James chapter 4. Our sole verse in the lesson this
morning is verse 7 of James chapter 4. Submit yourselves therefore
to God. Resist the devil and he will
flee from you. I had originally intended to bring a message on
submit and resist. And I prepared so many pages
of notes on submission, we're just going to stick with submission
this morning. We'll look at resisting next
week. But you remember verse six where we closed last week,
but he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth
the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. And since God does
resist the proud, since he gives grace to the humble, submit yourselves
therefore to God. And that's what I want us to
look at this morning, submission to God. You'll notice this is
a commandment. Submit yourself to God. It's not a good idea. It's not
something if you do this, God will do this. It's a commandment. Submit yourselves to God. And the first thing I see about
submission is this. Right off the bat, submission
to God is the right thing to do. It's only right. God is God. God's the creator. He's the ruler. He's the giver and sustainer
of life. And all we are, are sinful creatures. His creatures. It's only right
that we submit to them. Look back at Romans chapter 12. Apostle Paul tells us this in
no uncertain terms that it's only right that we submit to
God. Romans 12 verse 1. I beseech you, therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. Just submit to him, submit
everything you are, submit everything you have unto his use, which
is your reasonable service. It's just reasonable. And be
not conformed to this world, but be transformed. by the renewing
of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable
and perfect will of God. It's just your reasonable service
to submit to God. God is all wise and we're completely
ignorant. It's just right that we submit
ourselves to his wisdom. God is our father and we are
his children. It's only right that we submit
ourselves to his rule, to his wisdom, to His way, it's our
reasonable service. And second, this is about submission
to God. We should submit ourselves to
Him because this is the way our Savior taught us to pray. The
Savior and the disciples' prayer taught us to pray in submission. You go through that disciples'
prayer, something we've all memorized, it shows submission all the way
through it. Our Father, which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. thy kingdom come, thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven. Now that's praying in submission
and it's praying for God's will to be done everywhere. And someone's
thinking, well, pastor, God's will is going to be done. That's
true. God's will is going to be done.
Whether I pray for it or not, God's will is going to be done.
Our Lord's teaching us here to pray in submission. Lord, enable
me to be happy about your your will is done and able me to be
happy about it. And you know, as I'm speaking
to God's children here, not believers, we ought to be happy that God's
will is being done because everything our God does is right. Everything
he does is good. What is God's will? God's will
is the salvation of his people through the obedience and the
sacrifice of his son, not through our works, but through what Christ
has done. Now that's good. A sinner ought
to be happy about that. You know, I hear people talk
about, well, this is God's will. This, this happened. This is
God's will. That's that. Well, I don't know, but I do know this.
God's will is for the salvation of his people through the obedience
and sacrifice of his son. We ought to get right happy about
that. His will's being done. And whatever the Lord does in
providence, how it affects the earthly lives of his people,
It's for good. Absolutely for good. Because
God's arranging the events of providence is all for one purpose.
To bring his people to repentance and faith in Christ. And to ultimately
lead them through this world and bring them safely to glory.
Now a sinner ought to be happy to submit to that will. That's
God's will. Then the disciples prayer goes
on. Give us this day our daily bread. Now that submission is
just acknowledging, God, I need you to supply all my need. I
need you to supply my physical bread. I need you to supply my
spiritual bread. It's submission, Lord, give me
what's good for me. Give me what I need. The prayer
goes on, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Now
that submission to God's right, save or not save, to forgive
or not forgive. It's God's crown rights to show
mercy to whom he will show mercy. It's God's crown rights to save
whom he will, when he will. Our Lord taught us to pray in
submission. God, I'm begging you for the
forgiveness of my sin. Would you forgive my sin? And
the prayer goes on. Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. Now that submission to God's
power, submission to his keeping power, it's acknowledging my
weakness. Lord, don't lead me into temptation.
Don't even bring me face to face with temptation, because I'm
going to fall to it every single time. Can you think of a time
you've been tempted to sin and you didn't? There's not been
one. We're tempted to do anything. We fall every time. So this is
prayer and submission. God, I'm begging you, deliver
me from myself. Deliver me from the evil that's
in me. Deliver me from the evil that's
in the world around me. I need you to keep me or I'm
going to fall. That submission is power. It's
keeping power. And then our prayer ends right
back where it started in submission to God who rules over all. For
thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen. God is the king. And our prayer,
the prayer that our Lord taught us to pray, submits to the king
as his loyal subject. That's the way our Lord taught
us to pray. It's submission to God. Thirdly, submission to God. It's
submission to his word. Submission to the word of God.
Submission and faith both believe all of God's word. And by that
I mean We don't pick and choose the parts of scripture that we
believe, the parts that we like. You know, we don't say, well,
you know, I'll take this, but I won't take this. We can't say,
well, you know, I'm going to, I'll, I'm a strong Calvinist.
I'll take Romans nine. I believe that. But now, you
know, preacher, you start talking about the believers walk and
start and conduct. You're not preaching the gospel.
I know people that say that exact same thing. That's not submission
to God's word. Submission, true submission,
believes God's Word and bows to all of God's Word, whether
I understand it or not. True submission bows to God's
Word when it crosses my flesh. That's right. When God's Word
crosses our flesh, brethren, we'd better bow to it. We'd better,
because I can promise you this, the flesh is wrong and the Word's
right. We'd better bow to it. The flesh is the thoughts of
sinful man. The word is the word of God.
This is the word that God says is all you need to know about
me. All you need to know about you,
all you need to know about salvation, then we better bow to it. Submission
bows to God's word. Submission to the word believes
the whole message of scripture concerning the nature of God.
God is holy. He's just, he's right. Everything
he does is holy, right. God is sovereign. Now submission
bows to that. If God's sovereign, he's holy,
he's just, he's right. Then it ought to be obvious salvation's
up to him, not to me. Is that right? Then I'm gonna
bow to that. Whatever God does with me is
right. So I'm gonna beg him for mercy.
And I better beg him for mercy Because the message from scripture
about man is something we better bow to. Submission bows to it.
All men. And the point I bow to is not
all men. The point is me. I am lost in
sin. I am totally depraved. You know,
it's easy to see everybody in the world is totally depraved,
isn't it? Here's the issue. This is submission. I am totally
depraved. I am. There's no goodness in
me. There's no righteousness in me. By nature, I am the enemy
of God. And the only thing that I deserve
from God is eternal death and eternal wrath. That's what I've
earned from God. That's what the message of scripture
concerning the nature of man and submission binds to. Submission
says, I can't do anything to save myself, so I'm not going
to try. I can't do anything to get God
to save me, so I'm going to quit trying to do stuff to bribe God.
I'm completely dependent upon God to save me by His grace.
And I'm going to be like that Syrophoenician woman and stay
at His feet. That's where I'm going to find
grace. And it's up to Him to show it or not. See, this makes
you and me the nature of God, the nature of man. That makes
you and me mercy beggars. God does not owe me salvation. This is one of the root causes of error
in Armenian theology. God doesn't owe us salvation.
I mean, just because we think, you know, the American government
owes me, you know, my Bill of Rights and those kinds of things,
that don't mean God does. God doesn't owe me salvation,
but he can give it. He can give it. So all of us
are like that leper. Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. The message of scripture leaves
us here. Salvation is not a question of
God's power. It's a question of God's will.
I'm going to submit to it. Salvation is a question of will,
but it's not a question of my will. It's a question And submission
bows to that. This is all God's will. So I'm
begging you to save me. I'm begging you to show mercy
upon me. All right, here's the fourth
thing. Submission to God is submission
to His way of salvation. It's submission to the gospel.
Now look back just a page or two at Hebrews chapter 13. See
if I can show you this. Submission to God is submission
to his gospel, the way of salvation revealed in the gospel. Hebrews
13 verse 17, obey them that have the rule over you and submit
yourselves for they watch for your souls as they that must
give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief
for that is unprofitable for you. Now this obey, and normally
it's this word obey, obey them that have the rule over you.
when it's twisted up and misused, almost always it's misused by
some man standing behind a pulpit. It doesn't mean that you're to
obey my every whim, everything you do in your life, you've got
to come ask me whether you should do it or not. That's not it at
all. You just beware. Here's something you get for
free. You just beware of a man standing up behind a pulpit and
saying, I'm God's authority in this place and you better listen
to me. I'm God's servant in this place. If he's God's servant,
you'll know it. He ain't gonna have to tell you.
You're gonna know it by his message. This obey here means obey the
gospel that the pastor preaches. Well, how do I obey God's gospel?
By believing in him. By believing on the Lord Jesus
Christ. The writer says, that'd be profitable
for you. You submit yourself to the gospel. That'll be profitable for you.
That'll save your soul. Now, what is the gospel that
we preach? Well, the doctrine of election
is clearly taught throughout the entire word of God. You cannot
preach the gospel without preaching election. Can't be done. All
through the scripture, we're taught election. God has elect
angels. 1 Timothy 5 tells us that. Those angels, God elected them.
You know why they didn't follow Lucifer? God elected them before
that happened. That's why. God elected the nation,
Israel, to be his nation on the earth. Now everybody knows that. God's people were the people,
the Jewish people. He dealt with them and he passed
every other nation by. Everybody knows that. And that
earthly people represented a spiritual people, represented spiritual
Israel. Now, nobody has, nobody today
has a problem with God electing the Jews and dealing with the
Jews and not dealing with the Philistines. Nobody has a problem
with that. Because we're not Philistines. We're not Jews.
It doesn't directly affect us. Nobody has a problem with God
having elect angels and non-elect angels. Nobody has a problem
with that because we're not angels. Well, here's the truth of it.
God also elected a sinful people to save. And that election, God's
electing love, is the fountainhead of all the salvation that there
is for sinners. Salvation began with God's electing
love. And if you take away election,
now you've taken away the all of salvation for any sinner,
because that's where it all began. Submission to God is submission
to his right to elect me and his will to elect me and his
will to save me. So I'm going to beg him, the
way I know I've submitted to that, is I'm not trying to go
around finding out am I one of the elect or not. All I'm doing
is falling at his feet and begging him for mercy. That's how you
know if you're one of the elect or not. Do you come begging for
mercy? Do you trust him? Do you have faith in him? The
only people who have faith are the people God elected to save.
That's just so. Then God's way of salvation is
declared in the gospel. Salvation is through the righteousness,
through the obedience of Christ. Not through my obedience, but
through his obedience. Salvation is in Christ's life,
not ours. It's in his obedience, not ours.
So submission is doing what Paul said the unsaved Jews would not
do. He said they would not submit themselves to the righteousness
of God. They wouldn't quit trying to
make God happy with them by what they do. If we're going to submit
to the righteousness of God, we're going to quit trying to
make God happy with us by all the religious stuff that we do
and just rest in Christ, because we believe Christ is enough to
save me. I don't have to add anything
to it. It's his obedience. And the gospel declares that
God's way of salvation is through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's his blood, the blood of
his sacrifice that cleanses us from all sin. So submission to
God is to quit trying to sacrifice things that we think will make
him happy. To quit trying to give up things that this flesh
loves in order to please God. You're giving up the pleasures
of the flesh. Picking just one is what they
do. Picking one pleasure of the flesh
to give up during a time period that men have decided to call
Lent. It's got a beginning and ending arbitrarily picked by
some man, and you pick one thing, one earthly pleasure to give
up during that time is the most insulting thing that I can think
of. First, and not the most important,
it insults me. That just insults my intelligence.
You're not giving that up. I mean, come on. That's just
insulting to me. But even if you could, what are
you doing about that sin the rest of the year? Lent and things
like that. You've got to give up this earthly
pleasure in order to be saved. That is the greatest insult to
the sacrifice of Christ I can imagine. It's to say, I've got
to sacrifice something too in order to be saved. It's like,
well, Christ didn't sacrifice enough already. His sacrifice
is not enough, so I've got to add to it. Submission is to trust
Christ's sacrifice alone. His blood alone to make me whole. Submission to the gospel is to
believe things that I cannot see and I cannot understand. The gospel declares God's people
have been made righteous in Christ. Often when I look at myself,
I don't see that. I wish I did, but I don't. All
I see about myself is sin and depravity ugliness and rebellion,
I don't see it. I do not understand how it is
that I'm righteous in God's eyes. I believe it. That's what the
word declares. That's what the gospel declares.
I just bow to it. I don't understand how Christ
was made sin, but I believe it. I bow to it. That's my hope of
redemption, that my sin was really, truly taken away from me and
put on Him. and he put it away by his sacrifice.
That's submission, even though I do not understand it. In God's way of salvation declared
in the gospel is this, the Holy Spirit must give life, must give
life. And he does give life to all
of God's people in the new birth. It's the Holy Spirit who draws
sinners to Christ. I know this. I know it from my
experience. I know it from God's word. I cannot come to God. I cannot and I will not. I know both of those things are
true. I will not come to God begging him for mercy. So I know
I will not be born again by my decision. No, my decision to
accept Jesus is not coming to God because I cannot and I will
not do it. I'm going to be born again when
the Holy Spirit gives me life and he draws me to Christ and
he does that through the preaching of the gospel. And submission
is bowing to that, believing that. That it's the Spirit that
gives me life. So my submission cries, Lord,
draw me. Draw me. You're going to draw
somebody, Lord, draw me. If you draw me, I'll come. I
love what the bride says in Solomon 1, verse 4. Draw me. We'll run
after you. Draw me. We'll run. That's submission. to the gospel priest. The fifth
submission to God is submission to His commandments. Now we read
this just a moment ago in Romans 12. Don't submit to this world. Don't be conformed in this world.
Don't be conformed to the way of this world. Reject that and
follow God's way. Now don't submit to sin. Don't
submit to it. I know that all we do is sin. I know that. But don't give in
to it. Don't give in to it. I know sin's
gonna be, even if it doesn't show outwardly, I know sin's
still in the heart, but don't give, just don't give in to it
to act on any way you want to. Don't think it doesn't matter
how I live. Don't think, well, I know and
God knows all I can do is sin, so it doesn't matter how I live.
Don't think, well, all I can do is sin, all I am is sin, and
Christ died to put my sin away, so it just really doesn't matter
how I live. Don't think that. You listen
to me now. Thinking that way is just an
excuse to go out and live in sin and not feel bad about it.
It's just trying to use some religious jargon to ease my conscience
to go out and just live in sin all I want to and think it doesn't
matter how I live. If you love Christ, How can you
possibly think that way? How can you possibly? If you
love Christ, don't give in to sin and do your best to live
honoring the Savior. Look over at 1 Peter 1. This
is God's commandment to his people. 1 Peter 1. Verse 13. Wherefore, gird up the loins
of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that
is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ,
as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former
lust in your ignorance, but as he which hath called you is holy,
so be you holy in all manner of conversation, all your conduct,
because it's written. Be ye holy, for I am holy. Now that applies to how we live,
our everyday lives. And I know we can't be holy in
thought, in action, in motive, or in deed. I understand that.
But strive to be holy. Strive to live an honest life
before meeting. Strive for it. But now look at
1 John chapter 3. There's one commandment that
this is all primarily referring to. And this is a commandment
that every believer keeps. Every believer obeys this commandment.
Verse John 3, verse 22. And this is his commandment.
This is his commandment, that we should believe on the name
of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he has given
us commandment. This is the commandment that
we love, that we believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and we love him. Verse 24, he that keepeth his
commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we
know that he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given
us. See, believers are called believers
because they believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
who they believe. And every believer obeys this
commandment to believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
To love Christ, to love God, to love one another, because
the spirit has given them a new nature, born in a new birth. This is God's commandment. Believe. Believe His Son. Believe that
salvation is all of Christ. It's all of God's grace and none
of our works. Love Christ and love His people.
Every believer everywhere obeys that commandment because God's
given them a nature of faith and love in the new birth. All
right, sixthly, submission to God is submission to all of His
dealings with me. Now you know this, many, many
of the Lord's dealings with his people in this life, many of
his events of providence hurt our flesh. Many of them do. The Lord takes away things that
this flesh loves. He takes away people we love.
He takes away possessions that we love. He takes away power. He takes away money. He takes
away strength. Man told me recently, he said,
I used to know, he said, for most of my life, even from the
time I was a teenager, I knew I was the strongest man in the
room. I liked it. He said, now I'm
so weak, I can't hardly go anywhere without a cane. He said, that's
been tough for me to get used to. Lord takes away these things
of the flesh and it hurts. Do you know why he does it? He
said, we won't trust in those things. Trust in Christ. That's exactly why. I was preparing
these notes and I thought about when my girls were little. They
were at home and I was young and strong. Nothing hurt. I could do whatever I wanted,
whenever I wanted. The girls were there and little and just
sweet and just, oh, Life never could get any better than that. If the Lord left me there all
my life, I wouldn't be ready to leave.
And He starts taking those things away, doesn't He? He starts taking
away that strength. He starts taking away the things
that make us the happiest in this life, so we don't trust
in those things. But we learn to trust in Christ. Trust in Christ. God's going
to take away. Eventually he's going to take
away everything except him. I need to learn to trust him.
I need to learn to submit to him. Lord's got to wean us away
from this world so that we can be ready to depart and be with
Christ, which is why I read it. When I was a young man, I remember
that Jan was pregnant with Holly. And I've told you this before,
but I guess it's part of getting old. You're older and you start
repeating yourself. Henry preached a message on this
very thing. The Lord takes away these things. So you're ready,
you're anxious to depart this life. And I remember thinking
through that. I'm not. I mean, I'm just telling
you the truth. I'm not. And after the message
and we were standing around talking, he pointed me and he said, no,
he's not. He's not. He's not ready to leave
here. And he said, you ought not be. You ought not be. You've
got a child on the way. You're young. You've got a young
wife. You've got a family to support and raise. You ought
not want to be. He said, but you get to be my
age, you will. The Lord's going to teach you some things. He's
going to take away some things. He's going to put you through
some things that makes you ready to leave this place. Find less joy in these temporary
things and find all of our joy in Christ. That's why. And when
the Lord tries us, and it hurts, oh, it hurts. Submission says
what Eli said. It's still there. I didn't do
what seemed to have been good. Submission is what David said.
Shimehi was cursing him and chucking rocks at him. Abishai wanted
to go, he said, I'm going to take that guy's head off. He
said, why should that dog be cursing my king? And David said,
you lay him alone. The Lord told him, first of all.
The Lord told him to throw rocks at David. You let him alone.
He said, no, that's submission. And David said, could be, Lord,
give me peace. He said, no, that's submission. Submission is this,
in everything. This is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you. That's the easiest thing, tough
to do, but submission about to. Absolutely, when everything gets
dangerous. All right, lastly, you cannot talk about submission
without talking about our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is
the great example of submission. And we talk about this submission,
you kind of get depressed, don't you? We're not submissive. I mean, not only are we not perfectly
submissive, we're hardly submissive. I mean, I understand those old
Jews. I try to be, you know, I understand our stiff-necked
ancestors, because I got one too. But our Lord Jesus Christ
was perfectly submissive. All submission is willing submission. If you're forced to submit, it's
not submission. Christ our Savior came to this earth and submitted
His Father willingly. He came willingly to accomplish
the redemption of His people. He said, I must be about my Father's
business. I must work while I stay. I've
got a job to do." He willingly submitted to do it. He willingly
submitted to his mother Mary and his foster father Joseph.
Can you think of that? I mean, they couldn't make him
submit. He's the one that's giving them breath. He's the one that's
giving them life. He's the one sustaining their
life. He's God. They're the creature. But he
was born a man. He was born Mary's child and
he submitted himself to their authority. He submitted himself
to his own law. He obeyed all of it, every jot
and every tittle perfectly. He obeyed every ceremony, observed
every ceremony, every day and every feast. And after about
33 and a half years of that, he willingly submitted to his
father. Go to the cross and be made sin
and to suffer untold agony. He prayed about it. Father, if
it be possible, let this cup pass to me. Nevertheless, not
as I will, but as I will. He submitted himself. The mob
couldn't take him in the garden unless he allowed them. All he
had to do is say his name, I am, and they all fell on the ground.
He willingly went with them to go to the cross. Those soldiers
couldn't beat him, they couldn't mock him, unless he let them.
He gave his back to the smiling scriptures. He gave his cheeks
to those that plucked off his hair. He had to give himself
to be mocked. I hid not my face from shame
and spit. He told Pilate, you got authority
over me because I'm willingly submitting to you. You have no
power at all over me except my father, which is heaven given
to you. And he submitted in love, in love to his father, in love
to honor his father, to fulfill that covenant of grace. And he
submitted in love for his people so that they would be redeemed.
Now Christ did not submit himself to the father because he's less
than the father. Not at all. He's equal with the
father. He thought it not robbery to be equal with the father because
he is equal with the father. But he submitted in love, didn't
he? Willingly. This is how wives submit themselves
to their own husbands in the Lord. Not because a woman is
less than a man, not because she's less smart than a man,
not because she's got less wisdom or she's less able. It's out
of love. It's willingly. Now this comes
right back to where we started. It's only right that the believer
follow the example of our Savior. He was even superior to his people
in every way, but he submitted himself willingly because that's
what was best for everybody involved. This was the way. His Father
would be honored. This is the way His people would
be saved. You and I are far inferior to our Savior. Then we should
willingly submit to Him, shouldn't we? We should willingly submit
to Him in love, because He's greater than us. We should willingly
submit, willingly, in love, following His example, because that's best
for everybody involved. That's best for everybody involved. I hope the Lord will bless that
too.