James 4:6-17, "But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye 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. Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another? Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin."
If we want to be close to God, the Bible teaches us to be afflicted, weep and mourn. The Lord has a broken heart over open sin in society today, over broken marriages and homes, over lost sinners, and over the apostate condition of the churches. When we help share God's burdens, getting into the yoke of soulwinning with Him, we learn of Him. Matthew 11:29, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Jesus wants to make us "fishers of men." Mark 1:17, “And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.” That is how we get close to God, labouring with God to win souls to Christ. 1st Corinthians 3:9, “For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.” The soul-winner's heart is dear to the Lord.
To me, God is more than just someone that I commune with, He is my life, my very peace, salvation and righteousness. Ephesians 2:14, "For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;" 1st Corinthians 1:30, "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." Jesus is our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption! Christ is my very life (Galatians 2:20). Colossians 3:1-3 says that we are dead as believers, and our life is hid in Christ. That is why when people criticize me, I just step out of the way and let Jesus be the target, because my life is hidden in Him.
Likewise, when people praise and brag on me, with words of gratitude, I just pass it on to my blessed Savior, because my life is hidden in Jesus. So to me, walking with God is really just a matter of dying to SELF, so that the Lord's indwelling Holy Spirit can live through me. Abiding in the King James Bible is the way to get very close to God, and to obey it. Psalms 119:100, "I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts." David said that he understood because he obeyed God's Word. There's no one as ignorant of the Bible as are deeper life dead theologians who never share the Gospel with anyone. The Pharisees were the elite religious leaders, yet again and again in the Bible we see how woefully ignorant they were of the truth.
Notice also in our text passage that the Apostle James says not to speak evil of others. We cannot expect to draw near to God while speaking evil of others. God is love. Those who walk closely with the Lord will possess God's unconditional love for every living creature. 1st John 4:8, “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” The Bible also calls God's blessed Holy Spirit “the Spirit of truth” (John 16:13b). John 4:24, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” So we see that pleasing and worshipping God requires both love and truth. Truth without love is ineffective; love without truth is impotent. Ephesians 4:15a, “But speaking the truth in love...” A church that possesses love without truth is powerless to make a difference for God. A church that preaches the truth without love is ineffective. People won't care what you know, until they know that you care. A godly church pastor and congregation have both truth and love!
If you want to be close in your walk with God, then you must be pure of heart. Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” This Bible verse doesn't mean that you'll someday see God in the future. It means if you are pure of heart, you will SEE GOD right now! If you've seen the only begotten Son, you've also seen the Father! John 14:9, “Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?” 1st Timothy 3:16, “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.” If you desire to get close to God, then you absolutely must draw close to Jesus!
The Bible teaches that God speaks to everyone today through THE SON. Hebrews 1:1-2, “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;” Jesus is the Living Word; the Bible is the Written Word. Dr. John R. Rice (1895-1980) used to rightly call the Bible and Jesus “twins.” John 5:39, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is all about Jesus.
Revelation 19:10, “And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Always look for how a particular Scripture passage relates to Jesus, and then you'll have the correct meaning. Those Bible students who always interpret the Bible in view of Israel, do err in their understanding of the Scriptures! The spirit of prophecy is Jesus Christ, not the nation of Israel. Everything in the Old Testament led up to the coming of the Messiah. So if you want to get close to God dear friend, then get close to Jesus, and the way you get close to Jesus is to abide in the Scriptures!
The man is not falling apart whose Bible is! Psalms 1:1-4, “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.” To delight in the Scriptures is to delight in the Lord.
The righteous Lord favors the righteous person! Psalms 11:7, “For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.” The face of the Lord is toward the upright, and against those who do evil. Psalms 33:5, “He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.” God doesn't expect anyone to be perfect to walk and be close with Him. Proverbs 24:16, “For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.” A man is made righteous with God through faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 4:5-6; Philippians 3:9).
And then as God's redeemed child, a believer is right with God who confesses their sins right away. 1st John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Many years ago a religious man tried to convince me that John 1:9 didn't apply to the believer. He said that the believer's sins have been forever forgiven in Christ; therefore, a believer doesn't have any sins to “confess.” That man was utterly mistaken! He failed to differentiate between a believer's POSITION in Christ versus one's CONDITION in Christ. Our position in Christ as His sheep was forever settled the moment we became born-again (John 1:12-13), which is by faith alone; but our condition in Christ is our responsibility to maintain, Proverbs 4:23, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.