Submit to God, Resist
the Devil
James 4:4-7 “….know
ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the
world is the enemy of God. Do ye think
that the scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to
envy? But he giveth more grace.
Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the
humble. Submit yourselves therefore to
God. Resist the devil and he will flee
from you.”
Submit yourselves
therefore to God and resist the devil and he will flee from you. The context is that of the natural human
nature that leads to wars and fightings that comes from lusts within your own
body. Worldly mindedness, natural spirit
in the natural man desires to envy, lust and pride but God giveth grace to the
humble. What are the three
symptoms? Lust, envy, pride. Satanic, straight from the devil. What are the two symptoms that are not
natural to us by birth? grace and
humility. Godly, like God. You are either like Satan or like God.
For a child of God
that has God's spirit and shows grace and humility, be warned: we have the remnants of our old nature still
alive in us, and that is why we are told to keep killing it each day. Keep mortifying the
flesh. It is still our natural
temptation to lust, envy and pride.
These things, thank the Lord, do not rule anymore as they did before we
were saved, they are against our natural inclination but these things are still
real temptations or why else have we this exhortation to submit yourselves,
therefore, to God and resist the devil and he will flee from you. In other words, the Christian life is a
continual spiritual battle against this former nature. The great temptation within us is to lust,
envy and pride and the great tempter, the devil, will attack us in these very
areas to fulfill our natural spirit's tendency.
We as believers must not submit to that.. we are given two battle orders
from God. Two things that a believer
must do in spiritual battle.
1. Submit to God
2. Resist the Devil
1. Submit to God. What do these words mean? Submit means arrange under, subordinate, put
yourself under the authority, obey, be subject to ones control. Its passive, should be second-nature to
us. We should want to submit to
God. What is the order from God? our (spiritual) battle orders? In the light of remaining corruption in you
that causes wars and fightings, God commands that we submit ourselves to his
control, that we be subordinate to him, under his mighty hand. But what and how? What is submission to God? and how do you do
it? The answer is to think biblically.
The bible is God's word. To submit to
God is to submit to what he says. The
bible is all of God's revelation to mankind.
There is no more revelation separate from scripture. This is God's will for us, this is what he
commands. So what do we do? We read the word of God and submit to what we
read therein. And that is what we must
do. Our thoughts, our affections, our
actions are to be guided according to the strict rules of the Word. Lay aside your pride and stubbornness. There is no such thing as a humble submission
to God while at the same time disobeying what God says. Submitting to God on a daily basis is a
taking of ourselves and our own will and our pride, off the throne of our life
and making sure that God is on the throne of our lives. It’s not a mystical thing. What is submission to God? This submission is not some morbid feeling of
uselessness or worthlessness, this is not lowliness.. It is a profound awareness of the majesty of
God and the glorious sufficiency of the redeeming love of Jesus and a deep
sense of readiness to be led by the indwelling Spirit in simple obedience to
the word of God. The indwelling Holy
Spirit and the word of God. The Spirit
leads us to do the word of God. It’s not
my feelings which contradict the word of God. I follow my feelings and then I say "but
I've been led by the Spirit", that
is nonsense. If the spirit which is in
you leads you to disobey the word of God then this is a demon that is tempting
you, not the Spirit of God. It is demons
that tempt to sin, not the Holy Spirit.
It is the devil who is the tempter to sin. The Spirit does not lead contrary to the
Word..
2. Resist the devil -
What does this mean? Resist means
withstand, oppose, set oneself against.
We are against certain things, we oppose certain things and it is an
active, imperative verb that does not come naturally to us. We actively must put in effort when God
commands us to resist the devil, the false accuser, the slanderer. Resist the devil and the most amazing words,
"and he will flee from you" he
will vanish, future active. A simple
statement of fact. Oppose. God commands Christians to actively use
energy to oppose, set yourself against the devil and withstand him. Like the Spartans used to do with a shield
wall and resisted the charge. They held
it back, They resisted the force that
was against them, you shall not pass.
Resist the devil and he will steal away.
When temptation comes, hold back.
Don't go in his way. Resist the
devil.. In the context of our natural
spirit’s tendency to lust, envy and pride, we are warned to resist the
devil. In the areas of our natural
weaknesses, the devil is very likely to tempt us in that area and we need to
resist him. His active temptation is
seen in the pages of the new testament.
John 8:44 “Ye are of your father th devil, and the lusts of yur father
ye will do. He was a murderer from the
beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his
own: for he is a liar and the father of it.”
Everyone that is not saved obeys his lusts, his desires. He tempts them and they go to it. Ephesians 4:26-27 “Be ye angry, and sin not:
let not the sun go down upon your wrath: neither give place to the devil.” This is written to Christians in the new
testament. Holding on to our anger is to
give place to the devil. John 13:26-27 “Jesus
answered, he it is to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to
Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And
after the sop Satan entered into him.
Then said Jesus unto him, that thou doest, do quickly.” The devil had long observed Judas' jealousy
and his greed for money and that is where he was tempted and that is where he
fell. Acts 5:3-4 “But Peter said,
Ananias why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep
back part of the price of the land?
While it remained, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it
not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine hart? Thou
hast not lied unto men, but unto God.”
Satan had tempted Ananias to lie but note that though Ananias was
tempted by Satan, he is accused of the actual lie. Temptation by Satan is no excuse. We are responsible for our own sin, we cannot
pass the blame as Eve did..
Those that are of the
devil obey his desires.. lies, murder,
they listen to their father and do his will.
The devil tempts Christians to sin at our weakest point. We are to set ourselves against the devil.
Spiritual warfare. Don't give in. Don't do it.
The devil will tempt you to not be submitted to God.. don't give
in. True obedience finds much opposition
from the devil. When the devil comes to
tempt us, resolution shuts and bolts the door against temptation. What is the result? If you resist the devil, he will flee from
you.
In the light of
remaining sin, Christians are given two orders by God.. submit to God and
resist the devil. If we fail or don't
submit to God and don't resist the devil, that means we are proud and we are
sinful and we will be losing the spiritual battle and defeat is imminent. If we obey God's commands and submit to God,
than we are not proud and sinful but we are humble and godly, and we have
victory.
The notes above were made by myself from a sermon by Rev. Paul Dowling of Whiteabbey Congregational at Sermon
Audio. This sermon was very helpful for me and I
hope that it will be helpful for you also. Here is the link to the original sermon:
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