10. The Epistle of James 4:7-10

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1 10. The Epistle of James 4:7-10 (2/8/17) As we have been studying the epistle of James we understand that he is emphasizing the importance of Christian maturity. Maturity in the Christian life is all about becoming more and more godly or God-like and that means drawing closer and closer to God so the Holy Spirit can transform us into His (Christ s) image (2Cor.3:18). However, the thing that separates us from God and keeps us from drawing close to Him is sin (Isa.59:1-2) and the only remedy for sin (on our part) is repentance. And so this now becomes James focus in chapter 4:7-10 James 4:7-10 (NKJV) 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. 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. These four verses contain ten commands in the Greek all ten are essential elements of true repentance. Submit to God v.7a Submit is a military term meaning to place yourself totally under God s authority and to obey His every command. 1

2 Whereas sin is rebellion against God submission is just the opposite, and is the motivation behind repentance. The very word repentance is a word that means to turn around (from rebellion and disobedience) and to begin moving toward God in the sense of wanting to submit to Him and obey what He has commanded. The positive command to submit to God has a negative command attached to it Resist the devil v.7b Resist is a Greek word that literally means take a stand against. This means to close our ears and hearts to the devil s temptations. It also means that we keep our eyes from evil the way David committed himself to in Ps.101, I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. I will set nothing wicked before my eyes. As we resist the devil, we are promised that he will flee from you. Draw near to God v.8a Once rebellion has been replaced with submission and temptation is being properly resisted it now becomes our responsibility to actively draw near to God every day (fellowship). We draw near to God in several ways thru prayer, praise, and by staying in the Word and in fellowship with the Body of Christ (His Church). 2

3 Spurgeon considered a few ways in response to the question what does it mean to draw near to God It means to draw near in worship, praise, and in prayer. It means to draw near by asking counsel of God. It means to draw near in enjoying communion with God. It means to draw near in the general course and tenor of your life. As we draw near to Him, He promises to draw near to us which is His hearts desire. One writer put it this way This also shows what God wants to do for the sinner. It doesn t say, Draw near to God and He will save you or Draw near to God and He will forgive you, though both of those are true. But what God really wants is to be near man; to have a close relationship and fellowship with the individual. If you remember when we studied Exodus 19 and God was giving the Law to Moses who was up on top of Mount Sinai. He specifically told the people to stay away from the mountain because under the Law of Moses (Old Covenant) they were not worthy to come close to God. (Explain) The opposite is true with the New Covenant in Christ it beckons us to draw near our Father in love. ( Abba Father ) The Old Covenant said stay away ; the New Covenant says, come near 3

4 Hebrews 10:19-22 (NLT) 19 And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. 20 By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. 21 And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God s house, 22 let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. But continued fellowship and communion with God requires practical holiness on our part which brings us to the fourth and fifth commands regarding true repentance Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded v.8b Both cleanse and purify are verbs that refer to ceremonial cleansing something that Jewish converts would have readily associated with repentance and communion with God. As a Jew entered into the Temple area, before he could have fellowship with the LORD and offer Him worship he would bath himself in a ceremonial pool or bath known as a mikveh. (Explain) This reminds us of the ministry of John the Baptist who baptized people before they could have fellowship with Messiah. John s was not Christian baptism (which comes after salvation) John s baptism was more on the order of a ritual cleansing using the Jordan River as a mikveh which was the Jewish way of repenting of their sins in preparation for drawing near to and worshipping Messiah Jesus. The idea behind the necessity to cleanse our hands (to make holy the outward actions of our lives) and to purify our heart (to make holy the inward desires of our hearts) speaks of practical holiness and is essential to ongoing, daily fellowship with the Lord even as David said: Psalm 24:3-4 (NKJV) 3 Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully. 4

5 Jesus also said, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. (Matt.5:8) What is a pure heart? The Greek word for pure is katharos, and it has 2 basic meanings: clean and unmixed (our English word cathartic comes from this Greek word). A cathartic is an agent used by a medical doctor for the cleansing of the physical system. We speak of catharsis on the emotional level when a person is cleansed of bitterness, anger and other destructive emotions. But there is also a spiritual catharsis, which is a cleansing of the inner man or the heart. Acts 15:9 (NKJV) 9 purifying their hearts by faith. (Give background) 1 John 1:7 (NKJV) 7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. So pure in heart first of all means a heart cleansed of sin through the blood of Jesus Christ. But the Greek word for pure also involves being unmixed or undiluted. For example: Gold is pure when all the dross has been removed at that point it is cleansed of dross, it is no longer diluted with dross and is pure. 5

6 Wheat that has been separated from the chaff is pure wheat it is unmixed with chaff. The basic idea here is a heart that is completely devoted to God and not diluted with a love for the world which the Bible calls having a divided heart. When God cleanses a sinner and makes them His child he or she is made pure in heart in the sense that their sins are washed away and they have now received a new heart with new and godly attitudes. But God also wants that person to be pure in heart from the standpoint that God and God alone is their first love to Whom belongs not only their love but their loyalty and complete devotion. Matthew 6:24 (NKJV) 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. You cannot serve God and mammon. Proverbs 4:23 (NKJV) 23 Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life. A pure heart will produce a changed life a life of devotion to God. You say, My heart used to be pure for the Lord. I used to guard it against sin and the pollution of the world. My heart used to be undivided for Him I don t know what has happened You sound like King David who God called a man after My own heart. And yet David drifted in his heart toward God and became comfortable and complacent. (Explain Bathsheba) 6

7 Psalm 51:1-2, 10 (NKJV) 1 Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me How is this accomplished in our lives? thru confession and repentance. 1 John 1:9 (NKJV) 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The need for cleansing is clear from the way James addressed his readers, you sinners and you double-minded The word used for sinner is a Greek word that means a hardened sinner a person whose sin is obvious and even notorious. Now, at this point I need to tell you that some commentators see in what James is saying in verses 7-10 as not being directed at backslidden Christians calling them to get right but to religious unbelievers calling them to get saved. If that s true, then all these verses could be in the same context going all the way back to verse 4 James 4:4 (NKJV) 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. (Explain) 7

8 However, even if that s true in the overall context of repentance and maturity, whether we re talking about an overt sinner getting saved or a backslidden Christian getting right the same principles apply repentance is repentance! Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. (v.8) This Greek word for double-minded refers to a waverer or an unstable person. One Greek scholar defined it this way Such a person suffers from divided loyalties. On the one hand, he wishes to maintain a religious confession and desires the presence of God in his life; on the other hand, he loves the ways of the world and prefers to live according to its mores and ethics. This harkens back to what James said in chapter 1 James 1:5-8 (NKJV) 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 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. The term double-minded literally means two-souled. One writer put it this way, The man of two souls, who has one for the earth, and another for heaven: who wishes to secure both worlds; he will not give up earth, and he is loath to let heaven go. That in and of itself is not a wise way to live trying to serve two masters. 8

9 Christian maturity is all about being single-souled. It s all about making a full commitment to God and His will for your life God cannot bless anything less. And you will only know instability and anxiety in your Christian life until you stop being double minded in your walk with Him. Joshua 24:15 (NKJV) 15 And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." In verse 9 James give us four more commands associated with true repentance (and ultimately with Christian maturity) James 4:9 (NKJV) 9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. The first word lament literally means be miserable. The idea that James is expressing when he says to his readers that true repentance involves being miserable is not being sad about your circumstances and wanting God to make them better. The idea is that of being broken and miserable over the sin in your life sin which has grieved the heart of God and separated you from Him. 9

10 It was the kind of misery that Jesus related to a tax collector in Luke 18 Luke 18:13 (NKJV) 13 And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!' Mourn Brokenness (misery) over sin will always produce mourning because of that sin and is always a prelude to repentance and restored fellowship with God Matthew 5:4 (NKJV) 4 Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted. 2 Corinthians 7:9-11 (NKJV) 9 Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. 10 For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death. 11 For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter. Weep The eighth command associated with true repentance is that a person weep. Obviously, crocodile tears (tears that aren t sincere) is not what James has in mind when he commands his readers to repent with weeping. His command to weep is a call to all sinners that they stop taking sin lightly and see it as God sees it (for some this might be an inward weeping). 10

11 I wonder if James, in saying this, had in mind something that God spoke to Israel thru the prophet Isaiah because of the flippant way they were viewing their sins Isaiah 22:12-14 (NLT) 12 At that time the Lord, the LORD of Heaven s Armies, called you to weep and mourn. He told you to shave your heads in sorrow for your sins and to wear clothes of burlap to show your remorse. 13 But instead, you dance and play; you slaughter cattle and kill sheep. You feast on meat and drink wine. You say, Let s feast and drink, for tomorrow we die! 14 The LORD of Heaven s Armies has revealed this to me: Till the day you die, you will never be forgiven for this sin. That is the judgment of the Lord, the LORD of Heaven s Armies. Of course, if James did have these verses from Isaiah in mind we can then understand why he gave the ninth command with regard to repentance Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. (v.9b) Once again, sin is no laughing matter and yet that is exactly what Israel did when God commanded them to repent they laughed and threw a party they didn t take their sin seriously! One of Satan s tactics when it comes to sin is to try and lower our resistance to it by getting us to laugh at it (the idea behind many TV sitcoms). The only valid emotion when it comes to our sin is the one Jeremiah described in Lamentations Lamentations 5:15-16 (NKJV) 15 The joy of our heart has ceased; Our dance has turned into mourning. 16 The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned! 11

12 The Lord Jesus Christ had this to say about those who laugh at sin Luke 6:25b (NKJV) 25 Woe to you who laugh now, For you shall mourn and weep [in hell]. Luke 6:21 (NKJV) 21 Blessed are you who weep now, For you shall laugh [in heaven]. The only proper response to God s conviction is contrition, confession and repentance never jokes and laughter. The tenth and final command that James gives us on the subject of repentance is found in v.10 James 4:10 (NKJV) 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord Earlier in this chapter James told us that "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble." (v.6) The command to humble yourselves comes from a Greek word that means to make low. This is directly opposite to the proud person who stands erect and tall in the presence of God in defiance of all that He has commanded he or she refuses to bow to His Lordship. To humble oneself (to bow low) to God speaks of surrender and submission to Him as the sovereign Lord over our lives the very humility Jesus demonstrated to His Father: 12

13 Philippians 2:8-11 (NKJV) 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow [be humbled in submission to His authority], of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Paul is saying that someday every person who has ever lived, every angel that has ever been created (whether faithful or fallen) will someday approach the Lord Jesus while He is seated on His throne and bow the knee acknowledging Him to be King and Ruler over all creation. One pastor put it this way Every living thing ever created will someday bow the knee to Jesus Christ and every tongue will declare that He is Lord (God and Master). That means that dictators like: Hitler, Stalin, Putin, Kim Jong Il, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; atheists like: Voltaire, Bill Maher, Madeline Murray O Hare; religious leaders like: Buddha, Confucius, Mohammed and even Satan himself. The difference between those that bow the knee and confess Jesus as Lord and go to heaven and those who do this and go to hell is the timing of when they bow and with what heart. Those who bow the knee to Jesus now as Lord and Savior while still living on the earth will become children of God, and as James promised that someday He will lift them (all believers) up (up to heaven and to glory for all eternity). Those who wait till they stand before Him at the Great White Throne Judgment will not be lifted up they will be cast out into the Lake of Fire (hell). 13