Sermon – October 4
Text: James 4:7-12
Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. 11 Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?
Put Everyone in the Right Place
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ Jesus our Lord:
Some of you no doubt remember watching Gale Sayers, an electrifying running back for the Chicago Bears a generation ago. Sadly, a knee injury derailed his career at a relatively young age. Even in his short career he managed to set a few a records, but he is perhaps remembered more for his legacy off the field. His steadfast friendship with fellow running back Brian Piccolo has been depicted in the book and move called Brian’s Song. His philosophy of life is summed up in the title of his autobiography: I am Third. He lived by the tenet: God is first, my neighbor is second, I am third.
This is more than a philosophy. This is the way in which the Lord would have us live. Everyone is in the right place with the right priority. Today we’ll explore what God tells us about putting everybody in the right order of importance. Our text goes even further and includes the place to where the devil should be relegated. May God’s Holy Spirit open our hearts to receive His message.
1. God – regard Him as the greatest
When it comes to putting God in order of priority, it is more a matter of recognizing that He is indeed the greatest and not usurping His authority. So in addition to giving God this priority, we also have to tamp down our own will. Our text begins, Therefore submit to God. This goes back to the verse before our text which reads, God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Since this is the case don’t elevate yourself, or bring God down. Therefore submit to God.
Submitting to God includes yielding to His will. Before he was converted Paul (then known as Saul) was in an all out war against Jesus. His life goal was to exterminate Christians and Christianity. When Jesus encountered him on the road to Damascus He said, Why are you kicking against the goads? (Those sharp sticks positioned behind the legs of oxen to keep them moving forward). Saul was working against God’s will with all his might and while this brought him earthly prestige and power, it was spiritually draining. Hie earthly life did not get better after conversion, but working in harmony with God’s will made him much happier and brought him closer to God.
That benefit is mentioned in verse 8: Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. This ability to draw near to God is after a person is converted. While unbelievers may strive to draw near to God, they can’t. As believers we have a relationship with God and are able to make choices every day whether or not we submit to God, and whether our thoughts and actions will be those that work toward God or go away from Him. The blessing of submitting to God and drawing near to Him is the reaction that He draws near to you.
If we respect God, and regard Him as the greatest, then we will avoid the situation detailed in verses 11-12 where we would want to put ourselves in His place as the Lawgiver. Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge one another?
We need to be clear here that God is not forbidding being involved in people’s lives to help them, and even to bring God’s condemnation when necessary. In fact, just a chapter later in James 5, the Lord encourages us to do that very thing. What is being spoken of here is judging with an evil heart, that is judging without love. It can happen as it did in our Scripture readings when there was jealousy over the men who were giving God’s Word to people. It happens when we criticize others and make them look bad in order that we might look better. It happens when we make our own interpretation of the Law or take it upon ourselves to judge minds and hearts. When that is the case we are judging the law, saying it is not sufficient, and we are putting ourselves in the position of Lawgiver instead of law-doer.
Again, the key is to recognize the authority of the Lord. Apply the law to your own heart, then bring God’s Law to others as He intended it – with love. Knowing that God is love and His Law is based on love will lead us to interpret it with His Word as intended.
2. The devil – Give him no place. Oppose him.
We then come to what place the devil should have. Ephesians 4 tells us to give him no place, that is to say, don’t let him gain a foothold in your life. Rather we’re told, Resist the devil and he will flee from you. With the help of the Lord you are able to turn away one of the most powerful beings that exists.
We need to acknowledge that Satan is indeed very powerful. We underestimate him to our own peril. Think back of the fall into sin. Yes, Adam and Eve were just newly created, but it wasn’t that they were dummies or rubes that just fell off the turnip truck. They were perfect and holy, and their wills perfectly aligned with God’s will. They were closer to God and far spiritually superior and more intelligent than we will ever be this side of heaven. Yet when they gave the devil an “in” and engaged him with debate rather than simply opposing him, they lost.
The devil is a fierce adversary. He studies your weaknesses. He is very patient and works to lure you away incrementally. He is patient enough to wear you down step by step. He is relentless. This is his job as he sees it. He never sleeps as he battles against God by tempting us. He show us his hatred for God by luring people to destruction. We dare not give him a foothold or think that we can outsmart him.
We heard a few weeks ago of how the Lord gives us the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. That sword does no good if you don’t use it. Rather than trying to justify your actions, see what God has to say. Rather than allowing yourself to be in a situation that you know is tempting, see what God has to say. Rather than guessing as to what you think is right or wrong, go to the Word. The Word of God sends Satan running because it exposes his lies for what they are. The Word of God is clear and shows that what Satan is presenting to you as exciting is actually dangerous for your soul.
Don’t go against Satan by yourself or try to engage him in a battle of wits. But do oppose him. Resist him and he will flee. He is powerful, but not all powerful. The Lord has give you the ability to say “no.” and put Satan on the run. This can be done with the power of God’s Word. You can resist and make the devil flee. That’s God’s guarantee.
3. Yourself – humble yourself
Now we get to your place. The proper evaluation of yourself and your Lord will put everything in order. We are well below God. We don’t deserve even a glimpse of his glory much less His love. A false view of yourself and any goodness that you think you have will lead you to approach God in the wrong manner. Rather: Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts you double-minded. These words cleanse and purify refer to ceremonial rituals from the Old Testament. These ceremonies were a picture of the reality that you had to be clean to approach the Lord. We need to be spiritually clean to have a relationship with God.
This cleansing takes place through Christ. Last Sunday afternoon we had this reminder in a baptism. The water did not make little Jackson clean, but this was a washing by water and the Word. Being born again of water and the Spirit connects you by faith to Christ. This means that like other believers he has been cleansed of his sin by Christ’s blood. What a beautiful gift baptism is. An individual is connected to all the blessings of God – forgiveness, life, and salvation.
But what about after our baptism? We remember our baptism by daily contrition and repentance. We need to acknowledge that our hands and hearts need spiritual cleansing because we have sullied them with sin. It’s easy to find excuses for our sin or compare ourselves to others who we figure are worse sinners than we are. The fact is that we daily sin against our Savior.
In this cleansing we also have the source of our forgiveness revealed to us. In addition to being sorry for our sins, the second part of repentance is faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of that sin. Many people are sorry about their sin for various reasons, but don’t find forgiveness because they are not connected to Christ. Sorrow alone is not enough. It is key to have faith along with that sorrow. Through faith we are cleansed by the blood of Christ. That payment of His life-blood was sufficient to wipe away each stain of sin.
In humbling ourselves we also see how sin hurts us and more importantly hurts our God. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. This does not mean that Christians cannot be happy, or that we have to mope around all day. What is being spoken of here is rightly acknowledging the cost and harm of our sin. It means not thinking back with delight over a night of debauchery, savoring vengeance, or rejoicing that we got away with something. Sin has its consequences, and the proper attitude toward sin is sorrow. Rejoicing comes with forgiveness!
Knowing our condition and God’s holiness leads to the final thought of the day. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord Be well aware that we approach God on bended knee without making any demands, but relying solely on His grace. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up. We shouldn’t try to prop ourselves up in pride because it is the Lord who gives us more than we could ever imagine or dare to hope for. He has taken us who were spiritual paupers and made us rich beyond our wildest dreams. He has taken spiritual orphans and made us His own children. The final and greatest lifting up will occur when He takes us to be with Himself. Rely on God’s order for things – even when it goes against your instincts – and you will find blessings beyond your imagination. Amen.