Walking Down Victory Lane II James 4

Walking Down Victory Lane II  James 4:7b   EBC   3/02/08

  We talked last week about the importance of having God’s grace on our lives. We said God only gives grace to the humble (those that do not have a reconceived notion of what the Christian life ought to be and want to follow that notion). Without God’s grace we can’t have victories. Read Peter Note.

  Explain what being submissive to God means.

  We need to continue with our study of how to walk down victory lane.

  Not only do we need to submit to God but:

I. We Need to Resist the Devil

  A. As soon as Satan sees God’s grace working in your life he starts his work against us.

    1. If a person neither believes in the existence of Satan nor feels his activities against him, he may begin to have serious doubts about the real existence of grace in his heart and his genuine submission to God.

    2. Spiros Zodhiates-  A godly life is characterized by its conflicts with sin. The place most frequented by Satan is that in which holiness dwells. Satan hates submission and humility towards God. The greatest effort of Satan when dealing with man is to make him feel important and proud. It is through the heart of the proud that Satan can accomplish his purpose, even as it is through the heart of the humble and submissive that God can accomplish His work of grace.

      a. Satan succeeded in making the first man believe he could be as a god, as he is still trying that today. When we rebel against God we are making ourselves god of our lives – making ourselves little gods.

  B. Resist- made up of two words – anti- against, histemi- to stand. The word actually means to stand against.

    1. It is once again a military term and refers to one taking a position against another in battle.

    2. It is a war of survival – We will either fight daily against Satan or taken captive by him. We can’t make peace with the devil. If you have made peace with the devil then you are in hi camp.

  C. Resist the devil- be ready every minute of every day for his attacks. Woman told me once things have been going pretty well now that I haven’t been going to church – how do you explain that. I told here that now the devil had her in his camp.

    1. 1 Peter 5:8- this is how satan is poised to attack

  D. One of satan’s grandest tools is depression. An old fable says that the devil once offered his tools for sale, intending to give up his business. He displayed these tools—malice, hatred, jealousy, deceit, and several others, with the prices marked on them. One of them was set apart, marked with a higher price than the others. When the devil was asked why this was, he said, “Because that is my most useful tool; it is called depression; with that I can do anything with people.” How true! Let us watch, therefore, when it makes its appearance and take our stand against depression; it is often from the devil.

    1. One man wrote “if I were the devil I would wage and all out war with with spirits of depression and despair, anger and bitterness, jealousy and lust, deceit and pride”.

  E. The devil does not like our company if we don like make a place for him he’ll flee. Don’t you want him to flee?