Let's come before our God in prayer. Almighty God, you are the morning star. We pray, Father, that you would arise and shine upon us in this night where all around often seems so dark. Give us hope that sorrow may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. You are our joy and our light. You are our hope. We wait for you. as the night watchman waits for the morning. Blessed be your name forever and ever. Fill us with light, father of lights. Pour out your spirit upon us so that we might never be led astray. Guard our hearts so that we might stay close to you. Let us never be overcome by the darkness of pride, or disdain, or hatred, but cause us to love you and lean upon you, and leave our dark places with you, you who are the light of the world. O morning star, O sun of righteousness, give us a lamp to our steps. Open our eyes to see Jesus in every page of scripture, so that we might not lose heart as we make our way through this valley that you have placed before us. For you are our good shepherd. Your goodness shines all around us and all that we see in the colors and in the smell of the harvest and the crisp air on our skin. We see your beauty in the world that you have made for every blade of grass and every leaf is ingrained with your name. Lift up our eyes above the curse that we might discern your beauty and your goodness and praise your name. And so humble our hearts as we humble ourselves before you. Remind us each day that every good thing comes from your hand alone. As we gather together around tables this week, we pray that you would fill our hearts with gladness and contentment in your salvation and in your provision, and that you would give us peace. Father, for those who are suffering this morning, we pray for endurance and for healing, for you are the good physician. We know that you do not take pleasure in pain and suffering, but that you have promised that you would take that which you've sent upon us and turn it to our good in this veil of tears. And so we pray, Father, that you would give healing and peace to those who are struggling with pain, with cancer, with difficulties, with other illnesses. And we pray that you would give doctors wisdom and insight. This week, Father, we pray that you would be with Pastor Sotel and with Scott, that you would give them peace in their bodies, peace in their souls. We pray that you would give healing to Bud and give his doctors wisdom and insight. And this morning, Eternal Fathers, we gather around the world to meet with you. We confess that we are your people and you are our God. You are our shepherd. Speak to us this morning through the preaching of the gospel. Guide the tongues of your servants. Pour out the spirit of illumination. For this world is full of hatred and fear and guilt and shame and ugliness and war and destruction and famine and cruelty. And we pray that you would shine your light in the dark places through your gospel and cause men and women to cast down their weapons and turn their swords into plowshares and bow themselves before the name which is above every name, as you have promised. reconcile the world to yourself we pray that you would be merciful to our community cast out wickedness in high places and bless the proclamation of your word this morning increase this congregation and provide for us forgive us fill us with your spirit we pray that you would provide for each one as a father provides for his children for we are your dear children Provide, we pray, food for the hungry, comfort for the afflicted. Give peace in our families. Call back the wandering. Forgive those who have gone astray. Deliver us from shame and guilt by the blood of Christ. We pray also that you would bring justice for the oppressed and the afflicted, that you would give comfort and relief to the poor and those who are in distress, deliver the addicted from their bondage, give vindication to those who are falsely accused, and give justice to those who have been crushed by evil. and give patience to all of us. That even though we continue to live in a cursed world, we are not yet home. We have not yet seen the fullness of your kingdom come. Come quickly, Lord Jesus, for we turn to you. Amen. My text this morning is in James chapter 4, verses 7 through 10. James chapter 4, 7 through 10, let's give attention to the reading of God's word. Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be afflicted and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up. When Adam rebelled against the word of the Lord, listening to the voice of the serpent rather than the voice of God, he sold himself and all his posterity into the slavery of the kingdom of the devil. For God said, The day you shall eat thereof you shall surely die. Adam alienated himself from God by his sin and therefore became subjected to the bondage of the devil with all his posterity. The scripture tells us that God gave the devil and his angels authority over the kingdoms of the earth and authority over all men because of man's sin and the devil rules that kingdom with an iron fist. Daniel, for example, describes the wars of the ancient world, the wars between the Greeks and the Persians and the Persians and the Babylonians as a reflection of the wars in the spiritual realm. The ancient kings were merely reflections of the world of demons and of devils. Paul himself says that our battle is not with flesh and blood but with the demons. He calls them the principalities, the powers. They are the messengers of Satan himself. But from the very beginning in the Garden of Eden God promised a Redeemer who would crush the head of the serpent. Satan knew that promise for it was actually spoken to the serpent. He knew his time was limited and that one would come known as the seed of the woman who would crush his head. And so the devil, in order to hang on to his kingdom of tyranny and oppression, fought desperately to hold on to that kingdom. He fought against the woman, he fought against the line of the godly, he fought against the seed, and every time God revealed more of his unfolding plan of salvation, the devil would strike again, first against Abel. And then against the godly seed in the days of Noah until they were indistinguishable from the wicked and the floodwaters took them all away. Except for Noah and his family. And then Satan attacks Abraham's family, then Isaac, then Jacob, then Jacob's twelve sons. If you read through the Old Testament you will see an account of the warfare that God placed between the seed of the woman and the serpent. that attack continued in the slavery in Egypt and throughout the time of the judges and throughout the time of David when David was anointed the king the forerunner of the one who would crush the head of the serpent and this is why David was continually under attack the devil has many different weapons one of the weapons that he used against David and David's line was continually tempting them to sin in order to disqualify them So David's line is constantly under attack from within and without. Athaliah almost destroyed the line. Syria almost destroyed the line. Babylon almost destroyed it. The Assyrians almost destroyed it. For Satan's great weapon, then as now, is to turn the holiness of God against the promise of God. He tempts men and women to sin and then he accuses them before God. For he knows that God's holiness does not allow sin to go unpunished. No one knows that better than Satan, whose name means the accuser. And so Satan succeeded in leading Israel astray, until the last king, Jeconiah, is led away in chains to Babylon. But God said in the passage we just read in Jeremiah 24, I'm not done yet. I have a plan. I led them away to Babylon for their good because I will call them back and I will be to them a God and they shall be my people. I will uphold my holiness and my covenant faithfulness." But the attacks still continue. Throughout Zechariah and Haggai and Malachi we see the conflict between the promise of God and the holiness of God and the attacks of Satan against the promised seed. From the time of the beginning, Satan had unchallenged power over all the nations because of man's sin and because of God's just judgment. He had power over men because of the fear of death and the fear of loss. Mankind in the ancient world did not worship idols because they loved the idols, they worshiped idols because they were terrified of them. And then Jesus came into the world. When Jesus comes into the world, the angel tells Joseph, you shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. And the angel tells Mary, I will give to him the throne of his father David. And the devil knew what that meant. Jesus is the one promised, who would crush his head. So the devil says to himself, well, we'll see about that. And he stirs up Herod to kill all the infants under the age of two in Bethlehem and the surrounding regions. And when that doesn't work, he seeks to tempt Jesus to sin in the wilderness, which was successful to everyone else before, but Jesus withstood the temptation and repeated, thus saith the Lord, it is written, you shall worship the Lord and him only shalt thou serve. Jesus told his disciples that he's going to bind the devil and then he's going to plunder his kingdom. Satan says, well we'll see about that. So he stirs up the Sanhedrin to plot against him. He stirs up Judas to betray him. They come to arrest him in the garden and Jesus says, this is your hour, the power of darkness. Satan stirs up Pilate to declare him innocent and to crucify him anyway. And as he's hanging on the cross, Satan is gloating. In his gloating, he sends the scribes and the Pharisees and the soldiers and the passers-by to mock him and to jeer at him. Haha, you think you're the Son of God? Look at you now. I've won. And then darkness covered the land. And it was the height of Satan's victory. He finally won. He finally thwarted that ancient prophecy. He finally destroyed the last of the line. The one who was going to crush his head hanging on the cross. See how foolish God is. And then Jesus died. And something completely unexpected happened. Satan's empire fell. Because Satan had no idea what was actually going on. The Son of God, hanging there on the cross, was taking all the abuse of the devil and the children of the devil, taking the wrath of God, taking the whip and the nails and the thorns of the curse, and taking it all upon Himself. He was drinking the cup of God's wrath to the dregs, and when it was done, and He said it was finished, Satan had no more power. At the point of his greatest weakness in his death and burial, he crushed the head of the serpent. And then he rose from the dead, conquering death and hell forever. For he took the sting of death. He took the wrath of God. So death has no more power over God's people. And just as Jesus said he would, he's now plundering Satan's kingdom through the proclamation of the gospel. But what we often miss and what the church needs to be reminded of over and over again is this. The plundering of the devil's kingdom takes place exactly the same way that he was defeated to begin with. It's in our greatest weakness in our pain and sorrow, in our tribulation and our grief, when we are at our lowest point, in our weakness, God crushes Satan's head again. For Jesus delights to show himself strong when we are weak. The problem is, as I said last week, friendship with the world. The love of the world convinces us that worldly power and the gospel are the same thing. It convinces us that those things we long for can be earned. If we're just strong enough, good enough, wise enough, had enough people on our side, say all the right phrases, do all the right things, then we will be healthy and wealthy and satisfied and secure and peaceful and joyful. And then we will finally be happy and we will finally be free and finally be at peace if only we had just a little bit more. And that way of thinking always ends the same way, the Tower of Babel. Matthew Henry writes, a man may have a competent portion of the good things in this life and yet may keep himself in the love of God. But he who sets his heart upon the world, who places his happiness in it and will conform himself to it and do anything rather than lose its friendship, he is an enemy to God. It is constructive treason and rebellion against God to set the world upon his throne in our hearts. It is the love of this world that builds Babel again and again, hoping that a strong political state will cure the ills of this world. It's summed up very easily by the Sanhedrin in Jesus' day. The Sanhedrin, the religious leaders of every political party gathered together to find out what to do about Jesus, for they were all flocking after him. And they said, if we don't stop this, the Romans will come and take away our place and our nation. They crucified the Lord of glory rather than risk their place and their nation. That is the love of the world. This is the love of the world. What are you willing to compromise in order to not lose what you desire? But what if the fear of death is taken away? What if your treasure is in a place where no one can touch it? What if, like the martyrs in the book of Revelation, you don't love your life until the death? Satan told God in the book of Job that a man would give all he has in exchange for his own soul. And we have shown the devil over and over again that he's right. We will give all that we have to save our own skin. How much do we give away to save our own skin? I ended last week with this. What does God require of us but to do justly? To love mercy or covenant faithfulness and to walk humbly with our God. But the fact is when our nation, our livelihood, our skin, our place, our reputation, our friendships are threatened. All of that goes out the window when we are friends with the world. There will come a time in your life, I've seen it far too often, where what you hold the dearest will be threatened. When the son of tribulation comes up, And Satan whispers in your ears, you know, you can save this if you bow down just a little bit. Disobey just a little bit. Deny Christ just a little bit. Violate your conscience just a little bit. And this is what the early church in the time of James had gone through. He calls them diverse tribulations or trials. And when those trials arose, when the sun became hot, they failed. Wars and fighting were breaking out all over. The rich put in their best seats while the poor were told to sit in the back. Favoritism and elitism governed everything. Slander and cursing and gossip were destroying the churches. And James is now getting to the root cause. He calls them adulterers and adulteresses. This is what your problem is. You're adulterers and adulteresses. God says, I will be your God. And you say, no thanks. He's using the language, the ancient language of unfaithful Israel. Israel continually broke the covenant over and over again. Whenever Israel's livelihood or security or crops or family or peace or whatever have you, When it was threatened, they offered their children to Moloch. They burned incense to the Queen of Heaven. They bowed before the Asherahs. And why was that? Why did they do that? Why did they turn their back on God over and over again? We're seeing it in the book of Exodus. The heart of it is this. They loved the leeks and the garlics. They loved the security and safety, the wealth and the status of the world. They wanted to be just like all the other nations. God said, You are my people, I am your God. And they said, Nah. Where's the beef? Where's the garlic? Where's the bread? Where's the wine? The same thing happened when Jesus was on the earth. They loved Him when they thought that He was all about giving them free food, destroying Romans, and healing bodies. But going to the cross? No. Count me out. I don't need God. I just need the stuff. But here's the heart of the matter. Jesus went to the cross to reconcile us to God. That, as it turns out, is everything. When fellowship with God is restored, we have peace, forgiveness of sins, clear consciences, eternal life, an inheritance that cannot be taken away, eternal bliss such as eye has not seen nor ear heard. What's promised us in heaven is so far greater than the worst tribulation we can go on this earth. Paul says it's not even worth being compared. And yet how quickly we sell it all like Esau for a bowl of stew. And we say, well, it's not my fault. I was really hungry. And God justly calls us what we are, adulterers and adulteresses. We're seeking lasting love and intimacy and fellowship and peace in the arms of a diseased prostitute who could care less if we lived or died. How's that for a figure of speech? You want to get blunt and graphic, you can read how Ezekiel puts it. He wouldn't be welcomed in most of our modern churches. Heaven awaits us but we will not enter in because we love the leeks and garlics and prostitutes of this world. We thrive on the camaraderie, the inclusion in the group, the power of numbers, the comfort of never ever being wrong. Never having to say we're sorry. What would you do if you were threatened with being cast out or mocked? Such is the love of this world. We will compromise every principle we have for a small portion of the universe who shrugs the second we die and moves on. The examples can be multiplied. We cover up abuse and assault in the church itself because we love reputation more than we love God Himself. We promote and excuse those who hate God and hate God's people because they fit our agenda. We won't speak out against bullying because we're afraid or because we want to be friends with the bully. How much will a person compromise for money, for a raise, for a promotion, for an opportunity, for membership in the club, for social status? And here's the question James is asking you. What if you had no fear of death? What if your faith didn't depend upon a building? What if you could lose everything tonight and stand before Jesus face to face and hear the words, well done good and faithful servant. What if you realize that here on this earth you're already an outcast? You're a stranger passing through. What if this world wasn't your home and you finally realize that you're made for another country? And that's why you feel so out of place here. What if you knew what God meant when he told Abraham, I am your very great reward. This is so crucial. Our comfort and our joy and our treasure is here. It is so crucial that James uses strong, strong language to shock us out of our complacency and our sleeping and wake us up. He says, cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. A double-minded one is one who can't decide if he'd rather have leeks or onions or eternal life. James is saying, really? Be afflicted and mourn if that's your attitude. There is a time to thunder with the law. Paul told Titus, the law is made for the lawless. And these people were being lawless. Every time you can't decide if you'd rather have leeks or garlic or the eternal kingdom of God, you're lawless. Guilty of idolatry, the love of the world. Paul calls it covetousness. He says covetousness is idolatry. It's the same thing. And we know that an idolater will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. And so James, the pastor, the apostle, the sacred writer, uses the strongest language he can to wake us up. calls for a wake-up, genuine sorrow for sin, mourning and affliction and weeping. The tribulation that they were experiencing in the first century was exposing their true idols. So they turned on each other, murdering one another with their tongues. And why? Because their affections were on the things of the world, and when those things were threatened, they turned on each other. For idolatry is always deadly. It always ends up in death. And James is saying this isn't a joke. It's not a time for laughter and for parties and for dancing and for feasting. It's not a time for joy. You've turned your back on the love of God and it shows by how you're treating your neighbor. You revile and you curse and you fight and you war because there's something that you want that you're not getting. What is it that you want that you're not getting that's causing you to attack your neighbor? reputation? Your desperate need to be right? Your need to be acknowledged as righteous? Do you lust after love, intimacy, power, money, position, social status? Let's use an example. What causes us to fear today? in the 21st century. Have we really, as the church, lost the right to worship? Or are we losing our power? Those are two different things. We don't have a right to power. Earthly power, that is. We don't have the right to order everyone else around. To tell everybody how to think. Is that what the gospel is? Does righteousness come by the law? Was the Roman Empire overturned because the Christians usurped the Senate? Or was it overturned because they preached the gospel and loved their neighbor and provided food for the hungry and water for the thirsty? And proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ. How much have we compromised in order to hang on to earthly power? That's not how the kingdom of God works. Because as I started out, Jesus conquered sin and death and misery, all the power of the devil, the greatest kingdom the world has ever known. Jesus conquered it hanging on a cross and dying. And yes, we don't ever provide an atonement for sin, and yet Jesus did say, take up your cross and follow me. For he who loves his life will lose it. He commanded us to follow in his footsteps. Paul said, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. You think you're an heir of earthly power? He was the heir of heaven and earth, the son of the eternal God. In the form of God, Paul puts it. And he took upon himself the form of a slave and became the servant of all and was obedient even to the death of a cross. And Paul says, let that mind be in you. That's the mind that conquered the world. James says, cleanse your hands, you sinners. You're missing the mark. You're worrying and fighting over a lust for power, not a right for worship. For what's required for true worship, do you need the state's permission to worship? James tells us what true worship is right here. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. That's a beautiful thought. This, as I told my wife before the service, is as close to a fire and brimstone sermon as I'm ever going to get. Because you can't be scared into the kingdom of heaven. You don't come to God if you're terrified of him. And yes, weep and mourn and be afflicted over our love for the world. But don't neglect to draw near to God. The fact is we have a desperate life or death need to wash our hands and cleanse our ways. For we have a cancer that's destroying us from the inside out. It's the love of the world and it will finish us off. If we do not cleanse our hands of it, we will die. And I have to tell you that if your thought right now is, well that doesn't apply to me, then it most certainly applies to you, because we all have it. When we love the world and we don't cleanse our hands, then we will inherit what the world has to offer. Maybe for a time what the world has to offer is money, fame, power, reputation, but the ultimate end is death and hell forever. Because the world and all that are in the world are under a curse from God and nothing will stay his hand from executing that curse. Christ is coming in just judgment. Jeremiah says he's not going to get tired, he doesn't get discouraged, he doesn't get out of control. He's coming in judgment. He will bring justice to the ends of the earth. Which means that our cancer is deadly, our disease is incurable, And that's how desperate we are. It's so desperate that God Himself clothed Himself in our flesh and crawled into our pit of death to drag us out of it. That's how desperate it is. And if I say to you now, go out and do better, then I'm simply adding another weight to your burden. For how on earth can I tell you not to love the world when every fiber of your being naturally loves the world? There's only one cure! Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Here's an astounding thing about the nature of God that's completely backwards to how we normally think. When you don't need Him, He resists you. He resists the proud. The fact is, when you have everything you need, when you're feasting and laughing and healthy and wealthy, and maybe you make a few mistakes, but at least you're not like that guy over there, God is nowhere to be found until He comes in judgment. The scripture teaches that without God's decree, you won't take another breath, You won't enjoy another meal. You won't laugh at another joke. You won't dance to another song. You won't kiss your wife again. You won't smell a flower or enjoy another glass of wine without God's decree. And when we pretend that it's our hand and our power and our decisions and our goodness and our wisdom that got us those things, we make ourselves enemy of God. When we believe that our daily bread comes from the state, then we're already in bondage to Babel. But here's a beautiful thing. When you are at your most desperate, when you're lost and hopeless, mourning and afflicted, when you're crushed and weighed down by your sin and by your misery and by your need, when you are at the point where you are at your lowest, where you have no breath left and you don't even know what to pray, and all you can do is cry out, Lord, help me. When the food and the dancing and the laughter and the joy becomes so dim in your eyes and your sins are crushing you down, when your sins crush you down so far that you quit seeing how everyone else in the world is behaving and how everyone else in the world has let you down and how everyone else in the world has missed the mark and it's just you and God and all you see is how badly you've sinned against God and all you can do is fall on your face and say Lord have mercy that's where you find God For that's where He is, binding up the wounds, cleansing the hands, clothing the nakedness, covering you with the righteousness of Christ and lifting you up on your feet. Draw near to Him and He will draw near to you. This is what it means in the Scripture to repent. Too often we think repenting means quit all your sinning and make yourself worthy enough to come to God. That's backwards. How can you do that? Repenting means to turn your back on all of that and fall completely naked and helpless and filthy before God and say, Lord have mercy on me a sinner. Repentance in Greek and Hebrew literally means to turn your back on one thing and face another thing. It's turning your back on the love of the world. Coming face to face with God. Turn from your pride and turn towards God. Draw near to God. But in order to do so, you have to turn your back on the love of the world. Why should we do that? Here's another amazing fact about who God is. He who is the judge of all the earth. He who measures the water and the hollow of his hands and knows the number of the grains of dust in the universe. He who moves the hearts of kings however he sees fit. Who destroys armies and tears down nations and lifts up nations. He who hates sin and has determined he will destroy it forever in the lake of fire and brimstone. He says this to you. He who comes to me I will never cast out. It's an amazing thought that Jesus receives sinners. He receives sinners. He resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. He resists the guy that says, man, you're sure lucky I came to church today. He resists the one who stands in the front of the temple and says, I thank God I'm not like other men, just think I could be like those people over there. And He gives grace to the one beating his breast in the back and saying, Lord have mercy on me a sinner. He receives sinners. You can draw nigh to Him because of this promise. He will receive you without contempt, without reproach, without disgust, without anger. He knows you inside and out, and he doesn't flinch. Think about that for a moment. God knows you inside and out, and he doesn't flinch away in disgust. He says, finally, my child, you finally come for healing. Come to me. The same one with the hands that touched the leper and didn't flinch away, is the one that welcomes sinners. Draw near to God, He will draw near to you. Turn around and go the other way, for we have been lusting after the things of this world far too long. Turn around and go the other way. This is what it means when He says, resist the devil and he'll flee from you, because the devil threatens you with everything. If you don't bow down to Me, you're going to lose your place, you're going to lose your nation, you're going to lose your life, you're going to lose your livelihood, you're going to lose your security, your family, you're going to lose everything. God says, draw an eye to Me, I'll draw an eye to you. Resist the devil. He'll flee away soon enough. What he's telling you is a lie. God doesn't find you disgusting and revolting. He hasn't thrown you out. He hasn't discarded you. He's given you the invitation. Draw near to God. He will draw near to you. Lay down your lust for power and for money and for reputation and for security. Even your lust for earthly life. As Jesus said, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever shall save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? What shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Once you understand what Jesus is saying there, the devil has no more power over you. None. And it's quite serious. This is why God told the nation of Israel in Hosea chapter 14. He puts it in the Old Testament terms, but think about what he's saying here. O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words, and turn to the Lord, say to him, Take away all iniquity, receive us graciously, so will we render the calves of our lips. Asher shall not save us. That was the godless nation they wanted to make a treaty with. Asher shall not save us. We will not ride upon horses. Stockpile weapons. Neither will we say any more to the work of our hands. You are our gods, for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy. I will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely. For mine anger is turned away from him. He is a God who has already provided the sacrifice. He's pronounced judgment already, but he calls the world to come to him today while there is still time. Take words with you. We're not going to trust in our money, in our reputations, in our ministry, and in our leadership. We're not going to rely on power and control. We won't rely on weapons and strategy. We are your people, and you are our God. Save us, oh God. For we are fatherless, we are weak, we are foolish, and we've backslidden away from you. Not the others. Me. Those are the words that God tells Hosea to take with him. Here I am. And when you do that, you find where God has been. Draw nigh to me and I'll draw nigh to you. He will receive you. He will freely forgive you and heal you. For He is still willing. He is still able. He will still lift you up in due time. He will give you Himself. He has an inheritance waiting for you in His right hand are eternal pleasures. Now is not the time for laughing and dancing and feasting and singing. Time is going to come. But now is not it. resist the devil the same way that your Lord did when he said it is written man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord resist the devil by taking your eyes off the things of the world and looking into Jesus the true author and finisher of our faith for it is through much tribulation you enter into the kingdom of heaven but it's God's purpose to give you himself So humble yourself in the eyes of God and He will lift you up. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Amen. Let us pray. Our merciful God and Heavenly Father, we draw near to you today. We leave behind in repentance our love of the world and so many things that have drawn our eyes off of you. Forgive us and receive us as you have promised. Fill us with that longing that only you can give us. The longing for heaven, the longing for eternity, the longing for your presence. Humble our hearts in Jesus' name. Amen.