ESSENTIALS FOR SPIRITUAL VICTORY

JAMES 4:7-10

 

INTRO: What are some of the essentials for spiritual victory?   How can we live on the victory side, rejoicing in the blessings of God upon our lives?   James gives us a formula for victory.  He gives us guidelines that lead to spiritual strength and vitality.  Christian friend God wants you to triumph.

   Before we look at the book of James and the essentials that he gives us, I want us to look at some keys to winning in spiritual battles. These keys are found in the Word of God and are powerful weapons against the devil’s assaults upon us.   These keys are:

1.      The Scriptures.   In dealing with Satan, “Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.”   Ephesians 6:17 says,”And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”   Psalm 119:133 should be our prayer as believers, “Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.”

2.    The shed blood of Jesus Christ.  Revelation 12:11,”And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony...”  

3.    The name of Jesus.  Psalm 44:5, “Through thee will we push down our enemies: through  thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us.”

4.     The power of the Holy Spirit.  “Ye are of God,  little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.”

5.      Faith in Christ for every battle.  “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked” (Ephesians 6:16).

6.      Worship.   Worship will keep your heart resting in the Lord and trusting in His supernatural ability to fight for you and do for you what you cannot do for yourself.  “Jesus answered and said unto  him, get thee behind me Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Luke 4:8).   “Ye shall not fear them: for the Lord your God he shall fight for you” (Deuteronomy 3:22).

 

I.        VS. 7a, THE ESSENTIAL OF SUBMISSION

A.       Submission and obedience go hand in hand.  How can we claim to be under the authority of God and not obey His commands.  Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15).

1.  Submission means to surrender every area of our lives to God.   There will be no spiritual victory until we completely surrender to God.  “Uncommitted Christians cannot live with themselves or with other people” (Wiersbe 125).

2.  When we rebel against the Lord’s ways we fall under the influence of the devil himself.   1 Samuel 15:23, “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and Idolatry...”.

B.       If you have tried to win the victory in your own strength then you know how it feels to be defeated.  We need for the Lord to be on our side, we need to submit to Him and let Him fight for us.

1.   Submission to God means to get in line, to get under His authority, to obey Him.  If we follow after the flesh we will be defeated time and time again.  The old Gospel song says. The arm of flesh will fail you, ye dare not trust your own.”

2.   We have far too many Christians today who do not want anyone telling them what to do, even the Lord Himself.

 

II.       VS. 7b,   THE ESSENTIAL OF RESISTANCE

A..      The scripture says,” Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”   If you do not resist the devil he will not flee but he will dog you, he will stay on your back.   Submitting to God and resisting  the devil are essential in gaining victory in our Christian lives.   “Humbly submit to the divine Captain and courageously stand against the enemy” (Strauss 161).

1.  To resist is to say no to the devils lies, to say no to his attempts to destroy you.

2.  Hermas said,”The devil can wrestle against the Christian, but he cannot throw him” (Barclay106).   The devil will flee if we firmly resist him.

B.       Our main enemy is Satan himself (Ephesians 6:12-13).   He is the one we must resist, not only must we resist him, we must resist his “wiles”(Eph. 6:11)  meaning “trickery, craftiness, to lie in wait and lies.”

1.  If you do not resist him he will not flee, if you keep playing around with sin you will be defeated.

2.  To resist the devil we must stand up against him in the power and strength of the Lord (Eph. 6:10).   We must not be fearful when we stand in the power of our God.  2 Timothy 1:7 says, ”God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

C.      To resist the devil we must renounce him and his works (2 Cor. 4:1-2).

D.      To resist the devil we must pull down strongholds (2 Cor. 10:4-5).

 

III.      VS. 8a, THE ESSENTIAL OF DRAWING NEAR TO GOD

A.       James says, “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you...”   To  have spiritual victory we must get near and stay near  God.

1.   Prayer and Bible reading are the best ways for us to draw near to God.  When Jesus was in the wilderness he prayed and fasted for forty days and nights.   When the devil came to tempt Him Jesus used the Word of God against him.

                                        2.       The Bible tells us that Satan fled and that God sent angels to minister    to Christ (Matt. 4:11).   Jesus drew near to God the Father and God the Father    drew near to Him.

3.   You cannot and will not be near to the heart of God until you submit to His will for you.

B.       There is no better place for God’s people than to rest upon His bosom.   It is a good thing to be near to God.   David said, “It is good for me to draw nigh near to God” (Psalm 73:28)

 

IV.      VS. 8b,   THE ESSENTIAL OF CLEAN HANDS AND PURE HEARTS

A.       For a Christian to be right with God he must have clean hands and a pure heart.   You will never be what you ought to be a Christian if you do not have clean hands and heart (Psalm 24:3-4).

1.   When a child of God sins he needs to repent of that sin (1 John 1:9).

2.  The child of God needs to remove that which is sin   (Ezekiel 18:31).  Do not cuddle  and caress sin, remove it!!!

3.   Isaiah 1:16 tells us that we are to cease to do evil, we are to put it away from us, “Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil.”

B.       “Purify your hearts”    Purify means to make chaste.

1.  “The clean hands signify little in a moral sense-however desirable for sanitary and other reasons-unless the heart is also clean.  Indeed, the Pharisees came to make the cleansing of the hands a substitute for moral cleanness (Mark 7:8ff).” (Robertson 166).                                           

2.    Cleanse your heart, then keep it diligently (Prov. 4:23).

C.       If you are a doubles minded Christian you will never be a truly happy Christian.  You will be unstable and confused, “The double minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:8).

 

V.       VS. 9, THE ESSENTIAL OF RESPONSIBILITY FOR SIN

A.       We need to mourn over our sin, mourn over our lack of love for the Lord, mourn over the sin of our nation.

1.  It is time to take responsibility for our sin and to stop blaming others for our failures .and shortcomings.  Admit it you are a sinner and fall short of God’s glory.

2.  We need to see the exceeding sinfulness of sin, to see what it is doing to folks and  to us.  We need to be broken hearted over sin, we need to weep.

B.       When you sin repent with godly sorrow. 

 

VI.            VS.10, THE ESSENTIAL OF HUMILITY

A.       It will do us good to look back at the words of James 4:6, “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.”   If you are proud God is going to resist you and you will never be what you could be for the Lord.

1.  If you will stay close to God and follow Him daily He will take care of you and He will honor you in His time (1 Peter 5:6).

2.  Luke 18:11

B.       The truly humble person never loses sight of what God has done for him.  He never loses sight of the depravity of man and the sinless majesty of God. 

 

VII.     VSS. 11-12,   THE ESSENTIAL OF NOT BEING CRITICAL

A.       There is difference between discernment and being judgmental. 

B.       “Christians need to have discernment (Phil. 1:9-10), but they must not act like God in passing judgment.  We must first examine our own lives, and then try to help others (Matt. 7:1-5)” (Wiersbe 119).

C.      If a brother has sinned and needs discipline then follow the Biblical guidelines for carry it out.

1.  Do so in love (1 Peter 4:8)

2.  Try to win him back into the fold (Matt. 18:15-19; Gal. 6:1-2).

 

Conclusion: If we are to have victory we must follow the guidelines set forth by God Himself.