Monthly Archive for November, 2000

James 4:8b

Published on November 30, 2000 in James. 2 Comments
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“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”


Cleanse your hands,

James’ fourth imperative is “cleanse your hands.”  The word “cleanse” means to make free from admixture, to purify.  The idea is to remove something for the purpose of purification.  Old Testament priests washed their hands before approaching the presence of God in the Tabernacle (Ex 30:19-21).  James wants believers to wash their dirty “hands.”  Spiritually, we wash our hands in the blood of Christ when we confess our sins, His finished work of paying for our sins. 

2 Co 7: 1 “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”

you sinners;

Believers who are “sinners” must cleanse themselves before they can have fellowship with God.  We cannot fellowship with God [draw near] without confession of sin. 


PRINCIPLE:  Consistency with God’s character is the ground of concord with Him. 

APPLICATION:  Those who continually confess their sin may walk with the Lord.  If we do not confess our sins, it may be because of guilt.  We do not feel worthy to fellowship with the Lord.  Sin cannot stand in the presence of God.  We must not allow guilt get in the way of trust in the blood of Christ to forgive us. 

Mt 5: 8  “Blessed are the pure in heart,

For they shall see God.”

1 Jn 3: 3 “And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”

James 4:8

Published on November 29, 2000 in James. 3 Comments
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“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”


Verse 8 continues ten commands to believers. The first two commands are related to God and the devil: 1) submit to God and 2) resist the devil. We hold to both commands simultaneously. The two belief systems of God and the devil are mutually exclusive.

Draw near to God

The third command is “draw near to God.” The words “draw near” mean to approach. James challenges his readers to pursue fellowship with the Lord. The Levitical priests drew near the altar with humility (Ex. 19:22; 24:2; Lev. 10:3). If we come to God in prayer with humility, He will answer our prayers. However, there are two qualifications in this verse – 1) cleanse your hands and 2) purify your hearts.

Ps. 73: 28 “But it is good for me to draw near to God;

I have put my trust in the Lord God,

That I may declare all Your works.”

He 7:19 “‘for the law made nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.”

and He will draw near to you.

When we draw near to God, God will draw near to us. God requires that we exercise our volition toward Him first. God will embrace any believer no matter how long or to what extent he went away from Him. God stands ready to accept us with open arms.

Ps. 145: 18 “The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,

To all who call upon Him in truth.”


PRINCIPLE: God grants us the privilege of entering into the majesty of His presence.


APPLICATION: It is not enough to resist the devil (4:7); we must draw near to God in prayer and fellowship. We draw near to God by faith. We believe He is accessible and available to us. The reason for this is that Jesus made it possible. Only the blood of Christ can cleanse us from sin and allow for a fellowship with God.

1 Pe 3: 18 “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit’”

It is amazing that God who transcends the universe allows us to enter into fellowship with Him through prayer and fellowship. We neither earn nor deserve this yet the Father delights in fellowship with us. He welcomes our voice and takes pleasure in answering our prayers.

He. 4: 16 “Let us therefore come boldly [confidently] to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

He 10: 19 “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and having a High Priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”

God does not answer the prayer of those out of fellowship.

Ps 66: 18 “If I regard iniquity in my heart,

The Lord will not hear.”

Mt. 15: 8 “These people draw near to Me with their mouth,

And honor Me with their lips,

But their heart is far from Me.”

God promises us that He will answer prayer if we draw near to Him. We have God’s guarantee of that – “‘and He will draw near to us.”

James 4:7c

Published on November 28, 2000 in James. 0 Comments
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Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

and he will flee from you
 
“Flee” means to take flight run away, escape, shun. We get our English word “fugitive” from the Greek word. The idea here is that the devil will avoid us when we resist him by submitting to God. God puts this in the frame of a promise. 
 
PRINCIPLE: A great principle of spiritual victory is to plead the promises of God. 
 
APPLICATION: When we obey the two-sided commands of “submit” and “resist,” we can claim the promise of God of victory over the devil. God guarantees that he will flee from us. There is cowardice in the devil when he sees us actively applying God’s principles to experience. 
 
1 Pe 5: 8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.”
 
Christians are under attack from the devil. We must resist him; otherwise, we leave ourselves exposed to defeat. Active resistance to Satan’s assaults is a divine duty under our Commander-in-Chief. 
 
Humility is not weakness; it puts the devil to flight. 

James 4:7b

Published on November 27, 2000 in James. 0 Comments
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Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Resist the devil
 
The believer is to “resist” the devil. The word “resist” means to set against, to oppose, to stand against. The best way to resist the devil is to actively resist him by submitting to God. There is no compromise with the enemy. The flip side of submitting to God is resisting the devil. 
 
Mt 4: 8 “Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”
10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ”
 
Ep 6: 11 “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”
 
The name “devil” means slanderer, accuser and is a common name for Satan. One of the devil’s main roles is to accuse us before God. He did this to Job in the Old Testament (Job1). Yet, the Lord Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us defending us against the charges of the devil.
 
He 7: 25 “Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”
 
PRINCIPLE: Submission to God puts the devil to flight.
 
APPLICATION: We need not fear the devil for the Bible says that we can “resist” him. He has no power over me without my consent. We can take a firm stand against him. God requires active volition on our part when dealing with the devil. We must take the spiritual high ground. 
 
The Christian life is a battle, not a rosy bed of ease. The dynamic believer must take a stand against the devil in a war of spiritual survival with combat readiness. We must be ready to fight at the first crack of a shot. 
 
2 Ti 2:3 “You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 4 No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.”
 
We cannot give place to the devil or he will gain a foothold of warfare on our soul. Once he has that foothold, we will head for defeat.

 

James 4:7

Published on November 26, 2000 in James. 0 Comments
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Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Beginning with verse seven, James reels off 10 commands in machine gun like fashion. 
 
This verse gives us the two polar opposite attitudes we are to have to two opposing persons. There is a double relation in these attitudes – first, “I submit”; then, “I resist”. 
 
Therefore
 
Every time we see a “therefore,” we look to see what it is “there for.” The “therefore” here draws an inference from the previous verse where James challenges us to humble ourselves before God. James now gives a series of ten commands based on how we humble ourselves (4:6). 
 
submit to God.
 
Since God is a God of “more grace” (4:6), we submit to Him. The heart of pride is self-sufficiency. A phenomenal pride thinks that we can get along without God. Humility, on the other hand, recognizes the need to depend on God. Humility empties self of self-sufficient independence from God. Humility places self under God so that He can dispose of us as He pleases. 
 
“Submit to God” is the first of ten commands. “Submit” comes from two words: under and to arrange. A humble person always arranges himself under God’s authority. The word “submit” was a military term. James puts his language in terms of warfare. We are at war with the devil. A humble person submits to his Commander-in-Chief. By giving allegiance to the Lord, the devil will flee from us. 
 
PRINCIPLE: We must submit to God before we can resist the devil. 
 
APPLICATION: We cannot prevail over a supernatural person in our own strength and by our own sufficiency. We must submit to God because we need His resources. Great arrogance believes that we can obtain spiritual victory without God. Submission to God is an emptying of self-sufficiency. Humility offends the devil because it betrays his original sin – pride. 
 
The foundation of victory in the Christian life lies at submitting to the ultimate authority of God over our lives. There is no Christian liberty without that premise. Capacity to live the Christian life means that we have capacity for God. It rests on a volition that submits to God’s system of values as ultimate. 
 
If we reject the ultimate values of God, we will enter into misery. There is no victory in the Christian life without the discipline of submitting to God. This submission to God’s authority is no vague, unreal submission.  Only when we fully submit to God in our values do we submit to God in actuality. It is one thing to know the principle; it is another thing to apply the principle to our experience. To the degree that we live with the principles of God’s Word and apply them to our lives, to that degree we “submit to God.” 
 
May God help us to take a position in the rank and file of those who accept His authority over our lives. This means accepting God’s will as His sovereign plan for us. We accept His superiority as God and our inferiority as a creature in doing this. We obey God Almighty because His providence is best for us for God knows everything from beginning to end.
 
1 Pe 5: 6 “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”
 
Our walk with the Lord always begins with submission to the authority of God over our lives. When we realize how the greatness of God towers over our finiteness, we draw on God’s power rather than our own (4:8). Without God’s grace, there is no hope for living the Christian life. We need that grace when we come under attack from Satan. 

James 4:6c

Published on November 25, 2000 in James. 0 Comments
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“But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:

‘God resists the proud,

But gives grace to the humble’.”


But gives grace to the humble’

The word “humble” signifies low-lying. The idea is humble in spirit but not servility in attitude. The idea here is not a discouraged person who lacks hope, a dejected, downhearted and downcast person. However, this term does convey someone who is unpretentious.

Mt 11: 29 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

2 Co 10: 1 “Now I, Paul, myself am pleading with you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ— who in presence am lowly among you, but being absent am bold toward you.”

1 Pe 5: 5 “Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for ‘God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble’.”


PRINCIPLE: Humility is the cause of righteousness.


APPLICATION: If pride is the source of all sin, humility is at the core of all righteousness. The one characteristic of a humble person is dependence on God.

Matt. 23: 12 “And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Humility always confesses its true condition before God and rests on the grace of God. A humble believer depends on God daily. He knows that he is not sufficient of himself to live a spiritual life.

Rom. 12: 16 “Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.”

God’s grace will deliver the humble but not the arrogant believer. God’s grace cannot help the proud person because he does not know his own needs. He is self-sufficient. His pride cherishes independence from God. He is beholden to no man. He is not open to help from others and has difficulty in asking help from others.

This kind of person puts himself outside God’s grace because he cannot depend on God. Grace is God’s provision for us.

James 4:6b

Published on November 24, 2000 in James. 0 Comments
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“But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:

            ‘God resists the proud,

            But gives grace to the humble.’”


Therefore

The “therefore” indicates the reason God makes His grace available to us. We engage God’s promises and His grace through humility. That is the one condition for receiving God’s grace.

James quotes Proverbs 3:34 from the Greek translation of the Old Testament [the Septuagint]. Peter also quotes this verse in 1 Peter 5:5.

1 Pet. 5: 5 “Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for

‘God resists the proud,

But gives grace to the humble’.”

A “proud” person is someone who shows himself to be above others. The Greek word comes from two words: over and to appear. Thus, a proud person is someone who appears to be over others. He distains and despises other believers.

The New Testament always uses this term for the sinful ideas of arrogant, disdainful, haughty. This is someone who loves to have the preeminence. He has a pompous estimate of his merit or means and carries an ostentatious pride. He wants to show himself above other people. He carries contempt for others because he is so full of himself.

The word “resist” has the meaning of to set oneself against, to oppose oneself to. It comes from two Greek words: against and to arrange. “Resist” was a military term carrying the idea of to arrange in battle against. God sets Himself in full battle dress against proud people. Pride is the foundation sin from which all sin flows.


PRINCIPLE: God goes to battle against the proud.


APPLICATION: The proud believer sets himself above other believers. God then sets Himself above this believer and goes to battle against him.

We must not confuse pride with genuine greatness. There are great believers who stand head and shoulders above the rest of us. Pride believes that we are greater than we are. This is a figment of our imagination.

God will set Himself against us to do battle with us if we depend on ourselves. This is not passive resistance but active opposition. He will actively battle against us if we operate on pride. No sin provokes God’s resistance more than pride. This sin will preempt us from engaging God’s grace because no other sin sets itself against God more than the sin of pride. It is a declaration of independence from God.

We can find pride in every sin because pride is independence from God and the foundation to all sin. Pride deems itself sufficient and God’s grace insufficient for our needs.

Pr 16: 5 “Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord;

Though they join forces, none will go unpunished.”

Spiritual pride is deadly because it deceives us into believing that we are spiritually above others. Pride hinders God’s grace offered to those without Christ and pride hinders “more grace” to those who know Him.

Envy, self-seeking and ambition have pride as their root. Humility does not seek preeminence. A humble believer is not self-seeking. He does not feel that he has rights but knows that everything he has comes from the Lord. He knows that all that he has is from God. God will give him more grace because he values grace in the first place.

1 Co 4: “For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?”

James 4:6

Published on November 23, 2000 in James. 0 Comments
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“But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:

            ‘God resists the proud,

            But gives grace to the humble’.”


In contrast to the envious person of verse 5, James now deals with how God views the humble believer.  This verse shows that there is a great difference between pride and humility.  James contrasts the envy of man with the grace of God. 

But He gives more grace.

The words “more grace” is literally “greater grace.”  God’s grace always surpasses His previous grace.  God’s always has more grace available for those who sin.  God gives grace but He gives more grace.  “More grace” indicates the complete sufficiency of God’s grace.  There is an endless source of God’s grace in God’s capacity.  God will never run out of grace for there is always more to come. 

Rom. 5: 20 “Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more…”

“Grace” is far more than unmerited favor.  Grace is all that God is free to do for us based on the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.  God does not limit His grace to our salvation.  We need daily forgiveness of sin.  We need daily strength.  God will meet our every need.  God will give grace for every need.

He 4: 16 “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

The word “gives” conveys the idea that God continually gives freely.  The meaning of the verb carries the idea of to give freely.  Nothing inhibits God’s grace.  He gives fully and freely to any believer who wants to avail himself of it. 


PRINCIPLE:  We can never exhaust God’s grace because He gives it in abundance. 


APPLICATION:  We can never exhaust God’s grace for there is always more to follow.  It is His nature to give.  God is a great giver.  When we are weak, that is God’s opportunity to give us grace — the greater our sin, the greater the grace of God.  Conversely, the more we depend on self, the less availability there is to the grace of God. 

2 Co 12: 9 “And He said to me,  ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

God’s job stops at the absolute promise of His grace.  He makes the application of His promises conditional on our faith.  We must apply His promises by faith if they are to take effect in our lives.  What good is the grace of God to us if we do not apply it to our experience? 

God’s grace will produce a godly life.  Grace produces grace in us toward others.  If God gives to us, we willing give to others. 

Ti 2: 11 “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.”

James 4:5

Published on November 22, 2000 in James. 1 Comment
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“Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, ‘The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously’?”

Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain,

For the third time, James uses the word “Scripture” (2:8,23). The mention of Scripture here does not refer to a specific passage but to the general gist of teaching on God’s jealousy (Ex 20:5; 34:14; Ps. 42:1; 84:2; Zech. 8:2).

The Bible never speaks in “vain” in its pronouncements. The declarations of James in the previous verses are not arbitrary. Some of his readers might have thought that he was too categorical and absolute; “James should be more moderate in his writing. He should be more qualifying and relative in his message.” James argues strongly that he takes his points from the Scripture and not from the mere dead words of man.

‘The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously’?

This sentence is one of the most difficult to interpret in James so we cannot come to a definitive meaning.

The first possibility may be the idea that the Holy Spirit who indwells the believer does not create the sin of jealousy in him. In this case, we should not capitalize the word “Spirit” because this term would refer to the human spirit [the Greek does not use capitals]. The idea of this sentence would be that the friendship of the world breeds envy.

The body cannot sin by itself; it requires a “spirit” within it to commit acts of sin. Jealousy is the sadness that grieves over the success of others. This is a selfish sin. Jealousy murdered Able. Jealousy put Joseph on a course of bondage to Egypt. Jealousy put the Lord to death.

The second possibility may be that we can make the Holy Spirit jealous by our sin. The idea behind “jealously” in this interpretation is the feeling of displeasure about hearing of something grievous. The Holy Spirit is jealous that we might be wholly devoted to God.

The word “yearns” is a strong term meaning to long after or desire something greatly. This is a term of huge passion. The human spirit wholly lusts after things contrary to the will of God.

Ro 7: 17 “But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.”

1 Co 2: 12 “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.”

The word “dwells” means to cause to dwell, to put within. The Holy Spirit’s jealousy longs for fellowship with the spirit that dwells in us. He is jealous for our love. Some believers committed spiritual adultery (4:4) so they needed to understand something about how God longs for His people.

1 Co 6: 19 “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?”

 PRINCIPLE: We immobilize God’s Word in our hearts when we rationalize it for our own ends.  

APPLICATION: Our propensity to sin (Ps 51:5) does not reduce the responsibility for our sin. If we rationalize sin away, we put ourselves in serious spiritual jeopardy. We need to grasp how God the Holy Spirit longs to fellowship with us.

James 4:4c

Published on November 21, 2000 in James. 0 Comments
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“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.”


makes himself an enemy of God

The word “makes” means to assign, to establish, to institute, to bring into a certain state, to exhibit one’s self.   Once we become a friend of the world, we assign ourselves to the position of an enemy of God.  We appoint ourselves to this position of an enemy of God by using the world-system for our essential values.


PRINCIPLE:  Friendship with the world and friendship with God are mutually exclusive. 


APPLICATION:  We commit spiritual infidelity when we love the world.  Friendship with the world and friendship with God are mutually exclusive.  A person who attempts to love God and the world simultaneously is a double-minded man.  He wants his cake and eat it too.  This is spiritual adultery. 

Mt. 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. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

2 Co 6: 14 “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? 15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? 16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said:

            ‘I will dwell in them

            And walk among them.

            I will be their God,

            And they shall be My people’.”

17 Therefore

            “Come out from among them

            And be separate, says the Lord.

            Do not touch what is unclean,

            And I will receive you.”

18“I will be a Father to you,

            And you shall be My sons and daughters,

Says the Lord Almighty.”

God is a jealous God and will not tolerate unfaithfulness.  He does not share Himself with anyone or anything.  The person who falls in love with the world constitutes himself against God.  He is not just indifferent to God but he is the enemy of God.  He deems that God is not sufficient for his needs so he runs off to his mistress, the world.  In adopting this system of values, he cuts off God’s blessing from his life. 

When the carnal Christian fully buys into the Satan’s system, he completely shuts down to the Word of God.  His orientation of values changes form God’s viewpoint to Satan’s viewpoint.  Satan’s viewpoint might not be overt evil but a philosophy or a religious belief contrary to the principles of the Bible.  His heart hardens toward the principles of the Word.  He eventually shuts down his volition toward God wholly. 

The longer the carnal believer stays in this orientation away from God the deeper he gets into Satan’s system.  Conversely, the greater momentum he has in the Word of God the stronger he gets in his orientation to God’s system of values.  It takes many decisions to get to either belief system. 

Ro 12: 1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Col. 3: 2 “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.”