Submitting To God – Cleaning Up
Every Christian is to pursue holiness. Every Christian is to pursue purity. Every Christian is to strive to stay away from sin. Holiness is not an option. God tells us:
"Be holy, for I am holy." 1 Peter 1:16 (NKJV)
The path that the Christian travels is to be one of greater insight. As we grow closer to Christ we are to become more and more aware of His Holiness. But at the same time – the closer we get to Christ the more we are to become aware of our own sinfulness. We become aware of our flaws and shortcomings as we approach He who is perfect. We become more aware of the grace and mercy of God. The mark of a person moving toward holiness is that they are becoming humbled and God is being magnified.
To emphasis this point let us look at a few verses that look at the holiness of Christ.
“For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Hebrews 4:15 (NKJV)
This verse speaks of Christ as being sinless. Even though He was tempted, He was without sin. He was tempted in all areas - yet He was without sin. First John tells us that Christ showed up to rid the world from sin.
“Surely you know that Christ showed up in order to get rid of sin. There is no sin in him, and sin is not part of his program.” 1 John 3:5 (MSG)
Holiness and purity has always been part of God’s program. The next verse from first Peter tells us that Christ came as an example for us to follow.
“For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: "Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth"; 1 Peter 2:21-22 (NKJV)
Go ahead and circle the words, “you should follow His steps.” This is what God intends for you to do. We are to pursue holiness. In other words God is telling us:
"Be holy, for I am holy." 1 Peter 1:16 (NKJV)
Let me say this plainly. When I speak of holiness I am not speaking of becoming clean to receive salvation. We are not saved by our holiness or our purity. We are not saved by our good works. What I am talking about is becoming clean because you HAVE been saved. I have heard it said:
“God loves you just the way you are.”
That is a true statement. But I have also heard:
“God loves you just the way you are. But He loves you too much to leave you that way.”
God’s process is to make us pure. He will provide for us clean clothes. But you must put them on. He will provide us the ability to come clean. But you must wash. God is in the business of life change. He takes that which is dirty and cleans it. He takes that which is broken and He fixes it. He takes that which is bent and He straightens it out. Another way to put it – if we talk about salvation as fishing is:
God catches them – then He cleans them.
In fact:
“You can not clean them – till you catch them.”
God gets us in the net of His salvation. He catches us. We have seen the bait – His love – His grace – His mercy – and we have accepted it. We have been saved by grace. Now that He has caught us, He begins the process of cleaning us up. But the process of becoming clean – “holy” – is a partnership between us and God. It takes effort on our part. That is why God tells us to:
"Be holy, for I am holy." 1 Peter 1:16 (NKJV)
We are to strive for holiness. We are to pursue purity. We are to have a desire to please the Father – to become like Him. The only problem is – our desire does not produce holiness. Our wishes do not produce purity in our lives. Somehow we need more than desires and wishes to overcome the sin in our lives.
I believe two elements are needed from us to overcome sin in our life.
We need SUBMISSION and we need RESISTANCE.
Only you can provide these two items.
Follow along with me in James chapter four.
“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” James 4:7 (NKJV)
Go ahead and circle the words “submit” and “resist”. Those are the two things you are going to be held accountable for when it comes to your pursuit of holiness. We need to be submissive and we need to be resistant if we are to be holy as God is holy.
Let’s take some time today to talk about submission. Next week we will look at resistance.
SUBMISSION
Our submission is to be to GOD.
That seems like a simple fact doesn’t it. But let me give you some insight. All of sin is just the opposite of submission to God.
Sin is being RESISTANT to God.
Think about it. Every time you and I don’t do what God wants us to do we are sinning. Every time I put my desires over God’s desires for my life I am falling short of what God has planned for me. Every time I think I can do things better than God can – I fall short of what God has in store for me. Every time I resist God I sin.
James gives us some very practical advice on how to submit to God. It is found in James chapter four verses seven through eleven.
“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.” James 4:7-11 (NKJV)
How are we to be submissive to God? James gives us seven practical ways of being submissive to God.
SEVEN PRACTICAL WAYS OF BEING SUBMISSIVE TO GOD
1. DRAW near to God.
Build your relationship with God. Spend time with Him. Read His word. Pray to Him. Meditate on Him.
2. CLEANSE your hands.
In other words watch your actions. Watch what you are doing. If you are doing evil – stop doing it.
3. PURIFY your hearts.
Watch what you think. Notice how James describes those who don’t have a pure heart. They are “double-minded”. A person who shows all the behavior of a Christian yet their minds dwell on sinful thoughts is not pure. In order to be pure we must have pure thoughts.
4. MOURN over your sin.
What is your attitude toward the sin in your life? Do you lament? Do you mourn? Do you weep? God does. He wants you pure. He wants you holy. He cries when we allow sin to live in our lives. Submission to God is seeing the sin in our lives in the same manner that God does.
5. HUMBLE yourselves.
This quality has a promise with it. James says, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” Submission to God is to realize who God is – and you’re not Him. We need to let God be God. We need to realize that God is in control.
6. Do not SPEAK evil.
It’s not enough not to think evil, we are not to speak it either. Notice who we are not to speak evil about. We are not to speak evil about fellow Christians or God’s Word. Stop talking bad about one another and stop thinking you can bend God’s Word to fit your needs. James says don’t judge you fellow Christian and don’t judge God’s Word.
7. DO the law.
The greatest thing you can do to submit to God is to do what He asks you to do. The Bible says;
“Be doers of the word, and not hearers only.” James 1:22 (NKJV)
How much of God’s Word should strive to obey? How many of God’s commandments should you try to follow? All of them! We should strive for holiness.
A fencing contractor was talking with a rich property owner about his chances of going to heaven. The rich man believed that God would be pleased with his efforts. He said, “I’ve lived a good life and been hardworking and giving to worthy causes. Sure, I hide some of my income so it doesn’t get taxed as highly … but so does everyone else. And in my business you have to do just a little bit of lying and cheating … but how else will I get ahead. I’m probably honest 98% of the time. All in all I’m OK, I’m a nice person”.
The conversation ended and it was time to build the fence. Two weeks later the fence was ready and the property owner came and had a look. He was shocked by what he saw … because there were a number of gaps in the fence. Angrily he asked, “What have you done”.
The fencing contractor replied. “Well as I was building I left a few gaps along the way. But don’t worry, there are is a lot of fence still left and in some places I even made it double thick. The gaps only represent about 2% of the fence, that means 98% of the fence is just fine”.
The rich property owner replied, “98% is not good enough. You can be sure that my livestock will find the holes in the fence and get out. Near enough is just not good enough and I will have nothing."
At that point the fencing contractor said. “You can see that truth when it comes to your fence … how come you can’t apply the same thing when it comes to your relationship with God? God wants us to listen to Him and obey Him 100% - 98% is good - but not good enough.
You and I may not be able to obey Him 100% but I am sure going to try. I’m going to give it all I got. And where I fall short I’m going to depend on God’s grace and mercy. How about you?
"Be holy, for I am holy." 1 Peter 1:16 (NKJV)
Next week we will look at “Resisting the Devil.”
