"Watch that Devil Run"
Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 33:13
0 ratings
· 68 viewsFiles
Notes
Transcript
Main Pointd
INTRODUCTION
“Watch That Devil Run”
In my life I have often had times of conflict. Conflict where it seems that I am in a quarrel with the devil. I have struggled with temptations. I have even had times when I prayed, and it seemed it did not go past the roof.
What about you? Have you ever had that wrestling match with the devil? Does there seem to be that one sin that you can just not get past? You know that one temptation you cannot seem to resist. Maybe it is even the thought at times that Scripture has no purpose.
Maybe we should just resist the devil and he will flee from us. That sounds good does it not? I have heard people say that when tempted to quote scripture, “resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Have you ever heard this before? While those words do sound good and are in Scripture, they are not the full verse.
Let’s turn to God’s Word and see what He has to say about this.
7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.
We need to understand two important parts of the language here.
1. imperative mood — The mood that normally expresses a command, intention, exhortation, or polite request. The imperative mood is therefore not an expression of reality but possibility and volition.1
2. indicative mood— The mood in which the action of the verb or the state of being it describes is presented by the writer as real. It is the mood of assertion, where the writer portrays something as actual (as opposed to possible or contingent on intention).1
1 Michael S. Heiser and Vincent M. Setterholm, Glossary of Morpho-SyntacticDatabase Terminology (Lexham Press, 2013; 2013).
James 4:7 (NASB95)
7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
We have two imperatives: Submit and Resist. and one indicative he will flee.
Submit is a military term = “get into your proper rank” - Warren Wiersbe p369
So if we want the devil to flee we must resist him. So the BIG QUESTIONS is how? By SUBMITTING TO GOD. How do we do that? I want us to look at four things.
MESSAGE
I. Converge your spirit.
I. Converge your spirit.
1. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
2. Priest in Old Testament - Draw Near to God -
Exodus 19:22
22 “Also let the priests who come near to the Lord consecrate themselves, or else the Lord will break out against them.”
3. We are priest today as believers.
4. Confessing be for God. 1 Peter 2:5
5 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
II. Clean your actions.
II. Clean your actions.
1. Cleanse your hands, you sinners
2. Cleans = to purge of evil. / make clean, heal
3. hands = the means or agency for accomplishing some end understood as human hand which is often a means itself.
4. The means of doing something.
5. Outward acts.
6. Calls them sinners - we cannot be cleansed if we do not repent.
III. Cleanse your motives.
III. Cleanse your motives.
1. Purify your hearts, you double-minded
2. purify = to make pure or free from sin or guilt or other undesirable traits.
3. hearts = the locus of a person’s thoughts (mind), volition, emotions, and knowledge of right from wrong (conscience).
4. Double-minded James 1:7-8
7 For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
5. Be Miserable and Mourn and weep. v9
IV. Crush your pride.
IV. Crush your pride.
1. Humble Yourselves and He will exalt you.
2. Place yourself in submission to God.
3. Place God FIRST in your life.
CONCLUSION
There is no possible way to resist the devil unless you have first submitted yourself to Christ.