Resist the Devil, Draw Nigh to God

How many of you can count to four? I think probably almost all of us here in this room, except for the babies, could go 1, 2, 3, 4. Can you count to four twice? 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. I think most of us could.

Well, if you can say four and four, you can remember this sermon. Just think of four and four. You will remember this sermon, and you will remember the main theme of the sermon. Let's go over to one of the fours, Genesis 4. Genesis 4. We're going to be basically in two chapters today. We'll sneak out of them here and there. But I want you to pick up the story in Genesis 4, verse 3.

And you read here, this is a story about Cain Nabal. And let's notice, verse 3 says, In the process of time it came to pass, the Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. So he got some vegetables together. I assumed he washed them off, brought them up to God. So here's his offering. And then in verse 4, we find Abel also brought to the firstborn of his flock, and they're fat. And the Lord respected, now notice the wording here, Abel and his offering. Too often we read that and we say, well, God respected his offering. But notice it says, God respected Abel and his offering. What he did offer up. He had a great deal of respect for him. Now the word respect means to regard with favor. So you look very favorably upon Abel.

But let's go on with the story. But he did not respect Cain. Now notice, it doesn't say he did not respect his offering, which he doesn't, but it said he did not respect Cain and his offering. So both of them. So there was something that Cain was doing when he brought his offering, and possibly prior to that, that he fell out of favor with God. God did not favor him, did not hold him in esteem. He did not respect him. And Cain was very angry and his countenance fell.

Now let me just ask you a question. What would you do if God came down and said, I'm not pleased with you. I don't like you. I don't like what you're doing. You fell out of favor with me. Would you get angry with God? Or would you fall on your face and say, please, show me. What am I doing wrong? Where am I falling short? I thought I was doing okay, but evidently I'm not. Cain didn't ask God why he was displeased. What should I do differently? How can I change? He didn't ask any of that. He just got angry. How dare you accept my brother and his offering over me and my offering? That's all he could look at. There was a comparison going on here between Cain and Abel on the behalf of Cain. Verse 6, so the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? Why has your countenance fallen? You could just look at his face and his countenance fell. He was unhappy.

If you do well, verse 7, key verse, if you do well, will you not be accepted? If you do not do well, sin lies at the door, and its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.

Let's analyze verse 7, because I think verse 7 is a key for us as we enter into the Days of Unleavened Bread. We're focusing on putting sin out of our life, putting righteousness in. What should we do? Figuratively speaking, we put the sin out before the Days of Unleavened Bread, did we not?

We went around, we cleaned our houses, and we got all the leavening out. Then we took the Passover. Now we ought to be putting righteousness in our lives. We should be doing what's right along that line. So God said, if you do well, if you do what's right, so there were moral standards, moral values that God had. He said, if you do what is right, what is well, you will be accepted. You will be favored. You will be exalted or lifted up, as the word means. So God says, that's how I will lift you up, how you will find favor with me.

If you do not do well, he says, sin lies at the door. Okay, sin. We're only in chapter 4, and the Bible is already discussing sin. So sin was back there from the very beginning.

And Cain, here, he very clearly says, that if you don't do well, then sin lies at the door. So there was a standard. There was a standard that sin was measured by at this time.

Actually, in the Hebrew, the word sin here means an act or feeling that transgresses something that is forbidden. Something required by God's law or character, whether in thought, feeling, speech, or action. Meaning, you can sin in your thinking. You can sin in your feelings. If you get so angry, you get bitter with somebody else in your feelings, in your speech, in your actions, your deeds, what you do, how you act. Now, notice he goes on to say that sin lies at the door. The word there means it's lurking at the door. It's hovering at the door waiting for you. Lies and wait, in a sense, to ambush you. As soon as you step out the door, I gotcha. And so it's waiting there to grab you, ambush you, and to jump on you. But then he goes on to say, and its desire is for you.

Where desire here means longing, it's a very strong emotion or feeling. It means to desire to have or to dominate. So sin wants to rule us, wants to dominate us, wants to control us, wants to lead us astray.

Sin can have strong urges, as the word implies here. It has strong urges, strong desires or pulls. Have you ever been tempted by something such as a wonderful, beautiful dessert? You see this beautiful cake or whatever it might be, and it's something that you love.

It's your weakness. You know you shouldn't eat it. You just gained 10 pounds. And you're trying to lose weight, and you see this beautiful cake. What do you do? You eat an extra big piece of it, right? You're tempted by it. The urge overwhelms you. You gotta have it. Well, that's the way sin is. It wants to dominate us, wants to rule over us, and it's an urge. We have what the Bible calls, the pulls or the desires of the flesh, of the eyes, and the pride of life. Those are the things that we contend with. And then he says, but notice, but you should rule over it. Now, there's the hope. There's the promise. That you and I can rule over it. What's it? Over the sin, over the urges, over the desires. You and I can rule over it. The word rule means to govern, control, be in charge, have authority over.

You and I can rule over. We don't have to be a whimpering pup or puppy dog down here in you. That's just cowering. We can stand up and be a man and a woman and be in charge. We can rule over. So we find that God says it is possible for man to rule over sin.

But no explanation is given in Genesis 4 on how to do that. It just says, you should. You should be able to do this. Let me read a couple of translations. Good news, Bible translation says this. If you've done the right thing, you will be smiling. But because you've done evil, sin is crouching at the door.

It wants to rule you, but you must overcome it. You must overcome it.

And then the basic Bible in English. If you do well, will you not have honor? And if you do wrong, sin is waiting at the door, desiring to have you. But do not let it be your master. Don't let sin master you. You master it. You rule over it. Now we find in verses 8 and 9 that Cain did not follow God's instructions. He disobeyed. He got angry with his brother. All he could see was his brother. God liked his brother. Don't like me. I get rid of my brother. Maybe God will like me. And so he goes out and murders his brother. Sin did overpower him. His hatred for his brother got the best of him. Now notice what his problem was back in 1 John chapter 3. 1 John chapter 3 verses 11 and 12. This is not the second chapter 4. We're in 1 John 3, 11 now. This is the message that you heard from the beginning that we should love one another. That's the very message from the very beginning. God dealing with Cain and Abel. God dealing with Adam and Eve. From the very beginning, going all the way back to where God created the angels. From the very beginning, you've heard that we should love one another. Not as Cain, verse 12, who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. Why did he murder him? Why let him to murder his brother? Because his works were evil and his brothers were righteous. Now you find that many times when somebody does what's right that other people dislike you because you're doing what's right. And it's a reflection on them and it makes them feel guilty. So his works were evil. Now the Bible doesn't tell us everything that Cain did, does it? We get a glimpse here in chapter 4 of his dealings. But the Bible says clearly here that his works were evil and that he was of the wicked one, that's Satan the devil. That he was influenced by the devil. He was influenced by the devil to murder. Who is the author of violence, wars, conflict, stubbornness, self-absorption, sin? Satan the devil, he's there and he's there to influence man. And so chapter 4 shows us basically a cross-section of history because the precedent was set there. The way man has dealt with his brother was set there. And over the years, you got it, I want it, I take it. That's basically what man has done. And if I have to go to war to get it, I'll take it. If I have to kill you, I'll kill you, I'll take it. And so you find society based upon the get principle. But there's another chapter in the Bible that explains what we need to do to overcome sin.

What we need to do to defy the influence of the devil and not be of the wicked one, but to be of God. It's also a chapter 4, as we should see. So it should be easy to remember. It's the fourth chapter of the book of James. Now, Genesis, there's an easy way to remember this. Genesis is the first book in the Bible. And chapter 4. Now, the first book in the general epistles, general epistles are all those besides Paul's, is James.

So, first book, first book. Chapter 4. Chapter 4. And you can remember it. Now, God plainly said that man should rule over sin. And he provides a way for that. But most of humanity is cut off from God today, does not understand how to go about doing this. God has made it possible for us to overcome and to resist the devil. This is the very positive aspect of the days of Unleavened Bread, to become righteous. How to stay close to God. How to overcome sin. How to stand firm against the devil. How to resist the desires of sin. How to grow. How to overcome.

Now, it's interesting, I'm talking here, I'll turn back to the book of James. The book of James has 54 imperatives. Now, you say, what is an imperative? An imperative is a grammar term used to express a command or a request.

And the verb form is used to give an order. We use it all the time. Shut the door. Take your shoes off. Be quiet. I mean, those are the type, those are all imperatives. It's a command, but there's a verb in Bob. You're to do something. You're being ordered to do something.

Well, in James 4, verses 7 through 10, out of the 54 imperatives in the book of James, 10 of them are mentioned here in these verses. They are, number one, submission to God. Number two, resist the devil.

Number three, draw an eye to God. Number four, clean your hands. Blend your hands. Number five, purify the heart. Number six, lamentation. Number seven, mourn. Number eight, weep. Number nine, turn or repent.

Number ten, humble yourself in the sight of God. Now, as we go through chapter 4 here, we'll find that there are many parallels in chapter 4 of the book of James and also in the fourth chapter of Genesis. Let's begin in verse 1.

Verse 1, right away we will notice one parallel. Where do wars and fights come from among you? Where did the war and fighting, the murder, the violence come from when Cain killed Abel? So where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires? Your lust. What the word desire? Lust is an inordinate desire or a wrong desire. We have desires. Nothing wrong with your hungry, wanting to eat, thirsty, to get water. Nothing wrong in loving your family, your wife, your children, working, doing all those things. It's only when it's wrong, when it steps outside of the boundaries of what God has said is right, such as stealing or murder or committing adultery and those type of things. It goes on to say here, do they not come from the desire for pleasures that war in your members? Now, Cain was at odds with his brother. There was a strife. There was a conflict that took place. Cain was willing to murder. Now, you and I don't murder today, do we? Well, the Bible says if you hate your brother, you're guilty of murder. All of us, from time to time, have looked down on others, hated them, despised them. Remember in Genesis 4 what God told Cain? Sin wants to rule over you. That's what he's talking about here. Conflict and strife. Notice the CEV translation of verse 1. Why do you fight and argue with each other? Isn't it because you are full of selfish desires? See, self-centered desires remind you of what Jacob said. Our Jacob, not Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but what our Jacob said. Selfish desires, where we wake up, and our thoughts are on whom? Well, they automatically gravitate towards the self. That fight, notice, to control your body. God says sin wants to rule over you. Here, they fight to control your body. Who's going to be in control? Who is in control of your mind, of your thoughts, of your feelings, of your actions? Do you just give vet to those things? The ESV translation says, What causes quarrels and causes fights among you? Is it not that your passions are at war within you?

There's a war going on. There's a battle going on. Good news translation says, They come from your desires for pleasures, which are constantly fighting within you. So again, a struggle taking place. Then finally, the ISV says, Why do these fights and quarrels among you come from? Where do they come from? They come from your selfish desires that are war in your bodies. Don't they? So he puts an emphatic, Don't they? That's where they come from, he's saying. There is a war going on within us. Now, can you think of a chapter in the Bible where that war is described? I think all of you probably can. What about Romans 7? Romans 7, verse 21, was this notice. Hold your place here. We'll be back eventually. Romans 7, verse 21, notice, I find then a law that evil is present with me. You were converted to receive God's Holy Spirit, had all of your past sins forgiven. Human nature didn't disappear. You're still human. You still have desires. You can still be influenced. And so you find, here's the Apostle Paul. By this time, Paul had been an apostle 25, 30 years. And he says, I find a law that evil is present, not with you, but he says with me. So, you know, I can read that and I can say, me, with every one of us, the one who wills to do good. Now, do we not will to do good? Do we not want to do good? Do we not pray to do good? Do we not ask God to help me to be good? Help me to do what's right? Help me to do what's well in your sight? Verse 22, For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. In my mind and my heart, I agree with God's law. I believe it's wonderful. It's beautiful. It's what I should do. But I have this war going on, he says. But I see another law in my members warring against the law in my mind. Remember what God said in the Old Testament? Sin wants to rule us and that there is a strong urge or desire there. I find this warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity. See, a slave ruling over into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. So what's his solution? He says, oh, wretched man that I am!

Who will deliver me from this body of death? Who's going to save me? How will I be delivered? See, that wasn't answered in Genesis 4, but now we get the answer here. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God. See, I'm going to serve God's law, both the flesh and the law of sin. There is still going to be that struggle there. To the day you die, you will still struggle against sin. Satan will still try to undermine you. You still have desires of the flesh and desires of the mind. Still have pride that you've got to contend with. Now, this explains sometimes why there's strife in the church, strife among members. Why sometimes in a marriage we don't get along with one another. Why Cain was willing to kill his brother Abel. Simply because there's this struggle going on, and God gives us a way. He gives us the way to overcome it. He tells us how to overcome that strife. Now, let's back up again to the book of James. James 4. And we'll begin to pick up the story in verse 2. Verse 2, we find there are three levels of wrong desires mentioned in this particular verse. That doesn't mean that's all of them. But three are mentioned here. You lust and you do not have. So you lust, the word lust there, do not have means to crave, to have an intense desire for some particular thing. And so you give in to that lust. But this notice, it goes on to say, number two, you murder and covet and cannot obtain. So a person takes it a little further. They lust. And not only do they lust, but they carry out that lust. They murder.

And they're willing to lie, cheat, steal, kill to obtain what they want. And then, he goes on to say here, in verse 2, says, Yet you do not have, well, let's back up, you lust and you do not have, you murder and covet and cannot obtain, you fight and you war. So people then are willing to go to war to obtain what they want and to get what they want. Yet you do not have because you do not ask, God says. Do not ask.

Why do people not go to God and ask God for what our needs are? Do we lack food? Do we go to God and ask God to give us food? If we lack clothing, do we go to God and ask God to help us? If we're running short on money, do we go to God and say, God, help me? I'm striving to obey you. I'm your servant. I'm doing what you tell me. Seek you first, the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And all these things will be added, God tells us. So do we believe that. You see, if we believe God, we believe His word, then God will add those things. Instead of asking God, what do the nations do? What does the average person do? Instead of obeying God, submitting to God, people take matters into their own hands. So you see a riot. And I'll just cite one case and point. You know, years ago there were the L.A. riots. Some of you were not alive at that time, so you don't remember the L.A. riots, where they practically burned down part of the city. And what were the riots about? Well, they were going in, including stores and burning stores. And it supposedly was over a man, in this case a man of color, being mistreated. Same thing happened in Ferguson. You find people stealing and robbing. Same thing happens in war. People go to war, and they take what other nations have. They steal, and they loot. You and I must walk by faith. We must walk by faith and not by sight. We must trust God. The word amissed, notice in verse 3, you ask, you do not receive, because you ask amiss.

That you may spend it on your pleasures, on your lust, on your wrong desires. The word amiss here means wrong. It can be translated selfish or wrongly. The C-E-V translation of this says, Yet even when you pray, your prayers are not answered. Why sometimes are our prayers not answered? Because you pray just for selfish reasons. Notice how often the word self comes up, for selfish reasons. The S-V says, you ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. See, on your wrong desires. And then when you ask, you do not receive it, because your motives are bad. Another translation. You ask for things to use for your own pleasure. Now we should ask God to take care of our needs, right? But we also should be praying for others.

And so he shows that part of their problem they were asking amiss. Now verse 4, very interesting scripture that many times we don't stop to think about. Adulteras and adulteresses. Now why would he call them that? Adulteras and adulteresses. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Makes himself an enemy. Adulteras and adulteresses. Now the whole concept here in this verse, and this is from William Bartley's commentary on the lectures of James and Peter. He says the whole concept is based on the common idea in the Old Testament that God was the husband of Israel. And Israel was the bride of God. The idea that God was the husband and the nation of Israel as a wife explains why in the Old Testament it constantly expresses spiritual infidelity in terms of physical adultery.

When God described the nation rebelling, going off, what did he say? After other lovers. That they would trust other nations instead of depending upon God for their protection. They would go to other nations for help instead of looking to God to help them, to bless them in their crops and these types of things. So the idea was that God was their husband and the nation of Israel the wife. The parallel picture is true in the New Testament with the perception that the church is the bride of Christ or the fiancé bride of Christ. And if we disobey or not faithful to Him, to our engagement to Him, then we are called spiritually adulterers and adultresses. Just like ancient Israel was. Now how do we become spiritually adulterers? Well notice, do you not know that the friendship with the world is enmity with God? Now what is the world and what is the friendship of the world? 1 John 2, 15 and 16. Again, we'll come back to James. 1 John 2, 15 says this, Do not love the world. That's an imperative. Do not love the world. Or, the things of the world. Does that mean that God doesn't want you to have clothes, shoes, cars, houses? Obviously, that's not what He's talking about. What does He mean, the things of the world? If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, He says, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but He is of the world. So when He's talking about the world, He's talking about the system of this world that is based upon human pride, human ego. That we can do it. We don't need help. We don't believe there is a God. Nobody's going to tell me what I can do. So you have the lust of the flesh, and then you have the lust of the eyes. And I can eat anything I want to, I don't care for it. Wiggles, squiggles, smells, whatever. I'll eat it. I'll do whatever I want to.

The Bible is very clear on what we should do. But here you find that in verse 4 again, back in James chapter 4, that the friendship of this world is enmity with God. The word enmity means hostility.

Emmity, hatred, hostility. And it actually comes from the Hebrew, or Greek word, I should say. This is 2189, and the word enemy here is 2190. And enmity comes from the word, basic Greek word, for enemy.

Enmity and enemy. And the word enemy means hatred, odious, hateful, hostile, opposing one another. Someone that you oppose. So God says here in verse 4, that the friendship with the world is hostility against him.

It means that to disobey God is like breaking the marriage vows in a marriage, where a man or a woman is not faithful to his mate. It means that all sin is against the principle of love, of the love of God. It means that our relationship with God is not like a distant relationship that you have just with a king or a subject, master, ruler, but it is to be an intimate relationship, like a husband and a wife. For there's a closeness, there's a bond, there's intimacy there. And you and I are to have that type of a close relationship with Jesus Christ and with God the Father. Now beginning in verse 6, there are four major steps outlined here in verses 6 through 8 that tell us how to overcome sin. And let's read them here in verse 6.

So the four major steps are, one, humble yourself before God. Two, submit to God. Three, resist the devil. And number four, draw near to God.

So let's take a look at these four points quickly because these are the points that God has given to us to show us how to overcome sin and what we need to do to start with. The world right now is in conflict with the Father, with His standards, His values, His way of life. The flesh fights against the Holy Spirit and the devil opposes God. And so you see a world today in total rebellion against God. Every time I turn the news on and I hear some other, for one of the better terms, stupid thing being done, I think, how can God watch that? You get so angry at what's going on in society in this world. And how can people do that? But it's just the way the world is headed. Pride is Satan's greatest sin and is the chief weapon in his warfare against the saints. Satan the devil will appeal to you, pride. I'm not being treated properly. I'm not being treated fairly. And now we've got atheists suing, and they just passed a regulation, I think, in one city in Wisconsin, where, you know, you can't discriminate against an atheist. So everybody's afraid of being discriminated against today. So they're pushing to pass laws in all cities, all states, federally, to make it a crime to, you know, not, you know, like atheists, I guess. And, you know, that you cannot have any wrong feelings against them. Christian, Christian values, Christian standards, those are sacked all the time. You know, what we believe in doesn't matter. It's just what, you know, Satan wants. So his chief weapon against the saints is pride. God desires humility. Satan wants us to be proud, does he not? He wants us to be proud. The Bible warns a new Christian. Must not be put in the place of spiritual leadership. In 1 Timothy 3, 6, when it says, about ordaining someone, Let's be lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. So what was the devil's problem? He got lifted up with pride. Have we ever seen politicians be put in the position of power and authority prematurely? I don't know if there's ever an opportunity, but somebody has certainly been around the block for a while, knows, you know, how things should be run. He's certainly going to do things much better and probably have less of that problem and somebody who's done very little and all the ones he's given a big position and responsibility. That's probably true of all levels. But notice here in verse 6, but he gives more grace. Therefore, God resists the proud.

God wants us to depend upon His grace. As it says, He gives more grace. Now, God extended His grace to us when we were forgiven of our sins. But God gives more grace. While the devil wants us to depend upon ourselves, God wants us to depend upon grace. The word grace, charis, or charis in the Greek, you know, sometimes the only definition we give to it is unmerited pardon. That's part of it. But the word means to do with favor, kindness, friendship, benefit, gift, being gracious, joyful, the morality, pleasure, thanks. God wants to give us greater blessings, both spiritually and physically. So we have to depend upon His grace. That's where it comes from, from God's grace. He wants to extend favor toward us. Remember in the Bible, it says Jesus Christ grew in favor with God and man. God wants to extend favor to us. God gives us benefits. God gives us gifts. There are benefits from obeying God, especially spiritually, and God will give us spiritual gifts. God is our friend. He wants a deep relationship with us. We are His sons and His daughters, so He wants a family relationship with us. Christ is looked upon as potentially, we're the bride, He's the one we will marry. So there is this type of intimate relationship. Humility has to do with our relationship with God, but it affects our relationship with everybody else. Our relationship with God. In other words, we don't think too highly of ourselves. We realize, compared to God, we're nothing. We're a worm. We're dropping a bucket. We're the small dust on the balance. But if we're humble, it's going to affect how we treat our brother, how we treat our wife, how we treat our children, how we treat our fellow employees. All of that will be there. We must be humble. This is the attitude that must be the foundation of all of our actions. Everything we do must be based upon humility. When Jesus Christ came to the earth, Philippians 2, what does it say? It says, He humbled Himself and came to this earth. He divested Himself of His glory, of the divine existence, and the power that He had at that point as a spirit being. He came to the earth, grew up as a baby, a child, and then as a man, and died for our sins. Allowed mankind to abuse Him, ridicule Him, torture Him, and He did it for us. So what was the foundation that motivated Him? It was humility. It wasn't pride. We didn't stand up and say, you can't do this to me. Do you know who I am? And try to strike back at them. That was not His motive. It implies humility in regards to our own capacity and relationship to God. And what are we compared to God? It doesn't mean that we have a lack of the Holy Spirit, or gifts, or talents, or abilities, or drive, or ambition. We must have all of those things. It recognizes our need for God and that spiritual blessings and needs come from God. Everything that we do must flow from this approach and this attitude. Humility is a key to receiving more grace. You want God to extend more grace to you, more benefits, more blessings, then it comes from humility. Humility is also the key to overcoming pride. If we have pride and vanity, guess what? The more humble we become, the less of that we have.

Now, let's notice in verse 7, Therefore submit to God. You and I are to submit to God. The word submit here is a military term. That means to get into your proper rank. Get into rank. You're marching. You get into the file. Be subject or to be placed in an arrangement under. You're under somebody. It means you have given unconditional surrender and obedience to the only way that can lead to victory.

For us to have victory over sin, we must submit to God. We must submit to Him. What happens in the military when a soldier refuses to follow orders? You're out in the battlefield and you're told, Charge! You run the opposite way. That's called desertion. And in battle, you probably get shot in the back. That's what they do with deserters. Because desertion will undermine the whole battalion or division. You see somebody running, they're fearful, you get fearful. No, you can't do that.

Disobedience is not tolerated. If there's any area of our life that we keep back from God, that's the area that we're going to have to do battle in, isn't it? The area that we say, I've overcome on a scale of 1 to 100, I think 90%. But I've got this little 10% over here that I'm... I'll just compromise a little bit with that. Well, it doesn't work that way.

God has to come first in our life. Is that not what we said when we were baptized? That we put God first? If you love father, mother, sister, brother, your own life more than me, what does God say? Well, we're not worthy. So we have to relinquish and give up our way and obey God. We follow His orders, His leadership, His command. God is the Commander-in-Chief. He's in charge. He says, this is what we do. This is how we do it. And so we do it how He tells us.

So this explains why uncommitted Christians, what is called being double-minded, being uncommitted or double-minded, are unstable in all their ways. Because they simply cannot live with themselves and other people. They don't know. They say, well, I know this is what I need to do, but... They're always wrestling back and forth with what they should do. If the Bible says it, it's clear. That's what we do. And we obey God. We do what He tells us to do. They claim to follow God, a double-minded person, but they don't know which way to go. It's back and forth, back and forth.

The way to resist the devil, guess what? Is to submit to God. You submit to God, you resist the devil. The way to resist the devil is not to follow His ways, not to follow His path. Don't go that way. Submission is an act of will. An act of will. It's saying, not my will, but yours be done. Can you remember anybody saying that? Well, Jesus Christ did.

When He came right up to the hour, when He was about to be crucified, He told the Father, not my will, but yours be done. However, if there's another way of drinking this cup, let's do it. He wasn't saying, I'm not willing to die, but do I have to go through all of this suffering and beating?

And God said, yes. So how do we resist the devil and draw nigh to God? How do you go about doing that? Well, to resist for us, let's take a look at resisting the devil. For us, as believers, it's a matter of life and death. It's a matter of life and death with us. It's not a trivial matter. This has to do with your private thoughts and your personal morality in light of your obedience to God's Word. If you resist the devil, remember what it says here, resist the devil, and what will happen? He will flee from you.

He's going to flee. He's going to get out of there. So if we don't want the devil hanging around, resist him. Resist the devil and he will flee. The word resist means to take a stand against, the battle against, to oppose.

If we take a stand against the devil, he will flee. Remember in Ephesians 4, 27, I'll just refer to a line out of that verse. Ephesians 4, 27, we're caution to neither give place to the devil. Remember the invasion of Normandy when the Allies came ashore? This vast Eremada, the cross-English channel, under the shores of France? And what were they trying to do to establish a toehold, so to speak? They were trying to get a foothold on the beach, and so thousands were slaughtered right there on that beach because of the strong defenses that they got. But finally, they were able to make it to the hills, scale, go up, and to destroy the pillboxes and all of that that the enemies had.

Satan the devil is the same way. He's looking at our lives, and he's trying to find a beach, someplace where he can get a toehold, a foothold, where he can come ashore, where he can say, Oh, ha! Now I've got a little space to work here. Now, how do we do that?

Well, in battle, when you're battling an enemy, you don't fight the enemy unless you fight him. If you don't stand up to him, he will overwhelm you. He will overwhelm you. You'll lose the battle. We give in too often to lust, to temptation, to pride and vanity. We must recognize the enemy and resist him. If you fight him, he will flee. So you must fight the enemy in order to win the battle.

You can't just be passing. I don't like him. He'll go away. No, you've got to fight him. You've got to resist him. Compromise and the appeasement will not work. You will be overwhelmed. How did Jesus resist the devil? Remember, he went in St. Lockthorn's, Matthew 4, Luke 4, and describes him being tempted. Well, number one, he had fasted 40 days and 49s.

Now, that's not a formula for you. You and I can fast. We're not going to do it for 40 days. The point was he was close to God, was he not?

He had taken the time to pray and study and be close to God. He was able to quote scripture to the devil. The devil would say one thing, misquote a scripture. Christ would come back and say, well, don't you remember? It says you're not to worship anyone but God. And then he would go on and quote scripture back to him. Now, you and I may not always remember all the scriptures. Those scripture cards that many of you have would be good to go over those again and make sure you memorize a certain amount of scriptures.

But the principles, the values, the standards, all of that should be there. And it gives us ammunition. And when the lion comes around, we're loaded for bear. And when a temptation comes up, a temptation to steal something, the first thing that should pop into our mind, thou shall not steal. You're to love God, you're to love your neighbor. And then many other principles would probably pop up.

You've got something that you can pull into your mind and think about. This is where Satan works. This is where he attacks us at our weak points. Satan is described as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. You know who a lion goes after? He goes after the weakest.

If you're weak, a lion pack will attack a newborn baby as opposed to a fully developed impala or gazelle, something of that nature. We have to resist in the faith the Bible tells us back in 1 Peter 5, verses 8 and 9.

We can never defeat the tempter if we're loners. The animal cut off from the herd has no chance. Our strength is in the herd, in the body, in the body of Christ. We're often our own. We're easy pickings to become discouraged or despondent. We can't overcome him if we give in a little. We have to think about it. We've got to listen to our leader, to the commander in chief, and follow him. So the way to conquer a temptation is to attack the cause of the temptation, not just the effect. Don't just deal with the penalty. Deal with what's causing this. Let me give you an example.

You get another paycheck and it goes by and you haven't saved your festival tie. You feel guilty and you get down and you pray. I'm just not doing this. I don't save my festival tie the way that I should. Well, why not set up an automatic deposit so that when you get paid, your paycheck comes to you in your bank account and the tie goes to a checking account. So it's automatically taken out. That way, it's not a temptation for you to spend it. It's there. It's already been set aside. So we need to think about the things that are tempting us. How can we deal with them? How can we overcome them?

How do you resist Satan? You resist him by not giving in to what he stands for. Not giving in to what he believes in. There are many things that should be obvious to us. What about the politics, the governments of this world? The Bible clearly tells us not to get involved in the politics of this world.

So we don't get involved in that. What about his religions or his way of life? We don't get involved in that. His approach to sex. We don't get into perversion. What about the culture that is influenced by wrong values, wrong motives? There are things like movies and books and so on today that we know that are wrong. And if we say, well, it won't hurt me to watch a little pornography or to see a little of this or a little of that, yes it does. Each time you compromise, you weaken yourself. So if you see that it's a wrong influence of the culture, of the society, of the social media around us, you don't go that way. There are ideas circulating around today about what is fairness, tolerance, diversity that we hear so much about today. And most of those are simply a way of life to where people get their own way. What to practice evil and have it accepted is basically what it comes down to. So we resist the devil, but notice going on here. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. So how can we be so close to God? You draw an eye to Him. You get close to Him. How do we do that? We do it through prayer. It's one way. We must come before God in desperate, believing prayer, telling Him that with all of our heart we want to approach Him, obey Him. We do it through repentance, asking God to forgive us and helping us to be restored to a right relationship with God. Notice verse 8 here. It says, draw near to God, He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands.

He goes on to say to you sinners, purify your hearts, you double-minded. So what are we supposed to do? The hands symbolize action. What we do, our action, our works. Whereas the heart symbolizes the purity, what's going on inside of us, our mind, our thinking, our motives, our desires.

And then it talks about, again, being double-minded. We've already addressed that. Drawing near to God is not a statement of how close you are in proximity. God's in the third heaven. You and I are on the earth. As far as I know, there are billions of light years between us.

Neerness to God is being like God, being near to Him, His values. The more we're like God, the nearer we are to God. This is a statement about the orientation of our minds, of our hearts, that we're to saturate our thoughts with God's mind, His word, to what God says. Think about it. Meditate it all the time.

Where does our mind live? Where does it live? Where is it? We need to guard our mind. We can all be influenced by the internet, temptations, cultures, society around us. We need to take time every day to pray, to study. We need to be purified before God.

The word purified here, if you'll notice, cleanse your hand, you sinners, and purify your hearts. One of the meaning of purified means to make chase. It's like a wife being pure in chase with her husband. Again, coming back to the analogy of not being friends of this world.

You and I are to be chased before God in our actions, everything that we do, impure.

So we need to apply these principles. And I guarantee you, if we do, throughout this week, in the coming year, that we base our life on humility.

We resist the devil. We submit to God, we draw near to God, that we will see spiritual growth. Why was Cain not able to rule over sin when God told him that he should? Well, he did not resist the devil. The New Testament reveals he was of the wicked one. He was not humble. He thought his way was right.

He wanted God's grace, but he was not willing to obey God, to do what God says. His works were evil. He did not submit to God. He did not say, yes, sir. He did not take the steps to draw near to God. He did not follow God. Cain set the pattern for humanity, that all humanity has followed ever since. It is called in the Bible, the way of Cain. And the way of Cain is what is being practiced today in the world. It is his way. It is the way that was established before the flood, and it came through the flood in some of the descendants of Noah and their wives.

We are the children of God, and the Bible says we are to follow the way. What is the way of God? Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. We are to follow Christ in his example. So rather than the next year, we need to work on these four areas. Humility, resisting the devil, submitting, and drawing nigh to God. These four factors are the key to spiritual success, and one day hearing our Lord and Master saying, well done, good and faithful servant.