Lesson 8 – James Chapter 4:7b-17
Chapter 4 has been about us getting close to God. We must realize there are things that can get in the way of this happening for us. The big obstacles that war against us are the very influence of the world around us, our own fleshly desires, and good ’ol satan along with his demons.
For the unbeliever, it’s impossible for them to get close to God unless they come to the place of repentance. Repentance comes at conversion and all through the sanctification process. We also covered humility and pride.
(Vs. 6) “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
God likes when we humble ourselves, but hates it when unrighteous pride rears its ugly head in our lives.
Proverbs 29:23
“A man’s pride will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honor.”
Gal. 5:17 tells us “The sinful nature wants to do evil.” To fight against our sinful nature, we must be diligent in our devotion to God. If Wednesday night is the only time you do a deep dive into God’s Word, it’s not enough. A daily diet of God’s Word will help you stay healthy and strong spiritually, resulting in a righteous lifestyle.
We’ve been studying about pride, but there are so many other things that war against us.
James 4:7
“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”
The Word says submit to God or we could also say humble yourself before God.
Submit… This word was a Greek military term meaning “to arrange [troop divisions] in a military fashion under the command of a leader”. In a non-military use, it was “a voluntary attitude of giving in, cooperating, assuming responsibility, and carrying a burden.”
The Greek definition means to subject one’s self, to obey, to submit to one’s control, to yield to one’s rebuke or advice, and lastly be subject to.
When it comes to training a dog, the moment your dominance is obtained, the dog will submit, he will lay down or roll over on his back. Now, we’re not dogs and God doesn’t treat us like dogs, but, we need to submit to God and recognize that He has total dominance over us. This is never a bad thing for us because we serve a Holy and loving God who never abuses His power over us.
One of the first things to get rid of in our submission to God is our “selfish pride.” (Just a side note – It’s funny how the homosexual community dedicates a whole month for “pride.”)
Another thing to know is that no one can be saved without first submitting to God, knowing that He is the Supreme Authority.
Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” This is God using His authority, telling us just how it’s going to be. Our human “pride” gets in the way and says, “Who does He think He is, telling me that He’s the only way to heaven?” Someone who says this definitely hasn’t submitted themselves to God.
Submitting to the Lord also involves putting on the whole armor of God. Submission through God’s provision.
Eph. 6:11-17
“Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of… the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.”
In doing this it says, “so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.” This segues into the last part of verse 7.
Resist the devil and he will flee from you… and actually, by us submitting to God, we are in fact resisting the devil. Nice how that works.
The word resist means to stand against or to oppose something. Earlier in our last lesson we talked about not loving the world and all the things in it. We saw this in verse 4, “Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” We shouldn’t want any part of the world and we don’t want any part of satan. There’s no middle ground here for believers… resist the world and resist satan.
What’s our defense? Remember, there’s power in the Word. Every time Jesus was tempted in the wilderness by satan, Jesus came back at him every time with the Word of God.
In 1993, Reverend E.V. Hill preached a sermon called “How to Make the Enemy Run” at The University of Colorado. He was speaking to 50,000 men at the first Promise Keepers conference. I was there, it was unforgettable. He said that when you are tempted by something that you know will not please God, verbally recite a scripture verse. Hit satan with a verse of scripture.
He said to us, “Tempted with a lie? Hit him. Tempted with lust? Hit him. Greedy? Hit him. Big headed? Hit him. That’s what Jesus did in Matthew 4. When you are tempted by satan, hit him with scripture. There are many relevant verses. Hit him.” Then when E.V. Hill was done with his message, 50,000 men started yelling out, “Hit him, Hit him, Hit him.” It was an amazing experience for me.
I Peter 5:8-9
“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.”
We’re told by God’s Word to resist the devil, use the Scriptures to resist the devil… Hit him! Every time he comes at you, HIT HIM!
James 4:8
“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”
One of the great verses in the Bible, draw near to God and He “might” draw near to you. No. Draw near to God and He “sometimes” will draw near to you. No. Draw near to God and He “will” draw near to you… yes, this is a wonderful promise from God.
The moment we make a move toward God, He comes running to us. We see this in the story of the “Prodigal son” in Luke 15. We have the story of the son who took the money and ran. He got his inheritance from his father early and he went out and squandered it on wine, women, and music. Then it was all gone. He came to the end of himself, tucked his “tail between his legs” as they say, and made his way back to his father.
Luke 15:20
“And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.”
It says that when his father saw him, the father ran to his son. This is a perfect picture for us, when we draw near to God, God draws near to us… He runs to us. This is God’s grace in action.
Draw near… in the Greek it means to bring near, to join one thing to another, or to approach. I like the definition, join one thing to another… to become one with God, by having intimate fellowship and communion with Him.
John 17:21 (Jesus’ prayer for us)
“That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.”
Jeramiah 29:13
“And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”
Drawing near to God also is a matter of the heart.
Our whole relationship with God is based on the condition of our heart, so when we move toward God, our heart has to be in it. The very core of who we are should long for and pursue God. He knows our intentions, whether they’re pure or not.
Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded…
James is directing this to unbelievers because he’s using the word sinners… meaning devoted to sin, not free from sin, pre-eminently sinful, especially wicked, specifically of men stained with certain definite vices or crimes, tax collectors, and heathen.
Gen. 13:13
“Now the men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and sinners against the Lord.”
On the other hand…
Psalm 1:1
“How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers!”
Jesus came to this earth for sinners…
Luke 5:32
“I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
James says, purify your hearts… we can’t come into the house of the Lord with unclean hearts, as David says in Psalm 24:3-4:
“Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully.”
We come back to the issue of the heart… what is the condition of a person’s heart? A heart separated from God is not a pure heart.
Mat 15:19
Jesus said, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.”
Double-minded… this word is only used by James in the New Testament, he also used it in 1:8, and it’s not good. This is the person who has no truthfulness in them, no integrity. They are the epitome of hypocrisy, living two lives. When these people weave themselves into the church body, they cause nothing but problems.
Matt. 6:24
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.”
Eph. 6:5
“Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;” (KJV)
The opposite of double-minded.
James 4:9
“Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.”
Lament, be wretched, be miserable, be afflicted, be exceedingly afflicted… what kind of picture do these words bring to mind?
These words should bring about a sense of brokenness as it relates to a person’s circumstances. More specifically, knowing that they are sinful, lost, and separated from God. We find an example of this when Jesus tells of the tax collector beating his chest in prayer asking for God’s forgiveness. (Luke 18:13): “But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!”
I think James is declaring to the person in this state of lostness that they should “be miserable”, because if you stay in this condition you will be lost forever.”
Then it says to mourn… and weep! Here we have a dissection of the heart, of how it should be just prior to salvation.
Matt. 5:4
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
This verse gets quoted at funerals all the time. This has nothing to do with the death of a loved one, except the death of a soul that has yet to be born-again. Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn,” the translation for blessed means “happy.”
Why should they be happy? Because they are right at the precipice of being saved… it’s the right condition of the heart.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” When a person gives their life to Christ and they receive their salvation, how could they not be comforted by knowing that their eternal life is secure in Jesus? The other way to see “Blessed are those who mourn” is that this describes the believer who is mournful because they still have their sin nature and hate it whenever they sin against God.
II Cor. 7:10
“For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.” (NLT)
Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom…
John MacArthur; “James is not condemning legitimate laughter or joy but rather the flippant, trivial, worldly, self-centered, sensual kind that unbelievers revel in, despite, and often because of, their sinful pleasures. It corresponds to Jesus’ warning: “Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep” (Luke 6:25), and is the opposite of a beatitude given a few verses earlier that is only recorded in Luke: “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh” (vs.21)”
James 4:10
“Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”
Coming to the Lord in humility is the beginning of salvation. It brings us back to the beatitudes.
Matt. 5:3
“Blessed are the poor in spirit (the humble), for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
James 4:11
“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.”
“Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you.” (NLT)
Now James is talking to believers.
• What kind of law is James talking about?
Gal. 5:14
“For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Matt. 22:40 (Jesus speaking about loving God and loving those around you):
“The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
James is talking about the law of love. So, what James is basically saying is; “Don’t speak evil toward your brother or sister. If you do that, you’re not being obedient to the law of love.”
Speak evil of or speak against… has the intent of being spiteful, these both have a related word, “slander.” This refers to mindless, thoughtless, careless, critical, derogatory, untrue speech directed against other people… bad stuff.
The word judges… (kree’-no) is being used not as a form of evaluation or presiding over, but of condemnation. We respond and say, “Who are you to judge me?”
Jesus said;
Matt. 7:1-2
“Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.”
You are not a doer of the law but a judge… this is dangerous territory. The implication is that one who has contempt for God’s law is, in a way, saying they know better than God, that they are superior to the law of God.
One commentary says, “By such fearful disrespect the sinner judges the law as unworthy of his attention, affection, obedience, submission… all of which is blasphemy against God.”
James 4:12
“God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbor?”
In the end God will judge everyone. The key is will you be judged at the Bema Seat or the White Throne Judgment?
James 4:13-15
“Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”
When you were young and living with your parents, perhaps you thought things were under control and life was pretty simple. Then you moved out on your own and life suddenly got a little more complicated. We get out into the world and we find there’s lots of decisions to be made… what job to take, what car to buy, find a spouse, get a mortgage on a house… it’s never ending.
Is it okay for us to make plans? Of course, it is. The problem is, that we have a tendency to do it apart from God.
Proverbs 16:9
“The heart of man plans his way, But Yahweh directs his steps.” (Legacy Standard Bible)
James is saying in a subtle way, we can plan for tomorrow, next week, and even into the future, but if our plans don’t include God… life can be a “disaster” as Donald Trump would say.
We need to say, Lord, these are my plans, but I subject them to Your will, because You are infinitely greater than I am. Making plans without submitting them for God’s review, correction, and approval is an act of arrogance on our part. The key for us is to live within God’s will for our life.
Knowing God’s will is sometimes difficult for us, because it requires patience on our part. It’s natural to want to know all of God’s will at once, but that’s not how He usually works. He typically reveals to us one step at a time… each move is a step of faith… this allows us to continue to trust God. The important thing is, as we wait for further direction from God, we are busy doing the good that we know to do. The more time we spend with God through prayer and studying His Word, the more sensitive we will be in hearing His voice.
Zechariah 4:6
“This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.”
The Holy Spirit will guide us as we travel through this life. Don’t ignore God’s will for your life, and don’t exclude God from your plans. When we include God in everything, life just makes more sense.
For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away…
Psalm 39:5
“You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. My entire lifetime is just a moment to you; at best, each of us is but a breath.” (NLT)
Psalm 103:14-16
“For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.”
Life is short, but it doesn’t feel short when pain and suffering are in the mix. In the grand scheme of things, we are truly here today and gone tomorrow. The godly wisdom that we have prayed for will tell us that while we still have today, we need to be living for Christ… storing up treasures in heaven and expanding God’s kingdom.
James 4:16
“But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.”
Thomas à Kempis, a German-Dutch canon regular of the late medieval period and the author of “The Imitation of Christ,” said, “Man proposes but God disposes.”
Man’s boasting only covers up man’s weakness. When it comes down to it, people can’t control future events, they don’t have the wisdom nor do they have the power, only God does.
To boast is to deny God’s will. James is saying for man to try to boast in these things is him just trying to make himself God. For us to put hope in our plans, projections, or portfolio instead of in the Lord is pure foolishness. James just tells us that it’s evil.
Psalm 52:1
“Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man? The goodness of God endures continually.”
James 4:17
“Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.”
Think about the person who’s made plans excluding God, all the neat little investments, different life-altering opportunities… all done in their wisdom and their strength.
Then that very same person, when faced with the opportunity to go to church, casually says, “We’ll see what God has in store for me as to whether I’ll go or not.” Then later they’re asked if they would like to join a new Bible study, they say, “If God wills it, it will happen.”
This person has it completely backwards from what James has been trying to teach here. That’s why James says, “If you know what’s right, but hide behind the excuse of waiting for God’s leading before doing it, that’s a sin.
We’ll close with John MacArthur; “Those who know God’s will are responsible to obey it, and if they fail to do so, they sin. They will find no comfort in the fact that they have not actively committed sin. Just leaving God out is itself sin. The sin of disregarding and disobeying God’s will is one of omission, of not doing what one knows is right. Sins of omission are rarely isolated from sins of commission.”
• humble yourselves
• Resist the devil
• Use scripture to fight your battles
• Don’t judge others in a condemning way
• Obey the law of love
• Life is short, live it for God, come close to God… and live within His will.