Crossing The Line

How many have seen the police scenes either on the television or at the theater? I’m talking about places where a crime has been committed, the police officers arrive, and with a yellow tape they encircle the area where it all took place. I’m sure that all of us here, at one time or another, have seen that plastic yellow tape, with the words "police line do not cross" in bold black letters, correct? Either in the news or at the movies, we have all seen this tape and some of us more than others. We also all know that this tape was designed to keep people out. It was designed to keep people out of the crime scenes to prevent contamination of any evidence that may be located within. I know that many of you are asking yourselves, why is he giving us a lesson in police procedures? But I assure you that I’m not here to teach you police procedures today. Let’s turn to the Word of God and let’s begin with today’s message.

James 4:4-10 - Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. 5 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? 6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. 9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

When we read this chapter from the beginning we clearly see that James tells us that the main cause of our problems is lust or passion (James 4:1-2 ;) the passion to satisfy the desires of the flesh. This is an internal war that we all face daily, something very difficult to control, and very few people manage to do it. Second we see that James teaches us about our prayers (James 4:3 ;) we are warned that on many occasions our prayers are improper. Although we may know God, and we might have a close relationship with Him, we must take care not to pray improperly. What do I mean by that? Brethren, in many instances our prayers are “amiss,” in other words we ask improperly. I’m talking about prayers in which we ask for things only to satisfy our own passions and pleasures. These are prayers that do not reach the ears of our celestial Father. I say this because he knows exactly what we need; He knows what is good for us and what is not (Matthew 7:7-11.) But I don’t want to concentrate on this today; today I want us all to see the yellow crime scene tape that God has placed around the scene of the crime.

Let’s begin by asking ourselves, what has to exist before the crime scene tape can be put up? In order to have a crime scene, the first thing that must be present is a crime, correct? Therefore let’s all examine our lives, let’s examine our surroundings, and let’s play cops and robbers. Let’s play the role of a detective to se if we can locate a crime scene. In verse four we find that James tells us: “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” Here we see that James uses very strong language; words that are meant to make us reflect. But, what does he mean by this? Simply stated, what we are seeing here is the scene of the crime, we are seeing the crime against God that many of us are guilty of. How so? In the Word of God we find that the second coming of Christ is described as the wedding of the Lamb (Revelations 19:7; 19:9.) Therefore, when we read these verses we can clearly see that James is not speaking about a physical adultery, he is speaking about spiritual adultery. Let’s reflect on this for a few moments; let’s reflect in the spiritual adultery.

Unfortunately this is the crime against God that occurs frequently. I say this because in many instances we don’t give God the place He deserves in our lives, we don’t give God the number one spot in out lives, often times He is given third, fourth, and at times even worst. The problem is that when we allow the things of this world to take precedence over God, what we are doing is that we are telling Him that we don’t need Him, we are telling Him that we don’t need His blessings; we are in fact rejecting God’s glory, might, and power. In essence and simply stated we are being unfaithful to God, and we then begin committing spiritual adultery. We commit spiritual adultery because we stop trusting God.