James 4:8-10 (NKJV) 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.
We have been talking about resisting our enemy so that we may walk in God’s possibilities. If we resist our enemy the devil, he will flee from us. That is a promise from James 4:7. However this promise is contingent upon being in submission to God. That is the position from which we can successfully resist the devil. How do we know if we are submitted to God and what steps can we take to ensure that submission? I believe James 4:8-12 gives us both a gage of and the things that we can do to strengthen our submission to God.
In verse 8 we found that the first thing we must do is draw near to God. He will then draw near to us but the decision for how close we will live to him is up to us. We must examine our hearts and adjust our priority structure so that being near to God is at the very top. We draw near to him in his Word, in prayer, in praise and worship and in our relationship with the body of Christ. The priority we give to those things is representative of the priority we give to our relationship to God.
Today I want to look at another gage of our submission. We are most familiar with the way Paul writes. He is a man who knows the depth of God’s forgiveness in his own life and, although he can be hard at times, his understanding of our condition usually comes through in the tone of his words. James is quite different. He is much more direct and often harsher. I prefer Paul, but the Lord reminded me that he put James in the New Testament as well. James says some very direct words concerning our submission to God.
We cannot draw near to God and allow sin to reign in our lives. Paul says much the same thing in Romans 6 but James pulls no punches. We must cleanse our hands and purify our hearts if we are going to walk in submission to God. He calls us sinners. I do not believe he is talking to those who are not yet saved. He is talking to me.
I am not a sinner by nature. I have been born again. I am a new creature in Christ. However, I cannot honestly say I never sin. Therefore, though I am not a sinner by nature, when I sin I am a sinner by action. It is important that we make this distinction if we are going to properly respond to what James has to say. He is not saying we are not new creatures in Christ. He is saying that if we allow sin in our behavior we are not drawing near to God and we are not really submitted to God.
Submission is not something we can do in word only. As the Pastor of a local church, I teach divine order. The bible is clear in Hebrews 13 we are to obey those who are over us in the Lord. That means someone has the right to be over us! I have discovered both as the one submitted to and in my own accountability relationships, that submission is only as strong as when we disagree with the one to whom we are submitted. As long as we like everything that is said, that is not really submission. It is when we do not want to obey that we find out if we are submitted. The same holds true in our submission to God.
James is pointing this out in very certain terms. We are saved and by nature children of God. When we allow sin to take hold of our actions, we are putting a separation between us and God. We cannot expect him to bless actions that do not reflect our submission to him or his Word. When sin or ungodliness takes hold of our actions, we put ourselves under the authority of the devil in that area. We cannot resist the devil and give in to his temptations at the same time.
What do we do about this problem? James tells us what to do but John tells us how. We must cleanse our hands and purify our hearts. Look at 1 John 1.
1 John 1:8-10 (NKJV) 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
John makes clear what we already know. We do sin. If we say we are immune to the weakness of the flesh we are lying to ourselves and to God. This lie is unnecessary. God already knows we are “but flesh.” He knows humanity living in the world created by Adam’s fall cannot live every moment of every day without giving in to the flesh and the temptation of the enemy. That is why he sent Jesus to die for all sin.
Jesus paid the price for sin through the vehicle of grace. We access the benefit by faith (Ephesians 2:8.) This is true in salvation and it is also true when we yield to temptation after salvation. James tells us we must be cleansed to draw near to God in submission so that we can effectively resist the devil. John tells us that when we confess our sins to the Father, he is faithful to forgive and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
We must shore up our holiness by confessing our sins to God by faith in what Jesus has done so that we will be clean in our submission to him. That is not to say that God will disown us if we do not. The sacrifice of Jesus was good for all time and anyone who receives it is forgiven. However, when we give in to the flesh we put a block between us and God on our side.
When we confess our sin to him, we access the power of grace for that transgression, close the door to any authority of the devil over us and restore our side of relationship to God. All of these things occur because we bring ourselves back into active submission to God, his will and ways. When we do that, we are back in the position that will allow us to resist the devil and see him flee.
James mentions one more thing in verse 8. We must put away doublemindedness. What is that? We should ask James as he defines it earlier in his letter.
James 1:6-8 (NKJV) 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
When we ask anything of God we must not be double minded. James defines this as wavering. The amplified bible says that the asking must not be with hesitation or doubt. I have heard double mindedness described as being of two opinions. If we are going to submit to God we must not be of “two minds.” We cannot waver between our own opinion of what is right and God’s opinion of what is right. God and his Word are right and that must be the end of it.
We used to say, “I can do anything God says I can do.” That is a good and true confession. However, submission requires that we also say, “I must not do what God says I should not do.” You cannot have one without the other. That is James’ lesson to us.
As we put away doublemindedness we will become increasingly stable in our approach to God and to life. We will resist the devil on sure ground. We will not waver at temptation. We will not waver when we read the Word of God and see what God says about our situation. We will read and meditate on the promise of God and with one mind move forward to our destiny in God’s possibilities.
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