Alright, let's turn to the book
of James chapter 4. I've entitled this morning's
message, Faith, Humility, and Submission. Faith, Humility,
and Submission. Now the Bible in 2 Timothy chapter
3 is spoken of, is described as the breathed out word of God,
God breathe, the inspired word of God. That's what that means.
God breathe. It is the infallible inspired
word of God, and it's profitable. The scripture says profitable
for many things, for doctrine, instruction in righteousness,
and two things that are mentioned there in second Timothy chapter
three are reproof and correction. Reproof means conviction. In
other words, the preaching of the scriptures, the preaching
of Christ, the preaching of the gospel should bring us to conviction. Conviction over our sin to remind
us continually of what we are and who we are and our need of
Christ. Now, the conviction there is
not a bottomless pit, or as John Bunyan described it, the slough
of despond that we live there grieving and crying. just staying
in that kind of a some kind of a mystical spiritual depression
that some men deem as holy. That's not at all what it is.
It's a conviction that always drives us to the peace that passes
all understanding that we find only in Christ and what he accomplished
on Calvary to save us from our sins. We're to be a people of
joy. We're to be a people of of peace
and comfort. And I always think about that,
you know, sometimes, especially when a young preacher gets up,
you know, you know this is serious business. This is not a laughing
matter here. But sometimes young preachers,
they'll get up and they'll just, it's almost like they're ripping
the hide off of you, you know, just because this is just so
serious, you know. And a lot of times we get up
here and we have somebody we're after, you know, got in mind,
You don't even know who we're talking about, and I've done
that too. I pray I don't do it anymore, but I might, you know,
weep vessels. But this is an issue here, what
James is doing here. One old preacher said one time,
he said that every sermon ought to inspire your heart, it ought
to instruct your mind, it ought to drive your will, and it ought
to tan your hide. And that's, I guess that's what
James is doing here in James chapter 4. He's sort of tanning
their hides. And it's not, understand this,
you know, when you preach things like this, and these are problems
either we're having, and they need to be corrected, or problems
that we need to know about so to avoid. Understand that. And it's not, I'm not preaching
this just so when you walk out the door you can tell me how
much I stepped on your toes today. That's not what I'm wanting to
do. But I just want to deal with the scripture as it lay on the
page here, as God breathed it out to James. But there was a
problem in this church, or amongst these people that James was writing
to, and it was a problem of conflict. It was a problem of conflict.
And what's a sadder problem is when conflict leads to division,
division of brethren. But here it was conflict. And,
you know, the church here on earth has three great enemies. The world, the flesh, and the
devil. You've heard that. The world,
James mentions that. He talks about being a friend
of the world in verse 4, is to be an enemy of God. You can't
be both. And the world there he's talking about is the world
as it stands in any way, in any capacity, religiously or irreligiously,
in opposition to Christ and the truth of the gospel and God's
ways. You can be a religious person
and stand in opposition to Christ. You can be a religious person
who names the name of Christ, who claims to be a Christian,
and still stand in opposition to Christ, the true Christ, if
you don't know the Christ as he is identified and distinguished
in this word and God's way of salvation by grace through the
blood and the righteousness of Christ alone. So when you think
of the word world, Don't think of just the immoral part of the
world. That is worldly. You know, a
Christian, a believer who lives an immoral lifestyle in the sense
of public immorality and scandal with no regard for God and His
Word, that is the world. And that's inconsistent. That's
what James talks about when he talks about faith without works
is dead. You can claim to be anything
you want to claim to be. You know, there's people in mental
homes who claim to be Napoleon, but they're not. And even those who claim to be
Jesus, and they're not. So you can claim to be anything
you want to claim to be. I can do the same. But the only way
that that's proven for us to be what we really are is to live
the life that we claim to be and to believe. And of course,
we know it's all by the grace of God. You know that. You know
you can't live it in your own power. By your own will. It's all by the grace of God.
But grace is a dynamic. It's a power. It's a spirit. And the Holy Spirit dwells within.
Now, the devil. We talked about the devil. His
names. Devil means adversary. Satan,
the accuser of the brethren. People have a tendency to blame
everything on the devil. You know, Flip Wilson back in
the 60s, the devil made me do it. You know, and all that. The
devil doesn't make you do anything. I'm going to tell you that right
now. Now, he will. He has an ally in us, and that's
called the flesh. And he will capitalize on the
things that are naturally in us to do whatsoever he will. But ultimately, if you read the
Bible, and you know the Bible, and I know this is a shocking
statement to many people, but the devil doesn't do anything
God doesn't allow him to do. And that's the case. But we have
to be aware of these enemies. But now, the enemy here that
James is talking about is the flesh. Now, what is the flesh? Well, the flesh is us. That's
what the flesh is here. The world, the flesh, and the
devil. Now, all three of these enemies have been conquered and
can only be conquered by God's grace in Christ. We know that. For example, when he speaks of
fighting and divisions here, and conflicts, We know the only
way that those conflicts and those fightings are going to
be resolved is for God's people to look to Christ and to submit
to Him in humility and submission. So as James, as he's been talking
about evidences of true faith, this is another evidence that
if you truly believe in Christ, there will be to some degree
at some time that spirit and attitude of humility and submission. But I'll tell you something,
you know, it shouldn't surprise us. that the church here on earth
is fraught with inward conflict. Because the church here on earth
has two things in it. Two types of people, let's put
it that way. The church here on earth now, I'm talking about
the visible church here on earth. I know people don't like that
term visible church, but that's why I call it because I can see
you and you can see me. So it's visible. I can't see
your heart. You can't see mine. And we try
to deal with each other in a way that's honest and clear. So while
the church exists here on earth, it is made up of two types of
people. Sinners saved by grace and sinners who claim to be saved
by grace, but really are not. And those individuals have problems.
We're changed, we who are saved, but that change is not complete
in us. The Bible teaches that. Read
1 Corinthians 15. We shall all be changed. That's
a future change. We've been changed by the Spirit
of God in the new birth. And it's a miraculous change.
It's a great change. I mean, it's a marked change.
We come from unbelief to belief in Christ. We come from being
unrepentant to being repentant. To changing our hearts and our
minds by the Spirit of God. We don't change ourselves. We're
his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God
hath before ordained that we should walk in them. So we're
not self-made people if we're saved by the grace of God. And
while on this earth we still have the flesh. Now what is the
flesh? That's our sinful desires. It's our sinful thoughts. That's
what it is. It's not just some little imp
running around inside of me or in my head. It's not the devil
with a pitchfork on this shoulder and an angel with a halo on this
shoulder. That's cartoons. That's not the Bible. But the
flesh is that part of me, you might say it that way, that part
of me that still desires to fulfill things that are contrary to the
revealed will of God and the glory of God. And I have those
desires. You have those desires. And the
Spirit, the Holy Spirit, indwells us and He's made us alive He's
given us the spirit of life, which we have, and that's a part
of us that desires to obey God, desires to love God, and to follow
Him, and to love one another. And this is a warfare with Him,
within our minds, within our hearts. It's not two people separate
from me, it's all me. You see, that's who I am. And
I can give you no other explanation for that. But there's a warfare. We're still sinful human beings. We're still selfish human beings. We are. You say, well, you shouldn't
say that. Why not? Why not? It's true. We still retain selfishness. We still retain pride. If we
didn't, why does the Bible tell us to fight these things and
put them off? And you say, well, as I grow
in grace and knowledge, I become less selfish. You don't know
what growth in grace and knowledge is then. That's right now. pride, arrogance. We still want
our way. We still think we know the right
way. Now we all know the right way in salvation because God,
the Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit will teach us all that
right way. They shall all know me from the least of them to
the greatest. There's only one right way of salvation and that's
Christ. I am the way, the truth, and the life. But in our relationships
with one another and how we deal with one another and how we operate
here and operate there, we have our own ways. Ours is the right
way. Ours is the best way. My way is the best way. I can
tell you that right now before I go any further. My way is the
best way. And see, I have that. I've got
to deal with that, you see. So it shouldn't surprise us that
there's conflict, you see. But here's the thing, though
it should not surprise us, it also should not make us just
lay back and give in to it just as, well, that's just one of
those things I have to accept. And you accept it about me, but
I'm not going to accept it about you. Huh? Well, there's a conflict
right there. Our attitudes towards conflict
ought to be a radical opposition in every way. We ought to be
in conflict with conflict. That's what we should be. And
many, if not all, first century churches that we read here in
the Bible, sometimes we have a tendency, I don't know why,
we have a tendency to think, well, boy, I wish that church
must have been a great, almost a perfect church. No. No, here
James has been talking about some things, and you know, many
of those churches, they wrestled with conflicts between the members,
individual members. Paul mentioned, I think, in the
book of Philippians, two women that were having a conflict.
The church at Corinth had conflict, all of them did. Conflicts over
personal preferences, even conflicts over interpretation of scripture.
Now, not the gospel now. Listen, whenever there was a
conflict over the gospel, how God saves sinners, read the book
of Galatians. You know how you resolve that
conflict? You get rid of them. That's right. You don't, listen,
if there's a conflict between you and me, or anybody, over
how God saves a sinner, then that's a serious matter. That's
a conflict between truth and darkness. And you cannot tolerate
that, you see. There's only one way of salvation,
by God's grace, through Christ. No conflict there. But now, over
interpretations of Scripture, I'll give you an example. Romans
14. You had Jewish believers in the church at Rome. They had
been scattered throughout. And they knew Christ. They believed in Christ. They pleaded only His blood and
righteousness for their whole salvation. That's the gospel.
But they were not yet convinced that all the distinctions of
dietary laws and holy days under the old covenant had been abolished.
They still thought, well, God required them not to eat certain
things and to keep certain days. Not to be saved now. Because
if that were the issue, Paul would have dealt with them in
Romans 14 the same way he dealt with them in Galatians. Let them
be anathema. You see, nothing that we believe
or no interpretation of any scripture that we have can come into conflict
with Christ and Him crucified and risen again. Any belief,
any practice that challenges, denies, or confuses the gospel
of God's grace in Christ must be put out like a cancer. Now,
that's true. But now here's these believers
who know Christ, who love Christ, who are following Christ, their
salvation was by grace, but they read back in the Old Testament,
and many of them were brought up under this while it was in
effect, that you still shouldn't eat this, and you should still
keep this day. Then there were believers who
thought, well, who knew that we have the liberty to eat all
things, all foods, moderately. And that we're not bound to keep
certain days. Now that's been abolished. Now
those were the mature believers. They were right. And the ones
who were still restricted, they were wrong that it was a conflict
over interpretation of scripture. And these younger ones had to
be taught, but it was a conflict. And how's it going to be resolved?
Well, not by judging each other. That's what Paul wrote. We don't
know exactly what the conflicts here in James chapter four were
over. But they did have conflict over
personal preferences. The Corinthian church had conflicts
over preachers. Some of them factioned off. They
said, we're of Paul. We follow Paul. Some of them
factioned off and said, no, we're of Peter. We follow him. Some
of them factioned off and said, well, we're of Apollos. We'll
follow him. They were like the fellow who lived on a desert
island. And the ship come up and finally
find, been there 20 years, and they come off on the shore and
the captain of the ship looked and there were three buildings,
one in the middle, one on the right, and one on the left. And
he asked the guy, he said, well, what's that middle building?
He said, that's where I live. He said, well, what's this building
over on the left? He said, that's where I go to church. He said, what's
the building on the right? He said, that's where I used
to go to church. Human nature. I guess he came
into conflict with himself and had to leave. But you see, Paul
said, don't faction off over there. You see, it's the same
gospel. We don't follow men, we follow
Christ. He said, was Paul crucified for you? No, Christ was. So don't faction off to Paul.
You don't follow Paul, you follow Christ. Were you baptized in
the name of Paul? No, baptized in the name of the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. were people of Christ,
people of the Word, disciples of Christ. And it's really tragic
when conflict leads to division, but it sometimes does. Now, what
James is doing here, he's promoting obedience, good works, and unity
as evidence of saving faith. And to fight this conflict and
promote the unity of faith, James gives several things here. He
says, verse 1, look at it. Here's the source. of conflict
and division. From whence, where do they come
from? Wars and fightings among you. Now, James uses strong language
here. That word fighting, you might
see in your concordance, is the word brawlings. Now, I don't
know if these people were just getting right down and having
a fist fight or not. I don't know. It doesn't say
here. But he's all, I'll tell you what,
he's using a strong word here. He says, come they not hence,
even of your lust. In your concordance, that says
pleasures. What does that mean? It means I want my way. That's what that's talking about.
My pleasure. What will satisfy me. Not what
glorifies God. Not what's good for the people.
Not what's good for the church. But what I want. I want what
I want. That's what they're saying. That's
the lust of the flesh, that war in your members. Now, what he's
talking about here is not war within our own cells here, but
he's talking about war within the body of Christ, the local
body there. Fighting over what you want. That's what he's talking
about. That's why we're commanded to
walk after the Spirit, not after the flesh. The flesh, our greatest
enemy. Many of you might be old enough
to remember the comic strip, Pogo. Remember Pogo? Very political. you know, political
satire. Pogo once said, we have met the
enemy and he is us. You've heard this saying, you
are your own worst enemy. I am my own worst enemy. Well,
that's so. God saves us in spite of ourselves. Look back at the Psalm that I
read at the beginning, Psalm 131. Or first go to Psalm 133. Let me show you the essence of
what James is teaching here about this matter. Look at Psalm 133,
another three verse Psalm. It says in Psalm 133, Behold
how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together
in unity. Now we know that unity is brought
about by the grace of God in Christ. He says in verse 2, It's
like the precious ointment upon the head that rammed down the
beard, even Aaron's beard. that went down to the skirts
of his garment," that ointment, do you remember that ointment?
That oil, and that's the oil of gladness, the oil of the Spirit,
and he says, "...as the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended
upon the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord commanded the
blessing, even life forevermore." Now that's how beautiful, behold
how good and how pleasant for brethren to dwell in unity. How
does that come about? Look at Psalm 131. Lord, my heart is not haughty. That means proud and lifted up
and mine eyes lofty. Neither do I exercise myself
in great matters or in things too high for me. Surely I behaved
and quieted myself as a child that is weaned of his mother.
That means totally dependent upon the parent. My soul is even
as a weaned child. Let Israel hope in the Lord and
henceforth and forever. That's humility. That's submission. That's how that unity is brought
about. We'll look back at James 4 now. How do you deal with this
problem? How do you deal with this problem? Well, there's several
things he gives here. He says in verse 2, what he does,
he gives several things to consider. Consider these things in how
to deal with this problem. He says, you lust. Now that's
talking about you want what you want. That's not talking just
about sexual lust here. That's talking about any unlawful
desire. And an unlawful desire, you say,
you got in your mind, you say, I want it this way. I want to
do it this way. I want it to be done this way. I want my way.
All right. Now in and of itself, that may
not be sinful, but when it causes conflict within the church to
the point of dividing brethren or upsetting the unit, then it's
sin. Then it's lust. And he says,
you, you lust and have not, you don't get what you want. You
kill and desire to have. Some commentators say that this
really led to murder. I don't know. But it certainly
leads to spiritual murder, because I guarantee you that one you're
in conflict with, you'd just as soon have them out of the
way, wouldn't you? You'd just as soon be gone, even if you
do it in a holy manner. I wish the Lord would take them
home. She said, well, maybe they'll
help the process a little bit. I don't know. Just let the Lord
take them home. So I can get rid of them. Isn't
that something? That's human nature. That's human
nature. And you know, of course, you
see how lust, even sexual lust, can lead to killing. Look at
what David did when he lusted after Bathsheba. It led to the
murder of Uriah. But this is probably in the realm
of spiritual, this heart murder. that the Lord spoke of in Matthew
chapter 5. He says, you desire to have and
cannot obtain, you fight and war, yet you have not because
you ask not. First of all, I think he means
us to consider the wickedness of this kind of attitude. You
lust, you have not, you kill, you desire. Listen, this is serious
business here. Whenever you are so intent, whenever
I'm so intent on getting my way that I want to see people removed
out of the way, That's wicked. That's wicked, you see. This
is not just, well, you know old Joe, he's like that, you know,
we've got to put up with him. No, this is wicked. This is sin. And you need to consider that.
Consider this now. What are we in this world? Christ
has saved us from sin. Isn't that right? It cannot condemn
us. So therefore, should we take it lightly? No. Think about His
precious blood and what He did to save us from our sins. And
therefore, how are we to look upon it? It took the death of
the Son of God to remove our sins. And so for us to take it
lightly and then look on. Consider the reason you don't
get what you desire. Now, you want some, but you don't
get it. He says, well, the reason is because You fight and you
ask not, and what does he mean? Verse 3, well, I'm asking for
what I want, but look here, verse 3, he says, you ask and receive
not because you ask amiss, you ask in the wrong way. What's
the wrong way? Look at it, that you may consume
it upon your lust, just so you can get your way. In other words,
it has nothing to do with the glory of God, it has nothing
to do with the good of the body. What if that other person did
get their way? What would it really hurt? Think about that. And then he says, you want to
consume it upon your own lust. You don't turn to God in humility
and submission to Him and His will. You devise your own way,
your own plan of action. You may go out and get other
people on your side. Boy, I'll tell you, that's something,
isn't it? You go out and get other people
on your side. Things aren't working out the way you want, so what
do you do? You're discontent. You want what you want, and then
what do you do? Instead of praying to God and
submitting to His will, which may be, you're not getting your
way this time. And that's not the answer people
want to hear. So what do they do? They go out and they get
other people their side. And then what do you got? Division.
Factions. You see? And then you wonder
why you don't get what you want. This is why we have to always,
in prayer, be sure that our motives are right. And we must always
be submissive to God's will. Thy will be done. Somebody said
it this way, we should always, in prayer, subordinate our own
personal desires to the glory of God and the good of the body
of Christ and others. And that's the remedy. And then
look at verse 4. He says, consider this issue,
what it really means. He says, you adulterers and adulteresses. Now, what I believe he's talking
about here is spiritual adultery. Because what he's talking about,
the church, listen, the church is the bride of Christ. We're
married to Christ. Look over Romans chapter 7. It's
one of my favorite verses in seeking to understand this relationship. Romans chapter 7, verse 4. He says in verse 4, Wherefore,
my brethren, You also are become dead to the law by the body of
Christ. Dead to the law means we are
free from any condemning justice of the law. It cannot condemn
us. Why? Because Christ satisfied the justice of the law for our
sins. We no longer owe a debt to God's justice. Christ died
on the cross, shed his blood in full payment for all our sins. We have a righteousness that
answers the demands of the law. the righteousness of Christ freely
imputed to us and received by God-given faith. So we're dead
to the law in that sense by the body of Christ that you should
be married to another, even him who's raised from the dead. We're
wed, married to the resurrected Christ. For what reason? Now look at it. That we should
bring forth fruit unto God. Not that we should get our own
way. Not that we should cause conflict, division, not that
we should stir up trouble, but that we should bring forth fruit
unto God, unto His glory. Fruit, the good works that God
works in us and through us by His Spirit that honor Him and
that represent Him aright. He says in verse 5, for when
we were in the flesh, that's when we were not born again,
when we were unbelievers, the motions or passions of sins which
were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit
unto death. That's the works of unbelievers. But now we're
delivered from the law that being dead wherein we were held, that
we should serve in newness of spirit. That's without legalism,
but that's to serve in love to Christ and love to the brethren
and not in oldness of the letter. He says, look back at James,
he says, verse 4, you adulterers and adulteresses, you're acting
like you're being disloyal to Christ. That's what he means
there. It's just like a woman who is an adulteress is disloyal
to her husband. A man who's an adulterer is disloyal
to his wife. And what he's saying by these
conflicts and these factions and divisions, you who are married
to Christ, who are espoused to one husband, you're being disloyal
to him. You're trying to be loyal to
self. You see, you don't want his way, you want your way. And
so he says, no, you 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. What he's saying
here is this simply that that kind of activity, that kind of
attitude is worldly. It's worldly. And you're acting
like you're a friend of the world. Well, to be a friend of the world
is to be an enemy of Christ. You can't be both. You can't
serve God and mammon. You can't serve self and Christ.
Look over at Philippians chapter 3. Here's one of the best short
definitions of a Christian to me. Philippians 3 and verse 3. Now here he's talking about salvation.
That's what he's talking about. Paul is talking about how God
saved him, brought him into the kingdom from dead works to serve
the living God. But this is a continual thing
in the life of a believer. It's something that we live with
every day. He says in verse 3, for we are
the circumcision. Now, the circumcision there refers
to spiritual circumcision, which Paul had defined in Romans 2,
28 and 29. Circumcision of the heart. And
that's the new birth. That's when a sinner comes to
Christ for all of salvation, and he comes to repentance of
dead works. And he says, we're the circumcision which worship
God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus. Our confidence
is in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. We have
no confidence in the flesh to save us, to make us righteous,
to make us holy. Our confidence is totally in
Christ. And that, when that begins in
your heart by the spirit of God in the new birth, that's a lifelong
thing. have no confidence in the flesh. Look back at James 4 now. You
see, he says in verse 5 here, he says, Do you think that the
Scripture saith in vain, the Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth
to envy? There's a little controversy
over this verse here, whether it's set in a positive light
or a negative. You might see a reference in
your concordance to Genesis 6 in verse 5, and that's where before
Noah is mentioned where God surveyed the earth and he said the imaginations
of men's heart was only evil continually. And if that's what
this is from and if that's what James means, what he's talking
about is that we as believers have to be constantly on guard
against an evil heart. I mean, listen, don't let up.
It won't let up. We live with it every day. This
is a warfare. It's a daily warfare. A daily
warfare. There's peace in Christ. There's
solace and comfort and rest in Christ. But while we're on this
earth as sinners saved by the grace of God, who are sure for
heaven through Christ, there is a continual conflict and warfare.
Don't be in conflict with each other. Be in conflict with yourself.
Some say this should be translated differently. This verse 5 here. And that what he's talking about
is something like this. It would read like this, that
he jealously desires the Spirit which he has made to dwell in
us. Now, I don't know for sure where they got all that, but
if it is a positive life, again, what James is saying is the same
thing, is that we have to walk after the Spirit who indwells
us. and not after the flesh. We have to war after the flesh,
against the flesh rather. We have to fight it. Either way,
this is what James uses to encourage the people of God. Christ wants
our undivided allegiance, that's what he's saying. Look at verse
6, he says, but he giveth more grace, wherefore he saith, God
resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. This is
an appeal to sustaining grace. You know, whatever God requires,
you know, this is this is something that's unique about the Bible. One of the many, many things
that's unique about the Bible and the salvation that God gives
his people. And here it is. You know what
God requires of us? He gives to us. It's an amazing
thing. And this is what he's saying,
it's all grace. Just as God gives wisdom to his children, he gives
grace to the humble. It takes God's grace to make
us humble in salvation. We won't submit unless God makes
us submit. The Jews wouldn't submit, Paul
said in Romans 10. They were going about trying
to establish their own righteousness and would not submit to the righteousness
of God. What does that mean? They wouldn't
submit to Christ. And the one way of righteousness that God
sent him to accomplish, they wouldn't submit. But you know
what, brethren? It's the same way in every area
of life of ours. We don't want to submit. We don't
want to. But we need to. We need to. And what's the remedy? Listen
to what he gives here in verse 7. He says, Submit yourselves
therefore to God. Submission in these areas of
conflict, which don't involve the gospel, is not just submission
to a person. It's submission to God. And he
says, resist the devil. Now, when he says submit to God,
he means submit to the real will of God who made us to differ. Somebody says, well, I want to
preach. Well, if you have the gift of preaching, just sit still,
it'll be recognized. God will see to it because you
know who gave you that gift? God did. And if he gave you that
gift of preaching or teaching or whatever, he'll see that you
use it. You don't have to plunge yourself
into the preacher pool. You don't have to do that all.
You don't have to go around and get a faction of people saying,
well, now, I think I'll live there. You've heard me, you know,
you know, I'm a smart fella. Blah, blah, blah. You don't have
to do that. If Uncle Joe wants to preach,
he'll get Aunt Mary and Cousin Jim and they'll go and they'll
start a church in their house and all that. No, sir, that's
conflict. That's division. And if that's
your foundation and your goal in preaching, you are an abject
failure. I personally believe that nobody
in their right mind would pursue this field of ministry. I believe it's thrust
upon you. But listen to what I'm telling
you. If God gives you a gift, who made you to differ? You didn't
do it, and you didn't deserve it, and you didn't earn it. It's
just like salvation. It's by grace. And if God gave you a
gift, he'll see to it that you use the gift in his way, in his
time, and it won't be to exalt you. It'll be to exalt him. It'll be for the praise of the
glory of his grace. And then he says, resist the
devil and he'll flee from you. How do you resist the devil?
Well, number one, by pleading the blood of Christ. That's number
one. You want to get rid of the devil,
just plead the blood of Christ. That's why Revelation 12 says
that. When the devil accuses, what do they do? They plead the
blood of the Lamb that was slain. For his blood takes care of all
the devil's accusations. But again, by not fulfilling
the lust of the flesh. How? By prayer, by the Word of
God, by submission to God's will. He says here in verse 8, draw
nigh to God and He'll draw nigh to you. Seek to honor and follow
God's word in Christ in all things, in prayer, in word, in communion,
in obedience, in fellowship. We draw nigh to God because we
have Christ as our Redeemer and our Advocate. We continually
draw nigh to God as we get into His word and in the fellowship
of His people and in submission to His will. He says, cleanse
your hands, ye sinners. What does that mean? You know,
you can do your best. You can say, well, now, today
I'm not going to sin at all. I want to cleanse myself from
all sin. And the moment you wake up and take the first step, you'll
fail. You know that. So this doesn't mean that we
can cleanse ourselves from sin. We're cleansed from all sin by
what? By the blood of Christ. We're
clean in the sight of God, not because we had a good day today.
But because Christ died on Calvary and washed us in his blood and
clothed us in his righteousness. That's why we're clean before
God. So what does this mean? Cleanse your hands. He's simply
saying, do what's right. Fight sin. This is a goal. And you do it not in order to
be saved, but because you already are. Not in order to earn God's
favor. but because you're already blessed
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. He says, purify your hearts, you double minded. You see that? Seek to have right motives. That's
what he's talking about there. Do what's right and think what's
right. Seek to have right motives. He's
not talking about double minded in the gospel here. Those who
are double minded in the gospel, like James talked about over
in James 1, they're lost. You can't have a double mind
in the gospel and how God saves sinners and be one of Christ's
disciples. But double mindedness here has
simply to do with this. It's living a life that's inconsistent
with our beliefs. In other words, if I'm intent
on getting my way and if I don't get it, I'm going to make everybody
around me miserable. That's a double minded person
because that's not what we're here for. We're not here to do
that. We're not here to get vengeance.
We're not here to make everybody miserable. We may do our best
to do it, but we're not here for that. We're here to glorify
God. We're here to honor Christ. We're
here for the good of the body. And so he says in verse 9, 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. What's he talking about
there? He's simply talking about godly sorrow over sin. In these
matters of conflict and getting our way and division and all
that, be afflicted. Don't listen. Don't promote it.
And don't laugh about it. Because it's not funny. It ain't
funny. I'm telling you. This is serious
business. Mourn. He says you joke about
it. You go on lightly through it. You ought to be mourning and
weeping. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, your joy
to heaviness over this. God help us. That's what you
ought to be saying. Humble yourselves in the sight
of the Lord and he'll lift you up. Turn to Philippians 2 and
I'll close with this passage. This is one of those verses that
everybody likes to read. Philippians chapter 2. But nobody
wants to do. I'll show you what I mean. It's
a beautiful passage. And everybody loves to read it.
Oh, isn't that right? That's good. Oh, yeah. But what does it say? Listen
to Philippians chapter 2. If there be, verse 1, if there
be therefore any consolation in Christ. Are you at peace with
God in Christ? Comfort with God in Christ? Are
you a believer? Are you a sinner saved by the
grace of God? If any comfort of love, if any
fellowship of the Spirit, if any vows or compassions and mercies,
Fulfill ye my joy that ye be like mine, and having the same
love, being of one accord, of one mind, let nothing be done
through strife, conflict, or vainglory, pride. But in lowliness
of mind let each esteem other better than themselves." You're
better than me. Your way is better than mine.
Look not every man on his own things, just trying to get his
own way, but every man also on the things of others. Let this
mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." And then he
gives the supreme example. Christ, who being in the form
of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, for he
is God. But made himself of no reputation,
and took upon himself the form of a servant, and was made in
the likeness of men. He is God and man in one person.
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore,
God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name, which
is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow at things in heaven, things in earth, and things under
the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. All right. Let's
sing, Blessed be the tithe that binds, as our closing hymn.