{"id":18705,"date":"2021-04-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-21T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/james-024-the-gospels-simplicity\/"},"modified":"2021-04-21T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-04-21T05:00:00","slug":"james-024-the-gospels-simplicity","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/james-024-the-gospels-simplicity\/","title":{"rendered":"James 024 – The Gospel’s Simplicity"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[104],"series_event":[514],"sermon_service_type":[474],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18705","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-james","series_event-james","sermon_service_type-wednesday-evenings","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"James 024 - The Gospel's Simplicity","sermon_date":"20210421","sermon_month":"4","sermon_year":"2021","sermon_notes":8978,"sermon_slides":8979,"sermon_mp3":8980,"sermon_id":"421212225402355","series_or_event":514,"service_type":[474],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":104,"chapter_and_verse":"4:8-10","sermon_transcript":"James 24\n\nBook of James:\u00a0 A Faith that Works\n\nThe Gospel\u2019s Simplicity \u2014 James 4:8-10\n\nDr.\u00a0 Andy Woods\n\nThe book of James, 4:8<\/u> as we continue our journey through the book of James.\u00a0 Not a bad series title, Journeying through James, actually I like James:\u00a0 A Faith that Works<\/u> \u2014 better.\u00a0 As you know, James is the half brother of our Lord, Jesus Christ.\u00a0\u00a0 He is writing a book to the Hebrew Christians who he was actually pastoring in Jerusalem who had been scattered abroad because of the persecution of the apostle Paul.\u00a0 The main thing to understand about James, at least this evening, to interpret it correctly, is that this is a book about practical righteousness, so the assumption is that the folks who James is writing to are already believers.\u00a0 There is a real strong clue that they are believers:\u00a0 look at 4:5:\u00a0 He says, \u2018He jealously desires the spirit which he has made to dwell in us.\u2019\u00a0\u00a0 So, they had the spirit; James uses the word, \u2018us,\u2019 so just as James was a believer, so was his audience; so, he isn\u2019t writing a book to people to teach them how to become Christians; but to teach them how to live<\/em> as Christians.\u00a0 The first part of the book is about how they must keep walking by faith, so they need to develop God's viewpoint on:\n\n-Trials\n\n-Obedience to God's Word\n\n-Not showing favoritism\n\n-Allowing their faith to produce itself in good works\n\n-Taming the tongue\n\nIf they don't do these (above) things, James is not saying that they are not Christians, but he is saying that they are not productive, growing, maturing Christians.\u00a0 About halfway through the book in 3:13-18, he moves away from the walk of faith to the walk of wisdom which is knowledge applied.\u00a0 He defines wisdom as knowledge applied, then he moves into their spiritual life.\u00a0 The rest of the book is James showing them how to apply divine wisdom to every area of life.\u00a0 He starts with the most important thing:\u00a0 one\u2019s spiritual life.\u00a0 If they have their spiritual life growing then the other things take care of themselves.\u00a0 I think that is why he developed and explained the spiritual life first.\u00a0 He addresses this in 4:1-12, as we have been studying.\u00a0 So, how do we have a vibrant, growing spiritual life as Christians so that we are maturing?\u00a0 There are a couple of things we need to avoid:\n
    \n \t
  1. Wrangling 4:1-3<\/li>\n \t
  2. Worldliness 4:1-6<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nWe spent a lot of time on those two points; in other words, these are things that the Christian is to set aside in order to be a growing Christian.\u00a0 The wonderful thing about the Bible is that it isn\u2019t merely a book about don'ts; many view the Bible that way.\u00a0 Don\u2019t do this; don't do that; stay away from this; stay away from that.\u00a0 The reality is that the Bible is not a book of don'ts; it is a book of betters; in other words, God will say, \u2018here is what to stay away from,\u2019 but then He says, \u2018here is what to replace it with.\u2019\u00a0 What you replace it with is far better than what you gave up.\u00a0 So, Jesus has not come into the world to destroy people\u2019s lives.\u00a0\u00a0 John 10:10 says that \u2018He has come that we may have life and have it to the full.\u2019\u00a0 Therefore, James is not a book about don't do this or that, but it is a book about betters.\u00a0 The don'ts are in James 4:1-6 as he is explaining the spiritual life.\u00a0 Avoid wrangling and worldliness.\u00a0 Then he explains about what to replace those things with, and he does so in 4:7-12 where he starts to explain a wonderful paragraph that I call the essence of spiritual wisdom.\u00a0\u00a0 Rather than worldliness and wrangling, pursue these six things instead, the first two of which we have covered, and the remaining four we will try to cover tonight, Lord willing:\n
      \n \t
    1. Submission to God 4:7a<\/li>\n \t
    2. Resist satan 4:7b<\/li>\n \t
    3. Draw near to God 4:8a<\/li>\n \t
    4. Repent 4:8b-9<\/li>\n \t
    5. Humility 4:10<\/li>\n \t
    6. Forego judgment 4:11-12<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nThe first<\/u> thing to do is to submit yourself to God per 4:7, and in saying this, he isn\u2019t speaking of justification but about sanctification.\u00a0 Why is he dealing with sanctification?\u00a0 Because he is explaining these things to Christians, and it is obvious they are Christians because of 4:6 which comes right before 4:7.\n\nThe second <\/u>thing he says is to resist satan, and we have explained that, and that was sort of a rabbit trail because when we got into the subject of resisting satan, we said that one of the things that people do today is to try to bind satan.\u00a0 We said that this isn\u2019t a bonified practice today because satan, eschatologically and prophetically, will not be bound until the Millennial Kingdom.\u00a0 Thus, we are not in the business of binding satan.\u00a0 Then the question arises:\u00a0 \u2018What do you do with these passages of binding and loosing? \u00a0Because when we tell people that we aren\u2019t binding satan today, we are resisting him and putting on the full armor of God, they immediately want to run to Matthew 16:18-19 and 18:18-20 where Jesus gives us authority to bind and to loose (See slide on Binding and Loosing where the above referenced passages are side by side thanks to Brother Jim who created that slide, so thank you to him).\u00a0 I create my slides and Jim knows what I am trying to say and then he gives it a massive facelift so that it is presentable.\u00a0 So, there are the two verses we covered last time about binding and loosing, and we went through those and concluded that those have nothing to do with binding and loosing satan today.\u00a0 These are commonly used in the modern spiritual warfare movement to argue that we are to bind and loose satan, the reality is that they have nothing to do with that, so we went down deeply into those two passages explaining what they really mean.\u00a0 If you are interested, that was a sort of rabbit trail, I encourage you to listen to James 23 on Binding and Loosing (available on our archive).\n\nWhat is the essence of spiritual wisdom?\n
        \n \t
      1. Submit yourself to God<\/li>\n \t
      2. Resist Satan<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nNow we proceed with numbers 3-6, which I am hoping we will cover tonight.\n
          \n \t
        1. Draw near to God.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nJames 4:8, the essence of spiritual wisdom: \u201cDraw near to God and He will draw near to you\u2026\u201d. Notice that there are a lot of reciprocal promises here.\u00a0 If we do \u2018x,\u2019 then God is obligated to do \u2018y\u2019 as we are growing spiritually.\u00a0 If you go back to James 4:7, there is a reciprocal promise to \u201cResist the devil and he will flee from you.\u201d\u00a0 So, if you do something, then something else will happen by way of response.\u00a0 It is the same thing in 4:8, if we draw near to God then He will draw near to us, so we need to pay attention to these reciprocal promises.\u00a0 The way to understand and to interpret this correctly is to understand something that is very basic:\u00a0 you have as a human being, two relationships with God.\u00a0 Your first relationship with God when you are born into this world is God as your Judge.\u00a0 You are moving off into divine judgment as an unbeliever.\u00a0 The only way to fix that issue is by exercising faith alone in Christ alone.\u00a0 Once you exercise faith alone in Christ alone, then God is no longer your Judge.\u00a0 That is why the Bible says that \u2018there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.\u2019\n\nThen when you get saved, God is no longer your Judge, but He becomes your Father.\u00a0 As you relate to God as your Father, there is not just one command to follow as there is for the unbeliever who doesn\u2019t want God to be their Judge.\u00a0 If an unbeliever doesn\u2019t want God to be their Judge, then that unbeliever is obligated to do one thing, which is to believe.\u00a0 After you believe, then God is no longer your Judge, He is your Father, and now, our responsibility is to walk in intimacy with our Father.\u00a0 To walk in intimacy with God as our Father involves multiple commands.\u00a0 The confusion occurs when people mixing the two commands up.\u00a0 They take the commands related to our walk with God as our Father and drag them into how to fix their situation with God as our Judge?\u00a0\u00a0 For example, some people say, \u2018If you die with an unforgiving heart, then you will go to hell.\u2019\u00a0\u00a0 Well, the problem is that those people are grabbing that from the Lord\u2019s prayer, \u2018forgive us our debts as we forgive those who have sinned against us.\u2019\u00a0 They take that command to forgive and make it into something that an unbeliever must do to get right with God.\u00a0 But if you look at that passage in context, the Lord\u2019s prayer begins which way?\u00a0 \u2018Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name.\u2019\u00a0 So, the issue of forgiveness or unforgiveness has absolutely nothing to do with whether you will remove the situation with God as your Judge.\u00a0\u00a0 The only thing you must do to remove that situation is to believe in the One He has sent, Jesus Christ.\u00a0 The issue of forgiveness or unforgiveness has nothing to do with how you become a child of God, but it has everything to do with \u2018Are you going to grow as a Christian with God as your Father?\u00a0 Will you walk with intimacy with God as your Father?\u2019\u00a0 That is where you factor in \u2018forgive us our debts as we forgive those who have sinned against us.\u2019\u00a0\u00a0 That is the right way to understand these verses.\n\nWhen James says to draw near to God and He will draw near to you, it isn\u2019t a command for an unbeliever to enter into a right relationship with God.\u00a0 Rather, it is a command for the believer to enjoy fellowship with their Father.\u00a0 If you don't draw near to God as His child, that doesn\u2019t mean that you will suffer future judgment.\u00a0 That issue got fixed the moment you trusted in Christ as your Savior.\u00a0 Then why should we, as His children, draw near to God?\u00a0 Because I want to enjoy maximum intimacy and fellowship with Him.\u00a0 So, this is a promise that is given to the Christian who wants to grow in their intimacy with God as their Father.\u00a0 To do that, we must draw near to Him, and He makes a reciprocal promise to us that when we do that, He will draw near to us.\u00a0 This is an invitation to us for fellowship, not salvation.\u00a0 An invitation to salvation would not fit here because he is clearly addressing believers.\u00a0 Some parallel passages would be 1 John 1:3, also a book about fellowship.\u00a0 It says, \u201c\u2026what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His son Jesus Christ.\u201d\u00a0 So, 1 John, like the book of James is written so that God's children can enjoy fellowship with God.\n\nWhen we sin as Christians, how do we restore broken fellowship with God?\u00a0 The answer is in 1 John 1:9, \u2018If we confess our sins,\u2019 the word, \u2018confess\u2019 is \u2018homologeo\u2019<\/em>:\u00a0 homo as in same, \u2018logeo\u2019<\/em> as in spoken word.\u00a0 It basically means agreement.\u00a0 We agree with God that our sin is wrong.\u00a0 This is what it means to confess our sins.\u00a0 Why would I confess my sin as a Christian?\u00a0 I don't confess my sins to become a Christian.\n\nThere is only one condition to be met to become a Christian, which is faith alone in Christ alone.\u00a0 I do that to experience \u2018homologeo<\/em>;\u2019 \u2018confession<\/em>;\u2019 maximum fellowship with God.\u00a0 So,\u00a0 per 1 John 1:9, \u201cIf we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.\u201d\u00a0 Like James, 1 John is clearly written to believers because 1 John 2:1, which comes right after 1 John 1:9, a verse or two down, says, \u201cMy little children.\u201d\u00a0 This is very important to understand because there is a lot of confusion about this as many people are taking James 4:8 and are holding it out to the unsaved as what the unsaved must do to get saved.\u00a0 That is abusing the book of James because the book of James was not written for that purpose.\u00a0 It was written so that we could enjoy our relationship with God as our Father.\u00a0 If you want to read a book in the Bible that will teach you how to avoid God as your Judge, I recommend the gospel of John.\u00a0 That book was written basically to get unsaved people saved.\u00a0 You will see that in John 20:30-31 where John says, \u2018I have written these things so that you might understand who Jesus Christ is as the Son of God on account of His many signs and so that you might believe and have eternal life.\u2019\n\nSo, if you are trying to get people saved, send them to John\u2019s gospel; if you want to get those who are already saved to grow in their intimacy with their Father, then send them to 1 John or to the book of James.\u00a0 For example, David, in Psalm 32:1-5, says, \u2018\u201cHow blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered!\u00a0 How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit!\u00a0 When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away Through my groaning all day long.\u00a0 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.\u00a0 Selah.\u00a0 I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I did not hide; I said, \u201cI will confess my transgressions to the Lord;\u201d And You forgave the guilt of my sin.\u00a0 Selah.\u201d\u2019\n\nSo, what is David restoring there?\u00a0 He isn\u2019t moving from a situation where he was unsaved to being saved.\u00a0 What happened is that sin entered his life, and he isn\u2019t enjoying his relationship with his Father with the intimacy that he could, so he confessed his sin for the purpose of restoring broken fellowship.\u00a0 It is similar to a marriage \u2014 my wife and I are legally married; that is our legal position.\u00a0 I could do something to offend her or she could offend me and when that happens, does that mean we are no longer married?\u00a0 No, our legal position is exactly the same.\u00a0 What has happened is that there is now a barrier that damages the enjoyment that we could have with one another until I or she confesses \u2014 in other words, apologizes, then broken fellowship and intimacy is restored.\u00a0 When that barrier entered, it wasn\u2019t a situation where suddenly we were unmarried.\u00a0 That is what the book of James is saying: \u2018Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.\u2019\u00a0 He isn\u2019t saying that you aren\u2019t a Christian anymore or that you aren\u2019t saved; He is saying that fellowship that you could enjoy with God has been broken so it is important to confess your sin unto God and agree with Him about that sin per 1 John 1:9 and exercise that passage, then broken fellowship at that point will be restored.\n\nSo, how do we experience the essence of spiritual wisdom?\u00a0 Avoid wrangling and worldliness, and replace it with:\n
            \n \t
          1. Submission to God<\/li>\n \t
          2. Resist satan<\/li>\n \t
          3. Draw near to God with the reciprocal promise that He will draw near to you in the way of intimacy and fellowship.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nYou have heard the saying that if you feel distant from God, who moved?\u00a0 Chances are that it wasn\u2019t God who moved.\u00a0 It was we who moved through sin, and when we moved away from God, it doesn\u2019t mean we aren\u2019t Christians anymore; we are still going to heaven.\u00a0 It means that moment-by-moment intimacy with God has been fragmented or short-circuited, and we need to confess our sin to God so that intimacy can be restored. This is the pursuit of true spiritual wisdom which is to replace worldliness and wrangling.\n
              \n \t
            1. The fourth thing we are to do is to repent. The second half of James 4:8 into 4:9, says, (a good Covid verse)\u2026 \u201cCleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.\u00a0 Be miserable and mourn and weep; and let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nThis is completely and totally a middle tense issue of salvation that James is dealing with here.\u00a0 He is not talking about how to become a Christian in a justification sense.\u00a0 He is talking about our attitude towards sin in our lives as Christians that needs to be confessed; to be repented of.\u00a0 To repent means to change your mind about that particular sin that is causing a lack of fellowship between you and the Lord as a Christian.\u00a0 Treat your sin seriously; \u2018cleanse your hands; purify your hearts.\u2019\u00a0 James 4:9 says to \u201cBe miserable and mourn and weep; and let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.\u201d\u00a0 Sin in the life of a Christian, according to the book of James is a very serious issue.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t something that will derail glorification, but God looks at it very seriously because it is breaking fellowship that He wants to have with us; after all, He is the groom, and we are the bride.\u00a0 Our relationship unto the Lord is described in marital terms, so just as an offense against a spouse damages intimacy within a marriage, our unconfessed sin as Christians damages our intimacy with the Lord.\u00a0 The book of James is saying that we need to take that very seriously.\n\nI am old enough to remember some churches in the south that used to have what were called \u2018mourning altars or pews.\u2019\u00a0 Mourning.\u00a0 It was essentially an opportunity for people to come to the front of the church and to kneel and to be miserable for a season because of sin.\u00a0 That is how seriously we used to take sin in the Body of Christ.\u00a0 Today, looking at most churches and their furniture and the way they're constructed, those things are in the past.\u00a0 It is almost as though we are so comfortable in church that the issue of unconfessed sin in the life of a Christian is not that big of a deal to us.\u00a0 It is a change in the way we think about sin as Christians.\u00a0 Again, I want to emphasize, I'm not here to threaten us with hell because of the doctrine of eternal security, but that does not negate that unconfessed sin in the life of a Christian is obviously a severe thing.\u00a0 That is why James uses this language of \u2018mourning and to let your joy be turned to gloom; your laughter turned to sadness,\u2019 etc.\u00a0 Notice the word, \u2018hearts\u2019 in James 4:8, \u201c\u2026Cleanse your hands, you sinners and purify your hearts, \u2026\u201d because that is where sin begins.\u00a0 Psalm 51:11 is why David said, \u201cCreate in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.\u201d\u00a0 David was talking about his heart, and he wasn\u2019t dealing with the situation of having to get saved because he was an unbeliever.\u00a0 He was dealing with fellowship with God, and he recognized that he was out of fellowship with God.\u00a0 Psalm 51, the culprit of the problem was his heart.\n\nSo, James mentions the heart in 4:8, \u201c\u2026Cleanse your hands, you sinners and purify your hearts,\u2026\u201d because that is where sin begins \u2014 in the heart.\u00a0 Proverbs 4:23 in the NKJV says, \u201cKeep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.\u201d\u00a0 Notice that all of the issues of life come out of the heart, and that is why the book of Proverbs tells us to keep our hearts with all diligence, not some diligence, ALL diligence.\u00a0 There is a reality of godly sorrow. \u00a0In 2 Cor 7:10, \u201cFor the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, \u2026\u201d True repentance in the life of the child of God is typically accompanied by sorrow.\u00a0 Again, this is not a condition for the lost to get saved.\u00a0\u00a0 The only condition for the lost to get saved is to receive the free gift of salvation that is available through faith alone in Christ alone.\u00a0 This issue of godly sorrow producing repentance, in context, is dealing with sin in the life of the Christian.\u00a0 This is why James says to \u2018Be miserable, mourn, weep, let your joy be turned to sadness, gloom; laughter turned to sadness\u201d because \u00a0unconfessed sin in the life of the child of God is a very serious issue.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t make us hell-bound but it does damage the intimacy that we have with God, and He wants us to confess it per 1 John 1:9. \u2018Homologeo\u2019<\/em> \u2014 agree with God that it is wrong, and ask Him to empower us so that we don't re-commit the same sins.\u00a0 That is what repentance means:\u00a0\u00a0 you are changing your mind about it.\u00a0 If a Christian won't do that or won't take it seriously, then the intimacy that God has for them is short-circuited at that point.\n\nJohn MacArthur is someone whose ministry, in a lot of ways, I appreciate.\u00a0 Some of what he has done lately in terms of standing up for first amendment rights in California, etc, I am basically a big fan of those actions.\u00a0 But the reason that I don't recommend his ministry is because he confuses this issue that I am talking about.\u00a0\u00a0 He takes these commands related to sorrow, which clearly relate to how a Christian is to respond to sin in his life, and he turns those commands repeatedly into a condition for the lost to get saved in his sermons and writings.\n\nI am not sure why he does this, but he does not keep the three tenses of salvation separate, so when people read his writings, think, \u2018Oh my gosh, maybe I'm not a Christian.\u2019\u00a0 Or if the lost reads this, they would interpret it as having to do ten things to be made right with God.\u00a0 He will take the verses in James 4:8,9 \u2014 \u201cDraw near to God and He will draw near to you.\u00a0 Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.\u00a0 Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.\u201d Suddenly, he is holding this in front of lost people who don't even have the Holy Spirit in them as conditions for justification.\u00a0 If you believe that, then you will wonder for your entire Christian life if you are going to heaven or not.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because how do you know if you have repented or mourned or sorrowed enough?\u00a0 This type of teaching demolishes the assurance of salvation, and it takes the Gospel of grace and turns it into a ten-point gospel of works.\u00a0 The entire error can be avoided by keeping the tenses of salvation separate and making the points we have reiterated in this study \u2014 James is addressing Christians and not<\/em> non-Christians.\n\nHere is a sample from MacArthur\u2019s writings so you will know that I am not making it up.\u00a0 This is not something that was misspoken in a sermon; this is something written in a book by him called The Gospel According to Jesus, <\/u>and when you are writing something, you are oftentimes not speaking off the cuff, but very deliberate in your thought process.\u00a0 Notice what he says here where he is commenting on James 4, the same passage we have been dealing with:\u00a0 \u201cOne of the most comprehensive invitations to salvation in all the Epistles comes in James 4:7-10.\u201d\u00a0 [See what he just did there?\u00a0 It is not an invitation for a believer to experience greater fellowship with the Lord; it is an invitation for the unbeliever to get saved] ... \u201cWhile James directs most of his epistle to genuine believers [that part of it is true], it is also evident that he is concerned about those who are not genuine.\u00a0 He wants no one to be deceived regarding true salvation, so he calls for a real, living, saving faith that is distinct from the dead faith of chapter 2.\u00a0 He states his objective in 5:20. It is to see \u2018the sinner converted from the error of his way and his soul saved from death.\u2019\u00a0 The invitation in 4:7-10 is directed at those who are not saved\u2014guilty, wicked hearers of the Word who are not\u2026doers (cf.1:21-22); who are still captive to dead faith ( f. 2:14-20); who are bitter, selfish, arrogant liars whose \u2018wisdom is not what comes from above but is earthy, natural, demonic (3:15); who are loving the world and thus are the enemies of God (4:4); whose inner spirit is still dominated by lusts (cf.4:5); and who are proud and self-sufficient (cf.4:6).\u00a0 They are in desperate need of God's grace.\u00a0 [See what is going on here with a magic wand?\u00a0 Suddenly, this is not dealing with the Christian with unconfessed sin in their life which is damaging their fellowship with their Father.\u00a0 These are conditions that must be satisfied in order to fix the unbeliever\u2019s problem with God as their Judge, and it is Scripture-twisting that he is doing here].\n\nHe goes on to say, \u201cBut since God only \u2018gives grace to the humble\u2019 (v.6), James calls these \u2018sinners\u2019\u00a0 (a term used in Scripture only of the unregenerate).\u201d [A Christian can't have sin in their life, can they?\u00a0 Not according to John MacArthur.\u00a0 I wish John MacArthur would read 1 John 1:10 which says that if we say that we have not sinned, speaking to believers, we make him a liar and His Word is not in us. \u00a0So, if you are a Christian and you say you never sin, then you are basically a liar, and of course, a Christian can have unconfessed sin in their life.\u00a0 That is why 1 John 1:9 is given to us as a remedy and why James says to take the sin seriously.\u00a0 But he is making it sound as though a Christian can never have unconfessed sin in their life, so therefore, let's take the entire paragraph and apply it to the unsaved] \u2026 \u201cto turn from their pride and humble themselves.\u00a0 Ten imperatives<\/u>\u2026\u201d [What he is focusing on in James 4:7-10, ten imperatives \u2014 what is an imperative?\u00a0 An imperative is a command in Greek] \u2026 \u201cdelineate the commands in James\u2019 call to sinners:\u00a0 submit yourself to God (salvation); resist the devil (transferring allegiance); draw near to God (intimacy of relationship); cleanse your hands, (repentance); purify your hearts (confession); be miserable, mourn, weep, and let your laughter and joy be turned to gloom (sorrow).\u00a0 The final imperative summarizes the mentality of those who are converted: \u2018Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord.\u2019\u00a0 All this is a work of God, who gives His more abundant grace (4:6).\u201d\n\nSo, what do you tell a lost sinner according to John MacArthur?\u00a0 You give them ten commands.\u00a0 What do you say to a lost sinner?\u00a0 \u2018Submit yourself to God, resist the devil, draw near to God, cleanse your hands, purify your hearts, be miserable, mourn, weep, and let your laughter and joy be turned to gloom.\u2019\n\nIs that what we are supposed to do when approaching unsaved people?\u00a0 Tell them all these things they must do?\u00a0 That is what John MacArthur is doing here. You may say, \u2018Well, Andy, I like John MacArthur, the way he preaches, I like his first amendment stand, that he is a strong believer in biblical creationism, that he believes in a rapture, that he believes in the inerrancy and authority of the Bible, that in his church you aren\u2019t entertained and that he preaches for an hour, [so in our church, he preaches short].\u00a0 John MacArthur is just wonderful, isn\u2019t he?\u00a0 Don't you recommend his books; won't you set up a display table at the back of the church and hand out his books, and won't you turn Sugar Land Bible Church into a John MacArthur satellite campus?\u00a0 The answer is No!\u00a0 Because John MacArthur preaches and teaches a works-oriented gospel.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter if he is good on all these other subjects if he has the gospel wrong, and the reason he has it wrong is because he isn\u2019t distinguishing the three tenses of salvation.\u00a0 He thinks that we are supposed to go to lost people and tell them to do ten imperatives when the truth is that a lost person doesn\u2019t even have the new nature; they don't have the Holy Spirit inside of them.\u00a0 The only thing they have the ability to do is to believe in the Christ as they are convicted.\u00a0 Approach a lost person and tell them they must do these ten things, they won't even know what you are talking about, and even if they knew, they don't have the ability to do those ten things.\u00a0 The only people on planet earth who can do these ten things are people like we are who have the Holy Spirit inside of us.\n\nSo here we are in Lesson 24 in the book of James, and the reason it is taking so long is because as I am going through it, I am trying to establish the fact that the book of James was written to Christians, making that point over and over again.\u00a0 Why belabor it and go into so much detail on this?\u00a0 Because only if you go into detail on this, are you kept away from this error here that John MacArthur and others make, (he is probably one of the more popular preachers on this doctrine).\u00a0 Compare what John MacArthur says here about ten imperatives to a lost person with the simplicity of the gospel.\u00a0 That is why I entitled this Bible study tonight, the Simplicity of the Gospel<\/u> as Revealed in the Bible.<\/em>\n\nHow did Abraham as a lost person get saved?\u00a0 Did he fulfill ten imperatives to get saved?\u00a0 No, I would think that after he got saved, that God would start working on the ten imperatives after he was already a child of God, but that is not how Abraham got saved!\u00a0 It isn\u2019t how Abraham got justified.\u00a0\u00a0 Abraham\u2019s justification is given in Genesis 15:6 which says, \u201cThen he believed<\/u> in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Abraham fulfilled one condition, not ten!\u00a0 The only command for a lost person is to believe in the Savior, that is it!\u00a0\u00a0 Not fulfilling that command is the only unpardonable sin; in other words, if a person dies in that state, that is what sends him into hell, not their inability to fulfill ten commands.\n\nHow about John 3:16, a very basic verse that we usually memorize as brand new Christians, right?\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cFor God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever [fulfills ten imperatives, whoever weeps and mourns and let's their laughter be turned into gloom and cleanses their hearts and washes their hands will be saved\u2026that is not<\/em> what John 3:16 says]\u2026 \u00a0\u201cbelieves [<\/u>one condition]<\/u> in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0Everything in that verse is what God does except for believe; that is what we do as lost people, we believe.\u00a0 That is how we get saved.\u00a0 Then God says, \u2018Ok, I have fixed the issue with Me as your Judge, now I am your Father, and I want you to enjoy maximum intimacy with Me.\u00a0 Now you need to read the book of James because now you have the Holy Spirit inside of you to enable you to fulfill the ten imperatives in James 4, and you fulfill those ten imperatives not to become a child of God; you are already a child of God, but to now enjoy maximum intimacy with God as your Father.\u2019\u00a0 The Judge issue was fixed when you believed.\u00a0 Now God says, \u2018I want you to grow in intimacy with Me as your Father.\u2019\u00a0 That is where the book of James fits in.\n\nActs 16:30-31, the Philippian jailer to Paul and Silas ask, \u201cSirs, what must I do to be saved?\u201d\u00a0 that is life\u2019s most important question, right?\u00a0 They said, \u2018fulfill ten imperatives.\u00a0 Weep and mourn and let your laughter be turned into gloom.\u2019\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t say that at all.\u00a0 \u201cSirs, what must I do to be saved?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 They said (Paul and Silas) \u201cBelieve<\/u> in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.\u201d\u00a0 It is simple.\u00a0 In fact, it is so simple, how did it get so confused?\u00a0 Because we stopped distinguishing between the three tenses of salvation.\u00a0 The writings of John MacArthur, as I have tried to demonstrate here with his own quotes and books, get the book and read it for yourself \u2014 he makes no distinction between the three tenses of salvation.\u00a0\u00a0 He takes things that are pertinent to intimacy, and drags those into justification.\u00a0 He makes James 4 an invitation for conversion.\u00a0 That is an abuse of the book of James because James is written to believers.\n\nIf you don't get something this basic straight, then you end up teaching a false gospel to the unsaved.\u00a0 That is why this is actually a big deal; why I can listen to all the sermons of John MacArthur and read all his books and commentaries and agree with him on almost everything, but I still cannot recommend his ministry because he is wrong on the most important thing, the gospel.\u00a0 If you are wrong on that, then what does the apostle Paul say?\u00a0 Paul is very clear is he not about this in the book of Galatians?\u00a0 Galatians 1:6-9, \u201cI am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. \u00a0\u00a0But even if we, or an angel from heaven [\u2018if we or someone who is a best-selling author; even if we or someone who has an international following; even if we or someone who is on every single Christian television and radio station that you can get on\u2019]\u2026 should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!\u00a0 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!\u201d\u00a0 That is very strong language.\n\nIn the way of ministry and teaching, you are to have no solidarity or no partnership with people who distort the grace of God in terms of the gospel.\u00a0 Even if you agree with them on Noah\u2019s Ark and the global flood and six 24-hour days of creation, and a coming Millennial Kingdom, and the rapture of the Church, and the inerrancy and inspiration of the Bible; agree, agree, agree, but they got the gospel wrong.\u00a0 What does Paul say?\u00a0 \u2018Well get into some dialogue and work it out.\u2019\u00a0 Paul does not say that.\u00a0 He says that you cut yourself off from him.\u00a0 Even if an angel<\/em>\u2026think of the beauty and power of an angel\u2026if an angel shows up at your bedside tonight and has their doctrine right on everything but gives you a false gospel, the angel is to be treated as accursed, let alone a human spokesman.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 Or a human preacher.\n\nSo, that is why I brought in the writings of John MacArthur because I want you to see this for yourself.\u00a0 I am not just serendipitously bringing this in as a drive by shooting on someone; I am bringing it in because we are in James 4, and I am trying to explain how James 4 is distorted by so many people.\u00a0 It has turned into an invitation to the lost rather than what it is intended to be, an invitation to intimacy for the growing Christian.\u00a0 Hopefully, I am making myself semi-clear on this.\n\nHow do we pursue the essence of spiritual wisdom?\u00a0 We:\n
                \n \t
              1. Submit to God<\/li>\n \t
              2. Resist the devil<\/li>\n \t
              3. Draw near to God<\/li>\n \t
              4. Repent of sins in our lives to the point where we take sin seriously because it is damaging our moment-by-moment intimacy with the Lord<\/li>\n \t
              5. Exercise humility.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nLet's just do James 4:10, and then we will call it an evening.\n\nJames 4:10, \u201cHumble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and He will exalt you.\u201d\u00a0 So, the fifth thing we do to pursue the essence of spiritual wisdom is to humble ourselves.\u00a0 If we humble ourselves, see these reciprocal promises?\u00a0 Resist the devil, and he will flee \u2014 reciprocal promise.\u00a0 Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you \u2014 reciprocal promise.\u00a0 There is another one in 4:10, humble yourself in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.\u00a0 Because in God's economy, the way up is down, and the way down is up, right?\n\nLots of examples in the Bible (slide on Hall of the Humbled) whether you talk about satan, Uzziah, Herod Agrippa, and even Paul himself, who struggled with pride \u2014 in every single example, when these people lifted themselves up, they were humbled.\u00a0 Proverbs 16:18 says that first comes pride then comes a fall.\u00a0 In 1 Peter 5:5, it says, GOD RESISTS THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.\u00a0 So, per James 4:10, \u201cHumble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.\u201d The way up with God is down and the way down is up.\u00a0 In other words, if I'm going to promote and be prideful in myself, then God says that you are cruising for a bruising, right, which is what my dad used to say to me when my brother and I were acting up.\n\nWe risk divine discipline, not hell, but divine discipline and a number of other things when we are prideful in and of ourselves, because the way up with God is down, the complete opposite way the world thinks.\u00a0 The world says that if you want to get ahead you must promote yourself; become prideful about yourself.\u00a0 God actually says that if you do that, that is actually the way down.\u00a0 The way up is down and the way down is up.\u00a0 Can you think of any examples of this?\u00a0\u00a0 Who is the ultimate example of the way down is up?\u00a0 Jesus.\u00a0 Philippians 2:5-11, \u201cHave this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself (the opposite of what satan did), taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.\u00a0\u00a0 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.\u00a0 For this reason, also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.\u00a0 So, the way up satan and other examples prove, is the way down.\u00a0 Jesus went down and was exalted up to the point where He is above every name and every knee, one day, will bow to Him.\n\nThat is what James 4:10 is saying, \u201cHumble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.\u201d\u00a0 Notice how these verses are related?\u00a0 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord\u2026\u201d. How do you get in the presence of the Lord?\u00a0 Do what it says in 4:8,9 because those verses don't get you saved but they restore broken fellowship.\u00a0 So, now you are in the presence of the Lord, humble yourself, and God says that He will exalt you.\n\nNow, 1 Peter 5:6 adds this little detail, \u201cTherefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time,\u201d [So, when you humble yourself before the Lord, don't act as if, \u2018Alright God, I want to be exalted right now.\u2019\u00a0\u00a0 In 1 Peter 5:6 says that He will exalt you at the proper time.\u00a0 In the book of Genesis, Joseph was not exalted until age 30.\u00a0 From age 17 to 30, it was one setback after another, but the day came where God took Joseph and elevated him to second in command over the whole known empire of that day \u2014 the world empire of Egypt.\u00a0 So, Joseph\u2019s elevation happened at the right time.\u00a0 \u201cTherefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time,\u2026\u201d. The elevation of exaltation of the Christian, whether in this life or the next, happens when God says it is time to be elevated.\n\nThis then becomes what true spiritual wisdom is.\u00a0 Rather than wrangling and worldliness, embrace these things:\n
                  \n \t
                1. Submit to God<\/li>\n \t
                2. Resist satan<\/li>\n \t
                3. Draw near to God<\/li>\n \t
                4. Repent<\/li>\n \t
                5. Humble yourselves so God can exalt you<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nThe next time we are together we will look at the last one:\u00a0 Forego Judgment on fellow Christians.\u00a0 We will stop here\u2026","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t