Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
I am genuinely thankful for Daniel stepping in and preaching for me last Sunday evening.
He did an excellent job.
Tonight, we dive right back into our study of James.
Our text is James 4:9
However, let’s take a moment and read the entire section, verses 7-10.
This section follows the section we just finished, verses 1-6.
The Holy Spirit gave us a grave warning concerning the flesh and worldliness in that section.
The essence of which was this.
The flesh is a powerful force.
It comes from within us and seeks to draw us away from God.
In fact, the believer who gives into the flesh ends up enmity with God.
A situation that God does not desire for us as believers.
Thus, He is willing to provide us with “more grace.”
As I understand it, God will help any believer who desires to overcome their flesh.
Their willingness to obey His commands allows God’s grace to flow more in our lives.
Essentially, He increases our desire and enables us with His power to overcome sin, the flesh, and even the temptations of this world.
He gives us what we do not deserve so that we might have continued fellowship with Him as we overcome our fleshly desires.
This new section that we are working through is a list of instructions.
Do you, as a believer, genuinely desire to overcome the flesh?
Are you committed to following Christ and obeying His commands?
If so, then here are some instructions from the Holy Spirit specifically designed to help you in your personal battle with fleshly desires, aka lust.
We have already covered verses 7 and 8.
Verse 7 taught us that winning the battle over the flesh begins with submission.
We must submit ourselves to God’s control through complete obedience to His Word.
As we do, we must resolve not to give into Satan, the father of this sinful world.
If we will submit one hundred percent to God, God will work through us as we resist causing the Devil to flee (hightail it) out of our lives.
Verse 7 taught us that winning the battle over the flesh begins with submission.
We must submit ourselves to God’s control through obedience to His Word.
As we do, we must resolve not to succumb to Satan, the father of this sinful world.
If we submit one hundred percent to God, God will work through us as we resist causing the Devil to flee (hightail it) out of our lives.
Verse 8 continued with more instruction.
We are to “draw nigh (near) to God, and he will draw nigh (near)” to us.
If you remember, we discovered that the phrase “draw nigh” has a sense of urgency.
For me, I have thoughts of “running towards something.”
We are to run towards God away from fleshly desires as well as the temptations of Satan.
Naturally, as you run toward something, it gets closer and closer.
God does not change.
Since God is the One Who does not change, it stands to reason that we are the ones constantly moving.
We are either drawing closer or drawing away.
All this is relative to how much we allow our fleshly desires to reign over us versus obedience to Christ.
Those who obey more than they give into the flesh are much nearer to God than those who do not.
By the way, verse 8 goes on to instruct us concerning what must be done so that we might draw near God.
We must be cleansed and purified.
This evening, the Holy Spirit gives additional instruction concerning our ability to overcome our fleshly desires.
Note the three words listed in this verse that are closely related.
They are the words “afflicted,” “mourn,” and “weep.”
Each of these words deals with our degree of seriousness concerning our relationship with God.
Take Sin Seriously!
Our relationship with God and the effects of sin upon that relationship should never be a laughing matter or taken jovially.
Instead, we must have a sincerely repentant state of mind.
There is to be a sober earnestness in dealing with sin’s reality.
A repentant person is honest, deep, and thorough in seeking God’s forgiveness.
We see this in the Holy Spirit’s use of these three words.
See Sin as Painful
He tells us to “be afflicted.”
The word “afflicted” is fascinating in Greek.
It is a compound word.
The root word is a word that means “a hard substance, a callus.”
It is combined with a Greek prefix, “to bear, undergo.”
Thus, the word itself means to bear or become a hard substance or callus.
How many of you have calluses on your hands?
How did they get there?
They are a product of continual use of the hands usually as you labor over time.
Calluses form from repeated pressure on certain spots of the skin like your hands.
Over time and much use, the skin grows into a harder, often raised bump.
The word “afflicted” has the idea of enduring hardship.
However, along with that hardship comes the misery of the hardship.
For instance, if you have tender hands and you go outside, pick up a shovel, and begin to dig for long hours in hard soil, what will develop on those tender hands?
Most likely, you will develop a blister.
If you keep using the shovel, enduring the pain of the blister, eventually, those blisters open up, and you will experience even more pain.
However, if we survive the pain, we know that the skin eventually grows thicker and hardens.
Soon, there is no more pain as calluses develop.
In much the same way, any time we sin, it should bring pain.
Our failure to obey God should cause such great mental anguish that we lament and weep openly about it.
Additionally, we should never forget the pain of sin.
Each time we fail, it should cause us to suffer.
Note Paul’s reaction to sin Romans 7:24
The word “wretched” is the same form of the Greek word listed in our text as “afflicted.”
Paul understood the gravity of sin and how it disrupted his fellowship with God.
As we learn in James, sin causes us to be enmity with God.
So profound was the weight of that thought that it caused Paul great mental anguish resulting in him crying out, “O WRETCHED man that I am!.”
This is the same attitude we must-have when it comes to sin and our failure to obey the Lord.
Never should we view sin with a half-hearted attitude.
See Sin as Personal Grief
The second word in our text is the word “mourn.”
It would seem at first glance that “mourn” and “weep” are identical.
Indeed, they are synonyms.
However, each carries a slightly different emphasis.
The word “mourn” means to mourn or lament.
It is often used in conjunction with such things as lamenting over the death of a loved one.
One example would be Mark 16:10
This is a reference to Mary Magdalene after Christ’s resurrection.
Those who “mourned and wept” were those who had not yet received the news that He was alive.
They were still openly lamenting His death.
How quickly, though, did their lament turn to joy!
The word “mourn” in our text emphasizes the outward manifestation of grief.
Thus, we are to openly mourn sin and its effects on our lives.
We must lament.
There should be external manifestations of your own personal grief over how sin interrupts your walk with the Lord.
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