Living Out Our Faith Submissively - James 4:9
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Introduction
Introduction
I am genuinely thankful for Daniel stepping in and preaching for me last Sunday evening. He did an excellent job.
Tonight, we dive right back into our study of James. Our text is James 4:9
9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
However, let’s take a moment and read the entire section, verses 7-10.
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
This section follows the section we just finished, verses 1-6. The Holy Spirit gave us a grave warning concerning the flesh and worldliness in that section. The essence of which was this. The flesh is a powerful force. It comes from within us and seeks to draw us away from God. In fact, the believer who gives into the flesh ends up enmity with God. A situation that God does not desire for us as believers. Thus, He is willing to provide us with “more grace.” As I understand it, God will help any believer who desires to overcome their flesh. Their willingness to obey His commands allows God’s grace to flow more in our lives. Essentially, He increases our desire and enables us with His power to overcome sin, the flesh, and even the temptations of this world. He gives us what we do not deserve so that we might have continued fellowship with Him as we overcome our fleshly desires.
This new section that we are working through is a list of instructions. Do you, as a believer, genuinely desire to overcome the flesh? Are you committed to following Christ and obeying His commands? If so, then here are some instructions from the Holy Spirit specifically designed to help you in your personal battle with fleshly desires, aka lust. We have already covered verses 7 and 8.
Verse 7 taught us that winning the battle over the flesh begins with submission. We must submit ourselves to God’s control through obedience to His Word. As we do, we must resolve not to succumb to Satan, the father of this sinful world. If we submit one hundred percent to God, God will work through us as we resist causing the Devil to flee (hightail it) out of our lives.
Verse 8 continued with more instruction. We are to “draw nigh (near) to God, and he will draw nigh (near)” to us. If you remember, we discovered that the phrase “draw nigh” has a sense of urgency. For me, I have thoughts of “running towards something.” We are to run towards God away from fleshly desires as well as the temptations of Satan. Naturally, as you run toward something, it gets closer and closer. God does not change.
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
Since God is the One Who does not change, it stands to reason that we are the ones constantly moving. We are either drawing closer or drawing away. All this is relative to how much we allow our fleshly desires to reign over us versus obedience to Christ. Those who obey more than they give into the flesh are much nearer to God than those who do not. By the way, verse 8 goes on to instruct us concerning what must be done so that we might draw near God. We must be cleansed and purified.
This evening, the Holy Spirit gives additional instruction concerning our ability to overcome our fleshly desires.
9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
Note the three words listed in this verse that are closely related. They are the words “afflicted,” “mourn,” and “weep.” Each of these words deals with our degree of seriousness concerning our relationship with God.
Take Sin Seriously!
Take Sin Seriously!
Our relationship with God and the effects of sin upon that relationship should never be a laughing matter or taken jovially. Instead, we must have a sincerely repentant state of mind.
There is to be a sober earnestness in dealing with sin’s reality.
A repentant person is honest, deep, and thorough in seeking God’s forgiveness. We see this in the Holy Spirit’s use of these three words.
See Sin as Painful
See Sin as Painful
He tells us to “be afflicted.” The word “afflicted” is fascinating in Greek. It is a compound word. The root word is a word that means “a hard substance, a callus.” It is combined with a Greek prefix, “to bear, undergo.” Thus, the word itself means to bear or become a hard substance or callus.
How many of you have calluses on your hands? How did they get there? They are a product of continual use of the hands usually as you labor over time. Calluses form from repeated pressure on certain spots of the skin like your hands. Over time and much use, the skin grows into a harder, often raised bump. The word “afflicted” has the idea of enduring hardship. However, along with that hardship comes the misery of the hardship.
For instance, if you have tender hands and you go outside, pick up a shovel, and begin to dig for long hours in hard soil, what will develop on those tender hands? Most likely, you will develop a blister. If you keep using the shovel, enduring the pain of the blister, eventually, those blisters open up, and you will experience even more pain. However, if we survive the pain, we know that the skin eventually grows thicker and hardens. Soon, there is no more pain as calluses develop.
In much the same way, any time we sin, it should bring pain. Our failure to obey God should cause such great mental anguish that we lament and weep openly about it. Additionally, we should never forget the pain of sin. Each time we fail, it should cause us to suffer. Note Paul’s reaction to sin Romans 7:24
24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
The word “wretched” is the same form of the Greek word listed in our text as “afflicted.” Paul understood the gravity of sin and how it disrupted his fellowship with God. As we learn in James, sin causes us to be enmity with God. So profound was the weight of that thought that it caused Paul great mental anguish resulting in him crying out, “O WRETCHED man that I am!.” This is the same attitude we must-have when it comes to sin and our failure to obey the Lord. Never should we view sin with a half-hearted attitude.
See Sin as Personal Grief
See Sin as Personal Grief
The second word in our text is the word “mourn.” It would seem at first glance that “mourn” and “weep” are identical. Indeed, they are synonyms. However, each carries a slightly different emphasis.
The word “mourn” means to mourn or lament.
It is often used in conjunction with such things as lamenting over the death of a loved one. One example would be Mark 16:10
10 And she went and told them that had been with him, as they mourned and wept.
This is a reference to Mary Magdalene after Christ’s resurrection. Those who “mourned and wept” were those who had not yet received the news that He was alive. They were still openly lamenting His death. How quickly, though, did their lament turn to joy! The word “mourn” in our text emphasizes the outward manifestation of grief. Thus, we are to openly mourn sin and its effects on our lives. We must lament. There should be external manifestations of your own personal grief over how sin interrupts your walk with the Lord.
The word “weep” is synonymous. It also has the idea of openly demonstrating the personal grief coming from within. However, the emphasis is on tears.
A person who weeps not only laments with outwards cries, but they are shedding a fountain of tears. Thus, as believers, we are to take sin so serious that it drives to weep (shed physical tears).
As I was studying, my mind kept going back to King David. David committed a great sin in his adultery with Bathsheba. Initially, David ignored his sin. God used the prophet Nathan to confront David about the sin he committed. If you recall the story, Nathan told David about a wealthy man with flocks and herds. This same man stole from another man who owned one simple ewe lamb so that he might feed a traveling stranger. The story made David angry that a rich man would steal from a simple shepherd. Note David’s reaction and Nathan’s reply.
5 And David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die:
6 And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.
7 And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul;
Note David’s reaction.
13 And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.
16 David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth.
If you want to see David’s heart as result of God confronting his sin, look no further than Psalm 51.
1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: And my sin is ever before me.
4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, And done this evil in thy sight: That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, And be clear when thou judgest.
5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; And in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: And in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; That the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
9 Hide thy face from my sins, And blot out all mine iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; And renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from thy presence; And take not thy holy spirit from me.
12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; And uphold me with thy free spirit.
We must reach a point in our spiritual growth where any sin is painful, resulting in personal grief. Does this not sound like a man who understood the pain of sin and was personally grieved over it? According to our text, is this not the same attitude that God instructs us to have?
The rest of the verse is a further elaboration. It is not a time for laughing or joking around.
In times of spiritual failure, we must be serious, melancholy, sorrowful, and ready to restore our relationship with God.
The fact remains that we are in a tremendous spiritual battle that rages within and without. Our job is to be disciplined, seeking to control our fleshly desires for the comforts and joys of this life. When temptation arises, we must learn to focus our attention on the things of God and not our own. As one Bible commentator noted:
Hebrews-James (King James Version) B. The Way to Overcome Temptation, 4:7–10
we must immediately drop whatever we are doing—immediately stop the laughter and the comforts or joy of the moment—and focus upon getting near God. Our hearts must mourn and weep under the heaviness of the temptation and its attack, mourn and weep before God, asking and begging for strength and deliverance, ask and beg lest we disappoint and cut the heart of Christ.
Look again at our verse.
9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
You will note the word “heaviness.” It has the idea of melancholy, which is a feeling of thoughtful sadness. Sin is serious. We must take it as so. To do anything other than that does not help in overcoming sinful desires.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Now, let me conclude by restating the instructions we have received so far. To overcome the sinful desires of the flesh, we must:
Submit to God
Resist the Devil
Draw Nigh to God, and
Take Sin Seriously as we mourn and weep!