James 4:7-17 - Fellowship with God and One Another

Good morning, Calvary Chapel, good morning.

What a blessed morning it is. Amen.

Amen. It's always good to be in the

House of the Lord. When I ask you, please turn in

your Bibles to James chapter 4. We're going to be in, We're

James 4 · chapter mention

going to be in. You start at verse 7.

But before we do that, I have just a couple things to say

before we say something. Hey, man.

Well, first of all, I just want to welcome everyone that's here

today as our sister always gives the most gracious welcome to

everybody. I just want to echo that.

Thank you all for coming. Those of you who are new here,

welcome to Calvary Chapel and thank you so much for choosing

the worship with us this morning.

And those who are already, we thank God for you guys coming to

every, every Tuesday, I mean every Wednesday and every Sunday

that you're with us. We are grateful that you have

chosen to worship with us. And of course, I never want to

neglect those who are listening behind prison walls.

It's so great that you choose to worship with us and we pray that

the ministry is a blessing to you.

I just want to mention that, you know, there's times when people

may ask, you know, on a Sunday sometimes, how do I, how do I

give, you know, how do I give the cowboy child?

How do I give to this ministry? How do we give to the radio

station? And well, we want to answer that

this morning. First of all, I want to thank

you for your support. Those of you who give, we thank

you for your support. We could not do any of the

things that we're able to do without your precious gift,

financial gifts and the blessings that you have given,

particularly in 2025. But if those of you who are

questioned, like just some new people here and they want to

know, well, how do we give now? We don't take an offering, so

you never see people walking through the sanctuary with any

kind of receptacles or anything asking for an offering.

We don't take an offering as a body of Christ.

We give an offering and the church receives your offering,

but we don't take an offering. So how do you give then?

Well, first of all, back in our Fourier, in the front there is a

black box. As soon as you come in the door,

if you walk in those doors and you look to the left, there's a

black box there that has a opening and you can give your

gift there either when you first come in or on your way out, feel

free to give a gift. And also in the back there,

there is a black receptacle looks almost just like that one

and it has an opening as well. And you are able to drop your

offering in there OK as well. Now there's some of you who say,

well, you know what, I like to give online or I like to give by

push pay. If you would download the

Calvary Chapel app, you can give by push pay on that app.

OK with and actually that's how I give.

I like to give by push pay. It's really easy.

I can be anywhere. So oh, you know what?

I didn't get a chance to give this morning.

Bam, go on my app and it's done and it's done.

So it's very easy. You can give online at the

Calvary Chapel website if you choose to do that.

Some of you may say, you know what, I'm more old fashioned.

I like to give by mail. I want to mail mine in and we

do. We get a lot of people who

decided to mail their offerings in, and you can do that by

mailing it to Calvary Chapel Post Office, Box 716,

Greensburg, PA 156 01. So all these are the various

places where the various ways that you can give to this

ministry. But we want to thank you so much

because God has been faithful to this house and you're giving and

you have been a blessing to this house in terms of your faithful

and very generous giving. And we want to thank you for

that. So having said that, why don't

we get into the word of God? What do you think?

Amen. Let's get into the Word of God.

Let's pray. Father, we do thank you, first

of all, that you've given us your Son, Jesus Christ.

We thank you for the salvation that we have through him.

We thank you, Father, for our redemption, our sanctification,

and our justification that we have through the shed blood of

Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

And we thank you for this day that you have given us, that we

will be be glad and rejoice in. We thank you Father, for these

wonderful dear brothers and sisters who make up the body of

Calvary Chapel. We thank you for their heart to

serve you through this ministry. We thank you for those who have

given and those who desire to give.

We ask God for a blessing upon them.

And Father, we thank you for your word, which you give to us,

that we may know you as we seek you.

So we ask today, Father, as we sit under your word, we thank

you that we've been able to worship with you through Psalm,

we've been able to worship through prayer, and even through

our giving, we worship you. And now we're going to worship

you, Father, by sitting under your word and submitting to your

word. And we pray, Father, that you

would open your mouth this morning and that You would speak

to us. We need you to speak to us.

It doesn't matter what I have to say.

No one's here to see me or hear me.

But Father, we do want to come and hear you.

We want to hear Your heart concerning these passages.

And Father, we pray that you would cause Your word to

transform us, to change us, to make us more like your Son,

Jesus Christ. That's our desire every time we

come together. It calls us, O God, to grow in

the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and

every day Lord, every day. So we ask these things in the

name of our Savior, in our Lord, in Jesus name we pray.

Let everybody say Amen, Amen. So let's get into the word of

God. Amen.

So we are in James chapter 4 and although I want to the, the,

James 4 · chapter mention

the, the main focus of our text today is going to be starting at

verse 7. But before we do that, I do want

to go back to chapter to verse 4.

And it says this, It says the doctors and the doctor says, do

you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with

God, and whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world

makes himself an enemy of God? Or do you not think that the

Scripture says in vain? The Spirit who dwells in US

yearns jealously. And I'm going to stop right

there for a second. So James was speaking, as we've

mentioned before, James is speaking to a scattered people.

This is not just one particular church that he's speaking to.

He's speaking to believers, but they're scattered due to the

persecution. They were scattered.

They've left Jerusalem and they're in a lot of different

places. So being in different places,

one of the things that can happen with church, just like it

can happen with us, right? Depending on where, where it is

that we're scattered to, there's that potential of being

persecuted by the non believers in those areas or in, in, in

this case, it was not only just the non believers or the, the

Gentiles, but also the non believing Jews.

We're also persecuting them. And, and, and James was dealing

with an issue of the people trying to survive in those

areas. And a lot of times they would

compromise in order to try to get along, in order to try not

to stand out. And, you know, we, we, we know

what that's like. You know, as, you know, growing

up, sometimes we just don't want to stand out.

And it's almost easier or we feel that it's easier.

We convince ourselves that it's easier to just compromise, to

just, you know, fit in, so to speak, be like everybody else.

But then you think to yourself, well, what was I thinking?

After a while, you know, of different things that you do to

compromise. And you think, what was I

thinking? What was wrong with me?

How could I have made a decision to act like that?

Well, just for just for a second there, I just want you to know

what it looks like sometimes of what was I thinking, OK.

And this is a time in my life when I capitulated to what was

going on around me. I wanted to look like them and I

wanted to act like them. So I have this evidence that I'm

going to share with you. What was I thinking?

I don't know what's worse, the hair or the shirt.

What was I thinking flowery shirt and I don't even know if

you can see the medallion in there with that.

But anyway, that was in one of my what were what was I thinking

days. So keep that in mind because as

we go further, we're going to get back to what was I thinking,

OK. But throughout the Bible,

throughout the Bible, it was mentioned by God.

God made it very clear that he wanted the church.

He wanted Israel to be separate from the other nations.

He warned them several times. When you go into these different

places, don't do what they do. Don't act like they act.

Don't take on their sins. Don't worship their gods.

He did it throughout the entire Old Testament.

Moses warned them even before they went into Canaan.

Now when you go in, make sure you don't act the way they act.

Don't take on their customs. Don't do the things that they

do. Keep yourself separate and even

into the New Testament, you know, Jesus made it clear, you

know, you can't serve 2 masters, OK, you either going to love one

or hate the other, or you're going to be loyal to 1 and

despise the other. But you can't serve 2 masters.

You can't serve both God and Mammon.

And I love what some of the New Testament scripture say about

it. I'm just going to look at a

couple. I'm going to start with John.

Let's start with John and and John and, and, and in the book

of John, Jesus says this in his prayer.

John 17 looking at verse 14, he says this.

He says I have given them your word and the world has hated

them because they are not of the world.

And Jesus preached that constantly that you are not of

the world. The world's going to hate you.

People are not going to receive you.

They didn't receive me, so they're not going to receive

you. So you're not of the world, just

as I am not of the world. 15 says I do not pray that you

should be, that you should take them out of the world.

We need to be here in the world. We are the light and we are the

salt, so we need to be here in the world.

The Israelites were supposed to be the people of God who would

demonstrate the righteousness of God in the earth around all

those Pagan nations. They were to be the light.

And we as a church today, we are supposed to be the light.

It's a very significant thing for you to be in Christ Jesus.

It's not just to wake up every morning and say I'm saved.

No, our lives should demonstrate the righteousness and the

goodness and the love of Jesus Christ and we will stand out.

We will be different. Some people will love that.

Some people may love it from afar.

Other people are going to hate that as we're going to talk

about that in a second. But Jesus makes it, makes it

very clear that they, he says they are not of the world, just

as I am not of the world. Now one more, I'm going to a

couple more. I'm going to take a look at,

let's look at Romans chapter 12. It's, it's, it's a, it's a

Romans 12 · chapter mention

common one. I'm sure you guys could probably

recite it without even going to it.

And he just simply says this. I'm going to read 1 and 2 verses

1 and 2. I beseech you therefore,

brother, and by the mercies of God, that you present your

bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your

reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this

world. Conform the word con.

Inform the word con means form with it means to be with.

Do not be with this world in terms of assimilating their

ideas, assimilating their culture.

Don't be with them in form. We should not look like them.

But he says be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Transform means to be to go beyond, to cross.

We should cross their culture, not be informed to their

culture, but we should cross their culture and go beyond.

The Bible says that we should seek those things which are

above and not the things that are upon the earth.

We should place, we should set our minds on things that are

above. We're the Kingdom of God and we

are supposed to represent the Kingdom of God.

And that's exactly what James is saying here.

So you're going into these communities and instead of being

separate, he says, as it tells us back here, back in James

James 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4, he says instead you're being adulterous, you're

betraying God and you're, and you're, and you're worshipping

their their gods and you're assimilating to their to their

cultures and, and doing the things that they do.

Instead of being separate, he said, you're, you're being an

adulterers and adulteresses. Do you not know that friendship

with the world is enmity with God?

Friendship. That means having the same

values, having those things in common and living like them have

an agreement with them. When the Bible clearly tells us

what does, what agreement does light have with dark?

But instead these, these, you know, these scattered believers,

because they were trying to get along, they became adulterers.

They betrayed, they betrayed the Lord Jesus.

Now, now, now he now, if we were to portray our loved one, just

think about that for a second. We would betray our loved one

and give our affection to someone else.

That would be jealousy on my part.

If I if, if I, if my wife was and I and I never believed she

would, but if my wife was to, if I sensed that there was

affection that was being given to somebody else, her heart was

being given to someone else, that would create jealousy in

me. I would be jealous.

God was jealous and he says that down here in verse in verse 5,

he says the spirit who dwells in US yearns jealously.

That means it longs for their affection.

He longs for their heart. But that heart was given to

another God. That heart was given to another

culture, and they started acting like other people.

And God is saying the spirit in you is jealous.

I want your affection because my affection is better for you.

I give life the things of the world, earthly, sensual,

demonic, those things bring death.

So he was jealous for them. But even what it says back here

and when he says, do you not know?

Their friendship with the world is enmity against God.

That means it's hostile against God, hostile, very hostile

against God. Whoever therefore wants to be a

friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God, makes

himself an enemy of God. Who wants to be an enemy of God?

But when we compromise with the world, is what James is saying

to these people. When you compromise with the

world, you're making yourself an enemy of God.

Why? Because the world hates God.

The world hates God very quickly.

Can we go back to Psalm 2 very quickly?

This epitomizes exactly what James is saying, that in terms

of the world versus the church, Psalm chapter 2.

Psalms 2 · chapter mention

Again, most of you can probably recite this song by heart, but

just so we have a good understanding, let's just read

it. Verse one says this Why do the

heathens rage? Or why does a nation's rage and

the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set

themselves, and the rulers take counsel together.

Look who they're taking counsel against.

Against the Lord, against the Lord and against his anointed. 1

The Messiah, verse 3 This is the attitude of the world.

This is the attitude of the world, and it's the attitude of

the flesh, which is why we have to keep our flesh in check.

Let us break their bonds in pieces and castaway their cords

from us. We've got, we don't want you to

rule over us, so we're casting your bonds away from us.

That's why they get rid of Bibles.

They don't want us to have Bibles in public places and they

don't want us to have Bibles in school where and work and all

those things because they want to cast those things out.

They want to get rid of those things, though.

Listen, the world hates God and the world is saying to us, God,

you are not going to rule over me.

And as a church we need to understand that, but we need to

stand on the word of God because He will rule over us.

He is our authority. He is our ultimate authority,

even over the authority of man. So and we see that.

In our society, we see that in our in the culture that they're

refusing to let God rule over them.

They say, well, how? Well for one thing, when someone

says we're, you know, I, we're, you know, we're teaching the

children right from wrong when parents say it, or even when or

even when the school say it, we're teaching your children

right from wrong. We better make sure that we

understand what right and wrong they're talking about because

there's right and wrong concerning the culture.

What they say is right and wrong, and then there's a right

and wrong, which is of this word.

So you as a parent, you better be.

We have to be as a community here, even with our kids that we

see here. And I'm so glad that we see

young kids sitting in the sanctuary hearing the Word of

God. We as a community teach our

children right from wrong as it relates to the Word of God.

Let me give you an example of where I saw that.

That really, really caused me to see that there's a cause for

concern. When I was working, I was at a

meeting and my then supervisor and about two or three other

people were having a conversation.

I was earshot of the conversation.

They weren't talking to me, but they were having this

conversation and I heard the manager say this the other

night. I was so proud of my son.

He came home from school and his grandfather was there.

He came home from school and he said, mom, our teacher, who was

a man, brought his husband to school.

Wow. The father said, what

grandfather? The grandfather says what?

That's not right. And then the little boy said,

Pop, anybody who loves anybody is right.

And the mother beamed and she was so happy and, and, and and

so, you know, blessed by the fact that her son could stand up

and say that. And then she says to the father,

I don't want discrimination of any kind in this house.

So we know. We know what is right and wrong

concerning the way that she looks at things.

When she said that, I turned to her who wasn't in the

conversation but was earshot. I said, I agree with dad, I

agree with granddad. And from that time on, there was

a target on my back. But I did, I agree with dad,

granddad, we have to make sure that our kids are getting right

and wrong from the right source because the culture has totally

confused what they think is right and wrong.

And, and, and, and I know I believe we talked about this a

little bit, but I just want to go through this just a little

bit. When you talked about what's

right and wrong, how does their values where they look at things

as being right and wrong and their hatred of God and their

refusal to be under the authority of the word of God?

Well, first of all, how about a traditional family, Their idea

of tradition, a traditional family is it could be a man and

a man, a woman and a woman. I mean, totally want to tear up

the traditional family, the biblical traditional family.

We have to be able to stand and say, no, that's not right.

Traditional family is a man and a woman.

It cannot be to women. It cannot be to to men.

Why can't it be? Because the creator who created

family says it was a man and a woman.

That's why when we look at when we look at marriage, they think

anybody can get married. No, it is not right for two

women to get married. You can't produce.

It's not right for two men to get married.

It is between a man and a woman. But let's look at something

else. Let's look at genderism where

they think that it's OK that a, a kid 810 years old comes home

and say mommy, you know, a son, a boy comes home and say Mommy,

I want to be, I want to be a girl.

Or a 10 year old girl comes home and say, Mommy, I want to be a

guy. God made a mistake.

I should have been a no, sorry. What you get at birth.

That's what God intended you to be.

That's what God intended you to be.

I'm not calling. We should not be calling some

man Sally. If his name is Stu, it's Stu.

It ain't going to be Sally. We can't be calling some woman

Donald because her name is Diane.

But that's what the culture will force us to try to do.

And if we participate in that, then we're not setting ourselves

separate from the church, from the from the world.

We look just like and sound just like the world.

It's amazing that somebody would say that God made a mistake.

He put the wrong person in the wrong body.

No, God did not make a mistake. So when we look at all these

things and we can go on and on. I mean, I mean, the culture has

just been, you know, the fact that, you know, they want to

call marriage. Well, they, they well, it's it's

legally marriage. If somebody lives together for

seven years, no, God still say that's fornication.

God says it's fornication. When you get married, then you

become a married couple. When you have vows before him,

then you become a married couple.

It's not just because you live together.

We don't Playhouse in the church.

We just don't know. The world may say that world may

be OK with that. We can't be.

And James is saying to this church here and to this body of

believers, we have to stop committing adultery against God

and we have to stop becoming this friendship with the world.

It doesn't mean we don't associate with the world, but to

be a friend of the world means that we are going to compromise

and bend just so we can get along with the world.

And we can't do that. We can't do that.

So it goes on here. And like I said, he says, what

do you, you know, do you think the Scripture says in vain that

the Spirit who dwells in US yearns jealousy?

In other words, the Holy Spirit, when we, when he sees those

idols like that in the life of the church and the life of a

Christian, the Spirit, the Holy Spirit that's in US, he yearns

jealously. He longs jealously, but verse 6

is the good news. Verse 6 is the good news, but he

gives more grace. He gives more grace, bless the

Lord. So maybe I've gone through these

things in my life at one time, and I did.

There was a time when all those things were OK.

Then when the Holy Spirit comes and moves in, all of a sudden

now your life changes. We're transformed by the Holy

Spirit. And it doesn't mean that we no

longer sin. It doesn't mean that we no

longer slip. But what it means is that our

hearts now yearn for the things of God.

They yearn for the things of God.

So the good thing is that when we humble ourselves and say,

God, I am wrong, I sinned, I'm in sin and I want to repent, I

want to ask for forgiveness. I want to give my heart back to

you. When he says, but he gives more

grace, that means that grace is there for us.

That grace is there for us. And that's such a great, a great

thing. Because I'm sure that there's

people, it may be people who are listening, maybe somebody that's

even here who may be thinking, the things I did are so bad.

There's no way God is going to forgive me.

There's no way he's going to be OK with me because the things I

did are so bad. No, God gives more grace and

even where he says here God resists the proud, the proud of

those who want to continue in that way and want to justify

being in that way and want to make it sound OK being in that

way and try to spin it. So being in that way is OK

because I want to do things my way.

I don't want nobody to tell me what to do.

That's the proud and God resists the proud.

And that word resists is scary because it means that God steps

in and stands against the proud. He steps in and he is saying to

the proud. I'm opposing the proud.

I don't want to be in a position or in a place to be opposed by

God. But he says what?

But he gives grace to the humble, to those who ask for

forgiveness, to those who humble themselves and come before him

and repent. And I've been the recipient of

that grace more times than I can count.

And I'm sure most of you have too.

And thank God He is a God of grace.

Because had he judged me according to my life, had he

judged me according to my works, had he judged me according to my

sins, I wouldn't be here. He would have destroyed me,

taking me out just like he did Ananias and Sapphira.

Just like he did with what ABBA who and his brother.

Judgment came quick and it was swift and it was harsh.

But if we're, if we're honest, every one of us here have done

something that would have been justifiable for God to judge us

in that way. Every one of us, but because of

Jesus Christ, because of the shed blood of our Savior Jesus

Christ, we're not judged according to our sins.

Blessings is the man whose transgressions are forgiven,

whose sins are covered. That's why we love him.

That's why we love Jesus Christ. And then verse 7, he says,

therefore, so you look at all those things that happened

prior, the fact that we had these wars and you know, in

verse one, we had these wars and these fights in the church and

recognizing that those things came from the fact that we in

our own hearts are warring against each other.

And the fact that we were adultery, We, we, we betrayed

God and we weren't faithful to God.

And we and, and, and the fact that this, you know, these,

these people were, were going after other gods and

assimilating with the culture and being friends with the world

and enemies against God in spite of all those things come to

verse 7. And he says, therefore submit to

God because his grace, he gives grace to the humble.

So therefore submit to God, resist the devil and he will

flee from you. Submit to God.

Unfortunately, sometimes because of the the desire for certain

people to want to have the pleasure and the desires of this

world, instead of submitting to God, we submit to the

temptations of the evil 1 and resist God.

When the Holy Spirit is pulling us and saying don't do that, we

resist that and submit the devil.

But God is saying submit. James is saying here, submit to

God. This is what humility looks

like. Submit to God.

And what we're going to talk about from this point on to

about the next three, 3 verses or so, it's going to be our

relationship with the Father, our relationship with God.

And the first thing we need to do is to submit to him.

Submit to Him whenever we have those decisions to make.

Am I going to do it the way the culture says it, or am I going

to do it the way God do it? Submit to Him.

Submit to God and resist the devil.

In submitting to God, we do resist the devil.

Thank God if we resist, if we submit to God, we are resisting

the devil. All we have to do is just look

at the example of Jesus Christ when he was in the wilderness

and when they were and when they came to, when the enemy came to

tempt him. Four times he tried to get Jesus

to submit to him. The devil, He wanted you to

submit to him. But Jesus was full of the Holy

Spirit, full of the Holy Spirit. Fasting 40 days and 40 nights.

Body was weak, but he refused on any point to give to Satan.

He refused. Just look at that for a second.

Go back. It's always good to read those

things again. Go back to Matthew 4 and very

quickly when we look at what Jesus went through and how he

handled it, how he submitted to God and resisted the devil.

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be

tempted by the devil. And when he had fasted 40 days

and 40 nights afterward, he was hungry.

Now when the attempter came to him, he said, if you are the Son

of God, command these stones to become bread.

But Jesus meaning he answered and said, It is written

submitting to God, man shall not live by bread alone, but by

every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

Then in verse 5, the devil then took him up into the holy city

and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, If you

are the Son of God, throw yourself down for what is

written. He shall give his angels charge

over you, and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you

dash your foot against a stone. Now we know that Satan knows the

word of God as well, but it doesn't mean he always quote it

right? Doesn't mean he always quote it

right. He will change something in that

in that verse so that it disobeys God.

So in this one, he changed a couple things so that it

disobeyed God. But then Jesus said this to him.

It is written, you shall not tempt the Lord your God.

And again, the devil took him up on to an exceedingly high

mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their

glory. And he said to him, all these I

will give to you if you fall down and worship me.

And that is exactly what the world wants, is for us to put

ourselves in a position that it looks like we're worshipping the

world or worshipping Satan. It's exactly what they want,

Anything. Look, Satan doesn't mind us

coming to church. He doesn't mind us calling

ourself a Christian. He just doesn't want us to obey

God. He just doesn't want us to obey

God. He doesn't want us to live like

a Christian. He doesn't want us to walk in

the ways of Jesus Christ. Call yourself whatever you want,

Satan said himself. I mean, you know, over in James,

he said himself, demons believe and they tremble.

He don't mind you believe in, but he don't want you to obey.

He don't want you to obey. He don't care if you hear the

word. He just don't want you to be a

doer of the Word. That's where we make the, that's

what we can have the difference. So Jesus said to him, it is

written, You shall not tempt the Lord your God.

Again. The devil took him up on

exceedingly high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of

the world and their glory. And he said to him, All these

things I will give to you if you fall down and worship me.

And Jesus said to him, Away with you, Satan, for it is written,

you shall worship the Lord your God in him, and him only shall

you serve. That is the example of someone

or how Jesus submitted himself to God, submitted himself to the

word of God at every turn, and resisted the devil.

So how do we submit? First of all, we need to draw

near to God. Look at what it says in verse 8.

Let's draw near to God and he will draw near to you.

No one has ever tried to draw near to God, and God draw away

from them. He's never drawn away from

anybody who draw near to him. Never.

In fact, Jesus said all that will come to me.

He said I won't lose any of them out of my hand.

No one can come to him except the Father send them.

And all that comes to me and all that the Father send will come

to me, and I will lose none of them, none of them.

So you know, when, when, when we come and we draw ourselves to

God, God never refuses us. In fact, there's nowhere that I

can remember in the Word of God where someone repented and God

did not receive their humility. Even Ahab.

Ahab, who was one of the worst kings when he repented God did

not do all the, the, the things that he was going to do to Ahab

deferred it because Ahab ended up going back and doing wrong

anyway. Even Manasseh, same thing when

he repented, God hurt him. God hurt him.

He hears the repented heart. He hears it all the time to

repent at heart, you know, so he, you know, so we, we draw

near to God and he will draw near to us.

Then he says, cleanse your hands, cleanse your hands.

Cleanse your hands. That means, you know, cease from

doing sin. You know, there's activity that

we do that may be sinful. Things that we do with our hands

is outward things that we do that are sinful.

And James says, cease from doing those things, cease from doing

those things, you know, whatever that activity is.

And we and we, we, you know, we know what our own activity is.

If there's something that we're doing that's contrary to the

word of God, James is just sharing it very clearly that

this is what this church was doing.

And James said, well, stop doing those things, you know, put away

your idols, you know, stop, you know, stop participating in

sexual immorality, You know, you know, you know, stop hating your

brothers, you know, stop talking against your brothers.

There are things that that, that, that we do outwardly that

we need to be cleansed from, that our hands need to be

cleansed from. I love what it says over in

Second Corinthians chapter 6. Second Corinthians chapter 6.

2 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention 2 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

This is another one of those scriptures that makes it very

clear how we are to be separate from the world and and and the

Bible makes it very clear. So over in in second Corinthians

2 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6, and I'm just going to start right there, verse 14.

It says do not be equally unequally yoked together with

unbelievers. For what fellowship has

righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light

with darkness? And what accord has Christ with

Belau? And what part has a believer

with an unbeliever? And what agreement has a temple

of God with idols? For you are the temple of the

living God, as God has said, I will dwell in them and I will

walk among them. I will be their God and they

shall be my people. Therefore come out from among

them and be separate, says the Lord, and do not touch what is

unclean. And I will receive you.

I will be a father to you and you shall be my sons and

daughters says the Almighty God. And then in verse 1 of chapter

of Chapter 7 in the same book right down from it, it says

therefore having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse

ourselves from all filthiness and the flesh of the flesh and

spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

And that's what he's asking for, holiness.

And thank God we don't have to, you know, make we don't have to

sacrifice bulls and animals in order to draw near to God

anymore. We don't have to sacrifice and

get blood from bulls to sprinkle us for our hands to be clean.

We don't have to go through ceremonial rituals in order to

be clean. Jesus Christ cleanses us from

all sin is what the word of God says.

If we confess our sins so we don't, we have this cleansing

that comes from Jesus Christ because he can cleanse us to the

uttermost. I received, I received a, an

article from a dear sister yesterday that just really

blessed me. And I, I have to just talk about

how the article talked about how, when, when, when the Bible

says that we are to search or, or that God searches the, the,

the mind and the heart. When God searches that it's not

just a superficial search of the mind and heart, but is actually

in the Hebrew it is actually stated that it's the kidneys and

the heart, the kidney and the heart, which is actually in

places that are deeper than just the mind or just the heart.

It's deeper inside of us and, and the whole thinking is this

without going through a whole statement about it.

It's about God seeing areas in our lives that we may not even

realize are there. He cleanses us totally.

When the scripture says in Hebrews that He saves us to the

uttermost, that means that everything, when we come before

Him for cleansing, He cleanse us everything.

Everything. Even the things that we don't

mention to Him are being cleansed when we come before Him

because He sees everything and we are cleansed in Him.

So we can come before Him not by the the blood of goats and

bulls, but we can come through with boldness by the broken body

and blood of Jesus Christ. Thank you Jesus.

And then he tells us, he says, purify your hearts, you double

minded The people in this church was was living a life that was

totally double minded. You know, they were they were

trying to act Christian, but yet they were compromising with the

world. And he says, no, cleanse

yourself from those things. You double minded.

You know, you know, you're going to either be on one side or the

other. You can't be lukewarm.

You won't either be hot or you be cold or I'm going to spew you

out, you know, cleanse your mind.

You double minded. You can't both serve God and

Mammon. You can't serve 2 masters.

It's what he's saying to them and to us.

Cleanse ourselves from those things.

Let's give ourselves, submit ourselves holy to the Lord and

then over here and then we're going to, we're going to stop

after this one. Verses 9 and 10 he says lament,

mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to

mourning in your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight

of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

Unfortunately, when we're living in that ungodly life, running

after the pleasures of the world, running after our own

desires, it's almost like we celebrate it.

We're laughing and joking and, and, and just act like we're

having such a grand old time when we should actually be

mourning. We should be weeping, we should

be lamenting. Even when we think back on those

things, it should give you one of those mind things where you

said, what was I thinking? I don't know about you, but I've

had some of those moments when I'm sitting and I'm meditating

or pondering some things that that I was, you know, that I'm

trying to, to do with the Lord. And then these thoughts start

coming back of things that I've done years ago.

And I think, how could I have done that?

What were you thinking? Not just this picture, but I

mean actual activity and things that I've done.

And I wondered how could I have done that to a God who loves me

so much, who died for me? And I, and I started, you know,

and of course I thought about Clark's description last week

when he talked about the crucifixion, when that thing

drives home what he went through and, and, and, and he, he, he

did it eloquently, You know, there, there was no question

about it. He drew a picture for us that we

should all be able to see of of some of the devastation.

And I say some of the devastation because I've read

many of them and every one of them, people will say, but this

is not even close to what he actually went through, what he

went through. And when I think about that and

then think about my life and the things that I've done, how could

I have done that to him? Lord, how could I have done that

to you? How could I have acted that way?

How could I have compromised that way?

And yes, I've lamented, I've wept and I've mourned.

There's things that I say or have said and, and, and when the

Lord brings it to my attention, I think, why, What was I

thinking? Why would I have said that?

And I can, you know, lament those things.

So we should, James is saying there should be some remorse

about our sin, not celebrating it, not laughing it up.

You know, that laughter needs to be turned to mourning and that

joy that we that we feel about seeking this, this ungodly

pleasure and this ungodly joy that should be turned to gloom.

We should feel a reproach concerning those things.

And then he says, well, humble yourselves again.

He tells us about humbling ourselves.

Humble yourselves in the sight of God, in the sight of the

Lord, and He will build and lift you up.

Unfortunately, sometimes we want to be lifted up by the world.

We want the things of the world to lift us up.

We want the accomplishments of the world that we do in the

world to lift us up. We want the things, the material

things that we can accumulate to lift us up.

But when we humble ourselves before God, there's nothing that

lifts us up like God does nothing.

You can get all those things that you go for, all the selfish

ambition that you have. I don't care what goals you

have. You can win championships If

you're an athlete, you can get all the money that you can try

to get. If you're in corporate America,

all the things that you may try to accumulate, it will not fill

that void. People who have accomplished

much more than we have, people who have more money than we

have, they still ask the question, is this all that there

is? Is there not more than this?

Because they don't have Jesus Christ?

There's nothing that can fill our hearts and our lives like

Jesus Christ. Nothing.

So he says, humble yourselves, come before him, submit

ourselves to him, draw near to Him, cleanse our hands, cleanse

and, and, and, and, and purify our hearts.

That's how we humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord.

And he will lift you up. And when he lifts you up, He

will pull you up out of that muck and that mire.

He'll pull you up out of that pit and he will make you new.

Thank you, Jesus. We're going to end there,

Father. I'm so grateful to you, Lord,

that your grace is greater than my sin.

So grateful to you, Father, that your patience with me and with

all of us, Lord, has been exceedingly great.

I thank you, Lord, for teaching us your heart, giving us your

heart through your Scriptures. And I thank you that we even

right now, Lord, if we find ourselves walking in a way

that's contrary to who you are, that Father, we can humble

ourselves and come to you and ask for forgiveness.

Thank you, Thank you, Lord, thank you that you sent your Son

Jesus Christ to be such an example for us here in the earth

round not only an example of walking in righteousness, but an

example of how we conduct ourselves even in suffering.

Lord, thank you. And Father, sometimes it's hard

for us just to deal with the persecution that we receive

sometimes day-to-day this these these sanctions that we get from

society from not obeying them or or conforming to them.

And, and, and they have their ways, Lord, that they show us

that they're not pleased with us either conform or be rejected.

But Father, I thank you for the example that Jesus Christ gives

us. Even in suffering, He continued

to submit himself to you.