There were three guys talking about the amount of control they have over their wives, while the third remained quiet.
• After a while one of the first two turns to the third and says, "Well, what about you, what sort of control do you have over your wife?"
• The third fellow says "I’ll tell you. Just the other night my wife came to me on her hands and knees."
• The first two guys were amazed. "What happened then?" they asked.
• "She said, ’get out from under the bed and fight like a man’."
We all have a lot to say about SUBMISSION and so does the Word of God.
God’s Word has a lot to say about it
• 1 Peter,
• Romans 13,
• Ephesians 5,
• Colossians 3,
• 1 Timothy 2, and
• Hebrews 13
are all various chapters that speak about submission in the life of a believer in Jesus Christ.
Submission has a lot to do with Christian growth and it is also a vital part in our marriages.
Illus: A man accompanied his friend home for dinner and was impressed by the way he entered his house,
• He asked his wife how her day went, a
• Told her she looked pretty.
• Then, after they embraced, she served dinner. After they ate, the husband complimented his wife on the meal and thanked her for it.
When the two fellows were alone, the visitor asked, "Why do you treat your wife so well?" "Because she deserves it, and it makes our marriage happier," replied the host.
Impressed, the visitor decided to adopt the idea.
• Arriving home, he embraced his wife and said, "You look wonderful!"
• For good measure he added, "Sweetheart, I’m the luckiest guy in the world."
• His wife burst into tears.
• Bewildered, he asked her, "What in the world’s the matter?"
• She wept, "What a day!
• Billy fought at school.
• The refrigerator quit and spoiled the groceries.
• And now you’ve come home drunk!”
In this sermon I will be dealing with SUBMISSION as a spiritual matter to GROW SPIRITUALLY.
Often we older Christians will tell younger Christians that they need to “resist the devil...”
• And bless their hearts, when the devil hops on their backs they say, "Devil, I resist you." But nothing happens!
• Then, when the devil gets on their backs really bad, they say with an authoritative voice, making an ugly face, "Devil, I really resist you now! "
Illus: That is like a plumbing company that advertised, “We can stop your leaks for a hundred dollars. But we can REALLY stop your leaks for two hundred dollars.”
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?
• We need to ask ourselves the question, “What is the difference between STOPPING YOUR LEAKS and REALLY STOPPING YOUR LEAKS?”
• And what is the difference between RESISTING the devil and REALLY RESISTING THE DEVIL?
It does not matter how you say it; you are NOT going to scare the devil off. Satan is not scared of a person in this building…NOT A ONE!!!
Illus: We can all remember when we were children. We could get by with a lot, but when our parents had all they could take, they would call our names with an authoritative voice, and we knew we were in some serious trouble.
But this does not work with Satan.
There is not a human alive that can sound authoritative enough to scare the devil off. It takes more than an authoritative voice.
What we should do is tell the young converts to resist the devil, and then tell them HOW!
HOW DO WE RESIST HIM?
Notice, before the Word of God tells us we are to RESIST the devil, it tells us we need to do something else first - SUBMIT OURSELVES UNTO THE LORD.
Look at verse 7. “SUBMIT yourselves therefore to God. RESIST the devil and HE WILL FLEE FROM YOU.”
The Christian that is not SUBMITTING to Christ is wasting his/her time trying to RESIST Satan, because the devil knows that such a person is no threat to him, regardless of how authoritative his voice may sound.
The apostle Paul is a good example of what God will do through a submissive Christian.
Look at Acts 19:11-12, we read, “And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them. and the evil spirits went out of them.”
Some people try to build a doctrine on this unique experience, but notice, the scriptures only reveal that God did this through HIS ONE SPECIAL SERVANT.
Nowhere do we read that Paul said, "If you send me a thousand dollars I will pray over this prayer cloth and send it to you."
The Bible makes it clear that this man, THE APOSTLE PAUL, had so SUBMITTED his life to the Lord that God was able to use him that way.
God does not mention that anyone else ever did this.
But get this, there were some who had seen how God was using the apostle Paul, and they decided, like many do today, that it was a good way to make some money.
Look at verse 13, "Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of Jesus, sayinq. We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth."
Did the devil HEED what those men commanded?
No! Look what happened to them.
Look at verses 15-16. We read, “And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye? And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them. and overcame them, and prevailed against them so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.”
The point of mentioning this passage is to show that the devil will NOT HEED anyone THAT IS NOT SUBMITTED TO GOD!
And listen, as a Christian, if you are not submitted to God, the devil is going to walk all over you. You will never have any VICTORIES and YOU WILL NOT GROW IN THE LORD SPIRITUALLY.
In order for Christians to grow SPIRITUALLY, they have to learn how to SUBMIT THEMSELVES TO THE LORD.
We have to learn to RESIST, and we must resist the devil each day if we are ever going to GROW IN THE LORD.
Now in this sermon I would like to deal with SUBMISSION in two ways.
Such as we are to SUBMIT OURSELVES TO GOD SO THAT WE CAN…
I. OVERCOME THE WORLD
Let me explain, God is not talking about this beautiful world in which we live; He is talking about the world of evil in which we live.
In the Bible, the term world can refer to the earth and physical universe (Hebrews 1:2; John 13:1), but it most often refers to the humanistic system that is at odds with God (Matthew 18:7; John 15:19; 1 John 4:5).
When the Bible says that God loves the world, it is referring to the human beings who live here (1 John 4:9). And as His children, we are to love other people (Romans 13:8; 1 John 4:7; 1 Peter 1:22).
When we are told not to love the world, the Bible is referring to the world’s corrupt value system. Satan is the god of this world, and he has his own value system contrary to God’s value system.
The Bible tells us in II Corinthians 4:4) and First John 2:16 details exactly what Satan’s system promotes:
• The lust of the flesh,
• The lust of the eyes,
• And the boastful pride of life.
Every sin imaginable can be summed up in those three evils.
When we submit to the world we are committing spiritual adultery.
Look at James 4:4, "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."
In this verse of scripture this is some strong language! James is making two serious charges!
The first charge was of...
A. SPIRITUAL ADULTERY
Jesus regards our relationship with Him as the same intimate relationship of a husband and a wife.
In fact, our relationship with Christ is even closer than a marriage relationship.
Let me explain why it is closer.
Illus: With our mate we can share the most intimate things about our thoughts and deeds, and they still love us.
We would not think of telling the general public, or even our best friends, of some of the things we would tell our mate.
Why?
Because we know if they knew these thoughts and deeds about us they might:
• Not want to associate with us any more
• Tell others those things, which we certainly would not want them to know.
But, as close as a marriage relationship is, I believe every married person here would admit there are some things:
• They have thoughts,
• They have deeds,
That they have never told their mate, and never intend to tell their mate.
They are afraid their mate would think harshly toward them and would never feel the same toward them again.
And, that might be true.
We humans can FORGIVE LIKE GOD, but we CANNOT FORGET LIKE GOD.
Yes, we can tell our mates things we cannot tell the general public and our best friends, because the marriage relationship is a very special relationship.
Still our relationship with the Lord is even GREATER than that because there is nothing we have done that Christ does not know about already, and His opinion of us has not changed one iota!
Our relationship with Christ is greater than any other relationship we have.
But in this intimate relationship, the Lord tells us we are committing SPIRITUAL ADULTERY when we put any one or any thing ahead of Him.
James says, “Ye adulterers and adulteresses...”
If Christians only knew what they were doing they would not do such a dumb thing.
James recognized that the reason so many Christians commit spiritual adultery is because of what the next accusation is...
B. SPIRITUAL IGNORANCE
Ignorance in the carnal realm has been behind much of the harm that has come to people over the years.
(1) It has been behind the FINANCIAL misery of many.
We all know people who are barely able to live week to week.
They stay "broke' because they are ignorant of how to handle their finances.
Many simply have not figured out that you cannot spend more than you make.
(2) It has been behind the DOMESTIC misery of many families.
Many couples simply are ignorant of how to raise children because they have not observed, or been exposed to any good examples to follow.
Many have the physical ability to bear children, but when it comes to training them, they are completely ignorant.
What a price our nation is paying because of this kind of ignorance in our society.
We are losing a second generation of young people to sex, drugs, and violence!
Notice that James is charging many Christians with SPIRITUAL IGNORANCE.
Illus: A man that committed adultery on his wife later realize what he had done. He said, “I cannot believe I was so stupid to do such a thing!!!”
The most unintelligent thing we can do, as Christians, is to allow SOME THING or SOME ONE to come between the Lord Jesus Christ, and us.
James says, "...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."
It is difficult, because the world is always luring and enticing the children of God to step away from a close relationship with Christ and have a SPIRITUAL AFFAIR with the world.
That is why the Lord considers the world to be His enemy.
Illus: For example, it might be that a man in this congregation has a neighbor that is his best friend, but if that "best friend" tries to lure the man’s wife to himself, then that "friend" becomes the worst enemy that man has.
The worst enemy of Christ is the world with all of its neon lights, doing everything it can to lure us from Christ.
If you and I are going to grow spiritually, we are going to have to LEARN that nothing should come between us and the Lord Jesus Christ. If it does, it becomes spiritual adultery.
We are to submit ourselves unto THE LORD JESUS, THAT WE MIGHT ESCAPE THE WORLD'S SEDUCTIONS.
Here is one more thing we must do as Christians…we are to SUBMIT TO GOD SO THAT we can OVERCOME but also so that we might…
II. DEFEAT THE DEVIL
Look at verse 7 again. "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the DEVIL, and he will flee from you."
We cannot help but wonder how any person can live in this wicked society that we live in and not believe in a devil, but there are some who claim that they do not.
They would have us believe that the devil is a character from some fairy tale that our forefathers made up to make us behave.
But that is not what the Word of Teach. Look 1 Peter 5:8, "Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour."
Did you know that Peter was talking to Christians in this passage?
You see the devil does not have to pursue lost people. He already has them in his fold.
• He knows that we, who have been saved by the marvelous grace of God, are in God's fold.
• He also knows that no one can do more damage to God's work, than an immature Christian.
Why? Because the world expects more from Christians.
The devil knows that. He works hard to get Christians to ruin their Christian testimony by getting those who claim to know Christ to:
• Follow after the cravings of the flesh
• Follow after the trends of the world
• Follow after the devil
How do we overcome the FLESH, the WORLD, and the DEVIL?
James 4:8 teaches us how. We read, “DRAW NIGH TO GOD, AND BE WILL DRAW NIGH TO YOU. CLEANSE YOUR HANDS. YE SINNERS: AND PURIFY YOUR HEARTS, YE DOUBLE-MINDED."
Illus: Vernon McGee says, "God comes to the door of your heart; He will not come any farther."
And He won’t, unless He is invited in and allowed to do His work in our lives.
He left heaven. He died on the cross of Calvary for our sins. What more can He do to let us know He wants to have a close relationship with us? He put the ball in our court.
He told us to DRAW NIGH TO HIM AND HE WILL DRAW NIGH TO US. There is no other way to get close to Him.
The question is, how close to God do you want to get.
It is our job to make sure that NOTHING or NO ONE comes between us and Him.
The devil will FLEE from the Christian who has God in his life, because he cannot stand in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Illus: We have all seen television plays where a vampire, with long eye-teeth, would approach a person as if to drink his blood, and that person would hold up a silver cross and let the moon shine on it, and the vampire would draw back. Of course, there are no such creatures.
But one thing we know is that the devil cannot stand in the presence of God! He knows that there he is EXPOSED and is DEFENSELESS!
Illus: Did you know that usually a wolf never attacks sheep when the sheep are with the flock and the shepherd is very near? The closer the sheep are to the shepherd, the safer the sheep are.
The Bible says, “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you…” (James 4:8)
Jesus is our Shepherd. To become mature spiritually, we must stay close to Him and lean on Him.
We are to SUMIT TO HIM SO THAT WE MIGHT…
I. DEFEAT THE WORLD
II. DEFEAT THE DEVIL.
But also we are to SUBMIT TO GOD so …
III. DEFEAT THE FLESH
Look at JAMES 4:I-3. We read, “From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.”
James shows us some things to consider in these three verses of Scripture about ourselves.
Look at verse 1, "From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in you members?"
He was addressing Christians, and he said, “From whence come wars and fightings AMONG YOU?”
Let us look at-
A. THE CAUSE
In this verse of Scripture, James deals with WHAT CAUSES us to do wrong. He is speaking specifically of the FLESH.
That is because this fleshly body of ours is filled with "lust."
The Greek word is “hedonon," which means: "To crave pleasure, to crave gratification.”
He is telling us that within these bodies of ours is a constant warfare of craving for pleasures, yearnings, urgings, desirings, and grasping after whatever will gratify us and will bring us pleasure.
Inside every believer is a battlefield where the battle of WANTING TO DO RIGHT and DESIRING TO DO WRONG is being fought.
Illus: An old Indian chief explained it this way. He pointed to his heart and said, “Inside of me there are two dogs, a WHITE DOG and a BLACK DOG, and they fight all the time!”
• A man said, “Chief, which dog wins?”
• He said, “The one that I feed the most!”
We all have this LUSTFUL SPIRIT inside us, and EVERY DAY it makes its demands on us.
Illus: The flesh cries out from within, “I must be satisfied, my every urge, my every desire and every yearning, and I am determined to wage war until I have my way.”
If that OLD FLESH is not harnessed, we will never grow in the Lord.
Now we have been able to conquer many of those urges.
Illus: For example, we all have passed by large banks downtown and thought, “I wish I had all the money inside that bank. If I did I could satisfy all my WISHES and WANTS."
But we immediately harness that desire. Why? Because we know if we do not, we will soon find ourselves in prison.
But, there are other LUSTFUL SINS that rage within our flesh. These things may not be sinful within themselves, but they become sinful when we let these INSATIABLE DESIRES OF THE FLESH crave for more and more!
Here are a few that give us trouble:
(1) FOOD
Illus: We realize that there are people with physical problems. It seems like they can walk by food and gain weight.
There are others who seem to gain weight if they smell food. These are people who have gland problems.
But there are others who do not have a gland problem; they have a mouth problem.
Illus: They make us think of our baby grandchildren: everything they see they want to put in their mouths.
Illus: These people hear little voices. They can walk by a watermelon and a little voice says to them, “Eat me!”
They have never learned to control their appetite for food.
Not only do some crave food, some also crave...
(2) DRUGS
Illus: God gave mankind the wisdom to discover many helpful uses for drugs, and we may not fully appreciate them until we see a loved one suffering on a death bed.
But we have a nation full of people today who are no more than legalize drug addicts.
We have doctors who are getting kickbacks on every prescription they fill. They do not care a thing about their patients, they have a license to deal in drugs and not get caught.
These legalized “Drug Junkies” come to them, and they drug them up every time they come.
This nation is filled with people whose old sinful flesh within them cries out for drugs, and they submit to this evil desire.
Illus: One day a lady was taking a “Stand back”, and a man said to her, “Do you have a headache?” She said, “No, but I am afraid I might get one!”
Some of you will never grow in the Lord until you control all the legalized drugs you are taking. That stuff controls you, and when it is controlling you the Holy Spirit cannot control you.
We have to control the desires within us or they will control us.
Some cannot control their-
(3) SEXUAL BEHAVIOR
There is nothing wrong with sex, but the Bible makes it clear it is for marriage. If a person is not careful, this old flesh will lead a man or woman down the path of destruction.
One of the many differences God made between men and animal, is that mankind is suppose to be able to harness this desire.
But because many do not, they live like animals.
(4) MONEY
We need money to buy the necessities of life. But listen, greed for money can totally possess you.
People who have this greed are like dope addicts; there is nothing they will not do to acquire it.
They will:
• Lie to get money
• Steal to get money
• Kill for money
Notice that the things that we have mentioned are not sinful things within themselves. They only become sinful when we allow this flesh of ours to control us, and we GO BEYOND THE POINT OF MODERATION, OR THE BOUNDARIES GOD HAS SET UP.
Many people lose the war with the flesh that is warring every day in their hearts. The flesh has demanded satisfaction, and many live every day trying to SATISFY THE LUSTS OF THE FLESH.
This is THE CAUSE of their living this life the way they live it.
Now look at...
B. THE CONDITION
TO ATTEMPT TO SATISFY THE FLESH IS NOT WHAT GOD CREATED US FOR!
The greatest discovery that can be made in this life is to find out that the PEACE that we all seek is NOT FOUND IN FOOD, DRUGS, SEX, MONEY or IN PEOPLE. It is found ONLY in the LORD JESUS!
Many are struggling within themselves every day trying to find peace. James refers to our struggles within us as a war.
Look at verse 1 again, "From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of you lusts that war in your members."
When there is war there is no peace.
Christians, who never learn to SUBMIT to the Lord, never find peace.
Some of the most miserable people on earth are Christians who have not grown spiritually because they never learned to submit to the Lord.
The sinful desire to fulfill the lusts of the flesh is so strong, that James says in verse 2, “Ye lust, and have not: YE, KILL...”
That is, the sinful desire to fulfill the lusts of the flesh has caused many evil people to kill other people in order to get what they LUSTED FOR.
Look at verse 2 again, “Ye have not because ye ask not.”
What does he mean, “...Ye HAVE NOT...?”
James meant that you have been asking for PEACE in the wrong places.
However, James concedes that some did ASK THE LORD, but they did not ask for the right purpose.
Look at verse 3, “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.”
Illus: Listen, if you came to me and asked me for a hammer to hit Bro. So and So in the head, I would not give it to you.
Now if you came to me and asked me for a hammer because you wanted to fix something for Bro. So and So, I would give it to you.
I can assure you, according to the Word of God, that a person can come to church, pray, read the Bible, and as good as those things are, he might still NOT find what he is seeking if he is asking for the WRONG PURPOSE.
Christian growth comes through SUBMISSION!
Conclusion:
We must learn to SUBMIT TO GOD so that we might …
I. We might overcome the world
II. We might overcome the devil
III. We might overcome the flesh
