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.
It’s very easy to fall into this trap; it’s very easy to think that we can resolve the situations that present themselves in our lives by our own abilities. It’s a trap that was designed with the purpose of separating us from God’s will, and it’s a trap that still works very well. This is the reason why we find James’s warning here today when he says: “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 you therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” As the people of God, as His church, as His bride, we can’t allow our desires, lusts, and appetite for the things of this world to rule our life. If we allow this what we are doing is giving the criminal the weapon to use against us. Let me ask you, if you were about to get robbed and you had a gun, would you give it to the robber to use? Of course the answer is NO, but in many instances this is exactly what we do. In many instances we give the criminal, we give the devil the sword to use against us. When we seek only to fulfill our lusts and pleasures we give our enemy the sword to cut us with. This is why we have to examine ourselves frequently; we have to reflect daily in our actions, words, and testimony, to see if we are being faithful to God. We have to trust in God not once or twice a week; we have to trust in God for everything that we do. We have to trust in God every second and every minute of our life, and most importantly we have to be convinced that He will take care of us (Hebrews 11:6.) We have to submit to God otherwise we are being unfaithful. Well, I think that as good detectives, we have all located the crime scene. We have found that man’s crime against God has always been the unfaithfulness as demonstrated throughout the bible history. The question then is, what about the yellow tape?
As we continue reading the verses that we are using today we see that James tells us: “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.” Can you see the yellow tape that stops God from entering the crime scene? The first hint to finding the yellow tape around us is “Draw nigh to God.” You still can’t see it? Brethren, the yellow tape is the Word of God. The Word of God is the barrier that exists between God and us. Let me explain myself a little further. In the world there are a large number of people that think that no matter what happens, and no matter what they do, God is with them. There is are large number of people that think that once they have accepted Christ they can continue to sin, and that God guides them and blesses them at all times. This is the biggest lie ever told; the major reason why people believe this lie is because they don’t know the Word of God. When we have taken the time to know His Word, when we take the time to develop a personal relationship with Him, we will not have to seek too much to find the truth (John 8:32.) The truth is that we can’t say that we serve God if we continue living a life of sin. Listen to me carefully; we can’t serve God if we live in sin (1 Corinthians 10:21-23.) It’s very saddening to see how people that have been shown the errors of their ways do not accept it. These are the moments when all ministers have heard those words, “God knows me and accepts me how I am,” or “remember pastor that we are saved by grace and not by the law.” There is a great truth in both statements; God does know us individually, He knows us better that we know ourselves. Yes we are saved by grace since no man has ever been able to fulfill the law (Romans 2:23.) But, because we are saved by grace, does this mean that we can continue sinning? The answer to this is NO! (Romans 6:15.)
This is the biggest problem with the people of God; this is where the problem lays with all of those that think that they are well with God. Being well with God means that we seek more of Him at all times, it means that we walk towards the perfection that is Christ Jesus. We are not perfect, we will not be perfect, we will not be able to fulfill His law, and that is why He poured out His mercy over mankind so that we may have the privilege today of being called children of God (John 1:12; Galatians 3:25-27; 1 John 3:1-2.) But this does not mean or imply that we have a license to sin. This does not mean or imply that God will be present in a sinful life. When we allow sin to abound in our life, when we allow sin to control us, then we are not with God. When we allow sin to control our way of thinking, of acting and of being, God is NOT with us (1 John 3:16.) The barrier exists, the yellow tape exists, and the “Word of God” separates us. The truth of it all is that God is holy a He will not dwell in sin; God will not compromise His holy and divine Word for anyone (Matthew 24:35.) James tells us here: “Draw nigh to God.” We are the ones that have to cross the barrier that exists, we are the ones that have to seek holiness; we have been called to be holy (1 Peter 1:16.) The truth of it all is that if we continue a sinful life, we will never obtain the eternal life that Jesus died in the cross to give us (Romans 6:23.)
Here we see that James also tells us: “…Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.” Let’s ask ourselves a question, when we dirty our hands and we go wash them, do we only cleanse ourselves partially, or do we clean our hands completely? Of course that no one just washes away part of the dirt, we wash all of the dirt off, and the problem is that many don’t keep their hands clean. Once we come to the Lord, His blood cleanses us and leaves us completely clean (1 Corinthians 6:11; Revelation 1:5,) but as I said, we dirty ourselves again. Many of us do not keep our hands clean, we continue playing with the dirt; we continue playing with sin. But know this; sin separates us from the presence of God (Isaiah 19:2.) We try to justify sin, we try to justify our bad actions, but God has placed His Word around that crime scene, and He will not cross it. He can’t cross it to come to us because He is holy (Leviticus 20:7-8,) we are the ones that need to cross over to reach him (Matthew 11:28.) I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, God will not change His Word to please mankind. It is mankind that needs to change in order to please God. After all, if God changed His word, what’s the sense in recompiling His Word? What’s the sense in revealing to mankind through the prophets, that which pleases Him and that which He condemns? Because through His written Word God warns and admonishes us with the purpose of saving us. But if He continually changed His Word, then it would make no sense at all to have it written down, as the written version would always be obsolete.
In conclusion. Here we see that James tells us: “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.” God sent his only begotten son to die for mankind because God loves man (John 3:16; 1 John 4:10.) The truth of it all is that God loves the sinner, but condemns sin. God wants us to have an intimate relationship with Him, God desires for us to turn our backs on sin and for us to walk in Jesus Christ. Although God loves us strongly, He will not change His Word and character for any of us, but He is willing to forgive and cleanse us. If we don’t seriously listen to the warning in these verses, then it will become very easy to fall once again into a life of sin. It will be very easy for the enemy to once again lock us up in a prison of suffering, in a prison of pain, in a prison of sadness, in a prison of depression. Christ is here to liberate you; Christ is here to cleanse you of sin and free you from the chains that bind you (Galatians 5:1.) Christ is here calling us to cross over the yellow tape that separates us; He is here calling us to turn our backs to sin and to walk with Him (1 John 3:6.) Listed today to His voice, listen carefully to the warning, let’s cleanse our hands today, and let’s seek his face. Christ came to call all of us (Luke 5:32.) Listen today for He is telling you: “cross the yellow tape.”
