Epistle Of James
Submitting To God | Standing Firm In Faith 09
[Music] Please turn your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 16. Remember again that we are doing a series called "How to Stand Firm in Your Faith"? You can listen to any one of these messages by themselves, it's fine. But I tend to like to do things in series, things that are connected. And today what I want to do is, as promised last week, we're going to look at submitting to God. So let's begin in 1 Corinthians 16, 13, which is our foundation scripture. From the New King James Version, remember again the Apostle Paul says, Amen, so notice again that we are in a fight, we are in an army. And this isn't physical fighting, this is spiritual fighting. That's the reason why it's not something that you do 100 push-ups and you're good. The Apostle Paul says, we don't fight against flesh and blood, we fight against principalities and powers, and this is where I believe in the Christian walk, that the more powerful you should get, because you grow wiser in the things of God. And you've got some experience. And we're going to look at the fact that today, we are resisting, when we resist the devil, we're going to look at James 4/7, when we are resisting the devil, we are resisting his lies. Because everything has been given to us, and what we're doing is protecting what we have, and forcing it down here in the earth, amen? So anyway, I'm jumping, getting ahead of myself, okay? Hallelujah. So again, he says here, watch. So we are meant to be watchful. Remember from the new revised standard version, it says, he says, keep alert. We need to stay focused, we need to keep our eyes on God. We need to know that he is everything that we need. Amen, and that we do have an enemy. We'll look at that in a minute too. You know, if we didn't have an enemy, we wouldn't need to stand firm. Amen, it would all just happen, okay? And I want to say some other things I'm going to leave it. But notice he says to be brave and to be strong. Remember the new revised standard version says to be courageous. So these are things that, these are inequalities, family. These are things on the inside that we build up, and we become stronger and more powerful in time. Amen? So accordingly, I've said it up to now we've looked at some of the things that we must do to stand firm, including resisting the devil. We now come to James 4/7. So let me begin by reading there. James chapter 4 and verse 7, he says, this is the apostle James, he writes, he says, therefore watch, submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. You know when I first came into the Christian faith, I only heard the back end of that. Okay, I only heard about resist the devil and he will flee from you. And I was resisting everything and he didn't flee, he didn't move, he didn't do nothing. And I went to God and I said, what's up man, I'm resisting. He said, you didn't read the first part of the verse. I said, there's the first part, you know, and I noticed that the first part said, submit to God, then resist the devil and he'll flee from you. In fact, the two are actually related and you're going to find that out today, okay. Praise God, right. So notice here, unlike in first Peter 5/9, where the apostle Peter said, resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. Here in James 4/7, the apostle James actually says that there is something we must do before we resist the devil. So let's look at what this means, all right. In the literal text, it actually means instead of just submit to God, it says yield to God. Do you all know what the word yield means? Okay. You know when you yield your will? All right. So that means that we cannot operate in pride. Wanting to do things our way. Hello. Instead we need to learn to go to God about everything and submit to what he wants done and in the way that he wants it done. Did you get both of those things, okay, we submit to God to what he wants done and in the way he wants it done. See, you know, sometimes we get half of it and then we run off with the other half. God says, do this and we go, oh yeah, I got that God and we run off. And God says, wait, I didn't tell you how. Have you run off with half the instructions? And God said, come back, you went the wrong direction. You meant to go this way, okay. And then we come back and go, what went wrong? You said you didn't wait. See again, it's this, we have this thing about us that, you know, we want to do stuff. As soon as God tells us, we kind of go, oh yeah, we can figure that out. You have no idea what's going on. You have an enemy that is invisible arrayed against you. Amen. Remember the thief comes to steal to kill to destroy. He's out there. See, this is why people say, well, if God's so good, how come all these bad things are happening? Well, Jesus said, there's a thief. It's not God who's doing it. He said, I have come to give you life and life more abundantly. Amen. Remember Jesus said, if you've seen me, you've seen the father. So he's speaking on behalf of the father. He said, I only say the things that I hear my father saying, I only do the things that I see him doing. Which means Jesus Christ was the absolute perfect, perfect, absolute perfect representation of God in this earth. If you want to know what God's like, Jesus is there. In the beginning was the word, the word was God, the word came and dwelt among us and let us know what God was like. And so when Phillips said, sure as the father, he said, you're looking at him? Everything that I do represents what God is, who God is, what he wants done in this earth. I love it that he healed them all. I love that because, you know theologians, they don't like that. The theologians have to say, well, no, no, no, you can't just have that. There's all these reasons why not. And God, you know, I love Jesus. He says, I'm going to add, this is me adding, okay, sorry. But he says, regardless what the theologian says, if you believe, this will happen. If you don't like a lot of theologians, it won't happen. And then they write about how it doesn't happen and why it shouldn't happen. And you know, like somebody said, one Christian was being interviewed on TV and before he started, you know, this lady was going to interview him, he said, you know what? I will never, before she even says, he says, I will never talk about nuclear physics. She's like, what? He said, I will never talk about nuclear physics. She said, okay, why? Because, because I have no idea. And people out there that have no idea about how God heals and looks after things shouldn't talk about that stuff. Boy, he, I mean, just landed it. I have had so many people say so many things about how God doesn't heal today and everything else. And down the road, people are getting healed. Of course, in their church, nobody's getting healed because they don't believe the thing. You know, as you believe, so you go. And the flock. Hey, man, that's why I keep saying to people, please be careful what you listen to because if they take your faith away from you, then they have take, they have robbed you of something that God has given you. And it is, it's an international currency. Do you know you can use faith anywhere in the world for anything? You can run out of money or anything else, but don't run out of faith. Because it'll bring whatever finances you need, whatever medical help you need, whatever people you need to meet up with, it'll bring all that stuff because it's attached to God. It's trusting God. Do you understand faith? It's just trusting God and saying, God, you know what, I don't know where I am. I don't know what's going on. You do? I don't need to know. You need to know. You just need to tell me where to go next. And the Bible promises us that the steps of the righteous will be ordered by the Lord. Amen? We'll look at more of that later. Anyway, today we're on this. Okay. All right, all right, all right. So again, let me just reread this. It means that we cannot operate in pride wanting to do things our way. Instead, we need to learn to go to God about everything again, submit to what He wants done and in the way that He wants it done. That's the reason the Apostle James says in the latter half of the previous verse, so we're going back to James 4 and verse 6 now, he says, therefore, he says, God resists the proud. You know, the new living translation puts it this way, God sets Himself against the proud. Yee, did you see that? Do you know James is writing the Christians? You know, God can be your daddy and He can still set Himself against you because you're doing all the wrong things. Do you know that He will not and cannot allow you to do anything outside of His will because if He is, if He okay is anything, He is helping you get further away from Him and He's perfect will for your life. And then He'll be to blame for where you end up because you say, well, God, I prayed and it happened, you couldn't have just let me know by not making it happen. See a lot of people then say, how come God didn't answer my prayer? Maybe you're praying the wrong prayer. You know, when I tell people before you pray, check with God about what to pray. Pray about what you pray. I know it seems like double talk, but you know, I don't know what to ask wise, you know, the Bible says we don't know how to ask wise we are. So go to God and say, what am I, okay, so here's the problem which He knows more about than you do, by the way. You don't have to inform Him about anything, you're the one that's behind, all right? But you just, you're letting Him know that you know there's a problem, which He already knew about. So this is now because you already knew about, He already has a solution. So what do you need to do now? We say, now Lord, so here's a problem which I know you know, what's a solution? What do I pray for? What do I pray about? Amen? And I don't know how many times I've heard something that I thought, you got to be kidding. You want me to pray for it? See, I wouldn't have prayed, but He says, I want you to pray for this? And I go, okay, I don't know what that has to do with anything. Have you gone to God with, have you gone to God maybe with the financial need? And His answer is repent. And He goes, say, what? He says, repent. Why? You know, Mark 11, 23 and 24, it says, if you say to this mountain, be thou removed and be thou causing you into the sea and shall not doubt in the heart, but believe those things which you say, it shall come to pass. And when you stand praying, you know, believe that you receive and you shall have an, all that stuff, what's with this repentance, read verse 25. And when you stand praying, if you have order against, if you've got a problem, you've got to forgive because the thing won't work without this. And so much the time we are, you know, we're carrying around stuff inside of us that cuts us off from God, cuts us, oh, I said the right and that, cuts us off from God. I'm talking very fast, all right, and then we're trying to get God to do something when He's, you know, we've cut Him off from ourselves. Hence to submit to God. Step one, okay, we're working on step one, one, okay, the first one, all right. But notice again, He says, God resists the proud, watch, but gives grace to the humble. The reason that He resists the proud is brought out in Proverbs chapter six. Let's go there quickly and look at verses 16 and 17. This is where the writer of Proverbs says, these six things the Lord hates. Did you see the word hates? He doesn't intensity like he hates these things. Watch now. And he says, seven are an abomination to him. Watch what it begins with. The first thing on the list, verse 17, murder, adultery, no. Look what it leads the list with, a proud look. It starts with pride. Did you see that? Do you know the reason why? This is the sin of Satan. It's pride. This is what motivates us and the way He motivates us to do as we please and then boast about it. Okay. You think I shouldn't have come today. I should have come for one of them fluffy kind of sermons. Sorry. This is good for you, okay. You know, we don't even realize so much of the time that we have pride. It's in there and it's hidden, it's masked. We have no idea. And sometimes we think we're being nice or we think all sorts of things. And yet when we really look down, when we really ask ourselves what's going on, God saying you are still in control of your life, you want to keep that control and you don't want to let go and you don't understand what that's costing you. If there wasn't a devil in this earth, that would be fine. You could do what you want, you wouldn't have opposition. But there is something that I said to you before that has arrayed itself against you and God is the one that can see the maze and He will let you know which way to go. Left and right, which keeps you away from all the blockages, from all the walls, from all the dangers, from all the pitfalls, from all the traps. We are here. And so while we want to go our way and we think we know better, God saying I can see the thing, have you ever watched it right in a maze? They can't see where they're going. But if you're looking down on it, you can see the whole thing. You can figure it out. And if you were brilliant, like God, you know straight away which one is out, okay. In some days, like I said last week, you've got to go the opposite direction to get out. And so much of the time, that's what people miss. They go in the direction they think you should be going when it's the other way. Anyway, anyway, anyway, I'll give you examples. James 4, verse 13, let's go there. James addresses this in verses 13 through 17. He says, "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. Can you see money? See how this is the driving force of economy today and most people's thinking today is all about money. Because do you know money is the other side of the coin to God? People have this thing that money, because the Bible says money answers all things, it can get you a lot of stuff. But there are some things it can't do. God can do everything, money can do a fair few things. And the thing with money is, oh, a pot fell, there's something happening out there. The thing with money is it promises you so much and it cuts you off from God if you allow it to take hold of you. See I've said this to you before, God has no problem with you having money. But he's got a huge problem with money having you. That's called covetousness. People talk about this prosperity gospel. It's not a prosperity gospel that you have a problem with. It's a covetous gospel that you're having a problem with. You can't get it mixed up. Because you look at the word of God and he talks about God wanting to bless his people. Constantly God is blessing his people. But he doesn't want us to be covetous. He doesn't want money to get a hold of us. It didn't say money was the root of all evil. Do you know, I was in the, no, I was in a particular church, I had to edit that out. I was in a particular church and I just got saved and everything, you know, Billy Graham. And so they sent me somewhere. So I went there. I didn't know, you know, and I went there and I started learning about the word it got more and more. And while I was seated there, I knew something about the word, not a lot enough to be dangerous and stupid, but I just knew something, you know. And so I was sitting there and this assistant pastor was taking this group and he got to a particular verse in Timothy and he said, why is money the root of all evil? And I said, it didn't say money was the root of all evil. It said the love of money is the root of all evil. He goes, yeah, yeah, whatever. He didn't see a difference between money and the love of money. See to him, it was like, oh, brother, hand me the root of all evil. When you're asking for money, you know what I'm trying to say? That's how they see it. Anything money really, and yet you need the stuff to eat, to pay your bills. You can't go to the bank and give him, you know, Philippians. My God should supply all you need here, but here, you know, money, hello. So we know we need that. God knows we need it. He has no problem with giving it to us as long as we don't let it control us, as long as we don't take our eyes off of him and start looking at the money and go, ooh, I got money. What do you want to do? See, suddenly it's about what do I want to do instead of God? What do you want me to do? And then things start going off the rails. Then we run to God, help, help. He goes, oh, now you want to talk to me. Hello. Do you know if we do what God tells us to do? Whatever money He gives us, it's a gift that we can use to do His will that then He will open the windows of heaven and pour blessings out on us more than we can handle. Are you with me? God isn't holding back on anything. Do you know the Bible, I think one of the biggest things is the Bible talks about that God said, my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. Not that they have bad hearts or anything, they just don't know. I know my mom was that way. You know, she had a good heart and she just didn't know what the Bible said. And so I started teaching her stuff and then, boy, I tell you, she just took off, left me in the dirt. I mean, she just thought, oh, wait, does it say that? Okay, I'll believe that. And I said, you can't just because, oh, my God, she did. And a whole company was turned upside down in which she worked, where there were sabotaging lines and it was a drug company and you don't do stuff like this. I mean, glass and all sorts of things. And I mean, all the people there, one after the other that were getting away with it for years, mom found out that she had some, that she had authority, that she could stop this, that this wasn't right. And so she started praying Lord, exposed them, and one after the other, they got exposed and fired. And before she left, they gave her a big send-off, they said, thanks to you, this company is making a profit and doing really well. And thanks to you, we found out things we would have never found out. Hallelujah. So you know, when I see you folk, that's what I believe is in you. There are giants in there waiting to be released, receive the word and have it in the released. Leave us all in the dirt. Hallelujah. Okay. So where was I? James 4. So notice again, he talks about profit in verse 14, he says, whereas, he says, instead of saying that, he says this, 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. Isn't it incredible the way he says this? He said, instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that. But now you boast in your arrogance, all such boasting is evil. Verse 17, therefore to him who knows to do good and does not do it to him, it is sin. If you know to do something that, if God is, listen, this goes well beyond what we're thinking right now. If God tells you to do something and you say, no, that immediately becomes a sin because you have now rejected the counsel of God. You have said no to your daddy. That's bad. Okay. The Bible says obey your parents, especially that one. You know down here, they may not know everything, but he knows everything. And if he tells you to do something, do it, ask why later. You know, we want to ask why at the front end, I just reckon this is how my little mind works after years of getting it wrong. Now I just think, let's do what he says and we'll ask us along the way. It's funny how along the way, you almost don't have to ask because things start to pan out and you kind of go, oh, oh, that's why we're doing this today. You know, walking with God is an adventure because half the time you don't know what you're doing, but he knows. It's awesome. People say, oh, walking with God is boring. Oh, it's because you're not listening to him anyway, boy, it keeps me on my toes, freaks me out. All right, so just like when he said, so you want the long road or the short road when we started the church, I said, the long one is the right answer, isn't it? He goes, yes. But you can choose. I said, okay, let's go the long way. 30 years later, here we are. It's all about to break loose. Hallelujah. That was a long road. I would have renegotiated a little bit if I knew it was going to be 30 years. But you know what? Here we are with our kids doing incredible things. God had to grow a generation that would stick together, that nothing would be able to tear us apart. And then he says, now we'll move forward. Praise God. Okay. So, you know, I'm 60, but what does that matter? 30 years ago, it's 30, never mind. I told you, as we grow older, we grow stronger. Amen. Amen. All right. So, so what this shows us is that we cannot think that we can live any way we please. Ignore God in all we do. And when the devil comes knocking on the door, think that we can use the name of Jesus, resist him in the faith because not only have we sinned according to James 4 17, but God himself is set against us according to James 4 6. Are you getting all this, all right? So we see a vivid example of this in the book of Daniel. Let's go to the book of Daniel, all right. When God warns King Nebuchadnezzar, I just like to call him King Nebby, it's a very long name. In a dream that Daniel interprets for him about a judgment that would come upon him if he didn't change his prideful and arrogant ways. And a year later, it goes into say in Daniel chapter 4 verses 29, oh, well, I'm just going to read from verses 29 through 31 for the sake of time. And then I'll jump to verse 37, all right. It says at the end of the 12 months, he, that is the king, okay, was walking about the royal palace of Babylon, verse 30. The king spoke, listen to what he says, saying, "Is not this great Babylon that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty, my goodness, as a lot of my enemies and eyes, can you see this?" Now please understand something, a year before this, God warns him. So many people don't get that. They say God's going to do it regardless, no, no, no, God warns you and he'll tell you. And you know, this could have been a different story had this king listened. Somebody say amen to that. It's not that you have a free will, do you know, it is the one thing that is more powerful than God, bless me, shoot me down, but that's the truth. If it wasn't, he would make everybody get saved. After Jesus went to the cross, if that was my kid, listen to me. I'd make everybody get saved. It's like the price has been paid. You don't get a child. I don't care. You're not going to hell. I insist. That would have been the end of it, but he gives us a choice. That's what it even says in the Old Testament. You choose this day who you'll serve. You choose. It's always your choice, amen, that will never change. Otherwise God can't judge us at the end. If he destined us to go to hell, well, we're going to go. If he destined us to go to heaven, we're going to go. We have no choice in the matter. But if we do, then there's a judgment, amen? What we decided. So anyway, so let's see what happened to King Nebby. All right. So we're back in Daniel chapter 4 and verse 31. Well, the word was still in the King's mouth. He's in the middle of speaking a sentence. It says, "A voice fell from heaven. King Nebuchadnezzar, to you, it is spoken. The kingdom has departed from you." And just like that, it was gone. So maybe he stands on his little balcony and goes, "I'm this. I'm that. Whoa. Look at me. Yeah, baby." And boom. It's all gone. I'm God said. Be careful. Don't let this happen. Judgment will come. You know. Can we learn something from this? We're trying. I know. Very trying some days. And so what happens to lose his mind becomes like a wild animal. It's grass. Not smokes it. It eats it. Okay. All right. So all of which could have been avoided. Sorry. If he had just listened to the warning, God had given him a year earlier. Notice how long suffering God is. He gave him a warning. And for 12 months, it's like change. Do you know? This is similar to King David. He did a little naughty. You know? Hello. You know? Bachiba. Uriah. Hello. Okay. And so what he does, he gets rid of the husband. Typical male. All right? Well, he sends him to the battle line. Isn't it sad the way he puts the orders in Uriah's hand that will cause his own death? Sends him out. They get rid of him. And then for, I think about a year or so, nothing, says nothing. Everything is fine until a prophet turns up. You know, God always sends a prophet. Yeah. Profits hate their job, but they send to do stuff that nobody else wants to do. And Nathan turns up, and you know, King David could have thrown him in prison. There are some other kings that other prophets had said things and didn't go well for them. But Nathan comes and remember he tells David about this little baby lamb that this one man had and he loved it and he looked after it and he just did everything with it. And there was this other man who had a whole flock of sheep and has a guest and takes this guy's one little baby sweetheart lamb, you know, the one they named, cuts it up and eats it. He says, what would you do with the person like that? David's going, I'll kill that person. Who is he? Nathan goes, you see you. Yeah, dude, you had all this and you took the one thing this one man had and he repents. He could have repented earlier. He could have not done the things he did. Are you all here? Be quick to repent. Don't hide things because they just cause problems. Anyway, back to this. So what did Nebuchadnezzar learn from all of this? Verse 37, I love this, Nebuchadnezzar is speaking himself now. He says, now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extolth and honor the king of heaven. All of whose works are truth and his ways justice. The new living translation says all his acts are just and true. And those who walk, listen, those who walk in pride, he is able to put down or humble, says another translation. See God opposes the proud. He sets himself against pride. Do you see this? So we need to be so careful that we are not walking in pride. And then we're not disguising it in any way or form. But to do this as a part of standing firm in our faith, we need to understand that there are powers at work far greater than us. And without God, we will surely be at the mercy of the thief who Jesus said again comes to steal, to kill and to destroy. See, the reason the thief wants you to walk in pride is because it opens the door for him to enter your life. It stops you from walking the path God has set for you, which is a safe path. It's not without incidents, not without its own challenges, but it's a path that has the protection of God in a fallen world. That has the power of God, that has everything that God needs you to have to walk this life out. Amen? And it really saddens me when people say, "Why did God let this happen to me?" I would check up and ask yourself, "Where did you miss God?" Remember when we looked at the verse that said, "As for God, His way is perfect?" God doesn't make mistakes. We make mistakes. God is like that little GPS in your car, which tastes turned left and you don't turn left. And then it has to recalculate, recalculate, recalculate, okay, okay, okay, okay. Keep going straight and then turn right over here, then go left over there. And we go, "No, I think I know better, I'm just going to keep going straight." And then it recalculates again. And God's recalculating and recalculating, how many recalculations does He have to do? And then we get to a place and we go, "Oh, there's no more road." Hello. "Why did God lead me here?" "Oh, did He? Oh, was that you? Are you seeing this?" You know, I'm giving you a secret to something that will help your whole life. Get this, okay? Did I run the time? I ran the time. Okay. But I have more. A little bit more, give me about three minutes, and then we'll pick up here, okay, next week. All right. I've said here. So if we are to successfully fight the good fight of faith and stand our ground, firm in faith, James 4-7 says that the first thing we must do is to submit to God. You are beginning to understand now why, okay? In his commentary, Simon J. Kissimaka writes, "When James says submit, he actually means obey. The wording, submit yourselves, describes a voluntary act of placing oneself under the authority of someone else. Listen to show him respect and obedience." I want to leave you with that. That's what we do when we submit to God. Respect, obedience. We are saying, "God, we are obeying you. We respect you. We respect your will and your thoughts above our own." Are you all here? We'll listen to you, God, whatever you say. People say, "I have trouble hearing from God. Maybe you haven't been listening. Maybe he's been talking and talking and talking and you've just turned, tuned him out. You can't hear him anymore. First pray to pray, "Help me here." That's it. That is big enough to fix that. If your antenna is out, if something in you is broken and you just can't hear him, he'll fix it because you have made him responsible to do something because you've said, "My will is to hear your voice. My will is to know where you want me to go, what you want me to do, how you want me to do it." All of those things, that is my will, Lord. I know you're big enough to get it through to me. I may be thick as whatever, but you can get through to me because you're God. Amen? This is where the greatness of God comes in. This is where you need to know the greatness of God because people are always saying, "But I can't hear God. But do you think that he can get it to you?" No matter how deaf you might be. This is the answer. He can. The most dense individual on this planet can hear from God if somebody goes, "Oh, thank God." If, if that is their will, and if they pray that, let that be your first prayer, amen? And then you can walk the path that he has set for you. And it will be a blessing to you and everyone around you. Let's have a head about it. Close, Father, we thank you today for your word, and we thank you, Father, for all that you are teaching us. We thank you, Lord, that we understand there are some things that we need to get rid of in our lives. There might be some, some pride in there that we don't even know exists, that there are some things, God, that we say, "Well, God, the big things you can take care of. There's little things I can look after that we just submit all of it to you." And it's not that we don't have an intellect, Father, you said that we have been given the mind of Christ, that we have an incredible intellect living on the inside of us, but we are to use it in line with your will and your word. And we thank you, Father, that when we do that, we are at our best, receiving the very best from you, living the very best life that you have for us. We thank you for that in Jesus' name, amen. the Lord. [MUSIC PLAYING] [BLANK_AUDIO]