Submit Yourselves to God

James 4:1-3 ESV

“What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” 

Not everyone who professes Jesus Christ as Lord and as Savior of his life does so in truth. Not everyone lives the faith he claims to possess. Many are double-minded, maintaining a profession of faith in Jesus Christ while living the opposite of that, still living in sin, still making sin their practice. And righteousness and godliness and walks of obedient faith in Jesus Christ are not what they practice.

Even though they know the truth, and they know the consequences to those who refuse to obey the truth but who obey the lies, instead, still they continue in their sinful practices. For they are hearers only of the Word, and they are not doers who put the Word of God into practice in their lives. So they have not put away all filthiness and wickedness, and they have not received with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save their souls.

So, they are those who are still allowing the sinful passions of the flesh to rule their hearts, minds, and actions. And if they can’t get what they want, they will do evil to others in order to get it. But they don’t have what they desire because they don’t ask God, or if they do ask, they ask wrongly with selfish motives, wanting only to satisfy their sinful passions, and so they don’t receive anything from the Lord.

James 4:4-6 ESV

“You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, ‘He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us’? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’” 

Adultery in a marriage relationship is infidelity, disloyalty, falseness, betrayal, deceitfulness, and faithlessness. If it is in the flesh, involving one person being unfaithful to his/her spouse, it can engage sexual intercourse, but it doesn’t have to. For Jesus defined adultery as one person looking at another with lust in one’s heart and mind. So, physical contact with another person is not necessary for true adultery to take place. And there are many different ways one can commit adultery against his/her spouse.

Well, adultery against our Lord is not physical in nature, but it is spiritual, and it definitely involves the heart, mind, and actions. And it is infidelity, disloyalty, falseness, betrayal, deceitfulness, and faithlessness on a spiritual level, for it has to do with us turning away from our marriage covenant with our Lord to go after “other lovers” which can be anything or anyone which we end up giving our loyalty and devotion to above or in place of God.

For friendship with the world is not about us being kind to the people of the world, but it has to do with us having a warm affection and friendship with the world of sin – with the lusts of the flesh and the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life. It is us desiring what is worldly and ungodly and fleshly above and/or in place of desire and passion and zeal for our Lord and for his word and for obeying him and his commands. And if this is where we are, the love of the Father is not in us – see 1 John 2:15-17.

For when we live in adultery against our Lord and we are, instead, on friendly terms with the world and with what is ungodly and unholy, then we make ourselves enemies of God. We are enemies of his word and of his commands. And our God is a jealous God, for he did not save us from our sins so that we could go running after other lovers. He died on that cross that we might die to sin and live to his righteousness in his power, strength, and wisdom, according to the will of God for our lives.

James 4:7-10 ESV

“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.”

So, this is how we are to live as followers of Jesus Christ. Our lives are to be in submission to Christ, not in rebellion against him. And we are to resist the devil, not “play footsie” with the devil. We are not to flirt with the devil, in other words. But we are to be in warfare against the devil and to fight off his attacks and his temptations. We are to oppose the devil, not play with him. And we are to daily put on that armor of God to use against the devil and his evil forces against us (see Ephesians 6:10-20).

And then we must draw near to God. For if all you do is just try not to sin, you are going to go right back into sin. And that is because your life is not surrendered to Jesus Christ. You regularly submit yourself to sin but not to God. So, you are like that teeter-totter going back and forth between professing faith in Jesus Christ but still living like the ungodly who have no faith. So you are double-minded, and so you will not receive anything from the Lord (see James 1:5-8).

And to cleanse our hands and to purify our hearts has to do with us forsaking our sinful practices to now follow the Lord Jesus in obedience to his commands (New Covenant). It has to do with dying daily to sin and to self and following the Lord in obedience in walks of righteousness and holiness in submission to the will of God for our lives. For God’s grace to us trains us to renounce (say “No!” to) ungodly and fleshly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives (see Titus 2:11-14).

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

My Heart’s Desire  

An Original Work / June 29, 2013

Based off Rm. 10; Lu. 9:23-26; Ep. 4:20-24

Loved Ones, Oh, my heart’s desire

Is that you might come to Jesus.

Many appear zealous for God,

But they do not trust in Him.

They have not submitted to the One

Who saved them from their sins;

Not forsaken their sins,

Nor have they obeyed their King.

The word of the Lord is near you:

The word of faith we’re proclaiming:

That you must confess your faith

In Jesus as your Lord and King:

Believe in Him as your Lord, 

And follow Him where’er He leads.

Share the gospel; be a witness,

And meet others’ needs.

Beautiful are the feet of those

Who bring the good news of Jesus:

Anyone who would come to Him

Must deny himself today;

Die to sin and self, and

Let the Spirit transform you in heart;

Put on your new self in Jesus,

Yielding to the cross. 

https://vimeo.com/115643303