06-06-07 - Step over the line - James 4.7-10 - NSB
James 4:6-10 –
NSB 5-6-07
NTSK - Thompson’s Chain Reference Bible (vv. 7-8) – TBKC – Believer’s Bible Commentary – JFB – KJV Bible Commentary – Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Commentary – BE Commentary -
Scripture – Leanna? Check With Ashleigh
INTRODUCTION
According to Johnny Hunt, the problem with contemporary Christianity is that the vast majority of Christians have never made the transition from declaration to discipleship.
And we are looking at that in chapter four as James gives us a call to commitment –
That is, in your life and in my life there should be a determined move from declaration to dedication.
I. The Condition (vv. 1-5)
So, let’s back up an get the first five verses so we can see the Condition that James is writing about here -
[Read verses 1-5]
So…
The first five verses really seem to be talking about the old nature that is within us, don’t they?
And…
As we examine those first five verses we see that there is fighting and Quarreling and lusts and asking amiss and having a divided loyalty to God by trying to be a friend to the world and to God.
None of these things are of God -
These things are associated with pride, and if they are going on in a Christian church family then they reveal a time of spiritual need.
So, what is a church to do if it finds itself described by these first five verses?
- God’s Word says that if we will draw near to Him then we can find grace to help us in this time of need.
And so, in verse 6 James says, “He gives more grace.”
So, that is the condition in 1-5 but in verse six we see that there is a collision.
It is a collision between the pride which caused the problem we see in 1-5 and humility.
II. The Collision (v. 6)
Beginning in verse six we see that a line has been drawn and you are either on one side of it or the other side.
On one side of this line you yield to the pride of the first five verses.
On the other side, you humble yourself before God.
And what this verse says is:
You humility is attractive to God.
Your pride is not.
In the 18th chapter of Luke, Jesus teaches in a parable of two men that one’s humility exalted him and the other’s pride abased him.
A. Pride
Then verse six says that God resisteth the proud.
So, if you are on the pride side then you need to know that God has set Himself in array against you.
When you bring your pride into the relationship that God has with you it puts you in the yoke backwards and it results in the problems of the first five verses.
Because…
The pride that comes from the world is not a part of God’s plan
Worldly Pride is a tool of the devil
Satan used it against Eve
He tried to use it against Jesus
Satan himself yielded to it and fell from heaven
It promotes people and not God
We do not put new Christians into positions of spiritual leadership because of the danger of pride.
It is never helpful to a church
Here is my original advice to our church family so you can quote me on this:
(And once again I have gone deep into my theological dictionaries to bring you this truth.)
Pride in the church is like an icy patch on the road
It is hard for you to get anywhere until you get over it.
-Charlie Robertson
Frank Sinatra used to have a song, Elvis and some others recorded it also –
I Did It My Way
And that is exactly what Satan wants you to do.
Do it your way – Go as far as you can take you.
Be proud…
Peter was a proud man –
He tried to do it his way on more than one occasion
He cut off a man’s ear
He said he would never deny the Lord
But the Bible says –
God resisteth the proud –
See, to be a friend of the world is to have God for an enemy.
For a Christian to be caught up in the pride of the world, he has to step over the line that separates worldliness from godliness.
But, on the other side of the line and opposed to pride is, humility.
B. Humility
(Still in verse 6) -
Your pride is not attractive to God but your humility is.
You and I are supposed to be clothed with humility toward one another.
Matthew 23:12 (KJV) 12And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.
Hezekiah had to humble himself for the pride that was in his heart – 2 Chron. 32:26
Verse six says that God gives grace to the humble -
C. Grace
There is no other way to get grace other than to have it given to you.
What is this grace?
This is the grace that is sufficient for Paul – 2 Corinthians 12:9
This is the grace that is able to save – Eph 2:8-9
This is part of the grace and truth that came through Jesus Christ
This is the grace that Stephen had as he did great signs and wonders among the people.
This is the grace that you and I are to grow in.
In the next few verses we see what we are to do to receive the grace that God gives to the humble.
III. The Commands (vv. 7-10)
James tells us that…
In light of the line that separates pride and our humbling ourselves before God, we are called to commitment that has four parts to it.
#1 – Submit to God
#2 – Resist the devil
#3 – Draw Near to God
#4 – Humble your self before God
First of all, let’s look at -
A. Submit (v. 7)
What does it mean to submit to God?
To submit means to make yourself subject to another.
It means…
We place our self under the authority of someone else
It means that you can read this book and say amen to every part.
It means that you confirm His law
It means that you conform to His law
It means that the clay is not striving with the potter
It means that you cease striving against God and you surrender your will to His.
It means that you say, “Lord no my will be done but yours.”
So, what is the problem?
Pride -
That is kind of what the first six verses are talking about.
James is calling us to abandon our sinful pride and place our self under the Lord.
We are to submit our self to His Lordship in every area of our lives.
Jesus submitted to the will of the Father – MT 6:10, Mt 26:39
Mary submitted to the will of the Father – Lk 1:38
And there were many others in the Bible who did.
And… So should we – Romans 6:13
And then not only submit to God , but resist the devil…
B. Resist (v. 7)
Jesus resisted allowing the people to proclaim Him as their earthly king
He would not allow them to lead Him astray from what He had come to do
Jesus resisted the Devil and turned back all of his offers with the Word
He would not allow him to lead Him astray from what He had come to do
And we do not want to be led astray from what God has called us to do
So, we want to resist the Devil because of what we have already learned about him
He does not have our interests at heart.
He does not test us to see us succeed but rather he tempts us to see us fail.
The Bible says…
He is the great accuser of the brethren
He is a liar and the father of lies.
He is the author of confusion
But, you may be wondering just…
What does it mean that we are to resist the Devil?
It means that…
Whatever he has in his mind should not be in your mind.
Whatever he is for, we should be against.
Whatever he is against, we should be for.
He had in mind for Eve to eat from the tree in the Garden –
That would have been a good place to resist the Devil.
He had in mind to tempt the Lord in the wilderness –
That was a good place to resist the devil, and Jesus did.
He has in mind some things for you
Your enemy is examining you for any weaknesses.
When God ask Satan if he had considered His servant Job we find that the Devil did know who Job was.
And he knows who you are.
So, we keep our guard up and as part of our submission to God we put on the whole armor of God so that we may be able to fight these spiritual battles (Eph. 6).
Turn there and let’s look at our armor
See…
We should have our ears closed to the wooing of the devil.
But generally we sleep through church and turn up the volume on HBO.
We have our ears tuned into the world but we tune God and His Word out.
We should be filtering out the trash that Satan offers yet the only thing we keep out of our lives is God.
And…
Even though the Bible says that if we will resist him, he will flee from us –
We move closer toward him
Just a little closer to Sodom
Just a little closer to the flesh
But…
The good news is that in this verse we learn that the Devil is limited in his power -
Now, He is big and bad and all that and on my own I cannot stand against him.
But listen I do not fight him alone.
Who stands with me?
The same One who was with Joshua in Joshua 5:13-15
The same One who was with Elisha when he was surrounded in 2 Kings 6:15-17
There is a power greater than Satan -
Jesus resisted the Devil – Mt 4:10
So should we – Eph 4:26 – Eph 6:11 – 1 Peter 5:8-9
It is a promise of God (not man) that he will not be victorious.
But listen…
Not because of your power, but because of this -
1 John 4:4 (KJV) 4Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
So, it is -
So, our family needs to submit and resist – But then…
C. Draw Near (v. 8)
Draw near to God –
What separates us from God is sin in our life and Pride is sin.
But…
What draws us near is dealing with that sin.
How do we draw near to God?
Prayer, fasting, studying His Word – CHANGING.
There may be some things in your life where you are going to have to just, “stop it.”
How many of you moms or dads have told your children to stop it?
And how many of you have made this statement which makes absolutely no sense:
“I don’t know what you are doing in there but you had better stop it.”
That does not make any sense but there may be some things that Satan has enticed us to do that we need to stop as we draw near to God -
Have you ever wondered what God’s response is to someone who comes back to Him?
Someone who genuinely wants to draw near to God – How does God treat that person?
Well, James says -
If we draw near to Him – He draws near to us.
The Psalmist said it is good for me to draw near to God.
Isaiah 55:6 (KJV) 6Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
When do we want to draw nigh to God?
When we have stumbled –
Hosea 14:1 (KJV) 1O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.
There is great power in this verse for you.
When you draw near to God then God draws near to you.
Nothing in this world could move almighty god in any direction that He does not want to go yet the Bible says that if you will draw near to Him that He will draw near to you.
Then he tells us to -
Cleanse your hands and purify your hearts –
This covers your actions as well as your motives and desires.
confess sin - forsake sin - confess a mixed allegiance between God and the world.
1 Corinthians 10:21 (KJV) 21Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.
But, don’t just be clean on the outside – Even the Pharisees accomplished that.
Don’t be double-minded – Give all of your heart to God.
Your life is never going to change until your heart does.
1 Corinthians 5:7 (KJV) 7Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
Then, not only draw near, but in verse 10, humble yourselves before the Lord.
D. Humble (v. 10)
Lt me ask you this…
Do you want men or God to lift you up?
If you side with the world, man will see your pride and he will lift you up.
But, if you humble yourself before the Lord, He will lift you up.
Surely there is a limit to how far man can exalt you but not so with God.
So, who would you rather have lifting you up? Man or God?
If God, then humble yourself before Him.
Then, let’s close by looking at verse nine…
James says that - Our condition should bother us.
Mourn over your sin
Confession should come from a broken heart and a contrite spirit.
Psalms 51:17 (KJV) 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
You should not find joy in your sins but if it is joy you seek then be sorry and let you sorrow lead to repentance and your repentance will lead to forgiveness and then you will have reason to celebrate in joy.
CONCLUSION
He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength when the labors increase,
To added affliction He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials His multiplied peace.
—Annie Johnson Flint
[1]
I do not know and do not want to know about most of your personal lives – But…
You have not committed a sin too great for Him to forgive.
Do you remember when you were young and you would draw a line dare someone to cross it?
Well the line has been drawn and what we are to do is to decide just whose side we are going to stand on.
You get to decide who you are going to resist and who you are going to submit to.
But, it will be one or the other.
If you make the decision to cross the line, the One who was your enemy becomes your friend and the one who was your friend becomes your enemy.
There may be some here who are living a life full of declaration but void of dedication.
Tonight would be a good night for you to move into the camp of those who are committed to Jesus Christ.
And as you draw near to God, He will draw near to you
Let’s pray
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Proverbs 22:4 (KJV) 4By humility and the fear of the LORD are riches, and honour, and life.
Matthew 18:4 – Whoever shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
CER – What is the humility of a child?
The one who was pharaoh in Egypt during the time of Moses was a man full of pride. He would not humble himself before the God of Israel.
Exodus 10:3 (KJV) 3And Moses and Aaron came in unto Pharaoh, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me? let my people go, that they may serve me.
It means to pray like this:
“…Our Father which art in heaven, HALLOWED be thy name…”
It means that we confess our transgressions
It means that we take His yoke upon us.
There is a proper relationship between man and God and it is one of submission.
ILL. When I was in Basic Training, our flight would march up and down the streets of Lackland AFB in Texas. Sixty men marching in step along the shoulder of the road while the drill instructor marched in the street alongside of us…”No, one marches in the road but me, Robertson!”
See, there was an order that was to be maintained.
Resist as he draws you toward pride and envy
Romans 16:20 (KJV) 20And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
Luke 8:33 (KJV) 33Then went the devils out of the man, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and were choked.
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[1]William MacDonald and Arthur Farstad, Believer's Bible Commentary : Old and New Testaments (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1995), Jas 4:6.