Drawing Close To God - James 4:7-10

well continuing in the worship of our perfect good father we now go to his word and may we have open hearts to hear his word we are studying the book of James we're going verse by verse we've come to verse 7 of James chapter 4 and it's some of the most practical yet powerful verses in all the New Testament for our Christian lives so I want to read verses 7 through 10 he says submit yourselves therefore to God resist the devil and he will flee from you draw near to God and He will draw near to you cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded be wretched and mourn and weep let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom humble yourselves before the Lord and He will exalt you in this section of James he started out talking about heavens wisdom verses the Earth's wisdom if we go by our earthly wisdom we operate only by our human brain and we leave God out James says it's going to lead to disorder in our life you're going to end up having turmoil holding on to your earthly wisdom but if you get the heavenly wisdom you're obedient to the heavenly wisdom that is going to bring incredible peace to your life and you are going to be able to bring peace to so many situations last week James talked about why we are at war and we have no peace and he opened our eyes that that the wars that we face in this life in relationships the war that we have with others the war turning on within ourselves the war that we have toward God at times it's all because of the inner sinful desires that we don't want to deal with and so now he comes to these like I said very practical very basic verses and he tells us how to be right with God he tells us how to get close to God he tells us how to overcome these desires that war within us that make us at war with others there just five basic things that we're going to look at and then we'll take communion today and it will be a great time of God speaking to us and a great time of worshipping him we've all seen the bumper sticker let go and let God now I don't have a problem with that bumper sticker if you explain it right you know I mean if you're trying to live the Christian life on your own you're trying to fix everything on your own I would say that bumper sticker is good for you let go and let God but I also think there's a that statement can be bad in a way because some of us are like ah let go let God and we just let everything go and we don't realize that we have responsibility God lives in US and God's going to do a great work in our life but we have to cooperate so you have a great responsibility here and so all of these points this morning are talking about your responsibility talking about my responsibility and taking our Christian life serious and if you want to go to another level if you really want to draw close to God you're what the Holy Spirit is saying through brother James so first the first thing he says we need to do is we need to submit to God the first part of verse seven says submit yourselves therefore to God the word submit it means to place yourself under you willingly place yourself under the authority of the sovereign God the God who created it all the God who has all wisdom the God who knows all things dahhh and all you got to do is place yourself under him but some of us are very stubborn and some of us we just don't want to submit and you see this is we need to hear this this is good because some of us we believe in God we come here we sing to God but the honest truth is we really haven't submitted to God I mean with everything with all of our heart I mean we're not a hundred and ten percent in we we kind of look at well you know I'm doing well in other areas I know I'm struggling in this area that I don't want to submit in but what we don't realize that one little area that we don't want to submit can bring a lot of turmoil in our lives and as we talk about sin I'm telling you it takes time you think everything is going well James is saying submit yourselves to God give it all to him submitting to God means I'm not going to do anything that goes against what God says and I'm going to start are doing everything that God says and if we would just submit to God in that way it would revolutionize our life and we would get incredible wisdom and incredible peace because now there's nothing to drag us down it's just it's we're all in with God think about it so may God may the Holy Spirit speak to you in in ways that you're not willing to submit to him and submit yourselves to God number two we want to get victory over all the war going on in our life all the turmoil we need to resist the devil James 4:7 the last part says resist the devil and he will flee from you now just a basic sentence there but this is the way this is how you defeat the supernatural being called the devil I first want to say because that you know we need to understand the enemy that we're dealing with when James says resist the devil it's very possible that myself and some of you you never even have dealt with the real devil you see the devil is not like God he can't be everywhere at once when James says resist the devil he's he's using it as the kingdom of the devil the world system that we talked about last week do not love the world the system of the world is the system of the devil and we know that the devil has demons working for him they are very organized and it is possible that each of us have assigned to us certain demons and I would say when it comes to the kingdom of the devil and demons many times we go to one extreme or the other some of you go to the wrong extreme where you underestimate the devil you might not even really believe in the devil you don't even think about that you don't even think there could be demons that's causing some of the turmoil in your life causing some of the things that come out of your mouth so you kind of underestimate it and you never really you know think that you need protection from that or that you need to be ready for that and that's a very bad extreme to go and and if you're at that extreme I would say that there's probably demons running your life and you're not even aware of it more than you know and a lot of that conflict a lot of that stuff it's the war within we think it's the people around us it's the war within and the devil knows how to push your buttons so don't underestimate if Ephesians chapter 6 tells us that our battle is not with flesh and blood it's not with people it's not with circumstances it's with principalities it's with demonic demonic forces very clear whether you believe that or not it's just true and they don't care if you believe in them or not this is going to keep reaping havoc and control in your life in Ephesians 6 it tells us about resisting the devil it doesn't say any magical words that we're supposed to say to the devil it doesn't say that you know we're supposed host to buy some magic oil over at the religious store to put on our house to fight the devil folks the devil is a supernatural being and he is not fazed by any of that he is not fazed by any religious man in any religious outfit okay he is a supernatural being that can only be conquered by God by Jesus by Jesus Christ who is God in Ephesians six is really if you read about it put on the armor of God if even six I'm going to make it short because I can't preach on that whole passage it's basically about Bible study and prayer that's what it is the armor of God is Bible study each piece of the armor is something that you find in scripture something that scripture puts protection upon you spiritually and the more Scripture you have in your mind the more armor you have on to resist the devil when he comes Bible study and prayer infusion success pray at all times so the more Bible you get in you the more you pray on all occasions our problem is we think Bible study is homework and it's just more homework and I'm busy and I ain't got time for it and that's another reason why the devil runs your life and it's constantly got you in a frenzy and you're not even aware of it Jesus clearly showed us how to defeat the devil when the devil came after him he quoted Scripture Jesus could have said something magical to him to make him go away but he did that on purpose so we would know that we defeat him with Scripture the more Scripture you get into your mind the more Scripture you get into your heart you will be able to overcome the devil and it's really clear this is it we don't need to say anything to the devil nothing no hocus-pocus just when he comes we resist when he came to Eve and he told Eve listen hey God's holding back on you this fruit man it's really going to give you some knowledge it's going to give you some pleasure how would Eve defeat the devil at that moment all she had to do was resist all she had to do is to submit to what God had already said and resist and she'd still be in paradise but she did not resist she saw that the fruit was pleasing to the eye you know we talked about it in first John the desires of this life it was it look she saw that was going to give her some type of wisdom some knowledge and it was the pride of life she did not resist and she got she lost paradise and peace and got turmoil and disorder so really this is what we do we just need to resist and he comes in different ways he talks to us through people of this world earthly wisdom he uses circumstances to frustrate us and then we don't resist we don't we don't cling to God submit to God we just we get in a frenzy so this is so important if if some your somebody comes to you some crazy person just comes up to you and says hey I want to sell you some drugs I want to pay to have sex with you how do you deal with that you resist it you say no and you walk away that's resisting it's real simple maybe you say no and I'm calling the cops okay so let's turn that spiritually the devil comes to you and says hey I got this for you you know and I'm calling Jesus and that's all you talk to is Jesus you don't need to do anything else I'm telling you folks any other hocus-pocus that people do to get the devil out of their life the devil and the demons are laughing at them and it's put and it's just part of them being sidetracked instead of being submissive to God's Word and resisting the evil first john 5:18 says this watch this is very clear we know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning because he who was born of God protects him and the evil one does not touch him there's how much power the devil has over a true believer he cannot touch you he is already defeated at the cross he cannot touch you he cannot do anything to you you know what unless you don't resist unless you let him come into your mind come into your marriage come into your situation James says listen you want peace submit to God and resist the devil number three third thing we need to do we want this piece is we need to get close to God and I know this all goes together it all flows together James for the first part of verse 8 says draw near to God and He will draw near to you that is an incredible promise aw Tozer said great theologian everyone is as close to God as they want to be each of you including myself we are as close to God as we want to be I hear people say man I'd really like to be more close to God you know God seems just like he's a million miles away from me right now well who moved who moved hey God is omnipresent God is everywhere God is with every atheist right now wherever they're at okay God is not far from us the scripture says but the point is spiritually yes God is always with you but spiritually you're not close to him you're not growing in a relationship with him you're not talking to him on a daily basis you're not intimate with him spiritually because you are not drawing near to him and James just simply says draw near to God and He will draw near to you so get close to God you've got to submit yourself under him you've got to resist the devil and you will get closer to God number four this is important it's important this is what some of us are missing number four you want to get the term wall out of your life you want to get disorder you want it you want that God's wisdom you want peace number four you need to hate your sin you need to hate your sin last part of verse eight verse 9 says cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded be wretched and mourn and weep let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom it ought to understand this verse you got to understand the context what James is teaching us he's talking about spiritually getting close to God he's talking about winning the war within all right first thing he says is cleanse your hands what does that mean so we wash our if we wash our hands every day we're going to be better Christians it's it's a spiritual reference remember James is talking to a Jewish audience the Jewish priests talked about drawing near to God all the time the Jewish priest would have to ceremonially wash their hands before they could do anything in the temple you know near near anything that was the presence of God why because God was teaching that you can't get close to him you can't be in his presence if you want to hold on to sin and so the reason why some of us don't get closer to God is we want to hold on to sin and the only and really I think the way to get rid of sin is we got to hate it people get mad at me all the time because you know they talk to me about their struggles they talk to me about addictions and all this other stuff and some times I'll just finally say hey the reason why you keep doing that is because you love to do it and then they're mad at me but it's true if if we would hate it if we would we would see it the way God sees it we would wash our hands of it okay um you know think of washing our hands in a physical way it's so important in it I mean they tell us I mean I mean we're really extreme nowadays now we get the the hand sanitizer you go to wash your hands at the hospital then you get the hand sanitizer you got both I mean how did we survive without all that stuff all these years but but you know it can be important some of us go to certain restrooms and wash with certain soap you think your hands are clean and they're worse than ever so you never know it's important I went to the hospital one time and I visit the hospital quite a bit and I went into a man's room he was in there all by himself and he couldn't really talk okay he had an oxygen mask on he was near death and when I got close to the bed and I want him to go and pray with him I noticed that on his mask he had food all over his face and in that oxygen mask and he seemed to be struggling and I don't know if he tried to eat if or if that was food that came back up and listen I am a hygiene fanatic so this is a not a good moment for me so you know I immediately go out in the hall and I'm looking for a nurse and whenever you need the nurse they're never there so I'm looking all over and I'm like okay okay then every verse of the Bible about being a servant is going through my mind the Good Samaritan every verse I know is just saying get in there and be a servant so I get my washcloths and I go and over to the man I clean his mask all out I'm thorough I clean his face up he can't really talk but I can tell he kind of lit up is it to say thank you and I grabbed his hand and I prayed with him my conscience felt so good and I left the room and as I'm walking down the hall to leave the room here comes nurse ratchet and she's very dramatic how are you did were you just in that room you know the room I was just in uh yeah you didn't touch anything did you well for the first time in the history of my life I watched somebody else's face besides my kids but oh my come with me so she takes me into some nurses you know washroom and gives me the special soap and makes me wash for an amount of time and it's like and so I'm like I'm like what she got she she's like I can't give you that information so I'm going home to my wife and kids with the Ebola virus and you can't tell me lady crazy I should I will tell you that was over about ten years ago because I know some of your going to think that's this week you're not going to shake my hand today but you know I really thought I you know this lady she's being so dramatic about this just just calm down calm down but you know what I don't know whenever I talked to my wife she's a nurse she said he probably had MRSA and and I don't know maybe that lady saved me from that maybe her taking it serious about washing your hands after you touch something take it serious because it might save you from a greater sickness down the road and this is all James is saying in this verse here he's saying we need to take sin serious cleanse your hands you sinners purify your arts of all sin you double-minded you double-minded what's double-minded it is it means you've got your mind on two things you've got your mind on God you've got your mind on the world that's why he says you're making yourself it's like you're an enemy of God because you're a friend with the world you say you love God okay double minded what would we think of a man in here is married and he says that he loves two women and I'm not talking about his mom and his daughter I'm talking about he loves his wife but he has a girlfriend on the side what would we think of that man what would the wife think of that husband you think there'd be a little turmoil in that relationship this is what double-minded means so I James said last week you adulterous people you you say you love me you're faithful to me and and the people that I deal with the Christians the professing Christians that I deal with that have all these problems in their life it's always because they have one foot in the world and one foot in God they know how to quote scripture they show up to church but during the week they still got one foot in the world they're doing things saying things looking at things that they know they should be looking at and no wonder so James says hey you need to start hating that you need to wash yourself of that purify your hearts stop being double-minded verse 9 be wretched and mourn and weep let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom and I thought I thought Jesus wanted us to be happy I thought Jesus said he came to give us joy and now James is telling us quit having joy and be sad listen have the joy that Jesus wants to bring the sorrow has to come first when I was a young man and I was messed up in the world and doing my partying thing I thought it was funny I mean I would wait I would wake up during the week in the back of a car and I would lose my job and I started laughing about it I thought it was funny now the people that loved me in my life were concerned about me but I just thought it was a big joke and I just kept thinking it was a big joke until and you know when I changed when it wasn't funny anymore when it started to get miserable and this is what made me want to turn away from my sinful ways and and stop doing all this and turn to God and when I turned away from all that I got joy and I found peace and I found strength to live my life and have stability that's all James is saying he's saying that if you're living in sin stop thinking it's funny you better start taking it serious sooner or later it's going to get you you need to start hating it quit laughing about it and turn away that's all he's saying he's just saying James is saying the same thing Jesus is saying I keep saying that every week listen what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount Matthew 5:4 blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted the same Jesus that promises he wants to give us joy in our life says blessed are those that want so you gotta mourn first before you're comforted and find the joy mourn what mourn over your sin start taking it serious start hating it start confessing it first John says if we confess our sins he is faithful and just and will purify us from all unrighteousness on our sins already forgiven yes they already forgiven why do we got to confess because it were dealing with relationship here Jesus said an interesting thing you remember when he washed the disciples feet he said something interesting because Peter Peter said hey you're not washing my feet jesus said well if I don't wash you spiritually if I don't wash you you have no part with me then Peter's like give me a bath then wash all of me and then jesus said this he said well those of you you're already clean you don't you don't really need a full bath you just need your feet washed because you're walking in this world and you just need your already clean in God's eyes but as you walk and as you live you you make mistakes you get contamination on you and you need to have a cleansing that's what confession is it's just making things right with God first John is just saying what true Christians do true believers we're always confessing we know we're already forgiven we know we can't lose that salvation in Christ but we're trying to get close to God so we're always confessing sin this could be what some of you are missing are you confessing sin are you learning to hate that sin in your life is there is there's just a little bit you're holding on to and it's like a ball and chain James says get rid of it do away with it and then the final thing he says he says to humble yourself humble yourself James 4:10 humble yourselves before the Lord and He will exalt you the NIV that I memorized he will lift you up that's so good see this is all humility everything we talked about humility you won't submit to God until your humble you won't you won't go out of your way to try to resist the devil until your humble and realize how serious that is or you'll just shrug it off in your pride you don't need to work on that you won't get close to God if you're not humble because you're just your content you're content with a little bit you got you're not going to take sin serious if you got pride in your life you're not going to hate it but the promise is this is the good news it's always good news when we get convicted in a sermon if you humble yourself God will exalt you God will lift you up if you are struggling if you feel like you're rock bottom if you feel like your life is just getting nowhere if you humble yourself before God he will pick you up he will lift you up you will carry you up he will raise you up but it's not what we think the way up is down for me to be up I got to get down on my knees for me to for me to be up I got to stop lifting myself up with my pride I've got to let myself go and I've got to put others before me I've got to put God before me and if I can do that God will lift me up with with great strength and great wisdom and great peace this is what James is saying we all battle pride guys us men we really battle pride pride is the father of all sins pride is why we have conflict pride is why we threaten we threaten people because we're insecure so pride makes us insecure so when we're insecure we threaten and we talk tough and we try to be bigger and we blow up like that blow fish in the ocean thinking we're going to scare everybody but everybody looks at it's like what's wrong with this guy okay he's weak that Blowfish is ugly man pride is ugly and I'm saying guys we all have it we all battle the insecurities and the only way we're going to deal with that is to humble ourself we're trying to change anybody else we're trying to change our wife we're trying to change everybody else humble ourself before God and work on me work on you eliminate the pride eliminate the insecurities eliminate the selfishness and God promises and he never lies he will lift you up let's pray together

Channel: Freedom Bible Church

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Id: YlcSeaZrECY

Length: 36min 47sec (2207 seconds)

Published: Sun May 07 2017