A Jet Tour Through James (part 3)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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The book of James, we've covered two parts so far. I like to go slowly through the scriptures in depth.

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We've probably been five weeks on the first few verses of 1 Corinthians in the morning. And James on Sunday night,

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I'm going a little faster. I'm calling it a jet tour of the book of James. It will probably take me four weeks, this is week three, to get through the book of James.

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Five chapters, and why don't we just pray and we will then begin. Look forward to getting into the book of James and we are thankful that you've included it in your scriptures to teach us.

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And Father, I pray that I would fade into the background and the spirit of God would press these truths home to these dear people and that you would both encourage, refresh and convict us so that we might be more apt to say no to sin and yes to righteousness.

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And we would be more apt to say as we look at these commands that without the spirit, we could never live this life.

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And then we look to you as well, Lord, that we have received your spirit in full measure. We have received

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Christ completely and fully and that we stand as your children, not based on what we've done or said or thought, how many things we filled out in a book, but we stand as Christians by grace and by grace alone.

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So help us tonight in Jesus' name, amen. I call this book this morning, the Indiana Jones of the

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New Testament because it is just fast, it is action. And sometimes after a long day and we went to a party in fellowship with the

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Arnolds, kind of eat and you just almost wanna slink down, you're kind of tired, forcing yourself to stay awake.

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Remember, Steve had worked shifts overnight. And what would you do to stay awake during preaching?

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Well, I wasn't talking about the massive dose of, sometimes I think you'd stand up in the back just so you won't fall asleep.

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This is one of those books that is really hard to sleep when you get in the book of James. It is just rapid fire.

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It's almost like a machine gun. It could be like a staccato military command.

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And so we'll just have a quick review and get into chapter four. James is going to push the envelope and here's the envelope he wants to push.

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So you call yourself a Christian, prove it. Prove that you're a

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Christian. And if you go to chapter one, verse 22, it's really the key that unlocks the whole book.

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Prove yourselves doers of the word and not merely hearers who delude themselves.

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Some have called this book the epistle of reality. Why? It is forthright.

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It is down to earth. It's practical. There's not a lot of words that you can't understand, some intense theological words.

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And so the average Christian can pick up the book of James and be benefited. The average Christian can pick up the book of James and identify with the struggles that are here.

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But the whole point of the book of James is going to test you. Are you really a Christian?

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There are many people and maybe some here tonight who say they're a Christian, but they're not a

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Christian. And what James does is he takes the book, he takes his words and through the spirit's power, it just presses up against your conscience and your only hope is going to be,

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I can't do any of this except for the grace of God. I wouldn't act this way normally, naturally, but it'll be a supernatural thing.

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And James will push you to answer the question, am I a Christian or am

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I not? What really is a Christian? So that's the theme of this book, Tests of Saving Faith.

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The style of the letter, as I've said before, is commensurate with James the author.

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You would expect James to preach this way. You would expect the leader of the church at Jerusalem to call people for duty.

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I can't imagine James being a very, well, he could have been soft -spoken, but his delivery in the pulpit is certainly masculine.

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The way he's put this whole thing together, it's like a sermon. Most scholars think, and I agree with them, that this is either one sermon preached to Jerusalem and then written down to send out, or it's about five or six sermons that were collated and then given as this epistle.

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And so how can you hear James preach? You read this out loud. By the way, that would be a good homework assignment.

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Stand in front of the mirror and read this book out loud and just listen to it.

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I guess that could be a whole sermon and I could just stand up and read this text. It's energetic. It is vivid.

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There's all kinds of illustrations. You read this book and you'd say, it was exciting to sit underneath James.

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It'd be great to have James as my pastor. Some people like to brag about pastors. Well, my pastor's

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John MacArthur. My pastor's John Piper. I like both of those preachers, but they would pale in significance to James.

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My pastor's James. How about that? All kinds of rhetorical questions and similes.

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It's just crisp. The words are well -chosen. There's all kinds of imagery. Now, what does the text not have?

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The text doesn't mention substitutionary atonement. The text doesn't mention the crucifixion.

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The text doesn't mention the resurrection. But these people that James had taught certainly knew it.

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They were involved. They probably got done singing songs about the resurrection and substitutionary atonement. And James gets up there and says, are you really a

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Christian? Prove it. The issue for the people listening to this original epistle, as it was preached or read, would not be, what is

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Christianity? They knew that already. The issue would be, you already know Christianity. Are you really a

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Christian? And that's what James looks into. And so there are a series of saving faith tests, 12 total.

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And let's just review the first seven and then move to number eight tonight. The first test was found in James chapter one, verses two to 12.

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And it's the test that you have joy in trials. Christians have joy in trials. We're not looking at perfection, but as MacArthur says, the direction of your life.

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And so you see in verse two of chapter one, count it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials.

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Unbelievers don't do that. Christians do. Number two, found in verses 13 through 18, the blame and temptation test.

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The blame and temptation test. Christians have been taught not to blame other people for their sin.

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And if you look at verse 14, but each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by Satan's crafty deception, by his environment, by his parents, by his

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Italian heritage. Doesn't say that at all. By his own what? By his own lust.

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We as Christians realize that when we stand before God, we say, I made me do it.

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Test number three. It's a response to the Bible, response to preaching, response to the word found in verses 19 through 27 of chapter one.

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The book of James has 12 tests of saving faith. And so we saw one, two, and now three just in review to get us up to number eight.

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And it's all I can do not to jump back in here and re -preach the sermon I just preached probably three weeks ago, James part two, because it is so rich and it is so good.

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How do you respond to the word of God? When you were an unbeliever, I could probably tell you how you responded to the word of God.

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If it was really convicting and they talked about hell, you probably didn't like it. If you were having some kind of living in sin and you heard about that sin, you probably didn't like it.

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But certainly you didn't love the word. And here the response to the word found in verses 19 through 27 of chapter one is very, very different.

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If you take a look at verse 23, no, let's look at 25. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the scriptures, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful here, but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

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Christians, when they hear the word of God, have a desire and they're not perfect, but their desire is to say,

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I would like to obey. God, it'll be difficult, but for your glory, I want to obey. Test number four found in chapter two.

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Test number four. Are you a prejudiced person?

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It's the sin of partiality, chapter two, verse one. Test number four is a test of discrimination.

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My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.

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Talks about the rich people coming in and talks about poor people. And so you may have been prejudiced person, discriminating in your past, but you realize now

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I see Jesus and we are all laid level in light of the cross and no one's better, we're all sinful.

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Test number five found in verses 14 through 26 of chapter two, and it is the righteous works test.

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Let me just read you verse 14 of James chapter two. What use is it, my brethren? In other words, it's no use at all.

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If someone says he has faith over and over and over, I'm a Christian, I'm a Christian, I'm a

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Christian, I'm a Christian, but he has no works, that faith can't save him. The question in the

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Greek is, can that faith save him? But it's got a negative response built in. That faith can't save him.

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He's all talk. What did my father used to say to people like that? He's all hot, what? Air, that's exactly right.

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If the God of the universe has saved you, you can't stay the same. Well, I've been saved by the most powerful

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God of the universe who speaks things into existence, but I'm not different.

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If there's no change in your life, then there's no change in your position as a son or daughter of God.

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You have a father if there's no change in your life, but that father isn't God, that father is

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John 8, 44, Satan. So the next test is the tongue test found in chapter three verses three through 12.

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How do you talk? Well, again, this is not perfection, but this is what we strive for.

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This is the goal. We recognize it as Christians as the right thing to do. It's test number six, the tongue test.

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You can control all kinds of things in your life, but you can't control the tongue. And it needs to be tongue tied, needs to be controlled because verse six says of chapter three, and the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity.

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Listen to this language. Who preaches like this today? The tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body and sets on fire the course of our life and is set on fire by hell.

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Just imagine sitting there, listening to this kind of preaching. It's the test of our tongue.

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And sadly, we use our tongue to say good things, hallelujah, and then we say with the same tongue, somebody cuts us off on the freeway and we say, you're a what?

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Idiot. Exact same tongue. You might even be listening to a John MacArthur CD or listening to Barlow Girl, a

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CD, and then somebody does that and basically the text says the very thing. Verse nine, with it we bless our

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Lord and Father and with it we curse men. By the way, when you curse men, these men have been made in the likeness of God.

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Shouldn't happen. Test number seven. We're almost up to the new part. Test number seven, the wisdom test, found in verses 13 through 18 of chapter three.

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The wisdom test. Chapter three, verse 13 through 18. There's worldly wisdom, there's godly wisdom.

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Verse 13 of chapter three, who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show his

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PhD and his other paraphernalia that show how smart he is. No real wisdom has shoe leather.

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Real wisdom manifests itself in action. Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the pride of wisdom.

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No, the text says in the gentleness of wisdom. Now we come to number eight.

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This is new for tonight. Test number eight. It's called the hedonism test. Who can tell me what hedonism is?

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You know it. This is kind of Club Med mentality, right? Hedonism, this world is set around lust, and that's basically what happens.

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Look at the diagnostic question found in verse one. The test of hedonism is found in verses one, two, three, and four.

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Look at the question in verse one. What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? He likes to do this, and he says,

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I'm gonna give you a new section, and that new section's gonna start off with a rhetorical question. He does it all the time.

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And then he gives the answer with a question. He answers his own question. Is not the source of your pleasures your hedonism that wage war in your members?

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I love James. It's like James takes some kind of broomstick, walks over to the beehive, and goes,

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I'm gonna jam that stick up the beehive a little bit and stir up the action. It's exactly what he does.

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From where do wars and battles come? Some people say, well, how can we stop war today?

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I think there's a better question. Why do wars start? Answer, why are there quarrels and conflict?

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He's not saying here brothers, by the way. He's not toning it down. He's not being nicer. Why are there quarrels?

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What's the source of quarrels? It is, by the way, the word where we get polemics.

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The word war is a polemic. Plural, do you notice it's plural? Quarrels, plural.

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Conflicts, plural. Whether it's real war with Afghanistan or lawsuits and rivalries and factions and controversies, this is not some kind of isolated deal.

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The answer is, it's your pleasures that drive all this. Thomas Beecher discovered that the clock in his church ran habitually either too slow or too fast.

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He put a little piece of paper on the wall above the clock with large letters and it said, don't blame my hands, the trouble lies deeper.

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The issue isn't the warring and the struggling and the fighting, the issue lies deeper.

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And the deep issue is hedonism. The Greek word is hedonon. Power, prestige, possessions, purchasing.

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Remember the old song when I was growing up, love is a battlefield? Does anybody remember who sang that? The heart is the real battlefield.

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Self is the battlefield because self manifests itself in selfishness. I want more,

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I want more money, more power, more of this, more material goods, more prestige. What is the chief end of man, the catechism says?

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To grab what you can and enjoy it forever. That's the hedonistic deal. We know the real catechism says to glorify

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God and to enjoy him forever. Herod gets in trouble because he loved pleasure.

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Judas got in trouble because he loved money. Hezekiah, he loved display.

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Diotrephes, he loved the preeminence.

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I'm gonna start asking you more questions. This is the essence of sin, basically. Some say pride, but could it be the essence of sin is selfishness?

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It's a battle. If you please yourself, there's a cost to others.

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And then look how he talks in verse two. This is definitely the machine gun. This is like Tommy gun right here.

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You're gonna see four times you, you desire, you do not have, you desire and do not have, you murder, you are jealous and cannot obtain, you battle and make war.

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It's lust. That's the problem. You want, you can't get. And if somebody else has got what you want, you've got to take it from them.

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By the way, how do you, what way, if you ever went to James, Pastor James, and you were able to do this theologically with some kind of time machine, and you went up to Pastor James and said,

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Pastor James, but you don't understand. We live in the year 2009, and we've been taught for the last 30 years.

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We've been force fed. Have you ever seen some of these geese force fed the grain? Why do you force feed geese grain, by the way?

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To make that funny French, some kind of pate or something.

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They're just forcing that down. What have we been force fed? Self what? Esteem is good.

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It is a sin. In the last days, people will be lovers of self, but what have we been force fed?

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It's good to have self esteem. And by the way, I love to say this all the time You guys probably heard me say it 50 times.

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There are pockets in the world where there's large groups of people that have self esteem out of the roof.

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They're just little pockets. And if you looked at a map of the world, and you had little lights that lit up all around these high, densely populated centers of self esteem.

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Did you know that they're there? What are they called, by the way, these pockets of people who have the highest self esteem?

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Jails. They're prisons. Because you've got what

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I want, and I have got my own lusts and pleasures. And if it means taking what you have illegally,

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I'll do it. Show me a prisoner, and I'll show you somebody with self esteem out the roof. And you say, well, does that mean we're supposed to cut each other, cut ourselves and hate ourselves and all that?

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I'm not saying that at all, but I'm saying if you love God and love your neighbor as yourself, that's how many commandments?

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Two. Why am I yelling? There's just a small group. Two, love

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God and love your neighbor. It's not love God and love your neighbor and love yourself. I've heard people say, well,

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I can't love others unless I've learned to love myself. That sounds like a Pat Benatar song, is what it sounds like.

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You know, I've got to learn to love myself. Friends, the Bible is clear. You love yourself.

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And with as much energy as you have put into loving yourself, love other people.

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And when you're not going to do that, then you're going to take from them and you're gonna try to take advantage of them. And what does the text say?

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You lust and you don't have, so you commit murder. Self gratification, this never ending, always eluding goal.

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Look what he says in verse four. This is just amazing. Who preaches this way? You don't see people on Daystar preaching this way, do you?

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Adulterers and adulteresses. I think that's about the time somebody would get up and walk out of the church.

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Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

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Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the scripture says in vain?

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Don't think it says in vain is the point. The spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously.

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What is the cure for worldliness? What is the cure for selfishness? What is the cure for wanting?

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It's only the grace of God. Look at this little detour James takes. This is awesome. God's saving grace.

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It's the only hope for mankind, verse six. But he, God, in contrast to the adultery and the wanting and the spiritual prostitution, but he gives a greater grace.

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Greater than what? Greater than the great desires of lust and wanting and wars and desiring and jealously wanting and can't obtain.

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It's greater than all that. This is not hopelessness. Therefore, it says

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God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. He gives a greater grace, greater, more abundant.

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I'm glad and I'm reading this week 16th century German theologian,

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Zacharias Yersinius. Considered whether he was able to comply with what

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God required of him. So you able to stand before God and say, yes, I can do what you require. I'm good enough.

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I can make it in and you say to do this, I can do it. Zacharias Yersinius said, no,

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I cannot comply. I have a natural tendency to hate God and to hate my neighbor.

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Interesting. But God gives a greater grace. Give me an English word for greater.

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When you go buy a soda in the old days, they'd sell 10 ounce sodas. In the old days, Coke was sold in six ounce little jars, little glasses.

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And now we've got the super duper size. We've got not just the big gulp, but it's called the what?

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It's a mega. That's exactly right. God gives not just grace, but he gives mega grace.

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The Greek word is mega, mega. Whenever I travel, by the way, and I try not to joke too much in the middle of a sermon.

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I don't think you should ever tell a joke, but there's times to lighten things up before you get back into the text. I said, the first time

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I moved to New England, because they always say, well, kind of being a California guy, do you like New England?

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Coming from Nebraska, do you like it? And I said, well, I'm trying to get these guys to come up and do scripture reading on Sunday night and be involved and open in prayer and train up the next generation.

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I said, the first time I heard somebody stand up and quoting the words of Jesus. And when they said,

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Jesus said, I am the Alpha and Omega. I couldn't believe it.

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And I said, the funniest thing was nobody laughed. I was the only one laughing. Jesus says,

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I'm the Alpha and Omega. I just thought, wow, what does this have to do with anything? Well, tell

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Pastor Steve to just hold his mega comments to himself, I won't get sidetracked. There's this,

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I mean, you can almost imagine as an unbeliever with your heart, soul, mind and strength running to sin.

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And remember the Old Testament talks about unbelievers, they sometimes make sin a sport. They almost have to work out with their biceps so they can sin better.

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They're craftsmen when it comes to be able to sin. Who can take someone who is a craftsman of sinner?

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He loves to sin, she loves to sin, they're dominated by sin. They wake up hoping to sin.

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They go to bed devising sin. And who can take that person and say, reform yourself.

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Do better. It's December 31st, now I want those resolutions that start tomorrow to kick in.

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How does someone change? They can't change unless there's a grace that's greater than all their sins.

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Do we sing the song here? I like that song. I'm not too sure about our singing today, but I like that song.

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Grace greater than all our what? Sin, that's exactly what he's talking about right here.

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God is opposed to the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Quoting right there from Proverbs 3, verse 34.

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Jared will understand this well with Steve and some others who have served in the military. This word opposed right here is a military formation word.

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I've never served in the military, but I've watched enough movies. And the scene that I really think about is when you watch the propaganda movies of Hitler and they show the hundreds of thousands of troops perfectly in formation, goose stepping as they would go.

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That's the formation. What does the proud do? The proud lines up with everyone else in front of God and saying, you're not going to rule over us.

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You will not tell us what to do. What's the text say? God is opposed to the proud.

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It's not God standing in military array against the people, although they do it. It's God lined up singly against these folks.

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It'd be bad enough if the people did it, but here, what does the text say? God is opposed.

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He's the one in full army gear, in full regala, lined up against these proud people.

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Haughty people, superior people. They're worshipful people, but they're worshiping themselves and they're defying this one

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God. God opposes that. Listen to Proverbs 16. Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the

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Lord. Assuredly, he will not be on par. Man's only hope is the grace of God.

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The only hope is there's one coming on a horse who's the rescuer, who says, I will deliver you.

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You can't deliver yourself. There's only two religions in the world. The religion of do and the religion of done.

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The do religion says, go bathe in that sacred river. Go kiss that certain stone.

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Go eat that Eucharist. Go deny yourself. Give up something for Lent. The list goes on and on and on.

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Do, do, do. And the other religion is done.

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Jesus's life, he did it. He did it alone. Christ's death, he did it. He did it alone.

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Christ's resurrection, spirit, the son and the father raised him, but he, God alone did it.

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We didn't contribute anything. After all, man cannot see unless he's born again,

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John 3. Man cannot understand unless he's given a new nature, 1 Corinthians 2. Man cannot come to Christ unless he's called by the

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Holy Spirit, affectionately, John 6. We need grace that's greater than our sin.

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I just told you an illustration before the sermon started about someone who needs to be saved. And then they're in our hospital.

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What is the only thing that could rescue such a person? Something has to be greater than their sin to rescue them.

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It's grace that's greater. And you say, well, that's all fine and dandy, but is there a responsibility from man?

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Is man responsible to respond to God? And that's the next part of the scripture. Let me show you these 10 responses.

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If you're taking notes, right here in the middle of this hedonism test, there's a call to be saved. Doesn't it make sense if James is preaching, these are tests of saving faith, to now say in the middle of the sermon, are you a

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Christian? I think that's very logical. In the middle of saving tests, saving faith tests, he says, are you sure you're a

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Christian? Verse four, let me ask you this.

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Enemies of God, does God ever call Christians enemies of God? No.

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Is God ever in military array, standing with all his weapons against Christians?

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So here we see the response to this great grace. Let me show you 10 responses for you seminary students.

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We have some seminary students here. These are not ongoing commands. These are not present tense commands.

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These are point in time commands. Simon, tell me the two tenses. One is ongoing, another is point in time.

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What's the ongoing tense? You haven't taken Greek yet, have you? It's present tense.

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Keep on doing it. The point in time is what? Aorist.

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If you're gonna call somebody, if you're gonna call a Christian to greater godly behavior, you would say, keep on, keep on, keep on, keep on.

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But here there's none of that. There's no present tense. It's just one Aorist imperative after another. 10 total.

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Let's take a look at these. This is amazing. By the way, you say, how can this be a call to salvation where there's no resurrection of Jesus, no substitutionary atonement?

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Are there general invitations in scripture for salvation that have no atonement, no resurrection?

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Are there general calls to, you better believe what God has shown you? Well, I think so.

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Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction. And many are those who enter by it.

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Is that a call to salvation? No atonement, no justification, no resurrection. How about this?

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Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. You will find rest for your souls.

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Take my yoke upon you. So here too, 10 once and for all commands. If you're not a

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Christian tonight, this is your responsibility. How you respond to grace, this is for you. And I'm not gonna call these staccato.

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I'm gonna call these jackhammer. You ever seen a jackhammer? You ever try to sleep through the next door neighbor's friend who's coming over with a jackhammer?

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Can you just feel it? I can smell it and I can feel the jackhammer, can't you? I remember I had a jackhammer in my garage and I was putting a pump in there, this water pump.

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And I jackhammered for a long time. And then I stopped jackhammering and I went to bed and guess what

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I felt like? I felt like I was still doing this. I'm laying in bed.

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Kind of like you go skiing all day long in the mountains and you lay down and you feel yourself slushing, slushing, is that a word?

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Slushing, swishing, jackhammer burst. Therefore, verse seven, submit therefore to God.

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That's number one, submit to God. If God opposes the proud but helps the humble, don't you think submission to this

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God would be good? Submission means to line up under. So here's the sergeant and the private lines up under.

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Here's God the king and you line up under. The proud says, I'm over you

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God, I'm equally with you God. And the one who's submissive says, I'm humble and I will line up under the authority of my commander.

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This goes exactly against this whole assert yourself culture. People have a heart attack if you tell their wives to submit to their husband.

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They can't stand this. If I had a chalkboard, I'd take my fingers right now and I'd go like this right across the chalkboard and say, our society when it comes to submission cannot stand it.

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And we're only telling people, submit to the government, submit to your husbands, submit to your employer.

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We're not even saying you better submit yourself to God almighty or else. Can't stand it.

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Give allegiance to a greater superior. That's the idea. Surrender. What kind of flag would

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I put up if it was gonna be a surrender? Peter, white flag. Right now there's a different kind of flag up and it's a flag of we are our own country.

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Don't tell us what to do. We're sovereign. There's no king but us. God's the

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Lord and master. This is James' way of saying, consciously submit to God's rule as sovereign over the universe.

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The opposite is rebellion. Assert yourself. Number two, this isn't ongoing.

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We should be submitting to God, yes, as Christians. But here there's all kinds of lust and issues going on.

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And James says, there's gotta be greater grace. This is saving grace. How do you respond to saving grace? One, submit to God.

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Two, resist the devil and he'll flee from you. This is the flip side of the first command.

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Resist means to take your stand against. Here's the incoming enemy and you stand up and you brace yourself.

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Lots of times I'll tell my kids, I'm teaching my girls now how to play basketball. I don't know how I can show you.

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I guess I can show you here. And for some reason, every kid, at least in my family, wants to shoot baskets like this.

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They all wanna just play basketball like this. And I tell them, you just need to have a shoulder -width stance.

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And I said, I'll show you. Stand like this and I'm gonna begin to push you and you resist me.

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And I begin to push them and it doesn't take any resistance at all standing like this and I just easily push them over.

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I said, now stand like this or stand like this and I'm gonna begin to push you and you don't let me push you down.

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I said, and then look over there. Wow, no, I don't do that. It's harder to push. So you say,

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I used to be running with Satan, with the flow of Satan, doing what he wanted. By the way, the

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Bible says in 2nd, why am I here? The Bible says in 2nd Timothy chapter two that unbelievers do

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Satan's will. They don't have free will, they do Satan's will. You're running with Satan.

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And so now stand there and saying, I'm going to run opposite of that and that's exactly what he says. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

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Unbelievers have Satan as a father and if there's submission to God, the King, and there's a resistance,

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Satan will flee. Submission to God must include opposition to the arch enemy of God, Satan himself.

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Stand against more military metaphors. Stand against Diabolo. Stand against the slander who tells you things about God that aren't true and he will run, he will flee.

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Transfer allegiance by the grace of God from Satan to God and Satan will flee.

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Number three, draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Draw near to God and he'll draw near to you.

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Now, could you say this to Christians? Of course you can. This has nothing to do with Christians though because let's take a look at it.

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Verse 8a, draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Turn with me if you would to Leviticus chapter 10.

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Leviticus chapter 10. Let me show you the same language that's in the

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Greek in the New Testament that's in the Greek version of the Old Testament. Leviticus chapter 10 and I wanna show you that this comes right from the concept of Levitical priests drawing near to God.

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That was the first association. Used in the Old Testament of priests offering sacrifices in the temple and so the idea is going to be the priests are getting close to God offering a sacrifice.

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God here is saying through James, come near to God, draw near to him. And take a look at this.

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You're gonna, you'll never forget these verses if you haven't ever read them. You'll think, wow. If you have read them, you'll say, oh,

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I've forgotten. Leviticus 10, verse one. Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective fire pans and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the

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Lord, which God had not commanded them. By the way,

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I have to say this because I just do. God has been very explicit in how he wants to be worshiped.

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God has told us and prescribed worship under God in the scripture.

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You just don't say, well, I think I'll just worship God this way because that's exactly what these two people did.

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And fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, verse two, and they died before the

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Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, it is what the Lord spoke, saying, and in this next sentence, you'll see the

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Septuagint's version of our New Testament James, draw near. By those who come near me, are drawn near to me,

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I will be treated as holy and before all the people, I will be honored.

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So Aaron, therefore, kept silent. Originally, it had to do with the priest going towards God, drawing near to God with a sacrifice.

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And eventually, it came to be known of anyone drawing near to God for any kind of personal relationship.

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The Bible says for an unbeliever, if you submit, if you resist, and then draw near to God, he will draw near to you.

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Back to James chapter four. It gets more intense. You almost are waiting for it to be let up, but you can hear the pin drop as James preaches because you know there are people there, just like there are people at Bethlehem Bible Church who aren't

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Christians, who are failing these tests. So in the middle of a bunch of tests for saving faith, he says, so now repent, believe, trust, confess, to use other language.

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But here he says, submit, resist, draw near, and then now look what he says. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, verse eight.

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As the world has made your hands all dirty, I've never seen so many cleaning hands people in my life with all this swine flu virus.

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You go to the stores and you've got these huge, you go to Staples, these huge kind of maximum mega hand -washing things.

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But is that what he's talking about here? The world has defiled the hands of people, and what does the text say?

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Cleanse your hands. It's like a catheter cleanses people from what's in their body.

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Here it's the same kind of cleansing, but spiritually cleansed. See if you can pick up the word clean here in Acts 15.

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And God who knows the heart bore witness to them, giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he also did to us.

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And he made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.

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How about this? Pick it up in Hebrews chapter nine. Cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living

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God. How about this Jesus to the Pharisee? You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and the dish so that the outside of it may become clean also.

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This is not ceremoniously cleaning your hands. This is a spiritual truth. Cleanse your hands.

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By the way, just on a side note, cleanse your hands you sinners. What do you think I'm gonna say about the word sinner there?

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How many people here think they're a sinner? Okay. So you mean to tell me your life is dominated by sin.

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You have to sin, you always sin. There's an option for righteousness and sin and you always choose sin.

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I look at you and I say to myself, that person is so dominated by sin, I'll call them a sinner. If I see a drunk on the side of the street and he's laying there with his bottle of MD -2020,

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I look at him and I go, his life is dominated by alcohol and drunkenness and I call him a what?

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A drunkard. So you mean to tell me you just admitted that you're a sinner, your life is dominated by sin.

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Well, you go, I don't really mean that. Friends, I think we're still sinful. I think you're sinful and I think you know

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I'm still sinful, yes? But the text most often, except one place in particular, calls

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Christians, now let me say it a different way, never calls

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Christians sinners except one place. Do Christians sin?

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Is that all over the Bible? What does the Bible tend to call Christians? Saints.

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Now you say, this is kind of bugging me, this is rocking my world. When Jesus fellowshiped with people, he fellowshiped with tax gatherers and sinners.

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Here in the middle of a test of saving faith, sinners cleanse your hands. If you say, yes, but I'm still a sinner,

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I get it. Paul said in 1 Timothy chapter one, I am the chief of all what? Sinners.

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Is it okay to call yourself a sinner? Yes, but I'm telling you, most of the time in Scripture when you see the word sinner, it is a word that characterizes behavior of thought, word, deed, and what do sinners do all the time?

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What do they wake up to do? Who are they? They're sinful. And this particular case as well, those that are characterized by sin,

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James says, then cleanse your hands, you unbelievers. That's all he's saying.

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1 Timothy chapter one, Christians, Paul calls himself a sinner, but he doesn't do it that often.

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And I'll prove it to you, how about this? I won't even tell you the verses. God demonstrated his own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners,

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Christ died for us. Go learn what this means. I desire compassion and not sacrifice, for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.

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I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance.

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Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, cruel with fury and burning anger to make a desolate land and he will exterminate its sinners from it.

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Sound like words of Christians? One last one, Romans five. As through the one man's disobedience, many were made sinners.

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What am I saying? I'm saying we still sin. And I'm saying, if you wanna call yourself a sinner, you can, but I think you should say to yourself, most often,

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I'm thankful I consider myself a child of God and I'm a saint. We'll talk about that more later.

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Number five, look, we gotta do a few more. We gotta get through this. This morning, I was chastised for not preaching long enough so I'll take it out on you tonight.

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Let's go. Where else do you have to go? Seems like it's about 10 .30 at night with getting dark, doesn't it?

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I'm just getting older or what, but I think this is just messing me up. It's dark at 4 .15 now or whatever.

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Look at number five, purify your hearts, you double -minded. Purify your hearts, you double -minded.

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This is language right from Ezekiel chapter 36, sprinkling clean water on you and I will make you clean.

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Double -minded is not used with Christians. Two -souled, loving God and loving sins at the same time.

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Stop, stop dual allegiance. Number six, you still think this is for Christians?

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Ever tell this to an unbeliever? Be miserable. That'll pack a church out. Feel wretched.

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Be afflicted. You know what this is? And if you're a

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Christian, you remember the timeframe or the day when you thought, what I used to do, maybe

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I felt bad about it because somebody might've gotten hurt. But now I realize my sin is against God and I have a deep internal pain of shame knowing that I've sinned against God.

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I've sinned against God. How shameful, how wretched am I? How defiling

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I am. I'm broken. The word to grieve or to be miserable just means that, to be wretched, to be devastated.

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This is a word some scholars who write ancient history would talk about if an army out in the middle of the wilderness lost all their food and all their water and all their supplies, they would feel wretched.

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That's the same thing here. But spiritually, lament, be miserable, broken.

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You see your sin, it's against God. And then you see, this is a far cry by the way from going up to a sinner and saying,

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God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Because if somebody says that to a fornicator and an adulterer, then the implication is you don't need to repent.

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If I was told that God loves me and has a wonderful plan for my life, as an adulterer and fornicator, then that's fine.

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I'm glad he loves me as I am. It doesn't get any better. Number seven, mourn.

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There's all kinds of words for mourning in the Bible. This is the most intense. This is you bury your father mourning.

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You bury your mother mourning. Some of us have had to bury our mothers and our fathers.

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This is you lose a child and the grief is so bad, everyone looks at you and they know that you can't hide your grief.

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And the grief here isn't losing a father or a mother. The grief here is realizing what you've done against God.

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Fill in the blank. Matthew 5 .4, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

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A long cry since I'm using pop culture songs, a long cry from all I wanna do is have some fun.

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Wesley said as he preached to the miners of Kingswood that they were so touched with grief that the tears made runnels as they ran down the grime of their faces.

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Contrition over sin. Number eight, weep. This is wail.

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This is the shame of sin, the shame of having a life wasted, to weep, to be sorrowful, responding with repentance and shame and sorrow.

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On the inside, you're mourning. The external manifestation of the mourning is weeping.

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And then number nine, two more to go. Let your laughter be turned into mourning.

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We don't evangelize like this anymore. You ought to mourn over your sin and weep over your sin and we don't tell them things like that.

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I have a friend and he wrote a book called The ABCs of Evangelism and it's easy to evangelize.

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Admit, believe, confess. That's not how James did it. He says, let your laughter be turned into mourning.

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This whole kind of hardy har har party, flippantly denying God and laughing with all their pleasure.

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No thought for life, no thought for death, no thought for God for sure. I pulled the wool over God's eyes.

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Ecclesiastes calls this the laughter of the fool. It reminds me of Jesus' words.

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By the way, if you understand James' preaching, you'll immediately say he learned it very well from his half -brother,

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Jesus. Woe to you who are well -fed now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.

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Oh, sin's fun for a while, but then comes that day, judgment day, that sure day.

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And James says, consider your latter end. And if there's going to be weeping, then make it now, no, same word, don't make the weeping in hell, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

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What does the text say? Let your joy be turned to gloom. The idea there for gloom is when you have your head down.

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You ever watch these people who get arrested and they're taken to court? And what do they do with their face if they can get their handcuffs a certain way so they can put them up and hide their shame?

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Hide their shame with their face. This is like the tax gatherer who is unwilling even to lift up his eyes to heaven, beating his breast saying,

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God be merciful to me, the sinner. And then lastly, number 10, and we'll end here, the summary statement.

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The summary statement, humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord. We've come full circle.

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There's a submission and now there's a humbling. God gives grace to the humble, verse six.

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And now we come full circle, verse 10. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and He will exalt you.

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See how humility is tied right there to saving faith? Say, I'm gonna make myself low. I'm gonna deplore my position.

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I'm gonna realize that God made me to honor Him and for my life I haven't honored Him. I wanna honor

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Him now. God, forgive me. I confess that I'm a sinner. I need the Savior. And you do this in the presence of the

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Lord. God sees all. John Flavel, the great

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Puritan said, they that know God will be humble and they that know themselves cannot be proud.

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Wasn't a Christian man. I hope he got saved on his deathbed. But Winston Churchill once was asked, doesn't it thrill you to know that every time you make a speech, the hall is packed to overflowing?

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It's quite flattering, replied Sir Winston. But whenever I feel that way,

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I always remember that if instead of making a political speech, I was being hanged, the crowd would be twice as big.

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And what does the text say? There's a lot of bad news, but here comes the good news. Humble yourselves in the presence of the

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Lord and He will exalt you. Not the owner of your company, not your father, not somebody else that you might really want to be exalted by, but hear that God of the universe exalts a sinner, a repentant sinner.

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The picture is someone comes before a king in the throne of judgment. And in the throne of judgment, you get judgment and they come before the king.

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Sometimes they would put a knife underneath their chin. So you'd have to look at the king when he condemned you to hell. Other times they're just falling on their face.

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They know they're guilty. They know they've been treasonous towards the king. And they say to the king, please have mercy, please have mercy, please have mercy.

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I'm throwing myself on the mercy of the king's goodness and mercy. Please help me.

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And the king has every right to say off to the gallows, torture, kill, et cetera.

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But the king leans down, gets off his throne, squats down low, picks the person up and says, you're adopted into my family.

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I will exalt you. It's not just forgiveness, it's exaltation. The old proverb says a tree strikes its roots downward in order to go upward.

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Can you imagine what it would feel like if you were pulled up by the scruff of the neck by the king?

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You thought you were going to be hung on a gibbet like Haman in Esther, but he says you're forgiven and I'd like you to be my closest confidant.

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No, I'd like you to be my son. Can you imagine God of the universe exalting?

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God is judge, Psalm says. He puts down one and he exalts another. You say, yeah, but I've got friends that God has never, he didn't choose and he hasn't saved them.

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Well, that's not the question. Well, how come God doesn't save some people? How does God save anyone? If you were

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God, would you exalt anyone? But see, God is merciful and God is kind.

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Businessman well -known for ruthlessness once announced to Mark Twain, before I die,

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I'm going to make a pilgrimage to the Holy land. I'm going to climb Mount Sinai and read the 10 commandments aloud at the top.

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Twain said, I have a better idea. You could stay in Boston and keep them, except we know we could never keep the law.

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Whether it's the 10 commandments, Mosaic law, the great commandments, love the Lord your

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God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength, love your neighbor as yourself, we could never do it. So that's why we look to the great Jesus Christ who has obeyed in our place and then died for our sins, raised from the dead and trust in him will take a sinner and exalt him, exalted by the

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King. Well, more next time, let's pray. Father, we thank you for this time with the word.

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Thank you that you're just not a savior, but to most in the room tonight, you're our savior.

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It's one thing to say you're savior and Lord, but it's another to say you're my savior and my

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Lord. So I pray for all those tonight. I pray for each and every person, if they're here, whether visitor or member who has not submitted to your kingship, has not weeped and wailed and mourned over their sin.

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Father, I pray that tonight would be the night. I pray that they wouldn't sleep. I pray that their week would be ruined.

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I pray that they couldn't concentrate on anything else except throwing themselves on your mercy.

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We're thankful that you're a savior and you grant mercy to those who call. And so Father, I pray for those tonight who are

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Christians, and I pray you just give them joy, that they could be remembering again that you, the great

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King, of course, made us out of dust. We're created beings, we're sinful, that you've redeemed us and then exalted us to think that we're co -heirs with Christ.

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It's a wonderful thing. So help us live a week this week of joy and thankfulness. In Jesus' name.