The 10 Commandments of James

Well, hopefully you have been studying the book of James, as we have been going through the different parts, and how that one book can make a change in people's lives. How that one book can actually change an entire church, to make it a stronger, spiritually enriching assembly of God. I would like to go today, if you would, I'd like you to turn to chapter 4. Chapter 4 on the book of James. And I hope you will understand that the book of James is written to spiritual people. If you go through the book of James, as you obviously have, hopefully you've read it and read it and read it again, you will find that it says so many times, my brethren, my brethren, my brethren, brethren, my brethren. And at the very first verses, it actually talks to the scattered twelve tribes, or to the brethren in the scattered twelve tribes. The lost ten tribes were not lost to James. He knew where they were, and he knew that they were following God's ways and God's commandments. A section, a portion. I would like to call the title of today's sermon, The Ten Commandments of James, for the spiritual mind. Because so many people, they read this, and I even read two or three scholars in the last few weeks, just to pick up some new information, if I could, on the book of James. And so many of the scholars don't even get it. And one of the things that throws them the most is this chapter four. So I want to read this real quickly before we get to the Ten Commandments of James. Chapter four, verse one. And I read this from the New King James. Where do wars and fights come from among you? And it's interesting there, because when they translated that, they did wars. And you could see the commentators, it's like, well, he was talking to these, it was England at that time, or there was a place in Germany. And so here, the scattered twelve tribes might have been fighting, and they were warring at this time, and they were trying to put this where Rome was going, and using all this stuff, and they did, they lose the whole point. James is talking to the church, to the brethren in the church, very spiritual. Why would you, why if this was just written to people, why did they count it all joy when you fall into various trials? That's hard for us to understand sometimes. And he's saying, these are words to this very spiritual, to people who get it, and they're living it. And so I would like to, just looking at translation, because the interesting part about the Greek here is, when they did wars, the actual word should have been used as battles. You can actually see that in other translations. But because the word was so emotionally strong in the Greek, that they wanted us to get, they put wars. Because James is trying to tell the brethren, let's not have contention between us. They didn't say that. Let's not have this!

Which is totally ridiculous, with people who are God's children, who have a spirit, who share and who love each other. Where do battles and fights come from among you? Talking to the church. Do they not come from your desires for pleasures, that war, in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. Wait a minute, he's talking about people in the church murdering each other? Yes! Spiritually. What is the spirit of the law of murder? Remember, we went through that one time? The spirit of the law. Christ even said that you're not to murder, you're not even to get angry. You shouldn't be angry with someone. The spirit of the law, the intent of the law, the intent of the scripture, the intent of the author of the writings. James is reminding us in the church, the spirit of the law, everything in here is talking about spirit. This is a deep, deep book. This is why you lust and do not have. You murder or you get angry and you covet and you cannot obtain. You fight and you war. You're a church. You're angry. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. Someone in the church would have something and others in there would wonder why I don't have that. And so this coveting starts these feelings of anger, aggression, where we treat each other wrongly. You ask and do not receive because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures. Like when we ask for something, is it about us? Are we wanting it because I want a new car so I can look better when I'm driving down the road? Or do we ask for the things of God so that we can help other people so we can do his work, so we can share? Adulters and adulteresses. Wow! Talking in church? Talking about single men over here? Also talking about married women, married men? Having sexual intercourse? No! All you have to do is just continue to read, but we're talking on a spiritual plane. God mentions many times the adultery that his church has committed against him. And he says, adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? See, it explains it right there. Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, The Spirit who dwells in you in us yearns jealously. Why? It's God's Spirit. And when we get so tied up into the world, when we get so wrapped up into the worldly things, that's our focus. And our focus turns away from God. God is a jealous lover, because he loves so deeply. Do we love that deep? The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously. How about our time? Where's it spent? God, look at our day calendar. Can you look at our prayer time? Can you look at our study time? Can we look at just the times we walk with Him and thank Him, praise Him, think about Him?

Verse 6, Verse 6, but He gives more grace. Therefore, He says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Gives grace. Grace there means divine favor. I want His grace. I want His divine favor in my life. I have it. I think many of you do. You can sit there and say, wow, God's been good to me. I'd like more. I want more. How about you? Then we come to an interesting, and this is where we will finish the sermon today. And verse 7 starts something that I would like you to consider. If I can have my friend, Bruce, hand out some paper, it'll make it a little easier. I'd like you to, if you will, take some notes on this if you want to write on this same page. It just makes it easier to understand, makes it easier to see. Because I want to go through the Ten Commandments of James. From verse 7 to verse 10, I have named them. No one else has. I've never heard this done before. I guess you could say I made it up. But I was so intrigued because of James, and that mind, as the more I studied him, that incredible mind, that I looked at these and considered them, these four verses, to be not just an admonition, but commandments. For the spiritual led. That's why I call this sermon. Ten Commandments of James, for the spiritually led. Because we're going to go deep. Because once I looked at these, I never looked at them the same again. And so I actually did the research, so you don't have to, on all the Greek words, because actually Ten Commandments are referred to in many writings, and the Hebrews also called them the Ten Words. Because they would actually remember, they would teach their kids the Ten Words, the words first, and then they would teach them the Commandment. But each of the Commandments stood out for word. So I use the verbs here, because they sure stood out to me. And actually, the Ten Commandments of James is interesting, because it actually has three of the Commandments with the promise. A promise, just like in the original Ten Commandments that God gave about if you honor your mother and father, they gave a promise that your days on earth would be long. Well, James goes a step farther and actually puts three in here, as I know this was divinely inspired by God. And so the very first one is, submit to God. Now, isn't that interesting? Submit to God, First Commandment of James. Just like the First Commandment is all about what? Submitting to God. Saying, God is your God. But it's interesting here, because the Greek word for submit is, hupotasso. It's actually two words, but they combine them, as the Greeks would sometimes do. Hupotasso. And hupo actually means to put under. It means to obey. To be under obedience means to be beneath or underneath, or in inferior position. So what the sub means, the hupo, just like we have a submarine, which is below the surface. This was from the Greek word, hupotasso. So these people understood. And then the second part, tasso, means to arrange, to ordain, or to set. So what it's saying is, to submit to God means, this key word submit, means to arrange your life, ordain your life, set your life to be under, beneath, inferior position, God the Father. Do we arrange our lives so that we are under His word, His law? See, we must decide whether God is to rule our lives or not. Have you made that decision? Hopefully most of us have. Made that decision. That God will rule our life that we will submit ourselves to Him.

Second Commandment. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Look at the word resist. And as you can see, it's actually pronounced anastemi. Anastemi. And it's actually the anastemi. Greek word is because the Greeks were very good at war. Right, Stephen? It's a military term, this anastemi. Which they recognize, the military term, which means to stand against, to oppose, to withstand. When do you make a stand? What do you make a stand about in your life? Is there a line in the sand that we all supposedly draw that we won't cross that line? Is there a line in that sand where we realize Satan is on the other side of that line and he wants to come on over? Do we resist the devil? Do we resist him? Do we make a stand right there and say, ah, it's no use. I fail at this time and time again. He knows to get me here. He knows I'm weak. What's the use? James is saying, let's make a stand. Resisting. And it's a commandment with a promise. Right? It says, resist the devil and he will flee from you. That's a problem. Resist the devil, one, and he will flee from you. What's that saying? Is that saying that if we don't resist the devil, he won't flee from us? Looks that way, doesn't he? So these problems, these issues, these sins that easily beset us, James telling us perhaps we need to draw a line in that sand and say, you're not going to get me today. You may get me tomorrow, but you're not going to get me today because I'm going to resist. Number three, draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Another one with promise. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Do you believe that? Do you believe that if you will draw near to God and it starts with you? Then he will draw near and come near and be with you. Do you believe it? Here! Because I can prove it scripturally.

Zechariah 1 verse 3 says what? Return to me and I will return to you. God is saying, return to me and I will return to you. Do you remember the prodigal son? The story of the prodigal son? Where God, the man pictured, when there was picturing God, ran, ran to his son, right? But who moved first? Was the father always looking? Yes. But the son, the son repented and turned and came to his father. Draw near to me, draw near to God and he will draw near to you. He's saying, I want you to draw near to me. Why don't you draw near to me? It's interesting, the Greek word for draw is actually helko. Helko, A-G-L-K-O. And it means to drag. To drag. And all of us, we've had to drag something across the yard where it's heavy or drag this or drag that. And it can actually be used literally or figuratively. See, sometimes we have to drag ourselves to work, don't we? Sometimes we have to drag ourselves to school, young people do. And sometimes we have to drag ourselves to church, don't we? Because we just had a bad week! It just went bad. Just let me lay in bed and just get over this. Because it all starts Sunday again, new week, I'm tired, I'm beat up! Oh no, I guess I should go to church. Well, I'm just going to get there at the last minute as soon as it's over with, I'm out the door. I'm just going to drag my tail to church and that's it.

Guilty many times. Tired, worn out, beaten up. But you know, many times I've gotten to church and my whole week changed. Just because I was around some of God's people. Just because there's something about when it's two or more gathered together in my name, I will be there, His Spirit is here, and all of a sudden, this room has God's Spirit. And it empowers you. I walk out feeling so much better. That's the same thing with God. Sometimes we have to drag ourselves to God. Right? I'm going to grab it. Let's go. You need to go in and pray. Now! Yeah, but I don't want to. Right? But sometimes we have to drag ourselves to God. Drag ourselves to Bible study. Then we start reading and with me it's two hours later. I'm like, Oh, I'm so glad.

Drag. If we will drag ourselves to God, He will drag himself to us.

If we don't want to be around Him, guess what? Yeah, He's not going to bug us. He's not going to go, Hey, wait a minute. Forget. Me. Me. See, it should be so important that sometimes we do have to force ourselves. But drag yourself. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you because it's the one with the promise. Does that mean if we don't draw near to Him, He won't draw near to us? Oof. That's scary thought. Don't want to go there. Fourth Commandment. Cleanse. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Pretty point blank here. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Well, you know, I mess up and I flub up and I make some mistakes. But why do you have to be in my face and say sinners? Because He says, cleanse your hands, you sinners. And the actual Greek word is katharizo. Katharizo. Which, that doesn't mean dusting off. It doesn't mean wiping something off. It means a real good, deep cleansing. Scrubbing. Real cleaning. Of your hand. You know, you've seen people wash their hands? You know, I like to go into a restaurant and if I go in the bathroom and there's a worker there, I want to see him just really cleaning his hands. Good. You know? And I remember two restaurants I, right now, I cannot go into. Because I went in there, here a guy comes out of the stalls and he's a worker and he doesn't even wash his hands and go straight out the door. I'm sorry. That leaves a lasting impression. Okay? Then I see him, he's just a busboy, but he's laying out the silverware. Makes that katharizo pretty clear. Deep cleaning. Okay? But it's an act of getting rid of the filth, getting rid of the unclean. It's the act of cleansing your actions. Okay? The priests wash their hands each and every time before they enter in the temple and come in before God. But it's interesting here because he says clean your hands, you sinners. Because Christ had actually talked about, well, wait a minute, the bowl. Why don't you clean the outside of the bowl but you don't clean the inside? Talking about our bodies? Minds? Minds? But in Psalm 24, verse 3 and 4, interesting, Scriptures here, as I wonder, James was thinking about these Scriptures. Because it says, who will ascend to the hill of the Lord or stand in the holy place? Kingdom of God. Verse 4 says, He who has clean hands and a pure heart. Clean hands and a pure heart. And he's telling us here, cleanse your hands, you sinners. Do we realize what he's saying here because he's talking to the very spiritually minded? Cleanse your hands, you sinners. He's talking about the outside of the bowl.

He's talking about the outside of this bowl. He wants people to be able to see that his spiritually minded people are clean. That means you're a tire. Okay? That can mean you're a tire. Haven't you seen it? Been to a feast site? Seen some 20-year-old young girl? Cut up to here? Cut down to here? Right, Paul? I know you've seen it. You've been to Florida feast sites? Okay?

Or maybe you've heard somebody's mouth? It's part of the cleaning of the outside. Cleanse your hands. Let's clean up our lives on the outside. Voger! Conversation! Foul mouth!

Clean the outside of the bowl. What about the eyes? You women can't tell me? You've even seen it at feast sites or anywhere else in our church and seen it? I think we did have it here. I don't think we do anymore.

Some guy looking like single or married women?

You know? God's people, women, single or married, shouldn't have to put up with that. Not in God's house. And I can tell you one thing. As long as I have this job, it won't be tolerated in this congregation.

This is a house of peace and love, and it's going to stay that way. It's amazing. Some of the things we've seen. I just remember. I know they told us when we went to Italy, the feast one year, one of the things they said, well, no matter where you're at, I mean, the men just googled, googled the women, and they'll whistle, and they'll even reach out and touch them. Okay? I didn't experience that, but I did see it.

I remember the old TV show. What was it? Laverne and Shirley. Remember that one? Laverne and Shirley, way back 20 years ago. And they had two characters named Lenny and Squeaky on there. Okay? Two guys. Just two losers. You know, always try and find women. And they actually, at the first of the show, they always had that thing where two girls would walk by and they'd go, you know, they were just so, you know, lust was just appearing. That's part of cleaning the outside. Yes, we men. Women, cleanse your hands, your sinners. Outside of the boat. Number five. To purify your hearts, you double-minded. Purify. The word there is agnizo. Agnizo. Which means to make clean, to sanctify, but it means to purify. Purify. To become pure. To make perfect. To become pure. I only know one way to become pure. And that's by the blood of Jesus Christ. So we've gone from the outside of the boat now, guess what? We're on the inside of the boat. Because what did he say earlier about He who has clean hands and a pure heart? Now we're talking about, let's clean the inside of the boat. Pure heart. Let's cleanse that heart. Let's cleanse that heart. And we all need to cleanse it, don't we? Every day. Two or three times, not a dozen times a day.

It says purify your hearts, because that's what God loves, right? He looks upon the heart. You double-minded. Why? Because God knows that sometimes in our hearts we even want to go and follow the world. We sometimes want to see that movie we really don't need to see. We want to read that article, that book, look at that billboard we really don't need to look at. And so we're pulled, and we have to make ourselves. I think about Joseph and Potiphar's wife. How long that had been going on to where she was just coming on to it. And now he just had to know and flee. Flee. And sometimes I cannot just turn my mind off. I have to get out of there. Maybe you don't. There's places I just have to flee, because it just won't work for me. And I have to make sure I purify my heart, because sometimes I can be double-minded. And I want to overcome that. That's why I think about that, as I mentioned one other time, in Jacksonville. At the zoo they have this little reptile called the Skink. S-K-I-N-K. Skink. And it's a lizard. Okay, it's a little lizard about like this, and it's got a head on one side, and it doesn't have a tail on the other. It's got another head on the other side. And so it's got a body with two heads. And so when you see it walking, I want to go this way. I want to go... Okay. Be double-minded. That's like us. We have to make sure. We have one head, one tail. And know that the head needs to leave the tail. Number six. Sixth commandment. Lament. And this is very interesting because we're going kind of deep here. Because James is going deep. And the actual word is... I spelled that wrong. Yes, I typed that in wrong. My fault. My type. My typing error. Because that's not tapia. It's taliporeo. That's supposed to be T-A-L. I didn't check my fault. The user had my assistant. She usually catches all those words. But it's taliporeo. T-A-L-A-I-P-O-R-E-A. Taliporeo for lament. And it means to recognize one's wretchedness. To recognize one's wretchedness. To realize one's own misery is what that word means. And the key part is... Recognize. Okay? We must see oneself for what you really are. And what you are not. Okay? That's where a lament is. That's why he uses this word. The process of repentance starts here. Because you have to realize you're a sinner before you can repent of your sins, right? You have to realize that, oh wait a minute, I did something wrong. How many times do I have to ask forgiveness for sins of omission just as much as commission? Sins that I didn't even know I committed. That I need God to point it out to me. Make sure. See, to be close to God, we have to come off our high horse. And submit. Come under. And ask him to help us realize the wretched man that I am. Now, do we walk around and as we go into these three next... these two or three words right here, do we just... okay, I need to feel bad all the time? No! But we're talking about coming before God in a repentant attitude where we want him to change us and bless us and encourage us and make us as we have never been before. Real change here. Real change. I remember a movie some guy said, I loathe myself. Been there before. And I began to realize how I'm not that great a guy.

Seventh commandment mourn. It's telling you to mourn. And the Greek word is pyntheo. Pyntheo. And it's interesting here because it means to grieve and the feeling or act of grieving. Pyntheo. Mourn. Now, what's interesting here is when you break the word down, it doesn't actually mean to cry. This word is describing the feeling that you felt. When you were grieving. Okay? Now, the deepest part of this is you've lost somebody close. Okay, I did my father. I did this past year. Did my nephew before that. And during that, that's the only way I can describe it because everybody here has lost someone or something very close to them. And so the word he's using to describe here is an attitude that we need to have when we come before him to repent of our sins and draw close to God. And if you remember it or maybe you're going through it even now, there is a gut feeling. There's this gut wrenching. You're not crying. You're not weeping. But there's just this knot in your stomach. It just doesn't feel right. You're not yourself because you're mourning. And mourning takes time when there's a death. This is what James is trying to tell us. That with our sins, there needs to be this knot in our stomach till we get rid of it. We don't need to be carrying around sins inside of us. We need to truly mourn and lay them off. Get rid of them. And only God can take that feeling away. Grieve to mourn because it's inwardly. And yet, in a way, we need to put some of the sins in our lives to death. We need to move on from some. We need to mourn those sins and say they're gone. I'm not going to go back there again. I'm putting them to death, God. I need you to repair my heart.

Find number eight. Weep. Now, this is what word is actually pronounced, Cleo. Cleo. And it means to sob, to cry out loud, freely and unabated. See, I don't like crying in front of people. Don't do it. Try not to get choked up sometimes. That's why sometimes even movies, there are certain movies that I just watch. I watch them by myself. If I watch them, like The Passion of the Christ, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, movies that really choke me up, the tears will just float. It's interesting because when Christ cried, and we have just two that I recall off the top of my head, when He just let the tears float.

There's one Lazarus. Lazarus was dead. He was going to resurrect him, but he still felt it. And when he looked across the city of Jerusalem and he saw the future, he knew what was going to happen in 69 AD. And he wept. There are times when you come before God. Is it all the time? No. You don't need to be like one of these televangelists that get up every week. You know, God doesn't want to hear that. He wants to see that. He wants everything from the heart. But there are times when you have such sins and you struggle with them that you have to realize, I can't do this alone.

Help me. Help me. Help me get over this. As I had to fill God while I walked across my dad's farm after he died, you're going to have to help me get over this. Otherwise, I'm going to break up every time I see anything around this place that reminds me of him. That's how we need to be with our sins and God. He's a big part of this. He wants us to be a part of it. He wants to be involved. Sometimes we just have to cry out to him because we can't handle it ourselves.

Sometimes we need to weep. See, laughter and joy are not evil. But when we meet God as sinners, it demands a serious repentance rather than a half-hearted celebration. The ninth commandment is change or turn. It says, let your laughter be turned to morning and your joy to gloom. The word is metastrepho. Metastrepho turned or changed. And it means you turn. Turn across. That's your Greek word. It means pervert because you're perverting the line.

You're going this way and then you turn this way. Figuratively corrupt. It means 180-degree turn like repentance. Let your laughter be turned to morning and your joy to gloom. You know, most people want happy times all the time. Let's fun, fun, fun. Let's just entertain ourselves. That's why we love entertainers. That's why we want to have these things on our iPhones or iPads or anything else. So, I mean, if you watch, people are just... they don't want to sit and meditate or think about things, do they?

Do this. They're watching games, playing movies. Communicate. There's a time to laugh and a time to cry. Time to live and a time to die. There's a God towards, not mine. Drawing close to God, being humble requires serious contemplation. You really want to make change in your lives. You really want God to get into your life and put His big foot right in the middle of your life. It's going to require serious change.

It's going to require a relationship with God that you've never had or dreamed about before. That's what He wants. He wants to put the big foot step right in the middle of your life. Do you want it? He wants you to have it. And finally, number 10. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up. The word humble there in Greek is tapenou.

Tapenou. And it means to depress, to bring love. Do we? Do we abase ourselves? And it says, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up. One question. That's the one with the promise, too. Humble yourselves and He will lift you up. Does that mean if you don't humble yourself? Well, guess what? He ain't going to lift you up.

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord. Is there a time when you're not in the sight of the Lord? If you come up with that, explain that to me because I haven't figured that one out yet. Because I'm always at this sight. He's always watching over me. So He always wants me to humble myself and not have to be the big shot. Not have to be the important one in the conversation. Not have to be the one that says, look at me. And you see, then He will lift you up. Lift you up to where? Eventually, into His realm. The Spirit will when He returns because everybody's going to be lifted up His. Change at the moment of twinkling and I. But what about now? You see, God wants to do something for you now. But it requires humility. Chances are you've never even touched. Touch the places that He wants to take you. James is wanting to teach you. He laid out His Ten Commandments. Very important. I consider these commandments are like 24 karat gold. A year ago. Something that we can spend time on. Something you can think about and even memorize. And it'll help you all the rest of the days of your life. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Hope you'll continue to study, James. There's so much there. There's so much richness in that book. And it's all written for us. The spiritual mind. The ones God's called.