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Proverbs 3:1-12
1 My son, do not forget my law, But let your
heart keep my commands;
2 For length of days and long life And peace
they will add to you.
3 Let not mercy and truth forsake you; Bind
them around your neck, Write them on the tablet of your heart,
4 And
so find favor and high esteem In the sight of God and man.
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And
lean not on your own understanding;
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He
shall direct your paths.
7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the
LORD and depart from evil.
8 It will be health to your flesh, And strength
to your bones.
9 Honor the LORD with your possessions, And
with the firstfruits of all your increase;
10 So your barns will be filled with plenty, And
your vats will overflow with new wine.
11 My son, do not despise the chastening of the
LORD, Nor detest His correction;
12 For whom
the LORD loves He corrects, Just as a father the son in whom he delights.
Father God, give us the strength
through the power of the Holy Spirit to say no to the lusts and desires of our
flesh and the world. In Jesus name
we pray, Amen!
Book of James 4:1-8 NKJV
Verses 1-6 James brings forth the ways
of the world; the lusts and desires of our flesh; the mentality that we have
all the answers and that we can take care of ourselves. All of this comes from
the inherited sin nature and is not from God. Verses 7-10 is about being humble
and prayer, submitting to God for all things and being content with what we
have. Verses 11 and 12 touch on judging and the last several verses conclude
this chapter on self willed or boasting.
This book of James is quite the lesson
book on human nature, anyone that reads it and doesn’t have a complete
understanding of what the sin nature is and where it came from, probably
doesn’t understand why Jesus came and had to die on the Cross for mankind. On
the other hand if a person does understand the sin nature and why Jesus died
for us, but still refuses to submit to Jesus in repentance, then I don’t
understand that. I guess they are like the Israelites and figure they are self
sufficient when it comes to securing eternal life in Heaven by living a life of
practicing heritage, customs, and manmade rules for salvation.
I was
very ignorant of what the Bible teaches until I started reading it in the Fall
of 2007 in a quest to understand what it was all about. I had the desire to
read it since I never read it before with the frame of mind wanting to
understand it and also to confirm the dogma of what the Catholic Religion
taught. Little did I know that I was doing exactly what a verse in the Bible
tells us to do and eventually knocked on Jesus door and it was opened to me. Luke 11:9-10 "So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you;
seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks
receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. So you see I was just like the Israelites
once and depended on myself and a religion for salvation, and I praise Jesus
every day for opening my eyes, mind, and heart to the true path of salvation.
The only thing I regret is that it took 57 years of my life to get to where I’m
at today.
1 Where do
wars and fights come from among
you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your
members?
James asks a couple good
questions for us to think about. The questions asked can be answered quite
easily when people live for things of the world like more possessions, more
money, higher status, more recognition, in other words greed drives the persons
ambition. They are living to please themselves with worldly things. What about
Born Again Saints? Can or do they fall victim to the desires of the world? Yes
they can, but with the Holy Spirit living within them, conviction will at some
point come upon them and they will realize it and change their ways.
Where
do wars and fights come from
among you; Quarrels
and fights are always harmful to both non-believers and believers, although
believers that are deeply rooted in Christ can walk away from situations and
use it as a learning experience without hurt feelings, sometimes. It is our
emotions in certain situations that put us in battle mode and the root cause of
this is the sin nature. This is why we need Jesus to help us battle the desires
of our flesh and be content with what God provides for us.
Do
they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your
members; There are
many desires within us and mess with our mind at times due to the sin nature.
Things like money, clothes, vehicles, sex, power, appearance, hobbies, etc.
When we let these things dominate our mind, the result will be finding ways to
fulfill the desires of the flesh, and sin. A married person might have a member
of the opposite sex show them kindness through words or some type of action and
the recipient’s emotions kick in and they start toying with the attraction of
that person leading to adultery. A person may have a close friend that has the
capability of having some finer things in life and envy sets in resulting in an
inner battle taking place and eventually the less fortunate person spends money
on something they can’t afford just so they can keep up with their friend. When
we don't get what we want, we fight in order to have it. Instead of
aggressively grabbing what we want, we should submit ourselves to God, ask God
to help us get rid of our selfish desires, and trust him to give us what we
really need. As Christians we are to be content with what God provides us with.
Romans 6:12-13 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal
body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to
sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your
members as instruments of
righteousness to God.
2 You lust
and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet
you do not have because you do not ask.
You
lust and do not have; To
lust is to wish to have something which you do not now possess, and you have no
just claim, and this prompts a person to obtain it by force. Thinking worldly,
lust could be a desire of extending the boundary of a territory, fame, booty,
the means of luxurious indulgence, or of magnificence and grandeur, and this
leads to contest and bloodshed. These are the causes of wars on the large scale
among nations and of the contentions and strife’s of individuals. The general
reason is, that others have something they don’t have, and they desire to have
it. They aren’t content with trying to obtain it in a peaceful and honest
manner and resort to securing it by force.
You
murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war; In conjunction with the previous
phrase people may resort to murder and covetousness to get what they want. We
know this is the case with wars and what is going on in the world today in the
Middle East, but individuals also act this way. Just turn on the nightly news.
People are killed, banks are robbed, people are mugged all because some people
are obsessed with fulfilling the desires of their flesh, of wanting something.
Yet
you do not have because you do not ask; Does this mean that if we ask God for what we don’t have
He will give it to us? Not at all, but what this is truly saying is, if we
repent and accept Jesus as our Saviour to rule and reign in our hearts, then
the material things of the world will no longer matter. Our focus will be on
Jesus, striving to please Him, and our Heavenly Father. We will be content with
what Jesus provides for us while we are here on earth.
3 You ask
and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
You
ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss; The definition of, “amiss” is, “Wrong;
faulty; out of order; improper; as, it may not be amiss to ask advice”. This
phrase states it pretty plainly that many times what we ask for is not what we
need or isn’t parallel with God’s will for us.
That
you may spend it on your
pleasures; Many times
we ask for things that we want and not what we need. We do this in order to
please our flesh. I think it is safe to say for the most part that many people
ask God for things that will make them feel good, whereas those less fortunate
ask for what they need like food, clothing, etc. There is nothing wrong with
wanting a pleasurable life. God does gives us good gifts that he wants us to
enjoy that are stated in; James 1:17;
Ephesians 4:7; 1Timothy 4:4-5, but the short time we have here on earth is
not about pleasing ourselves; it is about understanding the Cross of Christ and
accepting Jesus as our Saviour so that we will have a place in Heaven for
eternity. There is where the true joy will be! Amen!
4
Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the
world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world
makes himself an enemy of God.
James uses some pretty
strong words here in this verse. It should strike fear in an unsaved person’s
heart to get right with God, and also for the saved to obey the commands of
God.
Adulterers
and adulteresses!; Albert
Barnes has this to say about this phrase: “It is not necessary to suppose that
the apostle meant that those to whom he wrote were literally guilty of the sins
here referred to (meaning physical adultery);
but he rather refers to those who were unfaithful to their covenant with God by
neglecting their duty to him, and yielding themselves to the indulgence of
their own lusts and passions (meaning spiritual
adultery). The idea is, “You have in effect broken your marriage
covenant with God by loving the world more than him; and, by the indulgence of
your carnal inclinations.”
Spiritual adultery is
saying you belong to God, but live according to worldly standards such as
religious doctrine and placing your faith in rules and rituals for salvation or
saying Jesus is your Saviour, but pray to other persons, places, and things.
Do
you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?; Living according to worldly ways
results in not being a child of God.
Whoever
therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God; James can’t make it any clearer for us
that anyone living worldly ways is a friend of the Devil and not God.
5 Or do you
think that the Scripture says in vain, "The Spirit who dwells in us yearns
jealously"?
Or
do you think that the Scripture says in vain; What James is alluding to here is
lust, envy, and jealousy that has been the topic of this chapter so far. He’s
asking his listener if they believe in OT Scripture that talks about envy, or
just think it is a bunch of nonsense. His question also pertains to us today.
Envy is the topic of many OT Scripture and is the root of strife. One must
believe what the Bible says in totality, if not, then the person rejects God’s
Word and is living according to the world. Here are some envy verses of the OT:
Ecclesiastes 4:4, Job 5:2,
Proverbs 14:30, Proverbs 27:4, Genesis
26:14; Genesis 30:1; Genesis 37:11; Psalm
106:16; Psalm 73:3.
"The
Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously"; This isn’t the Holy Spirit James is
talking about, it is the spirit within us that is tainted with the sin nature.
Envy is a human nature characteristic that we as humans have to deal with and
learn to control, which is made easy when we become Born Again Saints and the
Spirit of God takes up residence within.
6 But He
gives more grace. Therefore He says: "GOD RESISTS THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE
TO THE HUMBLE."
But
He gives more grace; “He”,
is referring to God and with this verse James is changing the thought pattern
to show us how we can obtain grace to battle the temptations of jealousy and
envy. The best solution to this human characteristic is Jesus. By repenting of
the lifestyle a person is living and asking Jesus to be a part of your life,
then the Holy Spirit will assist a person to overcome envy and strife. We need
the Holy Spirit in this battle because we can’t do it alone.
Therefore
He says: "GOD RESISTS THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE."; This phrase is telling us that a proud
person is not the characteristic God likes. Jesus was a humble person and we
are to walk in his likeness. The proud are those who have an excessive
self-esteem; who have a high and unreasonable conceit of their own excellence or
importance. This may extend to anything like; beauty, strength, attainments,
family, country, rank, even religion. A person may be proud of anything that
belongs to them, or in any way be construed as being a part of them. Job 22:29; Psalm
138:6; Proverbs 3:34
7 Therefore
submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
Through prayer in seeking
the truth about the Gospel, humbling one’s self in confessing they are a sinner
by nature, asking Jesus for forgiveness, yielding to His judgment in this life,
and accepting Him as their Saviour to rule their life, then through this
submission, the Holy Spirit will assist a person in conquering their
shortcomings.
While a person yields to
God in all things, they are not to yield to the devil in any. A person is to
resist and oppose the devil in whatever way he may approach you, whether by
allurements, by flattering promises, by the fascinations of the world, by
temptation, or by threats. The Devil is a master deceiver and we as Christians
have to be on our guard at all times. It is very easy to get sucked into
something and not even realize it at the time, due to our human nature. A person,
for example, is always safe from overindulgence if they resists all allurements
to indulgence in strong drink and never yields in the slightest degree.
8 Draw near to
God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you
sinners; and purify your
hearts, you double-minded.
LASB: “How can you come
close to God? James gives five ways: (1) Humble yourselves before God (James
4:7). Yield to his
authority and will, commit your life to him and his control, and be willing to
follow him. (2) Resist the devil (James 4:7). Don't allow Satan to entice and
tempt you. (3) Wash your hands . . . and purify your hearts (that
is, lead a pure life) (James 4:8). Be cleansed from sin, replacing
your desire to sin with your desire to experience God's purity. (4) Let
there be sorrow and deep grief for your sins (James
4:9). Don't be afraid
to express deep heartfelt sorrow for what you have done. (5) Humble
yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor (James
4:10; 1
Peter 5:6).”
Colossians 1:16 For by Him all things were created
that are in heaven and that are on earth,
visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.
All
things were created through Him and for Him.
Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God,
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our
Lord.
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, Most assuredly, I say to you,
unless one is
born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
Bill
Wiesbrock https://www.facebook.com/bill.wiesbrock?ref=tn_tnmn
The
Lighthouse Full Gospel Church
Sinners
Prayer; Pray this, and if you believe it with your heart, Jesus will save you!
“Lord Jesus I know I am a
sinner. I confess my sins to you; I am
sorry for my sins; I repent (Meaning, desiring to turn from a sinful
lifestyle.) of all my sins, and I am asking for your forgiveness. I believe that only you can forgive sin. I commit my life to you and ask you to come
into my heart, direct, and take charge of my life. I believe that you died to set me free from
my sinful lifestyle and you rose from the dead to give me eternal life, and
right now you are seated at the Right Hand of God Almighty. I believe you are
the Son of God; the only Way, the only Truth, the only Life, and my
Savior.” I believe this and have faith
you will make a new person out of me, by sending the Holy Spirit to dwell in my
heart and lead me in a new life. In Jesus name I pray Amen.” (John 3:16,17;
Romans 3:23; 6:23; 5:8; 10:9-13; Ephesians 2:8-10; 1
John 5:11-14; 1:6-10) (Sin: Rom.
1:22-32; Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 5:3-7)
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