Dare ya if I may.. to prayerfully re-read through this marvelous book of James!
James is passionate for Christ and for people coming to Him! He's a soul-winner!"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." James 4:7-10 esv
Many people down through the ages have thought this book was addressed only to the saved. Well, it's not. James is confronting a people who obviously are possessors of eternal life and those who are merely professors of eternal life. Both!
"So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. 9 Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor." nlt
Jesus said, "He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters." Matt. 12:30
"He who is not with Me once and for all on My side is against Me." amp
"For whoever is not against us is for us." Mrk. 9:40"'Do not stop him,' Jesus replied, 'for whoever is not against you is for you.'" Lk. 9:50"He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters" Lk. 11:23"And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." Josh. 24:15"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." Matt. 6:24
"My dear brothers and sisters, if someone among you wanders away from the truth and is brought back, you can be sure that whoever brings the sinner back from wandering will save that person from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins." James 5:19-20 nlt
Everyone take heed. In the book of James we find a series of authoritative soul-winning commands, ten of em to be exact (all aorist imperative verbs in the Greek language). Yes, James in chapter 4 marshals ten directives, which really convict, woo and draw our attention to the main focal point of the whole epistle. This part, is the heart of everything in the book. This part is clear, succinct and is one of the most precise invitations to salvation (that found in Christ alone) in all of the Scripture.
Well, that’s not true of a believer, that’s not the dominant force in a believer. Non-believers are people who are the friend of the world. They infact love the world; therefore, they’re still the enemies of God. They are the people whose wisdom is that which is not from above, but is that which is earthly (world wisdom), sensual, demonic. They are people who are selfish, rebellious, proud and against whom God sets Himself up in battle array. They cannot be believers here.
Take verses 7 to 10, and James could never be speaking to anybody but unbelievers. These are people who, by virtue of these commands, are individuals who have not yet submitted to God. These are people who have not taken any stand against the devil. These are people in darkness who are far from God and need to draw near before it's over for them. These are people who are inwardly and outwardly corrupt. These are folks called lost-sinners. These are folks who are also double-minded, trying to religiously hold onto God and onto the world-system at the same time. These are party-animals who love to laugh and celebrate when they ought to be weeping over their own sins. They specifically are labeled as "sinners."
This speaks of a readiness (with empowering) to do whatever you’re bidden to do. It’s exactly where Saul/Paul was when.. you remember.. he was slammed into the dirt. He looked upwards and responded, “Lord, what will you have me to do?” a.k.a. Give me my marching orders please.
James is confronting individuals who are made up, obviously, of possessors of eternal life and mere professors of eternal life, those who really know God and those who are just deceived and doing some deceiving, those who are possessors of true and living faith and those who religiously are possessors of a false, dead faith. In the heart of this epistle is a clear appeal saying, “Be sure your faith is real, test it.”
So James indeed has the heart of Jesus here, for these issues are of grave concern to Christ as well. Those who would say, “Lord, Lord,” but who didn’t really have any relationship to Him at all.
Of the early church, it was said, “Behold how they love one another!” Today, watchers might say, “Behold how they politic for self, for control and fiercely compete with one another!” Why is it sometimes so difficult for God’s kids to be humble and get along? In the church house.. are they all saved? They all need to get saved!
Back then like today are there some posers who desperately need Jesus inside as Lord? Yep, James addresses them as well as what pulls em down and away...
* Carnal Selfishness (Jam. 4:1–3). Got war in your heart still? Enter His rest, find His peace, become His peacemaker. The wars among us (and around the world) are caused by the wars within us humans. People want more (covetousness, idolatry). They lust for more pleasure and power. We typically want to please ourselves, to step on and climb over others to get where we want to be. Yes, crunch on em to arrive no matter how it hurts somebody. Yes, this happens in some churches too. If we are not careful, even our prayers can become merely religious and selfish!
* Carnal Worldliness (4). Is there proper separation? Come out of that world-system, believer. Please do. Because Abraham was separated from sin, he was the friend of God (2:23); but Lot was the friend of the world-system. Lot made his choices, so go see how he ended up (Gen. 13:1–13. Ponder 1 John 2:15–17).
* Carnal Pride (5–10). Ditch it. Puffed up Satan knows how to use hubris to defeat you as he defeated Adam and Eve in the garden (Gen. 3:1–6). Are you smug, hard-hearted, arrogant and laughing when you should be weeping over your sins? Have you been resisting the devil or resisting the Lord as He tries to lead you?
* Carnal Criticism (11–12). One of the easiest ways to hide our sins is to live mean-spiritedly for exposing the sins of others. Do you have a two-by-four in your own eye, Buckeroo? Listen, gossip and hateful slander grieve the Spirit and divide the family of God. The Lord has called us to evaluate what we hear and be witnesses for Jesus (as good examples clearly sharing His Message), not cruel prideful judges! Doesn't our Land have too many of those corrupt people already?
* Carnal Boasting (13–17). Life is so short and the future on earth for us is unknown (by us), so please do the will of God. Start today! Please worship acceptably (most people around the globe worship unacceptably). Humbly win the lost both inside and outside of the church walls. Equip real saints biblically on purpose and for His purpose. When you make plans, prayerfully inquire and focus on Christ saying..
“If the Lord wills..” Prov. 27:1.
“A whole new generation of Christians has come up believing that it is possible to ‘accept’ Christ without forsaking the world.” ~ A. W. Tozer
“It is right for the church to be in the world; it is wrong for the world to be in the church. A boat in water is good; that is what boats are for. However, water inside the boat causes it to sink.” ~ Harold Lindsell
1) - Read James (4:1 nkjv): Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?
If there is an unrighteous fight anywhere.. I mean verbally, strategically or even physically, like with any dumb argument, you can be sure there is pride involved ..yes, inside at least one of those fighter's hearts. Poor example! If they profess to be saved, are they really?
"By pride comes nothing but strife, but with the well-advised is wisdom." Proverbs 13:10 nkjv
2) - You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.
Man, how much do you want that thing, or want someplace, or want some person? Wanting what you don't have is covetousness (which is idolatry). Ditch all your idol, dude! With pure motives always remember to ask God for what you really need, believer. We do work hard, but asking in faith is God's ordained way.. is the primary way to have our needs me. He promised to meet all your needs, not our greeds.
"Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry." Col. 3:5 kjv
3) - You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
Heaven ain't for missing. People that live for pleasure wait in really long lines and also miss living abundantly. "But she who lives for pleasure is dead even while she is still alive." 1 Tim. 5:6
4) - Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
5) - Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, "The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously"?
6) - But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
What is the significance that “He gives more grace” (James 4:6)?
7) - 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.
Proactively seek the Lord, His will for you, and His Kingdom. Yep, seek ye first.. and in the Greek first means first! Got some Bible verses about seeking?
Have you been ripped off by sin, or by other people? Have you lost someone dear to you, or opportunities? What? “Blessed are those who mourn”.. what it the world does that mean?
10) - Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
Where is God now? Where is God when I have trials and it hurts? Am I really in His sight always? Yes -- He loves you so much He can't take His eyes off of you!
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?
Are you a good witness? Are you a fruit inspector who carefully evaluates their message or a coldhearted judge? What does God say about judging other people?
13 - 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";
What are presumptuous sins?
14 - 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.
Let's give thanks! We have today, this moment, and no human is promised tomorrow. Life here is short, it's so brief. We each need to make every day count for glorifying the Lord. What does James mean that life is a vapor?
15 - Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that."
We are to look to God for everything we need or want. We are to live dependent upon the Lord every day and all through the day. What are practical ways to depend on God alone?
16 - But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
17 - Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
What is a sin of omission verses one of commission? The worst sin of omission is to put off your sincere repenting and believing in Christ ..until it's too late. That's blaspheme of the Holy Spirit--the only sin Jesus can't forgive.
James' hearers weren't all genuinely saved? Chapter 4 makes it clear that there lost people, there were carnal divisions and disputes among these people. One cause was the selfish desire of many to be teachers (3:1), but the basic cause was disobedience to God. There was a lack of true separation in the lives of the individuals.
It's so SO tragic when called out ones love the world and when brethren dwell together in discord instead of in unity (See Psalm 133).
“Can two walk together except they be agreed?” Amos 3:3
James is calling for saving faith that wisely unifies. People with saving faith wisely apply the Scriptures. People with mere said faith outside of Him miss.
Yep, that’s what James is calling for. We work from salvation, not for real salvation!
So many people over the decades have missed the intent of this wonderful Book of James -- his message is so profound.
James wants the sinner to submit him or herself to a new Lord and Master. Yes, to turn (ditching all idols, ditching their old master), to resist and take a stand against Mr. Lu-Cifer and this world system. That they have and maintain a heart longing to know, love and worship the true God acceptably. That they have a hunger for God’s holiness and a genuine brokenness over their sin, and that he or she come with a spirit that permanently separates em from their old worldly life in the past. The sum for us sinners is: humbly and wholeheartedly believe in Jesus the Son. No religious excuses and no spiritual compromise!
“Every man by his own natural-will hates God, but when he is turned to the Lord by repentance (via the grace of conviction from the Spirit and Bible), then his will is changed. Then his conscience, now hardened and benumbed, shall be quickened and weakened. Then his hard heart shall be melted and his unruly affections shall be crucified, thus by that repentance the whole soul will be changed, he will have new inclinations, new desires, and new habits.” ~ George Whitefield
“There is a vital connection between soul distress and sound doctrine. Sovereign grace is very dear to those who have grown deeply because they see what grievous sinners they are.” ~ Charles Hadden Spurgeon
We ask ourselves the question, Whatever happened to that kind of preaching that cries for men to repent so they won't be damned? I've heard many say, "Well, I like 'love messages' and ain't for hell fire and brimstone preaching" but really when was the last time you heard any preaching on Hell and repentance? Has the pendulum sung too far in the other direction?
Mr. J.C. Ryle listed 7 characteristics for us of the preachers during the great awakening of the eighteenth century. Here they are:
1.) They taught the supremacy of the Holy Scripture.
2.) They preached the total corruption of human nature. 3.) Three, they taught that Christ’s death upon the cross was the only satisfaction for man’s sin.
4.) They preached the doctrine of justification by faith.
5.) They taught the universal necessity of heart conversion and new creation by the Holy Spirit.
6.) They spoke of God’s eternal hatred against sin and of God’s love for sinners.
7.) They preached that there was an inseparable connection between true saving faith and personal holiness. They never allowed for even a moment that any “church membership” or “religious profession” was the least proof of a man being a Christian if he lived an ungodly life.
Along with James, those great awakening ministers were right on target. So what is the Message? Very simple–it’s this. Admit it and quit it – I mean your pet sin that’s tightly clung to, and grasp hold of Jesus Christ! Make a U-turn from all the wrong-doings and believe in Christ on His terms ..not on your own terms. No more selfishness. Today, here and now.
This is not some new doctrine. It’s simply Biblical!
This is not some new teaching at all introduced here, people! You know full well that.. if it’s new it ain’t true and if it’s true it ain’t at all new. There is no new revelation. There’s new illumination of the old Message so we can wisely apply. So SO many TV preachers keep trying to introduce exotic “new revelations” for bucks (but I ain’t interested in em). The Bible is God’s revelation to sinful man. Sinners often get mixed inside of church gatherings with God’s people -- good, they too need to be addressed and won.
What Are The Ten Evangelistic Commands (Jam. 4:7-10 nasb) To The Lost?
1.) Submit yourselves therefore to God
2.) Take your stand against the devil and he’ll flee from you
3.) Draw near to God and He’ll draw near to you (O so close);
4.) Cleanse your hands, you sinners;
5.) Purify your hearts, you double-minded;
6.) Be afflicted, be miserable;
7.) Mourn
8.) Weep;
Sin is stupid. It hurts and kills. Jeremiah wept, and he wept alone, and he didn’t really want to weep alone. He says, “I wish my eyes were fountains so I could release what I feel inside.” He didn’t have enough tears to get it all out.
“I hate my eyes. I feel as if I could pluck them from their sockets, because they will not weep as I desire over poor souls who are perishing. I hate my eyes.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon
Well, and mere weeping is not enough. He knew that. There must be livin' the life, and preaching against sin, and there must be the compelling mandate of the call of God! Jeremiah was faithful forty-two years. What kept him at it, results? Not mere results or success, it was God. (See 7:24) “Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward.”
9.) Let your laughter be turned to mourning, your joy to grief; and
10.) Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up!
“Dude! Kurt, you’re calling out to God and then calling on sinners to do all that, but how can they do that?”
I say by simple faith. Can indeed happen!
It can! How? By the living word of God and His anointing you and I can live victoriously. You and I can defeat the enemies we believers all face (4:1-7): the world system (vv. 4–5), the fleshly nature (vv. 1–3), and the devil (vv. 6–7) with his gang of thugs.
"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Eph. 6:12 kjv
You remember spiritual adultery is being married to Christ (Rom. 7:4) yet loving this world system too (See 2 Cor. 11:2–3). Stop that! In the Old Testament God called Israel’s foolish idolatry “adultery” because the idols had robbed Him of the people’s pure devotion. How can Christians (children of the light) who have been freely forgiven by an un-corruptible God then go and maintain friendship with the corrupt world when they have been called out of the pitch darkness of this corrupt world system? “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." (John 15:18–19) We (born again Christians) have been crucified to the world, and the world to us (Gal. 6:14). Remember the four dangerous steps that take any believer into a wrong relationship with this world system:
1.) Friendship with world, Jam. 4:4;
2.) Being soiled by the world, Jam. 1:27;
3.) Love with the world, 1 Jn. 2:15–17;
4.) Conformity to the world, Rom. 12:1–2.
And what results is that the spiritually compromising believer is judged with the world (1 Cor. 11:32). Who illustrates this crazy-stupid folly of sin? Lot does. (See Gen. 13:10–13 and chapter 19). Believers who are friends of the world are at enmity with God. They grieve the Spirit, who jealously yearns for their love.
Christians who live for the world and for the flesh become proud, and the devil takes advantage of this situation, for pride is one of his chief tools.
God wants to give us more grace—more than anything Satan can give! The Christian must use the Word to resist Satan (Luke 4:1–13), and this the Spirit will enable him to do. But God cannot help the Christian who is proud, who refuses to repent of sin and humble himself. Grace is for the lowly, not the lofty. We must first submit to God; then we can effectively resist the devil. It is important that Christians examine themselves to see if any of these enemies are defeating them.
I’m calling on sinners to repent and become victors today. Yes, to turn and trust Christ right now. Sure, because James called on sinners to do this, because Jesus called on sinners to do this, because the Bible prophets of old called on sinners to do this, and I know full well what you know full well.. that the only way any sinner can do this ..is when the powerful grace of God overwhelms their fallenness, their brokenness from sin, their wickedness. As it says in Psalm 110:3, “It is in the day of His power that His people are willing.” And when it is done it is all to God's glory.
