James 4:1 – 17
Today is Ash Wednesday and Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent. The 40 days before Easter are known as Lent on the church calendar. Lent is a time for each of us to prepare ourselves to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday.
First and foremost, Lent is a time to reflect on our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a time to reflect on who Jesus is and what Jesus means to us. It is a time to reflect on all that Jesus has done for us in the past, all that Jesus is doing for us in the present, and all that Jesus has promised to do for us in the future. When we think of Jesus we remember that He loved us so much that Jesus suffered and died on the cross for us. Jesus took our place by dying on the cross and rising from the grave so that we might have eternal life.
Secondly Lent is a time to of self-examination. It is a time to reflect on who we are, on what we have become, and what we are doing with our lives. In 2nd Corinthians 13:5-6 the Apostle Paul encourages us to “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test? And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test”. Friends, when we take an honest look at ourselves we quickly see that we all have failed our Lord in many ways. We have disobeyed and we have not lived the kind of life that Jesus has called His disciples to live. This leads us to repentance and a request for forgiveness. Lent is a call for us to rid ourselves of all those things in our lives that interfere with us maintaining a close personal relationship with our Lord. Lent is a time for us to look at ourselves the way Almighty God sees us.
Next Lent is a time for purposeful reflection on our dependency on Almighty God. When we do this, we put things back into the proper perspective. We focus on spiritual things rather than physical things. We focus on eternal things rather than on temporal things. When we do this, we quickly conclude that every breath we take is a gift from God. Our health, our intellect, and our abilities are all gifts from God.
Lent is also a time for us to commit to spiritual growth and healing. A time to seek God’s will for our life. Lent is a time to say; “Lord I want to know you better and I want to become more like you”. “Lord, show me where I am going wrong and show me how you want me to change”. Lent is a time for us to grow closer to our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.
In our scripture lesson from James we are given eight commands that will take us away from our sins and will draw us closer to Jesus. Remember these are commands not suggestions.
In verse 7 we are told to “submit yourself to God”. The word submit means to make a conscious decision to surrender yourself to another person. We are to surrender every aspect of our life to our creator God. Our whole self includes our mind, our will, our body, as well as our actions.
The first part of The 10 Commandments deal with our relationship with Almighty God. And the first one of the 10 commandments is “You shall have no other gods before me”. That means “nothing in our life is to take priority over God”. That means nothing is to take the place of God in our life. Sadly, many of us put the god of personal pleasure, the god of materialism, the god of “me first”, the god of family, the god of money, the god of power, the god of intellect, and the god of beauty before the One True Living God of the Bible. God made it crystal clear “I am to be the only God in your life”.
In The Lord’s Prayer we say “Thy will be done.” .When we pray that prayer we are saying; “Lord I want your will to be done in my life”. You are saying God I am submitting my will to your will. Remember when Jesus prayed in The Garden of Gethsemane Jesus said “Father not my will but your will.” (Matthew 26:39)
Remember Jesus willing submitted Himself to the insults and the false statements of the Jewish religious leaders as well as to the beatings and the humiliations of the Roman soldiers. Jesus willing submitted Himself because Jesus knew it was God’s will for Him to die on the cross to provide a way to save all sinful people from spending eternity in hell. Jesus was the model of submission and in Ephesians 5: 21 we were given the command to; “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ”.
The second command is also in verse 7; “resist the devil”. The word resist means to oppose or to strive against. This means to say no to every temptation. The Bible is crystal clear the devil is our enemy (1st Peter 5: 8). The word devil means slanderer (Ephesians 4:27). The Bible also refers to the devil as Satan which means adversary or opposer. (Matthew 4:10; Revelation 20:2). Remember, Jesus referred to Satan as the evil one, (John 17:15) the snatcher of truth (Matthew 13:19), a murderer, a liar (John 8:44) and the tempter. (Matthew 4:3) In 1st Peter 5: 8 Satan is described “as a roaring lion seeking to destroy us”. (1st Peter 5:8)
Satan’s purpose is to draw our attention away from God and to draw attention to ourselves. Satan seeks to confuse God’s purpose for our life and Satan tries to deny God the worship and praise that our creator God rightfully deserves. Satan tempted Jesus (Matthew 4:3) and Satan tempts us (1st Thessalonians 3:5). Jesus told us that the devil came to steal, kill, and destroy but Jesus came that you may have abundant life both now and throughout eternity. (John 10:10) The devil is trying to steel your joy and to steal your peace. The devil does everything in his power to make sure you deny Jesus as your savior so that you will remain dead in your trespasses and sins. The devil’s major object is to destroy our Christian witness and our relationship with The Lord. But the good news is that verse 7 in our lesson from James tells us that if we resist the devil, “the devil will flee from you.” That is a powerful promise and it is a wonderful promise from God. There is another wonderful promise from God in 1st Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”
The third command in our lesson from James is in verse 8; “Come near to God … “. While it is true that God is everywhere The Bible is quite clear our sins separate us from God since God is holy. So the way we come near to God is to make a conscience decision to turn away from our sinful acts and by controlling our sinful nature. We are to seek the Lord’s forgiveness each and everyday. The way we come near to God is by reading, studying, and mediating on God’s Word, The Bible. The way we come near to God is spending quality time in prayer each day. When we turn from our sins and turn to God by mediating on God’s word, and seriously praying verse 7 promises us that “God will come near to us.”
The fourth command is also in verse 8; “wash your hands “. This command to wash your hands reminds us that we need forgiveness for our sinful acts and our sinful nature. Exodus 30:19-31 tells us that the Old Testament priests had to ceremonially wash themselves before they approached God. We worship a holy God and we must be cleansed of our sins by confessing our sins before we can come into the presence of our holy God.
As Christians we are all called upon to love The Lord, to love our neighbors, to forgive one another, to help one another, to serve The Lord with joy, to worship The Lord by walking with The Lord each day, to honor The Lord by cheerfully bringing our offerings to Him. But most of all, as Christians we are all reminded of our need to be cleansed by the blood of Jesus each and every day. We are called to confess our sins and to request and receive forgiveness from our Lord each and every day. Only Jesus can keep us clean from the filthy sins of our daily walk on this sinful earth. That is why we have a Confession of Sins at the beginning of every worship service.
The fifth command is also in verse 8; “purify your hearts “. Washing your hands addresses our sinful acts. Purifying your hearts, which is the 5th command in James 4:8, addresses our sinful attitudes, our sinful thoughts, and our sinful motives. In Psalm 24:3 – 4 we read, “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart who does not trust in an idolor swear by a false god.” A double minded person is a hypocrite, someone who is divided between God and God’s ways and / or between the world and worldly ways. A double minded person believes in God but does not obey God’s commands. nor does a double minded person trust God to provide for them when they tested or when they are tempted. A double minded person trust in God but they also trust in their money and in their own wisdom.
The sixth command is in verse 9; “Grieve, mourn, and wail “. Grieve, mourn, and wail are three words that describe the actions of a person that is totally crushed because they have sinned against Almighty God. Grieving means to be without happiness or joy. Matthew 5:4 says, “Blessed are those who mourn,for they will be comforted.” Wailing is the outer response, whereas mourning is the inner response to being really sorry for your sins. Remember God hates sin and God disciplines sinners. God takes sin very seriously and so should we. Remember Jesus gave His life to pay the penalty for our sins so that we could live the abundant life God planned for us on this earth as well as in heaven throughout eternity. We need to be as serious about our sins as God is serious about our sins. Any sin we commit should be a source of grief for us.
The seventh command is in verse 10; “Humble yourselves before The Lord “. A humble person recognizes that their worth only comes from Jesus Christ. A humble person is a person who is not boastful, arrogant, prideful, entitled, or assuming. Humble people compare themselves to Jesus’ standards not to another person’s actions. Humble people do not blame their failures on someone else nor do they blame their circumstances. Humble people never tear town another person in order to build up themselves. Humble people put a higher priority on another person’s feelings and another person’s needs than they do on their own feelings and needs. A humble person does not seek the applause of men but works for The Lord to say “well done thy good and faithful servant.”
A humble person sees themselves as God sees them. A humble person admits they are a sinful person and that they are in desperate need for Jesus to save them, transform them, build them up, and to use them in advancing God’s kingdom on earth. Practicing humility will become easy if we have faithfully obeyed all of the previous six commands.
The eighth command is in verse 11; “do not slander one another”. Slander means to insult someone, to put down and / or to spread something false about them. We are not to speak against a brother in Christ. If we do we violate God’s law to love your neighbor as yourself. When we speak against someone, we are judging them. And if we judge someone, we are playing God and we are usurping God’s authority.
In the first six verses of James 4 we are told what separates us from enjoying the benefits of a close personal relationship with Almighty God. Then in the next six verses we are told how to enjoy the benefits of a close personal relationship with Almighty God.
God’s word to us tonight challenges each one of us to use these forty days of Lent wisely in order to fully appreciate the meaning of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see Jesus’ resurrection makes our resurrection to eternal life in heaven possible. Will you accept this challenge to properly prepare yourself for Easter by making the next forty days a time of self-examination, a time of prayer, a time of instruction, and a time of repentance? If we are serious about our relationship with Jesus we will make preparing for Easter this year a top priority. AMEN