The Book of James – Part 10:
Submit Yourselves to God
Pastor Bruce A. Shields
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SERMON INTRODUCTION
In the beginning of Chapter 4 in the Book
of James, we read about James’ warning us not to be worldly.
He continues today, in verses 7-10 about what to
do if you are worldly.
In this handful of verses, James will show
us what God expects from us, and what we are to do about it.
Today we can take this word, and ask
ourselves, “Am I submitting to God?”, “Are the things I do for God, or me?”
LAST WEEKS SERMON
Part 1 - Faith and Wisdom
Part 2 - Poverty and Riches
Part 3 - Endurance
Part 4 - Christian Living
Part 5 - Brotherly Love
Part 6 - Faith and Works
Part 7 - Taming of the Shrewd
Part 8 - True Wisdom
Part 9 - Worldliness
TODAY’S SERMON
Part 10 - Submit Yourselves to God
SCRIPTURE READING
James 4:7-10
7
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8
Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners,
and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail.
Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble
yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
I.
SUBMIT YOURSELVES
TO GOD
a. Submit yourselves to God
i.
There are those who act out submission, but do not
truly surrender to the Lord
1. They know the
words, the actions, the outward expressions
2. But no change has
taken place in their heart
3. They do not confess
their sin
4. Therefore they do
not have true repentance
5. Without repentance,
there is no forgiveness
6. Without
forgiveness, there is no salvation
7. One MUST submit to
God as the first step if they expect forgiveness and a relationship with Him
ii.
One must submit to the plan He has provided {The Cross}
1. First for your
salvation
2. then, for your
guidance
3. finally, to lead
others to Him
b. Resist the devil and he will flee
i.
We do this by keeping our focus on Christ and the
cross, what He did for us there. The
same cross where Satan was defeated.
1. Colossians 2:14-15 “Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14
having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us
and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And
having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them,
triumphing over them by the cross.”
ii.
If you are living in a sin, and you know it is a sin,
you are not resisting the devil, but inviting him into your life.
1. As long as you are
inviting him in, he will never leave.
a. Remember last week
when we read the works of the flesh?
b. Ephesians 5:3-6 “3 But among you there must not
be even a hint of sexual immorality,
or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for
God’s holy people.”
c. “neither filthiness, foolish talk or joking”
d. “No whoremonger, nor unclean person, no covetous man
who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ (salvation)
e. “Do not be deceived...because of these things, comes the wrath of God upon the children of
disobedience.”
2. When you find
yourself in sin...YOU MUST;
a. Confess it!
b. Ask the Lord for
forgiveness
c. REPENT, truly,
showing fruit worthy of repentance (Matthew 3:8)
d. You will be
forgiven, and made clean...
c. Come near to God and He will come near to you
i.
Run away from God {by ignoring His Word, His Spirit,
the Lord’s commands} and God cannot come near you. YOU separate yourself from
Him with sin, just as Adam did in the garden.
1. When we work to
come closer to God, He will be closer to us...in a relational way.
a. We know God is
everywhere, and cannot be physically closer, since He is everywhere.
b. But in a relational
way, we can be closer to Him.
c. When we give 10% of
ourselves to God and our relationship with Him, we get 10% of a relationship...
d. If we give 90% of
ourselves to a relationship with God, we will get 90%.
e. We cannot give
little of ourselves, and expect to receive all from Him...relationships do not
work this way.
f. Though there are many
in this world today who try to live this way. Giving so little and taking so much.
g. They offer little
to nothing of themselves, yet expect others to give their all to them. God does not work this way, and neither do
healthy proper relationships.
II.
WASH YOUR HANDS
a. After we submit ourselves to God and His will, we
see the sin in our lives...and we realize we need to do something about it,
now!
b. Wash {purify} your hands {works, the “things you do”}
i.
You sinners
ii.
We need to CHANGE our works/actions!
iii.
James tells us here that we need to DO {our works} in a
cleaned {purified} manner.
1. He is speaking
about the basic motivation behind our acts.
2. When we recognize
the sin in our lives, we see that all of our actions were done with selfish
motivation.
a. We help others...to
be praised by them
b. We give to charity and
the poor...to FEEL better
c. We say kind
things...to make others like us
d. Our actions all
have selfish and self-centered motivation...and count for NOTHING in the
Kingdom of God!
e. BUT, these very
same actions, done with the right
motivation {to serve God and His will and purpose} purifies {washes} our hands
{works}.
c. Purify your hearts
i.
You double-minded
1. Double-mindedness
is the biggest threat to weak in the spirit/new converts
2. If you are new or
weak in the spirit (because you do not feed your spirit with
fellowship/prayer/reading the bible, etc...) You will behave in a double-minded
manner
a. A double-minded
person is restless and confused in his thoughts, his actions, and his behavior.
Such a person is always in conflict
with himself. One torn by such inner conflict can never lean with confidence on
God. Likewise, the term unstable is similar to a drunken man
unable to walk a straight line, swaying one way, then another. He has no
defined direction and as a result doesn’t get anywhere. Such a person is “unstable in all he does.”
b. Isaiah 29:13 “The Lord says:
“These
people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me...”
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me...”
ii.
James is telling us, we need to change the core of our
being. Our hearts must change!
iii.
Our hearts are our motivation for all that we say,
think and do...it is the storehouse for all we know, and understand, and it is
the looking glass by which we see the entire world.
1. If it is impure and
corrupt, dirty and scratched, this is how we view everything.
2. But, if we submit
ourselves to God, confess our sin and allow His Holy Spirit to do a work in
us...our hearts will be purified, cleaned and filled with God’s Word.
a. As we grow in faith {through the reading of God’s
Word}, we are purifying our hearts, and growing closer to the Lord.
b. However, we MUST
have TRUE repentance, or there is no TRUE forgiveness for our sins.
III.
RECOGNIZE YOUR SIN
a. Be afflicted {recognize your own misery} - You need to
see the sin in your life, and all the curses it has brought with it.
i.
Mourn and weep
1. When was the last
time you cried or mourned over your sin? Ever?
2. Have you ever truly
mourned for sinning against a pure and holy God?
3. If you do not have
a new relationship with sin since coming to the Lord, then you do not have a
new relationship with God.
ii.
Let laughter turn to mourning
1. Sin against God is
not to be taken lightly...
2. It is not a past
time, party time, fun time...
3. The word promises,
if you do not mourn and weep for your sin now, there will come a time when you
do...but it will be too late to repent.
b. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord
i.
and He shall lift you up
ii.
If you humble yourselves to the Lord, mourn for your
sin against Him, He shall lift you up!
iii.
Too many spend their entire lives trying to lift themselves up, make themselves FEEL better, make their lives more
enjoyable...but to no avail...
1. You must submit to
the Lord, confess your sin, truly repent, then, and only then, will He lift you up.
CONCLUSION
When hearing the Word of God today, do you
feel as if you are truly submitting to God in your life?
Remember, God has three wills for you in
your life...first of all, for you to be
saved, secondly for you to seek His will in your life’s direction, and thirdly,
that you help others to come to the knowledge of the only one who can save
them, Jesus Christ.
Are you resisting the devil in your life,
or inviting him in?
Come closer to God through faith, which is
increased through the reading of His word, and He will come closer to you in
relationship.
Focus your actions in life on pleasing God,
not man.
Recognize the sin in your life, confess it
to Him, and repent with a true repentance, and God will lift you up.
Want to learn more about
Salvation and Getting Saved?
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