Introduction

James 4:7-12 ESV  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  (8)  Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  (9)  Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.  (10)  Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.  (11)  Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.  (12)  There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

• Y’all God has been doing mighty things in Christian Life Church!
  • And not just CLC only, but I have been talking to many churches around the City and around the State and been hearing similar testimonies.
    • Testimonies of repentance, of salvation, of healings and miracles.
      • Testimonies of baptism by fire, that is, people being Baptized in the Holy Spirit.
  • I talked with Pastor Haris from First Open Bible and he told me that 5 people gave their life to Jesus yesterday and that around 100 got baptized in the Spirit or prayed for for renewed fervor and power.
    • And we here saw probably 75 people prayed for, and I am believing that salvations will continue in our church an in others in Jesus name!
• Now what I wanted to do this morning was preach a message about what to do now, how to use and grow in the gifts of the Spirit.
  • But the Lord has us going through the Book of James and I feel in my Spirit that I need to remain faithful to that.
    • So we are going to go back into the book of James this morning… but before I do that let me just give you a little bit of practical advice regarding the gifts of the Spirt…
      • Whatever gift God has given you, be it tongues, or prophecy, words of wisdom or knowledge, faith, miracles, discernment… whatever…
      • These gifts have been given to you, but you still need to know how to use them.
        • If you are given a drone for your birthday, the gift may be free enough, but you still need to learn how to fly it.
      • If God gave you Spiritual gifts last Sunday, and I believe He did, you still need to learn how to use them.
        • And the best way to learn is hands on experience.
          • If you were given the gift of tongues… you need to be praying in tongues. Pray in private, in your car on the way to work, in your prayer closet, in your room before bed.
          • Begin praying in tongues daily and watch as the gift grows.
        • If you have the gift of words of wisdom and knowledge, pray for opportunities to use that gift. “Father give me a word of knowledge as I go to Aldi this afternoon, and confirm it to me”.
          • Then you have to actually give the word of Knowledge… and watch as the miracles start pouring in.
    • Whatever your gifting, church, start using it!

2 Timothy 1:6 ESV  For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands,

• Now if you want more information about the gifts of the Spirit, then I encourage you to go through Foundations 2, Lesson 3 with your discipler. That lesson is all about the Holy Spirit and His gifts.
  • But for today, let’s get back into and focus on our verses from James.
    • Let’s read these verses again just to get our minds focused this morning.

James 4:7-12 ESV  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  (8)  Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  (9)  Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.  (10)  Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.  (11)  Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.  (12)  There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

• Cleanse your hands, oh ye sinners! Purify your hearts, oh ye double minded!
  • Man, James, can you settle down?!
    • Well remember, James is talking to backslidden Christians.
    • Christians who were once on fire for God, but have now fallen away.
      • He has spent his letter to them writing about their sin, their failures, and their false arguments…
    • But now James is given practical advice…
      • So you have been showing the sin or partiality, James says…
        • You have been faithless and passive, showing no works to prove your faith, James asserts.
        • You have been foolish, and you have allowed your mouth to guide you astray, spewing curses instead of blessings…
      • “Ok we get it, James, what are we supposed to do about it?”
    • James says “I got you, this is what you are supposed to do”.

• In Case of Backsliding: 7 Steps to Returning to A Holy and Blessed Life.

• Now before I get into it this morning let me make something really clear:
  • If you are backslidden, you are not Holy.
  • If you are backslidden, you are not near God.
  • If you are backslidden, God does not hear your prayers.
    • But, there is HOPE, so stay with me ok…
  • So what do I mean by backslidden? This is what I mean:
• Backslider: Someone who once was right for God and living on fire for Him, but is now far from God.
  Someone who has gotten so far into sin that their life is no longer defined by Christ but is now defined by worldliness and sin.
• I have heard it said this way: If God is not your everything, than God is not your anything.
  • And what can happen is you get saved and God becomes your everything…
    • Your days are filled with worship and prayer and praise and wonder.
    • You dive into God’s word, you are constantly seeking, asking, knocking.
    • You are constantly drawing near to God.
  • But as the years go on, you start to add things to your life.
    • First Bible reading becomes less of a priority.
    • Then prayer becomes less of a priority.
    • Then fellowship becomes less of a priority.
    • Then finally church, praise, and worship all become less of a priority.
      • You start dabbling in sin again…
      • Your sin starts to take over.
      • And slowly but surely the world beckons you back in.
        • When you find yourself at this point you have become a backslider. You have become backslidden.
• And then this is what happens… God is no longer near.
  • And God stops hearing your prayers.
  • And you stop seeing miracles and blessings in your life…
    • And the devil starts whispering in your ear “It’s fine, those church people are all hypocrits… they just wanted to keep you down… do what makes you happy”.
      • And you get farther and farther away…
        • And then you start wonder “Is God even real, was it all fake that whole time”…
• The morning I wrote this sermon I was reading through my Bible plan, I am doing the Bible in a year and I just so happened to be in Isaiah for my Old Testament reading… and this is what I read:

Isaiah 1:15-16 ESV  When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.  (16)  Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil,

• I was shocked when I read that, because the verse from James that I am preaching on is “Cleanse your hands oh ye sinners” and now I am reading in Isaiah “Your hands are full of blood, wash yourself and make yourself clean.”
  • I wonder if James was thinking about Isaiah when he wrote his letter to the backslidden Christians dispersed throughout the Roman empire.
    • You see Isaiah is talking to a backslidden Israel.
      • He calls them Sodom and Gomorrah.
      • He says all of their feasts, and sacrifices, and church services are all in vain, because they are backslidden.
      • Then he hits us with this, God doesn’t even hear your prayers…
        • We know that God does not hear the prayers of the unsaved… But now we are talking about GOD’S People!
        • Nope, if you are backsliden, if you are living in sin… living a wordly life… then God does not hear your prayers.
        • And I know that sounds harsh, but I want to warn you because I want God to hear your prayers.
      • But praise the Lord Isaiah doesn’t end there.

Isaiah 1:15-20 ESV  When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.  (16)  Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil,  (17)  learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.  (18)  “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.  (19)  If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;  (20)  but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

• So saints, here is what is set before us… we can eat the good of the land, if we are willing and obedient.
  • We can see miracles, answered prayers, healing, peace, provision, joy, compainionship with God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
    • We can see the power of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit flowing through us.
    • We can lead many others to Jesus.
    • We can end our days and wake up in heaven to those beautiful words “Well done my Faithful servant.
  • Yes! Church, we can eat the good of the land if we are willing and obedient.
    • Or, we can refuse and rebel and be eaten by the Sword.
• That is what God puts in front of us today, blessings and curses, the fruit and the sword.
  • I CHOSE THE FRUIT! I WANT THE BLESSINGS! I CHOSE OBEDIENCE!
    • But maybe you are in a place today where you feel backslidden, well today’s sermon is for you. Because James, like Isaiah, gives us specific instructions on what to do if we are Backslidden.
  • In fact, James gives us 10 steps that we should take, 10 commands to follow, if we are backslidden… and if we follow these 10 steps God promises us in James four specific blessings. So let’s talk about those steps and blessings.

Point One – Seven Steps To Return to God and Holiness

James 4:7-12 ESV  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  (8)  Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  (9)  Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.  (10)  Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.  (11)  Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.  (12)  There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

·       So in these verses we see nine clear steps that God, through James, is giving to the Backsliders dispersed amongst the Roman empire. These steps are:

1. Submit yourselves to God (James 4:7)
2. Resist the devil (James 4:7)
3. Draw near to God (James 4:8)
4. Cleanse your hands (James 4:8)
5. Purify your hearts (James 4:8)
6. Be wretched, mourn, and weep… (James 4:9)
7. Humble yourself before the Lord (James 4:10)
8. So let’s take this verse by verse and spend a few moments talking about each one of these steps.
9. Let’s talk about the first two steps which are found in verse 7:

James 4:7 ESV  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

• So our first two practical steps for the backslider.
  • First: We must submit ourselves to God.
    • And I know that for some the word submission is a bad word, especially here in America… but we have to remember that the Bible was not written to Americans… it was written to Christians.
      • We belong to a different Kingdom and we have a different culture.
      • And in Kingdom culture, Submission is a holy word.
        • It means to obey without question…
        • “You are my Lord, you are my God, you are my King, you are my boss, You are my Master! Whatever you say to do I will do, whatever you say to not do, I will not do it.”
          • And how can we know what God is telling us to do and not do if we do not open our Bibles, and read it…
          • That’s why we say, open your Bible, read it, and do what it says.
  • Second, we have to resist the Devil.
    • This is the opposite of submission.
      • We question everything the devil throughs at us, we say NO to the enemy. We say “Not today Satan!”
  • These are obviously the first two steps, because this is what the Backslider has backward.
    • This is what FAR TOO MANY people in America who claim to be Christian have backwards.
      • American Christians like to question God and submit to Satan.
        • They like to say “That doesn’t sound fair, that doesn’t make me happy… wouldn’t God want me to be happy… and this here sin that Satan is offering makes me happy”.
    • You want to get back form backsliding? THEN YOU HAVE TO FLIP FLOP YOUR SUBMISSION AND RESISTANCE. STOP RESISTING GOD, START RESISTING SATAN. STOP SUMBITING TO SATAN, AND THE SIN, AND THE WORLD, AND START SUBMITING TO GOD.
      • These are your first two steps.
• Let’s look now at verse 8 for our next three steps to returning to God and Holiness.

James 4:8 ESV  Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

• So here we see our next three steps, our next three instructions or commands to the backslider.
  • Step three: Draw near to God.
    • When you were saved, God met you at the foot of the cross.
      • Some of us need to return to the foot of the cross. Return to the place God found you.
      • In humbleness, realizing that we are nothing without His sacrifice, return to where we first met God.
        • We need to return to Scripture, John chapter 1 says that Jesus is the Word.
        • This means spending time in God’s word IS spending time with Him.
      • So spend time in the Word, return to reading your Bible.
      • Spend time at church.
        • Your tired, your stressed, you feel far from God… so you start sleeping in on Sundays… you start denying requests to serve in church… you stop coming to Wednesdays.
          • THIS IS THE OPOSITE OF WHAT YOU SHOULD BE DOING, RETURN TO GOD! DRAW NEAR TO GOD.
• Step Four is to Cleanse your Hands, oh ye sinners!
  • Cleansing the hands was a symbol of innocence and purity, remember when Pontous Pilot washed his hands after condemning Jesus to try to prove his innocence.
    • So let me ask you, are your hands dirty? Is your life dirty? Then STOP SINNING.
      • It shouldn’t have to be said… but YES your sin is separating you from God.
      • If you want to return to God, if you want to return to holiness, then cleanse your hands… STOP SINNING.
• Step Five is like step four… Purify Your hearts, ye double minded.
  • This means REPENT.
    • Change the way your mind thinks.
    • Stop thinking “Can I get away with this as a Christian”
    • Stop thinking “I wonder how close I can get to the line before it counts a sin”
    • Stop thinking “I deserve this” or even “I can’t help it”.
      • This is double mindedness… because sometimes you say “My God is mighty to save” and other times you say “My sin is fun, it defines me, I can’t help it”.
    • Purify your hearts, repent like you did when you were first save “Father I don’t want to act this way anymore, Father I don’t want to think this way anymore… Father I want you and only you, I am sorry! Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me”!
• Now step six comes from verse 9:

James 4:9 ESV  Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

• So step six is “Be Wretched, Mourn, and weep.
  • But it also includes “Let your laughter be turned into mourning”
    • And “Let your joy be turned to gloom”.
      • In other words, YOU SHOULD HATE YOUR SIN.
      • You shouldn’t need a preacher to come up and call out your sin… you should hate it.
        • Don’t laugh about your sin…
        • Don’t pal around with “Locker Room Talk” and “Dirty jokes”
        • Don’t call your dear aunt sally and Gossip with a big grin on your face…
          • Ok, please excuse my dear aunt sally, she is a Gossip and a sinner!
            • Not really, I actually have an aunt Sally and she is lovely and wonderful… But the math joke only works with PEMDAS.
      • But seriously, be wretched, mourn and weep.
        • That is how we should respond to sin.
        • Before I was saved I bragged to my friends about the pornography I would watch.
        • But when I got saved as a young man and fell back into Pornography I would WEEP over it “How can I, a saint covered in the blood, return to such wretched sin?”
        • I didn’t laugh over my sin, I mourned the Christian Life I was giving up.
        • I went to porn as a young man because I thought it would bring me joy… but it was not till it brought me total gloom that I was able to rid myself of it and return to a place of Holiness with my God.
  • So again, step six ia:
  • “Be Wretched, Mourn, and weep.
  • “Let your laughter be turned into mourning”
  • And “Let your joy be turned to gloom”.
• Now that brings us to step nine, we are almost there, we are rounding the corner… step nine comes in through verse 10:

James 4:10 ESV  Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

• You have to Humble yourself, this is our 9^th and final step.
  • We talked about this a few weeks ago, so I wont’s bang on it here… but to be humble means to think of yourself less and think of others as more, or in this case, think of yourself as less and think of God as more.
    • “I must decrease, He must increase”
    • “Less of me, more of Him”.
    • “Nevertheless, not my will be done, but your will be done”.
• So those are your seven steps to returning to God and holiness… again they are:
• Submit yourselves to God (James 4:7)
• Resist the devil (James 4:7)
• Draw near to God (James 4:8)
• Cleanse your hands (James 4:8)
• Purify your hearts (James 4:8)
• Be wretched, mourn, and weep… (James 4:9)
• Humble yourself before the Lord (James 4:10)
• Now if you follow these seven steps, God has some blessings for you, some promises for you.
  • And God is not a man that He should lie, nor a son of man that He should change His mind.
    • God has spoken these promises for those who follow His command… will he not do it? YES HE WILL.
    • Point two this morning: Four blessings for When You Return.

Point Two – Four Blessings For When You Return

James 4:6-8 ESV  But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”  (7)  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  (8)  Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

James 4:10 ESV  Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

• In these three verses we have four promises that God gives to the repentant backslider, they are:
• God gives more grace to the humble
• The devil will flee from you
• God will draw near to you
• God shall lift you up
• Now we hit this first promise HARD two weeks ago, in fact I am going to preach that message at Faith and Victory in Seattle in a few days… The first promise is that God gives more grace to the humble, that comes from verses 6:

James 4:6 ESV  But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

• Grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon grace.
  • God gives MORE grace. He opposes the proud, but if you would humble yourself, which is step 7 from point one, if you would humble yourself God would give you grace… and more grace… and more grace… like I said, I preached a whole sermon on that, if you missed it you can go back and watch it on our church website www.CedarRapidsChurch.com…
    • So let’s dive into the second blessing that God promises us…
• Blessing two: The devil will flee from you!
  • Two many people are trying to run from the devil, and they are finding they are not fast enough.
    • Stop running from the devil… and start resisting Him, in the mighty name of Jesus.
    • MAKE SATAN FEAR YOU AND THE GOD THAT LIVES IN YOU!
    • SATAN SHOULD BE RUNNING FROM YOU!

James 4:7 ESV  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

• If you are doing what God has commanded you to do, if you are submitting to Him… and you are ACTIVILY resisting the devil… not passively waiting around hoping he will leave you alone… but actively resisting the devil, then he will flee from you.
  • That means avoiding temptation.
  • That means taking every though captive.
  • That means confessing your sins.
  • That means telling the devil “Not today Satan, and I checked my calander, and I am booked for tomorrow too… and the next day, and every day for eternity! I WILL NEVER GIVE WAY TO YOU SATAN! I WILL NEVER SERVE YOU! I SERVE THE KING OF KINGS AND THE LORD OF LORDS.
    • When you live this way God promises that Satan WILL flee from you.
      • Not that he might.
      • Not that he could.
      • But that he will.
        • So if I ever here you say “The devil made me do it” I am going to respond “So either you are not submitting yourself to God or you are not resisting the devil… or more likely both… but as for me, the devil want’s nothing to do with me…
        • Sure he takes pot shots from far away, tries to send me illness, depression, temptation… but his flaming arrows are always extinguished on my shield of faith… and Satan don’t want to get close enough to find out what I can do with this here sword of the Spirit.
          • So I may get sick, and I may get tired, and I may get depressed… but I don’t get defeated, and I don’t get afraid… those are words that describe Satan, not me!
• Satan will flee from you! That’s promise number two.
• Now that brings me to promise number three: God will draw near to you.
  • Get this… if you would obey God… do the seven steps God lays out here in James… then the devil will run far away, and God will draw near.
    • If you don’t want that, then I can’t help you.
    • That is about all I want from life… for God to be close and Satan to be far… and that is how I am going to spend eternity… near to God and far from Satan.

James 4:8a ESV  Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you…

• The imagery here is not 50/50… the imagery here is not that you have to do half the work and God does the other half….
  • No no no, God has already done ALL the work.
    • The work was already accomplished on the cross.
      • But if you are backslidden, if you are far from God… if you are that prodigal son… then God will see you coming from a long way off and will come RUNNING to you.
      • You take the first step and God will do the rest… Draw near to God and HE WILL draw near to you.
• Finally, if you are obedient and follow the seven steps outlined here in James… you will no longer be considered a backslider… instead God will lift you up.

James 4:10 ESV  Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

• You want to be somebody?
  • You want to be important?
    • You want to have impact and influence?
      • HUMBLE YOURSELF.
      • Make God your everything, give Him your all…
      • And God will make you something you could have never become on your own.
      • God will lift you up.
        • As you lift up God, God lifts you up… because God likes His name being as high as possible.

Conclusion

• So let me conclude by simply reiterating these blessings.
  • Church, you can be near God, You can be far from Satan
  • You can be full of grace upon grace
  • You can be exalted.
  • You can avoid the sword and instead eat the fruit of the land… if you would obey.
    • And don’t forget Pentecost!
      • You can be full of fire and power…
      • Healing, and prophecy, and words of wisdom and knowledge, and miracles and faith.
        • Practice your gifts, practice your faith, keep drawing near to God! Be blessed church!

Isaiah 1:18-20 ESV  “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.  (19)  If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;  (20)  but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

• Gospel Call

Aaronic Blessing