James series – “The Litmus Test for life”

James 4:7-12

⁷ Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. ¹¹ Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. ¹² There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?

After looking at the symptoms and source of selfish pride James now reveals:

• The solution to selfish pride – 4:7-12

So, what are some practical solutions for selfish pride? Well, James gives us three and he lists them as conditional statements under the umbrella of submitting to God. In other words, to destroy selfish pride in your life, you must humbly submit to God. And here are three conditional statements that clarify what it means to humbly submit to God. 

1. The first practical solution is to resist the devil. 

Isn’t it interesting that to destroy the pride that lives inside your own heart, you have to resist the devil who lives outside your heart? Go back to the Garden. If Adam and Eve had resisted the lies of satan, they would not have given the pride in their heart a foothold. But by listening to him, they allowed him to play on the pride that he knew was in their hearts, just waiting to be fed. When the devil tempts you resist him. When he plays on your selfishness resist him. When he tells you you’re too good to do that job resist him. Because when you obey God and resist him God promises that he will flee from you. Resist the devil and he will flee. On the cross of Calvary not only did Christ cancel our sin debt, but He engaged the enemy and disarmed the principalities and powers. It doesn’t mean he’s obliterated; it means he’s stripped of His authority and power. The hold that the devil has over someone is their sin. But if the sin has been washed away by the blood of the Son, then the devil has nothing upon which to cling. Once forgiveness is understood and blood is appropriated, the powers of darkness are defeated and rendered as powerless as a lion who has lost his teeth. Because of forgiveness you don’t have to live in fear, for while the devil loves to roar there are no teeth in his jaw. Because Christ crushed the enemy on the cross we don’t have to be slaves to Satan we can resist him.

• The second practical solution is to draw near to God. 

How do we do that? In the days prior to Christ coming and dying on the cross the High Priest would enter into the presence of God in the Holy of Holies and offer up a sacrifice for the sins of the people. This offering would close the gap between God and man which was created by sin. Yet this offering was only temporary. When Jesus died on the cross He paid the permanent price for sin as Hebrews 9:12 says: “With his own blood, not the blood of goats and calves, he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever.” James tells to “wash our hands” and “purify our hearts” that means to confess our sins and come clean before God. Repentance is not just recognizing sin it is turning away from sin and doing the things that the Lord has commanded you to do. If you do, God will draw near to you.