[Spiritual Conflict] James 4:4-10 | "Submit Yourselves"

Introduction

Prayer

I. The Reading

A reading from James 4:4-10, reading from the English Standard Version translation of the Bible.

This is God’s Word:

James 4:4 ESV

4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

James 4:5 ESV

5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?

James 4:6 ESV

6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

James 4:7 ESV

7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

James 4:8 ESV

8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

James 4:9 ESV

9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

James 4:10 ESV

10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

[ Scripture Reading ~2 min ]

Say Amen

If you accept this word for what it really is, the word of God and not the word of men, would you say with faith, “Amen”? (1 Thess 2:13 ; 1 Cor 14:16)

Amen.

II. The Exhortation | (4-6)

The book of James is a letter, addressed to “the twelve tribes in the Dispersion” (1:1).

James is writing to Jewish Christians who have been scattered abroad as a result of persecution (PNTC).

We know this because he begins his letter with encouraging words:

James 1:2 ESV

2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,

James is a letter written for Christians in conflict.

At least fifteen times, James directly addresses those he’s writing as “my brothers.”

James 1:2 (ESV)

2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,

James 1:16 (ESV)

16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.

James 3:1 (ESV)

1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

James 5:7 (ESV)

7 Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains.

“My brothers…my sisters...”

This is familial language used of men and women who are members together of the same family, fellow believers in Christ (LN), sharing a common Father, who is God.

But in Chapter 4, James uses a different address for his brothers.

It’s so shocking, that we are tempted to think James has changed his audience, that he’s now talking to someone else — but he’s not.

James is still speaking to his beloved brothers, but he does not call them brothers here.

James is speaking now, as a faithful friend who is willing to wound by speaking the truth they need to hear.

When the truth is spoken in love, brothers and sisters, it can wound. It can hurt. But nevertheless, it is the truth that will set us free (Jn 8.32).

James draws attention to the seriousness of sin and summons his brothers to repent.

He uses language familiar to their ancestors, ancient Israel, and calls them what they are:

You adulterous people! (4:4)

You sinners... (4:8)

You double-minded…(4:8)

This is not a warning for what the brothers might become, if they are not careful.

Neither is this a recalling of what the brothers once had been, once upon a time.

This is a rebuke of what they presently are.

They are an adulterous people!

What is adultery?

Adultery is when a married person enters into an intimate, sexual relationship with a person outside of that marriage - with a person that is not his or her spouse.

Adultery is marital unfaithfulness.

Literally, James calls his brothers adulteresses.

Being the Church, the bride of Christ, married to Christ, they have entered into intimate relationships outside the bonds of their covenant union with their Lord.

This is not adultery of a fleshly nature.

It is spiritual adultery.

Look at verse 5:

James 4:5 ESV

5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?

This is spiritual adultery. It is spiritual conflict. And God sees it and God will not stand idly by as His bride goes off after others. God will do something about it. God will bring about spiritual conflict — against Him!

This is a spiritual conflict that is avoidable.

Some spiritual conflict cannot be avoided, but other spiritual conflict must be avoided.

We see this with Job, who was a blameless and upright man, one who feared God and turned away from evil. Job did what was right - yet God sovereignly arranged and allowed for Job to experience spiritual conflict. Job could not avoid it, for he wasn’t part of the conversation.

We see this with Jesus in the wilderness. The Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tested by the devil. The Spirit moved Jesus and empowered Jesus for spiritual conflict that was to him, unavoidable.

But with the woman and the serpent in the Garden of Eden, God had given the man and the woman dominion over all the earth and over every creeping thing (Gen 1.26). They could have cast the serpent out of the Garden and avoided further conflict but instead they listened to the voice of the Devil and let him keep his place in the Garden.

They allowed sin to creep in.

James is speaking about a kind of spiritual conflict that is avoidable, and must be avoided.

The kind of conflict that is caused by human sin.

4.4

James 4:4 ESV

4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

These brothers are married to Christ but also flirt with the world.

To them, Christ isn’t enough. They want Christ and also another. They want to enjoy the benefits of both relationships (REC).

And God will not allow this! The Church is not an open relationship competing with other alliances, other allegiances, other associations. Membership with Christ through His Church is exclusive, and is not shared with other affections. God will not share His bride with another.

God will not accept part of us; He demands all of us.

A covenant relationship with God does not allow, even for friendship with the world! We must let other associations go.

James 1:27 ESV

27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

James looks at his brothers, and they are stained from the world. They are not pure. The world is visible all over them.

They show partiality when they gather together, favoring the rich man over the poor. They have made distinctions among themselves and become judges with evil thoughts (James 2:1-4).

They curse people who are made in the likeness of God with their tongue, which is a restless evil. Their words are full of deadly poison (James 3:8-9).

Their hearts have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in them. They boast and are false to the truth. They promote an earthly, unspiritual, demonic wisdom through disorder and every vile practice (James 3:14-16).

They let their passions war within themselves so that they quarrel and fight. Their desires lead to murder and they covet (James 4:1-3).

They are stained by sin. Having aligned themselves with the world, they become enemies of God, and God has become enemies of them (TNTC).

God is holy. God’s Church is holy. We have to decide by faith:

Is God alone enough for us? Is God alone enough for me?

Or do I need other relationships, other associations, other affections, other friendships?

God desires for us to be spiritually whole, not parted out - a part here, a part there.

So the message is this: Pick up all your parts and put them all somewhere. Put all your eggs in one basket. This is not a mutual fund. This is not a diversity of investments. Be faithful somewhere, either with God, or with the world, but it cannot be with both.

God and the world are incompatible with each other. To be a friend with the world is to make yourself an enemy of God.

4.5

James 4:5 ESV

5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?

4.6

James 4:6 ESV

6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

James rebukes this arrogance, this pride among the brothers that is leading to their ruin, and exhorts his brothers to be humble before God, for God gives grace to the humble.

III. The Teaching | (7)

How can the brothers receive this grace in this spiritual conflict? How does a person become humble and spiritually whole?

Verse seven provides the summary answer:

4.7

James 4:7 ESV

7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

This is a command and invitation made possible by the grace of God.

“Submit Yourselves”

This is something that God will not do for you, or for us, but something that God gives for us to do.

To be subjected, to be submitted, to be faithful, to be obedient to God.

Douglas Moo says it this way:

The Letter of James V. A Summons to Spiritual Wholeness (4:4–10)

To submit to God means to place ourselves under his lordship, and therefore to commit ourselves to obey him in all things.

What are some practical ways we submit ourselves to God and his lordship and obey him in all things?

First, we submit to God by obeying His Word.

James 1:22 ESV

22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

God reveals His will and His ways in His Word. His word is to be more than just received, it is to be believed and obeyed.

This is what it means to submit to God’s Word.

We must never refuse to obey God’s Word because we don’t understand it.

We must never say “I believe in these verses, but not in these verses.” As if we can pick and choose what is God’s Word and what isn’t. That’s theological liberalism.

We must never attack the messenger of God’s Word.

“Well, that’s just your interpretation pastor, not mine.”

“Well that’s just your translation of the Bible pastor, not mine.”

As if there is strength in numbers. If you get more people to agree with your interpretation then that must be what God means in His Holy Word. No!

Be very careful, brothers and sisters. God’s Word is not subject to our own interpretations. It is certainly not subject to popular opinions or votes.

God’s Word is holy, and is to be rightly handled.

We are to search the Scriptures to confirm what we are taught. Scripture is its own interpreter and the Spirit is our guide.

We never dumb down Scripture to our own misunderstanding of it. Instead, we meditate on God’s Word with humility, so that we grow in understanding, as we hide God’s Word in our hearts, as we recall God’s Word night and day, as we talk about God’s Word to God in prayer.

By God’s grace, we grow in our understanding and knowledge of God so that our understanding rises to the level of our faith - to Scripture - not the other way around.

We must confess any pride, any arrogance that is putting us into a hostile relationship with God, that makes ignorance and popular opinion the right interpretation of Scripture.

That is sin. That is fleshly. That is short sighted.

Humility, rather, submits to God’s Word by God’s grace, and seeks for God’s interpretation, for what is spiritually discerned.

It is dangerous ground to belittle or devalue God’s Word because you don’t like what it says, or you don’t understand it, or to accuse your pastor of being a false teacher. Be very, very careful.

You are dealing with what belongs to God, and are accountable to a God who watches over His word to perform it (Jer 1:12).

We submit to God by obeying His Word.

We submit to God through prayer.

Prayer is where God conforms our will to His will.

James 4:3 ESV

3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

We would all do well to spend more time praying on our knees, or on our faces, or with our palms open to Heaven, in a posture that reflects submission.

But too often we pray as if God is there to do what we declare.

We are to pray without ceasing - which means we are to continually submit ourselves to God’s leading and God’s will.

We submit to God by obeying His word,

We submit to God through prayer.

We submit to God by obeying leaders who care for our souls.

There is no way around this one. God appoints, God gives leaders to watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account.

You are to obey them, and submit to them, and thereby submit to God.

Hebrews 13:17 ESV

17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

We can’t say “I believe God’s Word,” and “I pray” but I won’t submit to the leader God has assigned to watch over my soul. I won’t submit to the leader who models the faith for me, whom God has given to me, to teach me God’s Word.

That leader, that person charged with care and concern for your soul, is God’s gift that you are opposing, you are muzzling, you are limiting, you are hindering, and that leader is groaning in ministry but yet still has to give an account to God on your behalf.

What advantage is his groaning to you?

Submitting ourselves to God means submitting to God’s total program and gifts.

We must never say to our leaders “We don’t support you. We won’t follow you.”

If that leader is sent by God, you submit and you support and if it seems impossible you find a way to do it because that is what God commands.

Your spiritual leaders are under-shepherds who report to the Chief Shepherd who is Jesus Christ.

Leaders charged with soul care must be allowed to shepherd and lead according to what they teach, as servants of the Word, and not be hindered.

But you say - who keeps the leader in check? And the answer is, if he’s called and appointed and a servant of God and an example of faith then NOT YOU!

He’s submitted to God, you let God deal with leaders. God does deal with leaders and of a higher order than you are capable of.

We are commanded to submit to our leaders who keep watch over our souls, and by doing so we submit to God who gave them to us.

We submit to God by obeying His word,

We submit to God through prayer.

We submit to God through leaders who care for our souls.

We submit to God through relationships in our homes.

Wives submit to husbands as to the Lord. Husbands love your wives as Christ the loved the church. Children obey your parents.

There is a right ordering in the Church and in the home that demonstrates that we are a people submitted to God.

And when that right ordering is disregarded, we show ourselves to be friends with the world.

We need godly men to lead their homes.

We need godly women to submit to their husbands.

We need godly men and women to lead their children.

We need godly children to obey their parents.

But instead we have women leading men. We have men pursuing other passions and priorities. We have children who disobey at home and in school and in life.

Even Jesus submitted to his earthly parents:

Luke 2:51 ESV

51 And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.

What we do in the home, Christians, reflects our submission to God. How we relate in our homes reveals how we relate to God.

God give us godly homes!

We submit to God by obeying governing authorities.

Romans 13:1 ESV

1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.

Even in a constitutional republic where leaders are elected by the people, they are still our elected leaders, and still instituted by God.

And as Christians, we subject ourselves to what God has ordained, and we pray for our leaders, even if we disagree with them.

Christians demonstrate that we are submitted to the highest authority when we subject ourselves to governing authorities, because we know God can overrule and overthrow earthly powers. But to rebel, is to act as if we have no other hope but for us to act. To rebel is to diminish our witness to our hope in a sovereign God!

We submit to God by obeying His word,

We submit to God through prayer.

We submit to God through leaders who care for our souls.

We submit to God through relationships in our homes.

We submit to God by obeying governing authorities.

If any of these statements makes you feel uncomfortable, makes you bow up, makes you angry, then heed the conviction of the Holy Spirit and repent of your pride! You have a submission problem that is threatening your relationship with God!

Your pride is leading to disobedience. Your disobedience is sin. And your sin makes you an enemy of God.

James 4:7 ESV

7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

There is no resisting the devil, without submitting to God.

We cannot resist the devil without submitting to God first.

Oh we’ll try to resist the devil in our own strength, but we’ll fail miserably if we are not first submitting to God.

If we are not submitting to God, we are resisting God.

If we are resisting God, then we are submitting to the devil..

When the devil encounters resistance, he flees.

When the devil encounters submission, he stays.

When the work of the devil is evident in a place, it means someone is submitting to him and giving him space to work through sin in the heart.

And this brings us to —

The [Christ] Conclusion | (8-9)

James is calling the brothers to repent.

James is calling the brothers to draw near to God - not in worship, but in repentance, in submission to Him.

God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble, and that grace is his nearness.

4.8

James 4:8 ESV

8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

God does not draw near to sin, to pride, to arrogance, to the proud.

God draws near to those who need Him. Who make themselves low and depend on Him.

Who cleanse their hands.

I imagine a person shaking hands in association with the ungodly. Staining their hands. Giving and receiving from the world.

Cleanse your hands, you sinners. You outcasts. You outsiders.

Purify your hearts, you double minded.

A double minded man does not have faith, but doubts.

He is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. He will not receive what he asks from the Lord and is unstable in all his ways (Jas 1:6-8).

His heart has a problem. His heart is impure. His heart is stained, and his mind and soul follow after the heart.

4.9

James 4:9 ESV

9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

Be broken in spirit before the Lord.

This is possible, through Christ our Savior.

God doesn’t make us His enemies, but we make ourselves enemies when we become friends with the world.

But Christ came into the world, and remained unstained from it.

Christ make himself an enemy of God by becoming sin for us.

And Christ dealt with our sin, by giving His life in exchange for ours, paying the wage of sin with his own life on the cross.

And through Christ, and the power of His resurrection, we may receive grace that purifies our hearts through a work of regeneration. That is, God gives us a new heart, that by grace will not resist God but instead submit to him and his righteousness.

Sermonic Eschatonic | (10)

And when we, by God’s grace, do what the Holy Spirit enables us to do — when we humble ourselves, we receive a wonderful gospel promise.

4.10

James 4:10 ESV

10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

He will exalt you. He will!

The means to victory over sin, to avoiding spiritual conflict of our own making, is submission to God and humility before the Lord.

And by submitting to the Lord we participate in our Lord’s submission to the Father.

1 Corinthians 15:28 ESV

28 When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.

That God may be all in all. Amen.