you are, is attitude. He has an attitude. You know,
people, they promote that. They're proud of it. Attitude,
you know, you've seen it on their faces. Another word for pride,
God Almighty hates it. And Scripture says, he resisteth
the crowd. Now, if God before us, who can
beat him? But if God resisteth us, against
us, listen to this. It says, the lofty looks of man
shall be humbled. The haughtiness of man shall
be bowed down. And the Lord alone shall be exalted
in that day. The day of the Lord of hosts
shall be upon everyone that is proud and lofty, upon everyone
that is lifted up, and he shall be brought low, but everyone
that is humble shall be brought high. Everyone that is humble
shall be exalted. So look at what it says in verse
10 here of our text. Humble yourself One way you humble yourself is
to what you're doing right here. You're coming, you're reading
God's Word, which most people have turned away their ears from. You're hearing it, and if by
the grace of God you believe it, you're one of His humble. God is going to destroy this
proud earth, proud man upon it, and create a new one, a new heaven
and a new earth inhabited by sweet, kind, meek, lowly, Christlike
people. Nobody proud, everybody thankful
and grateful. And the Lord alone, who alone
is worthy, shall be exalted. And if that's what you want now,
praise the Lord. Look at our text here in verse
seven. It begins by saying, Submit yourselves,
therefore, to God. Submit. We humble ourselves by
submitting to God. The word submit or submission
is another word for humility. It's a characteristic of humility. The word submit means to be a
subject, it means a subordinate or that is one who takes orders,
implicit orders, no questions asked. Submit yourself to God
as an inferior to one who's vastly superior, as a buck private. John, you were a buck private
one day, weren't you? You had no stripes at all, but
nothing. John, you were too. Charles, a buck private before
the presence of a five-star general. Here's another way, a dog before
or at the feet of his human master. an inferior before a vastly superior. You know, the word worship has
the same meaning every time in the gospel. Every time it's used
in the gospel. I looked it up. Every time it's
used in the gospel. It has the exact same meaning. The meaning is, the word worship,
is to kiss as a dog licking his master's hand. The wise man here are a few. The wise man saw the young child
with his mother, Mary, and it says they worshipped him. Him, mind you, not her and him,
but they worshipped him. They fell down. The leper came
down from the mountain. And it says, before he asked
anything, the leopard came down and fell at his feet and worshipped
him. The centurion with the dying
daughter came to the Lord and fell at his feet and before he
asked anything, he worshipped him. The Canaanite woman, the
Syrophoenician woman, She came and was it say she worshipped
him and he said to her, it's not right to give the children
bread to... What she said. Truth. Truth,
Lord. Now this is not degrading to
be a dog, the Lord's dog. Oh, it's not humiliating at all. It's just truth. I love my dog. In fact, our dogs live better
than some humans. Charlie does anyway. That's not
degrading at all to be one of the Lord's dogs, isn't it Bishop,
say that? Who am I? What am I? You should be show mercy to such
a dead dog as I am. This is the first thing in submission
to God, the first lesson in humility, is to realize whose presence
we're in. And I don't split hairs here.
You know, we talk a great deal about religion today, about how
they talk about God as an old grandfather. They talk about
Jesus as a mere man. That's not worship. That's not
fear, is it? Not at all. We submit to submit
yourselves, therefore, to God. We submit to him by submitting
to his person. Our God, thou art our God, our
sovereign, our creator, our judge, our ruler, our controller, the
God in whose hands our breath is, the God who works all things
up to the counsel of his own will, the only one in heaven
and earth, who has free will, who does as He will, with whom
He will, because He will. That's our God. That is God. And submitting to God, we say,
Thou art God. Beside Thee there is none else.
This is the first thing. Submit yourself to God. Dear
of the Lord, we submit to His person. He's God. Aren't you
glad? Aren't you glad? And the only
reason you know that, if you do, and if you do submit to Him
being God, all will someday. But the only reason you do now
is because He chose you by His grace. He revealed Himself to
you by His grace. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest, and He calls you to approach unto Him. How? Like
a dog. Like an inferior. We submit to
God by submitting and bowing to his son. See, God said he's
committed all things to his son. God is spirit. We'll never see
God except in the person of his son. And God said out loud, this
is my son. I have given all authority to
him. The keys of hell and death, judgment
The power to save all authority has been given. This is my son. Hear him. If you want to hear
from me, you'll hear from him. Kiss the son. Psalm 2 says, not
his face as an equal, but what? Like Mary Magdalene. That's where Mary is right now.
Right now. Oh, it's not degrading at all
to be at the feet of him. Nancy, his feet are altogether
lovely. That's a fine place to be. Oh,
how beautiful are the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. In all
authority, we bow, we submit to God by submitting to his Son.
We submit to God by submitting to his Word. As I said, it's
a subject one who takes orders unquestionably. Is there anything
in God's Word that you question? I mean, that you think, I don't
know about that. Is it anything that causes you
to take issue or say, I don't know about anything? Oh, you're a chosen vessel from
the Lord. Unquestionably, you believe this
book unquestionably to be the Word of God. You actually believe
that this is God's Word and you bow to every word of it, do you?
Oh, my, you're one of the loud lords of His Word. All that God
says about Himself, All that God says about His Son, He's
it. God says He's all. In Him dwelleth
all the fullness, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He is
all. All wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
redemption, acceptance, justification. Huh? All. That means all. There's nothing else at all.
You believe that? You really do? Oh, blessed are
you. You believe all he says about
you? Implicitly, you believe that? All he says about you?
Oh, most certainly. And we submit to God by submitting
to his delegated authority. He does delegate authority. Romans
15 says that, that all authority, there's no power but of God.
When they say that, the powers that be are ordained of God. This is humbling. This is humbling. The powers that be, whether it
be in the church, home, the government, right? We do. We do. We bow. It's God's. God put the man in power. And even to one another. that
be in subjection one to another. We esteem others better than
ourselves. We'll listen. The reason we don't listen to
other people, we can probably think we're smarter. We can learn,
can't we? James chapter 4, look at verse
7. He says, so submit yourselves therefore to God. God resisted But he gives grace and honor
to the submissive, to those in subjection. Tell me, who is it
that you like to be around? Who do you admire? Who endears
themselves to you the most? Is it not the meek, the lowly,
and the humble, and those who do not think so highly of themselves,
those who do not like to talk about themselves? those of the
thing you truly think you have enough in. Some of those gone. That's who he loves to be around
us say of the high and lofty one who would have to be turned
to. To this man level and this man
without. It is a poor and contrite spirit
and him with. The home. Might as well, we are anyway.
We might as well take our place where we belong. Thank God he's
done that for so many of you. Look at verse 7 now. Resist the
devil, and he will flee from you. You know, when I thought about
dealing with this in depth, it frightened me. Because I just knew that I personally
would probably come under attack. Resist the devil. But do we need
this? Resist the devil. Oh my. Now again, God's Word doesn't
say anything in vain or in mere theory. You're not wrestling right now
strictly with your flesh to keep awake and to hear this. Not at all. This is the Word
of God which loosens the prisoner, which is the power of God unto
salvation. Satan knows that. And his greatest
efforts are in trying to keep us from hearing his voice. Resist the devil, and he will
flee from you. What a seemingly impossible thing. Resist the devil, whom Eve, not
Adam, mind you, but Eve, the greatest woman to ever live,
was no match for. She was deceived by him, whom
Michael, the archangel, scripture says, the archangel Michael,
would not contend with Satan over the body of Moses, who sifted
Peter, Simon Peter, like wheat. And he had a terrible, terrible
fault. Turn over there with me, 1 Peter
chapter 5. writes about this in practically
the same exact words as James. Simon Peter, nearly the same
words that James used. Simon Peter had a terrible experience
with Satan himself, and he writes these things only more. Look
at 1 Peter 5, beginning with verse 5. Look at how similar
First Peter five verse five likewise younger submit yourself onto
the elder all of you be subject one to another and be clothed
with humility for God resisted the proud and give of grace to
the humble humble yourself there for the mighty hand of God that
he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him,
for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant, because
your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about
seeking whom he may devour, whom resist steadfast in the faith." He said, your adversary is a
roaring lion. Can a man contend with a lion? A lion is a powerful beast of all. Daniel was thrown in a den. Can a man wrestle with a
lion? David did. How? Now, Scripture talks about the
wiles of the devil. Over there in Ephesians 6, we
read the wiles of the devil, trickery, the insubtlety, the
craftiness, the power of the roaring lion. Here's some facts. Satan is real. My father once told me about
a man who began to study long and hard demons and devils until
finally he himself came under great attack. Satan is real. We dare not fool
with him in that sense. He is real. He's formidable.
He's powerful. He's not all-powerful. He's not
sovereign. There's one who's sovereign.
He is not omniscient, doesn't know all things. There's one.
One God. He is not sovereign. He's a servant. Thank God. But here's the fact
that we are utterly powerless. How would rulers of the darkness
of how do we resist? He says, whom resist steadfast
in the faith. I just told you that. Peter,
who was it? How are we? Can we resist this
one? Well, he says it here. Look at verse 9 of 1 Peter 5,
whom resists steadfast in the faith. There is only one
stronger than he. There is a strong man who alone
is able to bind him and cast him out. With one little word,
he'll flee. Right, John? You ever say that to a care dog?
That's what the Lord said to Satan, that one. Like a dog. Old Martin Luther. One time Martin
Luther was sitting in his study, and he, he had to face seemingly
insurmountable foes, didn't he? Martin Luther stood alone. And that great day, the Lord
used that one man over the whole, seemed like the whole world was
against him. At one time, he was in his study, and he was
trying to prepare, preach the gospel, and he said he was under
such attack that he took his inkwell and threw it. He tried to throw it at the devil's
footloose. story has it that there's still
a spot on the wall where he threw that inkling. But Martin Luther,
we just read it. We just sang it. Did we in our
own strength confide? Our striving would be losing.
That is, try to wrestle within. We're not the right man on our
side. The man, the man, the man of
God's own choosing. Satan thought he was going to
destroy God's kingdom and God's creation through a man named
Adam. Satan thought, I've got him now.
I've destroyed God's works through this man, Adam. But God said,
there's another man coming. Another man. Another flesh and
blood man, yes. Not of the earth-earthy, though.
The Lord from glory. And you will bruise his heel.
But he will step on your head. Satan's not our mission. When
he had, when he put people up to, he said, Satan has come.
He's coming, the Lord said. And the Lord said, he's now about
to be cast out. But Satan thought he had him.
He's hanging on a cross, let's kill this son of God, when in
fact what he did was What wisdom! God Almighty. He even says, resist in the faith.
Faith! What is faith? Faith is trust. Faith is reliance upon the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
object of our faith. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
Lord and Master. Faith, casting all your care,
Peter says, upon Him. casting out the captain of our
salvation, the one whom God hath laid help upon, one that is mighty,"
Scripture says, the one who's Lord of devils. He's the one
whom Satan reported to in the very beginning. Remember the
story of Job? He's the one whom Satan had to report to. The Lord
Jesus Christ, sitting on his throne, said to Satan in mockery,
where have you been? I love that story, don't you? And Satan had to get his permission
from the Lord Jesus Christ to do anything, didn't he? The world
doesn't understand this. The world doesn't believe this.
The world believes that Satan is every bit as powerful as God
is, don't they? I read in the paper the other
day, you remember when that gunman went in that so-called church
and killed that preacher? Remember that? After it was over? the president of the Southern,
or whatever denomination that was. He said, we don't know why
God allows Satan and evil to have his way. He doesn't have his way. What comfort? How could anybody
believe such a thing? How could you ever think any
comfort could be such a thing? We ought to be worshiping him.
He's the one having His way. Right? We ought to be praying to Him.
Quit doing this. What does Isaiah 45 say? I create
thee, I make evil, I the Lord do all these things. So a man can't understand it
doesn't mean it's not so. He's the one, the Lord Jesus
Christ is the one, He's the master of devils whom Satan reported
to. He's the one, a whole legion of angels. You know how many
angels a legion is? 144,000! No, 12,000, excuse me. The Lord
said He could call 12 legions of angels. One legion is 12,000.
There was 12,000 angels, devils. You believe that? I do. Think
about all the vices and so forth. Absolutely. Twelve thousand of
them came begging the Lord Jesus Christ, please don't destroy
us. Would you let us go into those pigs? Just let us go into
some pigs. I'm not speaking evil of, you
know, Jude talks about those who speak evil of dignities.
I'm not doing that at all. I'm exalting the one who is stronger
than him. Nobody, you hear these preachers
today, these devil bashers, one of our brethren called them devil
bashers. They tell you just step on the
head, you know, just step on the head of the devil. They speak evil of dignities,
things they don't know of, when they are pawns themselves of
Satan. That's exactly right. Michael,
as we said, would not contend with him. The Lord is the only
strong man who can fight him. The Lord Jesus Christ. When he
says, resist steadfast in the faith, he means look to the Lord
Jesus Christ. He means call upon the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ, whose name is the very truth. Listen to Michael. Listen to
what Michael, the archangel, said. when contending with Satan
over the body of Moses. The Lord rebukes Satan. Listen to some of Satan's ways
and faith's resistance, okay? I'm not going to keep you much
longer. I'm trying. Some of Satan's ways and faith,
how it resists. This is vital. This is vital. I wouldn't have dealt with this
if I didn't think it was vital. I've learned something here.
Satan's ways are both open and secret. Open, it's very easy
to see his open wickedness and evil and immorality and so forth
that goes on in the world. He is come to kill and to steal
and destroy. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ
said. Through drugs, through vice, these are, yes they are
the works of the devil. Don't let anybody, I know preachers
preach that. But it's so. It's so. This is
what he uses. Through sin and wickedness and
vice and so forth. These are the open acts of our
adversary and they're very easy to see, aren't they? The other
ones are the Thank you. It's a secret. It's hidden. Subtlety. Wow, it's the most
secret set of things that he uses. Signs and lying wonders. Our Lord said it. He uses signs
and lying wonders. Subtlety. Subtlety. with deception masquerading the
scripture said as angels of light in sheep wolves and sheep clothing
ministers of. Righteous. Doctrinally. Correct. Uses the word of God. Uses the
word of God maybe not. We watched the documentary the
other night a real documentary film the documentary of Jim Jones. After it was over we don't know
if we almost regretted watching it. It was so horrible. It was a film documentary of
that man from the very beginning to the very end. He led nearly
a thousand people. He killed himself. And he began
as a Pentecostal preacher. Very straightforward, scripturally
preaching. We heard somebody preaching.
He used the Bible. He used the Bible, and people
followed him. Until finally, do you remember?
Finally, later on, he finally began to cast doubt upon this,
until he actually, in the course of one of his messages, said,
you don't need this anymore. He said, follow me. And he threw
it. And he told them, throw yours away.
Just follow me. They did. They did it. To the grave, and into heaven
sent. How do we resist such a war when
people everywhere succumb to it? This dispels darkness. This dispels
ignorance. This dispels... Well, this raises
us from death unto life. From superstition to truth. This
sets you free. This is how you overcome the
evil one. Faith, which comes by hearing
the Word, which speaks of Christ being all not a man. Christ is
all he's our master. He's our leader. He's the one
we follow implicitly. He's he his word. Oh, hey, listen
to this. Here's what faith says and answer
to the devil faith. Demons say. Demons say, no, this
is what you need to do. Keep saying, this is what you
need to do. You do this, do this. Faith says, no, my Lord Jesus
Christ has done it all. Demons, the devil says, now you
must, you must, but faith says, no, he hath. He hath. He must, he hath, he shall. Demons
and devils and Satan and their ministers say, look to the flesh,
look to men, look to your works. Look to your prayers, look to
this, look to your this and that and the other. Faith says, no,
I'm looking to him. God's Word says, look unto me. Satan will have you be proud
of giving up this and that and the other. Taste not, handle
not. The Lord Jesus Christ said, that's
not the kingdom of heaven. Not in meat and drink, but it's
in righteousness, which is where? So, faith says, faith looks to
him and him alone. Remember that. You don't remember
anything else. And we look to him by seeing him in the Word. It does say this, though, resistance,
steadfast. That implies That means one who
wants to resist. James said, not double-minded.
And here's the bad thing about our nature. Sometimes because
there's pleasures in sin for a season. Sometimes we don't
want to resist. But he says, resist steadfast.
That means with effort. Not double-minded. One who tries
to put up a fight. And how we do it is by looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ. By saying, Lord, help me. Lord help me." Looking to the
Lord, calling on him. Joseph, tempted by a woman's
advances, ran. How? Where did he run to? I bet he ran straight to his
closet. Lord help me. Imagine the the
things that were going through his mind. Imagine his prayers.
Oh, Lord, help me. You've done it. Just imagine
his fear. Just imagine his prayer. When
Daniel was cast into that lion's den, you know he was afraid,
don't you? Just imagine his fear. Just imagine
his prayers. I think you reckon he was calling
on the Lord. David, when he saw Goliath out there, he's just
a stripling, let's say. Just a lab just to you when he
saw the last you know he thought oh my. But just here is prayer. Our God. Who is man that I'm. That I should be afraid of the
power of my salvation of whom shall I fear. Give me a stone. And our you know our Our resistance
and our struggles are not nearly so dramatic as that, but they're
no less real, are they? Huh? We're not actually cast
into a den of lions, but we're struggling with one who's a strolling
lion. And it says there in 1 Peter,
look at verse 9, it says, knowing this, that the same afflictions
are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. You're not going through something
that everybody else is not going through. That David, Daniel,
all of them really didn't go through anything any more than
what you're going through. It's just different, just in
a different way. But he's faithful, Scripture says. He's faithful. So, how do we resist? We resist
in the faith, calling on, believing, looking to the Lord Jesus Christ,
a stronger than he, who alone is able to bind us. This is why he said, pray without
ceasing. Pray without ceasing. We submit to our God, humble
ourselves, for pride is the condemnation of the devil. Peter was given
over to Satan, wasn't he, for a while. Why? He got lifted up
in pride. Terrible lesson to learn. We
humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. All upon the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, may the Lord use that
for His glory and our good. Stand with me. Our great God and our Lord and
Master Jesus Christ, thank you for the sure, blessed, precious
promises that you've given us, whereby we may be able to escape
corruption that's in the flesh through lust and the adversary
himself. We really believe we know and
are sure that thou art Lord and our master and our sovereign
one whom we look to. Enable us, O Lord, by your grace,
by your power, to look to you, to call upon you at all times
for your glory. Keep us, keep us from the wiles
of the devil, whom the world scoffs and mocks at, but therein
is pleasure. deliver us, O Lord, from this
bondage. We pray. We want to be bond slaves
to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. So we call upon you and ask for
your restraining and constraining grace to be upon us. Enable us
to submit to thee, our God, humble ourselves, humble us, Lord, through
your word, and resist. It's in Christ's name we ask
this thing and give thanks. Amen. you