THE WAY OF GREATER GRACE

THE WAY OF GREATER GRACE James 4:6-10 March 13, 2011 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introduction Moral erosion continues in America, according to James Patterson and Peter Kim. They report that 74 percent of Americans will steal from those who won't miss it, and 64 percent will lie for convenience as long as no one is hurt. Most Americans (93 percent) say they alone decide moral issues, basing their decisions on their own experience or whims. Eighty-four percent say they would break the rules of their own religion. and 81% have a violated a law they felt to be inappropriate. Only 30 percent say they would be willing to die for their religious beliefs or for God. Statistically, at least half of the people in all these statistics would also say they are Christians. An Anglican author named Ronald Rolheiser wrote: We want to be a saint, but we also want to feel every sensation experienced by sinners; we want to be innocent and pure, but we also want to be experienced and taste all of life; we want to serve the poor and have a simple lifestyle, but we also want all the comforts of the rich; we want to have the depth afforded by solitude, but we also do not want to miss anything; we want to pray, but we also want to watch television, read, talk to friends, and go out. It's a small wonder that life is often a trying enterprise, and that we are often tired and pathologically overextended. This morning’s message is The Way of Greater Grace. I want to invite you to take the next few minutes to truly investigate the content of this section of scripture and uncover what God is revealing for our lives. Text – James 4:1-10 1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. 4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud - but shows favor to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. We have three enemies If we distill the teaching of the New Testament down to a simple, short list of chronic problems that Christians face as we strive to live for the Lord, we are led to three enemies. These are the enemies of our souls that wage continual battle against us as we strive to live for God. We saw them summarized in an earlier study of James 3:15 – The wisdom of this world does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. The Book of Common Prayer that governed Christian teaching in the churches during the colonial days our young United States, said it even more concisely: the world, the flesh and the devil. It will benefit us to give a few minutes consideration to these three enemies and our resources against them. 1. Enemy #1 – The World – James 4:4 We saw this two weeks ago in our study: the world is our enemy. In very strong language, Peter calls his readers “adulterers” in order to make his point. Sometimes we have to be hit in the head with a 2X4 to get the point. Jesus used the same tactic with Peter one day when the “foot-in-his-mouth apostle” tried to tell Jesus that His suffering and death was not the right way to serve God. Jesus said, “Get out of my sight, Satan One thing that I am coming to believe we do not have enough of in our culture and in our churches is a realism about how bad a thing sin is, and that when we attach ourselves to the idols of this world we are detaching ourselves from God! And among those who rebel against God in willful sin, even when it is time to repent, there is no sense of remorse! James 4:4 asks believers incredulously, Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity (WAR) with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God! Somehow there is a broad delusion among Christians that since we are so easily forgiven, we can just sin whenever we want to, grieving the Holy Spirit, betraying the Lord Jesus and dishonoring God our Father without any regret or consequence. This is the antinomian spirit Paul addressed in Romans 6 in the strongest negative terms the Greek language has to offer: ME GENOITO! Brothers and sisters, the world including its “no fault” attitude toward wrongdoing is your enemy, and ought never to be your friend. God says as soon as you join hands with the world, in that very moment you have let go of my hand. A woman who had achieved a great deal of fame described herself as a “rather strict mom of two kids” In an interview with Ladies Home Journal, this 46-year old woman reflected on her past, saying, I hurt people by confusing them. One minute I was saying ‘Believe in yourself,’ and the next I was saying, ‘Just be sexually provocative for the sake of sexual provocation.’ Now that's confusing. …I was just not thinking. I let myself be tricked…by the…world, knowing I was getting attention, letting it pump up my ego. Aren't I great, they're writing about me, my picture's on the cover of every magazine. I'm so fabulous. I wasn't saying those things out loud, but deep down inside, they were there. The mother? Madonna. Finally, she is starting to get it. But what is so sad is that a growing number of Christians don’t get it. They are perfectly happy claiming a friendship with God, but living like His enemy. God says, You can’t have it both ways. Just because it’s popular doesn’t mean it’s pure; just because it’s legal doesn’t mean it’s right; the patterns of this world’s thinking are in diametric opposition to my heart. I want better for you. 2. Enemy #2 – The Flesh – James 4:1 & 5 The entire 1st paragraph in James 4 is all about self-centeredness and goes right to the heart of the problem of sin: those who adapt to the worldly ways of thinking find it easy to ignore God and do what they want to do, not only because everyone else is doing it, but because they want to do it. It feels good; they like it; they’re scratching their itch, meeting their needs, getting their groove on, taking care of number one. That is “the flesh.” But all the while they are frying their spirits. Every desire in the human heart is at root a good and healthy desire, but the sinful nature of man has twisted and distorted, scratched and dented it beyond recognition. Sinus medication, bath salts and glue are all good things, but not when you shoot it into your veins, or sniff it til your brains putrefy and your heart stops, that stuff that is good by design turns deadly. But we’re having fun! Sex is good, and it’s good for you, and God created us that way, but exercised outside the godly boundary of marriage is it wrong and destructive. Oh, it’s still fun. It’s fun to have a food fight, too, but when the fun is over and all your food is on a dirty floor, and you’re hungry, you realize what you’ve wasted. God is not a cosmic killjoy. He is very much interested in your maximizing your human experience, but He says there is a right way that both honors Him and benefits you, and there is a wrong way that both dishonors Him and destroys you. Alcohol is not essentially a bad thing, but once a confused and selfish carnal nature gets hold of it, it becomes a murderer. God’s will and His Word have always taught the value of moderation, but people don’t want to hear that message. They have a hungry, itching, carnal nature unchecked by spiritual sense, they throw gas on the fire every time. Driving down West Boulevard in Belleville one day this week when the weather was nice, I saw someone stopped, straddling a bicycle on the sidewalk ahead of me. As I got closer I saw the bike was rigged to hold an oxygen tank, and the tubing went up around the bike frame to a mask for the man’s face. I thought, “Neat! This guy is not letting his emphysema or COPD keep him down.” But I soon was able to see he had the mask off, the tube loose around his neck. This man had stopped his bike, turned off his oxygen (I hope) and was smoking a cigarette. Against all reason our hungry carnal nature keeps winning until it kills us. We have an enemy called our flesh (carnality) and it lives right inside our sinful hearts and minds. It is entirely selfish, and cannot be trusted to have your best interests in mind. Left unchecked it will kill everything human in you, including your desire to please God. If that’s what you want, go for it! But don’t pretend to be a friend of God’s. You’ve disowned Him. 3. Enemy #3 – The Devil – James 4:7 Besides the world and the flesh, there is another enemy of our souls. The Bible calls him the devil. Just as the believer who is indwelt and empowered by God’s Spirit is called to resist the influence of the world and resist the carnal impulses of the flesh, verse seven says he must resist the devil. Satan in all his forms (demons, masqueraders as angels of light, powerful strongholds standing against the knowledge of God, controlling rulers, powers and authorities in high places), is your enemy, Christian. He is, according to scripture, a defeated enemy (ultimately), but he is very much alive and well on planet earth, and I warn you, he is out to get you. Specifically, his goals are to steal from you your blessings in Christ, to harm you to the point of killing you and to destroy you and everything about you. You are not immune to Satan just because you are a Christian. In fact, your faith aggravates him. His intent is to do anything he can to drive a wicked wedge between you and the Lord. You must know also that the devil is permitted to use either of the first two enemies to get at you—the world’s influences and your carnal nature. You must be watchful against this malevolent adversary, Peter reminds us: be self controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. To help you against this sinister enemy, God gives you everything you need. His Word is yours—that’s the weapon we saw Jesus wielding against Satan in the wilderness. His Spirit is living within you to empower you against all his wiles. And God has a variety of protective armor, listed in Ephesians 6, that will help you in the battle with the prince of this world: righteousness, the spoken gospel, the shield of faith, the Word of God as Truth, and prayer. We have four winning strategies He gives more grace! (vs. 6) 1. Strategy #1 – Submit yourself to God The first tactic of war is to know your enemy. Now you see all three of them. What will you do to defeat them? We’ll wrap up this teaching with four simple, clear and specific strategies direct from God’s Word. Look more closely at verse 7: Submit yourselves, then, to God. Listen to me, Christian. God is your defense. We don’t need to cook up a lot of mumbo-jumbo strategic heavenly war plans, pray in this level and that level and use all the right terms ratified by generals God’s intercessory armies—not for this very practical hand-to-hand combat. The number one strategy is very simple: first, submit to God. He is your Defender, your shield and buckler, your Deliverer. If you are a football coach you want big guys on the front line. If you are the quarterback you definitely want strong, quick linemen to protect you. Almighty God is your defense, and He has already covenanted with you that He will never leave you or forsake you. But you have to do what He says. He cannot, will not protect you if you’re running all over the field and doing things contrary to the plays He calls. When you deliberately sin, when you let yourself be victimized by any of those three mean linebackers over there (there’s world at left LB, there’s flesh at right LB, and the big ugly one, the devil as the center linebacker). They all want nothing but to bring you down. You have got to stay in the close shadow of your blocker. You do that by submitting to Him. If you want God’s protection you must submit to His direction. Every time you get burned by your enemies, you can study the post game film and see what went wrong when you got leveled. And you’ll see that somewhere along the line you tried something different from the will of your Defender. And you fell victim to the world or the flesh or the devil or all three of them in a gang tackle. Submit yourselves, then, to God. Tell Him He is Lord—then act like it. Study His playbook, get familiar with His truth, His moves His goals. Apply yourself to one thing and one thing only: strict obedience to Him. And when you fall, get back up and back into the game, and remember, the way you get back up and into the game is to repent—sincerely and completely. Grieve, mourn, wail, and change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Ask God to forgive you and He will. Then trust that He has forgiven you. If you do these things, you will not only protect yourself, but you will be victorious. You’ll be putting points on the scoreboard for God’s team, and you’ll be growing yourself into the image of Christ. And that is His perfect will for your life. 2. Strategy #2 – Resist the Devil and he will flee from you You must resist the devil in every one of his attacks, whether directly through oppression of some sort, or through the world and the flesh. Stand against him. You have that ability. If you will resist him, he will recognize God’s defense in you and he will leave you. That’s God’s promise. Mountain lions are the most threatening wildlife to humans in the southwest. If you encounter one you must resist the urge to run. Because once you turn your back on him, the lion will jump you and sink his teeth into your neck with the intent to crush your cerebral vertebrae. They instinctively know that you will be paralyzed and unable to offer any resistance then. Never turn your back and try to run from a mountain lion: you will be toast. Stand firm and resist the enemy, and he will flee. 3. Strategy #3 – Come near to God and he will come near to you. God is all about initiating relationship with us. While we were still sinners Christ died for us. He made the first move. But now, as children of God, the rules change a bit. God desires for his love to be returned to him and he tells us it is our turn to initiate relationship. When you draw near to God in prayer and meditation on His Word, in thoughtful and grateful reflection on His blessings in your life, it is then we are moving closer to Him. As soon as you do, God will reciprocate and come near to you. In a divine romance he calls us to move in His direction. In that way we actually prepare our own hearts to receive His love. The most important piece of this strategy is God’s promise. Make even the slightest move in my direction, God says, and I will come running to you. I will be near you and protect and encourage you. 4. Strategy #4 – Humble yourself before the Lord. Six times in scripture we are given this exhortation: humble yourself before the Lord. How do you humble yourself? Let me start by saying you do not humble yourself by trying to be humble. That always ends up in a pride mess. How do you humble yourself? In a sense this fourth strategy is a natural outgrowth of strategy #3, “Come near to God.” Here’s why. You cannot come closer to God without being humbled by Him. He is, after all, God. You are His creation at least, His child at best. But He is God—God almighty, the holy and exalted God, the perfect and righteous God. That we are even invited to come near to Him is humbling, let alone to trust that He will receive us.     [ Back to Top]