[Mr. Chuck Smith]: I have a sermon I want to give today that is entitled “The Two-step.” Do we have any dancers here? Yeah, we’ve got a few. Do you guys know the two-step? Yes? Well, I don’t. My wife had me take – or try to take – dancing lessons fifteen years ago, and it lasted about twice. And I wasn’t any better when I ended than when I started. But in country music, there’s a two-step and other dances. There’s a two-step. And it’s famous for those who like country music or various dances that way. And most people understand that. There’s also something called two-step math, two-step verification. So, there are a lot of two-steps in this world. I’d like to talk about that today – one two-step. But I’d like to look at how we view things as two-step with childhood. We have a childhood, and then we have an adulthood – two different times, two different steps in life, or stages in life. We also have this life and after this life. That’s a two-step process. We understand by studying God’s Word. That’s not my purpose for this message today.

But there is another one that does affect us, and that is BC and AC. Anybody know what BC and AC stands for? Before conversion and after conversion. Because it’s definitely a different world, isn’t it? It’s a different world for us. It changes the way we live. Before conversion, we look back and say, “I can’t believe I did that.” Or, we might even look and go, “I can’t believe I said that. I can’t believe I acted that way.” And then there’s AC – after your conversion. And as we understand conversion can be lifelong process, but after we receive God’s Holy Spirit, we’re not directed as much by the physical as by the spiritual. And that is something that we should enjoy, because God wants us to have successful lives. As a matter of fact, I think that is a big part of I think God inspired there to be an Old Testament and a New Testament – two steps. It’s a continuation of one book, but the New Testament takes the conversion level, our understanding, our teaching, up to another level, because we’re given a model that came to earth and modeled for three and half years how we should live, what we should do, how we should react and act.

But I want to talk about that Man that we know as the Christ. I want to talk about His brother – half-brother. He had four. But He had one half-brother, who, according to theologians, he was the next oldest to Christ. So he would have been born after Christ was by a couple years. And that half-brother is named James. I love the book of James. There’s one book written. Many of you know it. Many of you have read it. It’s an inspiring book. But it’s written from someone who grew up and saw the childhood of his older brother. And he saw adulthood of his older brother. It was a man, that when you read his writings and you go back and read in the Gospels, you’ll find that he was very antagonistic to his brother – didn’t believe in His walk until after Christ’s death. And then Christ appeared to him after His resurrection – to him directly. And his life was forever changed. It’s like when Christ comes into our lives. Our lives should be forever changed.

But James did something in his writings that I found magnificent. And I haven’t found it quite like this anywhere else in the Bible. And James gives us two steps – two very simple steps – to making it to the Kingdom of God. And that’s what his older brother said should be our goal. “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness…” And to seek that Kingdom of God takes, as James tells us – to simplify things – because sometimes it’s very good to have things simplified. Easier to remember. He gives us two steps. And those two steps – the magnificent two steps – comes out of one verse – one verse in the Bible. If you will take this, you can use this, and if you follow just this one verse, it will take you into the Kingdom of God. I say that without any wavering.

I’d like to go now, if you have your Bible – because we’re only going to a couple verses – because this one is so powerful. I’d like you to go with me to James 4:7. We have it here in the New King James and The New Living Translation. So let’s read it in the New King James.

James 4:7 – “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Sounds pretty simplistic, doesn’t it? And The New Living Translation: “So humble yourselves under God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Could it be that simple? One verse? To be Kingdom bound, just obeying one verse? Hmm. One verse with two parts.

Our Savior broke down the Ten Commandments into two. Simplified it. He was magnificent at doing that. Well, I think His brother got a little bit of that in him. And I’d like to look at that today. Because to us, James and all those who follow Christ, God wants us to win. And to win, we have to follow this direction.

There are no second options for us. We can’t call “time out” on our Christian lives and go, “Okay, I’ll take five years off and then I’ll get back.” No, He says, “He who puts his hand to the plow, and looks back” – and it isn’t just (turns around and face back), it’s turning back to the world – He says, “is not fit for the Kingdom of God.” It’s kind of like they have football games on tonight – the NFL – and tomorrow. And it’s the playoffs, for those football fans out there. It’s the playoffs. Win or go home. There is no game after this one if you lose. If you win, there’s another game next week, another game after that. With this game of life that we have here – and it’s not just a game of life – brethren, it’s a game of eternal life that He’s offering us.

So, I really want to look at this because the first step – two steps – the very first step in here is a scripture that he starts out with: submit to God. Does that sound easy? It sounds easy, but doing it is another thing. Submitting to God – have we? Do we? Most importantly, after today, will we? Will we submit to God? Okay, well, that’s simple. We close our Bibles. We can go home. Submit to God! But do we really understand what this means?

The word submit – has been translated submit – comes from the Greek word hupotasso. Hupotasso – hmm – hupo tasso. You might think about it, as I did, when in my theology class, I wanted to remember this from ten years ago – eleven years ago – about the word hupo. I thought, “How can I remember that? Hupo tasso – being I don’t speak Greek. And this in koine Greek, and it’s not even spoken that much anymore. But, in the Bible, hupo reminded me of hippo – hippopotamus. I remembered how they would be under the water. Most of the time, you would see a hippopotamus under water. That’s how I remembered it. Because huppo – part of the word – you also know it from the Latin, where they use it about submarines. Sub – this huppo – means under. So with a submarine, the word came from under marine life. So you’re under water. You’re under the marine life. But that’s submarine. Here, the word is huppotasso. Huppo means under – under – it’s like I’m under this lectern. But the tasso I found so interesting, because tasso means to arrange. To arrange. So this huppotasso means to arrange yourself under something. Arrange your lives – arrange yourself – under something. Like, if I arrange myself (I’m kind of big to get in here, and I’m afraid if I get in there, I can’t get out) but get under this, I would be under this lectern top. And by putting myself in there, I would arrange myself – arrange my life – so I put myself in there. So that’s what this huppotasso means when it is translated submit to God. So, submit to God means to arrange our lives under God. That’s simple to say, hard to do.

Do we arrange our lives everyday under God? That’s what He’s asking us to do. Submit – arrange ourselves under Him. I found it interesting, because whenever I do marriage counseling, I always go to Ephesians 5:22, which says, “Wives, submit to your husbands, as unto the Lord.” That’s what it actually says. So it means that the wife has to arrange her life under her husband. And I’ve had a few that said, “Uh, I don’t know if I like that one.” Well, what about the husband arranging himself under his wife? That’s not in there. A few verses down, it says – it doesn’t say, “Husbands, submit to your wives.” It says, “Husbands, love your wives even as Christ loved the Church.” And I think most of us can understand. And I also have people in the marriage counseling say, “Well, okay, I’m supposed to submit and he’s supposed to love?” I said, “Both in Christ.” I said, “The man, he has to live and love like Christ! He supposed to be like Christ. If you were marrying Christ, could you submit to Christ?” “Well, yes, but this man’s not like Christ!” Yes. Think about that. Because the wonderful thing about living at this time in life is that, typically in America – it may not be that way in some of the other countries – but typically most that I pastor, the man will ask the woman to marry him. That’s how most of them that I’ve worked with – counseled – the man came to her, and said, “I’d like to marry you.” I think I said that when I asked Mary to marry me. I can’t remember. It’s been so long ago now – 36 years. But that’s the big question, because that’s the beauty of it. Because it all ties back to these scriptures, whether you want to go to Ephesians 5, or if you want to go to 1 Peter. They talk about, and they use this word – Greek word – submit – huppotasso. Because God is saying that the woman – the wife – must submit to the husband. She must arrange her life under him.

Now, I know that flies in the face of some of the feminist movements out there today, but the beauty of it is, it’s all in the women’s hands. Because as I tell them, “Okay, read me what the verse says.” “Okay, submit.” “Can you submit to this man?” “Well, yes.” “Even when he’s wrong?” “Well, no.” I said, “But it says, ‘Arrange yourself under.’” But the thing that’s interesting here is that the woman should read this verse, and say, “I can arrange my life under you if you’re going to be like Christ.” Right? We have ladies here. You wouldn’t have a problem marrying somebody like Christ, would you? No, because you’d know all He does is love, and He’s caring, and you see that from the fruits of His life. Think about that.

That’s why I always tell young ladies, “It’s your job to see if he isn’t like love like Christ loved the Church if he doesn’t show that respect, if you do not see Christ in him, then don’t marry him. It’s your call.” The only problem is, they’re just like… “Oh, I’m in love with being in love,” and they say, “Yeah, oh well.” Or – I like this one – “I thought I could change him.” Have you ever heard that one before? “I thought I could change him. I know he had these problems, but I thought I could change him.” I see a few people laughing back there in the back. David, she really looked at you. But it’s in the women’s court. And that’s what’s so important, because yes, he asked you, but it’s your job to say, “You’re not like Christ.” And it’s the man’s job to act like Christ. And, if he’s doing that, I never have a problem submitting to this word of God. Now, doing it, I sometimes goof up, but I know I’m under authority of the word of God – because I know who God is. God set the husband to represent Christ, as Christ is the head of the Church.

So this huppotasso, submitting, is a very, very important thing. It’s how we get into the Kingdom of God. Because God is offering eternal life to those of who will arrange ourselves under Him. Because He’s going to have to live us and we’re going to have to life with Him for eternity.

Now, you know why a lot of marriages end today. It’s “I can’t live with him!” In fact, I attended a wedding back when I was in my 20s. I attended a wedding, and they had known each other for six months. They were young – in their 20s – and they got married. And a year later, they were divorced. I ran into her, and she said, “Oh, I just couldn’t live with him. I wasn’t in love with him anymore. I fell out of love with him.” Of course, they had no understanding. They didn’t even go to a church. They didn’t have any of this. So, to me, that’s why it’s so important that I don’t marry anyone unless I can counsel them first, and we can go through this to make sure. Because this is the second biggest step you’ll ever make in your lives – getting married. The first is marrying Christ, and becoming a bride, and receiving God’s Holy Spirit.

Peter says something also – and I don’t have this, because I just thought of it – 1 Peter 3 – I have that back here somewhere. I’ll have to look because I didn’t plan on going there. 1 Peter 3:1, it says… here’s Peter saying:

1 Peter 3:1 – “Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands.” So, not only did Paul say it in Ephesians, but Peter is saying this also. But he goes down in verse 7, and he says:  “Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, as being heirs…” Physically, being weaker. Spiritually, no. There’s a difference.

So, most women who have lost their husbands, or gone through a divorce, or anything else, they understand what it is to live with someone. And it can be tough, because we all have these little things – idiosyncrasies – that we have. But, if a husband shows honor to his wife, I mean, think about that. What does that word really mean? And when I read this to men, I say, “You have to honor her. That means you hold her up here – way up here. And, if you hold her up here, she will have no problem submitting to you, because you love her. She knows you love. This is what God wants us to do! Submit to God.

And James understood this. James understood just how important it was – that it starts with submitting to God. And that sounds so simplistic. It sounds like, “Okay that’s all I got to do?” Yes, but trying doing it for 40, 50, 60 years. I must say, it does get easier through the years, but you get more frustrated with yourself later on because of some hiccups that happen along the way. And you say, “I’m better than that, God.” And you talk to Him about it.

So, I’d like to look at something, though, because in this verse, it says, “Therefore, submit to God.” And then it says in verse 7… but before it says, “Submit to God,” it says, “Therefore.” Therefore – which means that’s a continuation of what is said just before it. Anytime there’s “therefore,” then you have to go back to verse that is before “therefore,” because all that is, is a continuation. So let’s look at that verse that was before it – in James 4:6. Then we’ll move on down. He says:

James 4:6 – “But He gives more grace. Therefore, He says, ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’” God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Then he says, “Therefore, submit to God.” But humble, submit, humble, submit. For us to submit to someone, it usually takes “to go under” someone. It takes humility.

You see it at the job. Somebody is promoted inside a company, and they get to be the boss. Jeff, you’ve seen it before. And all of sudden, you’re working with these guys – I did one time in my job – and everything’s great. We all get along. “Oh yeah, it’s great.” And then, the owner of the company came and said, “Chuck, I’m going to make you the supervisor – the superintendent of the jobs. Now, you think you can get along with the guys? Do you think they’ll accept you? Do you think everything will work out?” “Yes, great! We’re just buds. I’ll have no problem!” Until it’s announced, and they’re like, “Why did he get that? Wait a minute. We were just working together, and now I have to take orders from him?” It takes humility. It takes humility.

I had the same thing when I had boss one time, and I was just like, “Ummm…” You have to submit yourself or leave. So, that’s the clear path. Because there isn’t any bargaining with God. “Well, I’ll submit to You every Saturday, but then the other six days of the week, I don’t have to. I’m not going to.” It doesn’t work. It means arrange yourselves under God.

So, with this being said, are we humble? Can we humble ourselves under God? Because it was very, very important to James. And you can see if you go back… I’ve given a sermon or so on James and just what the Gospels say about James, and what they tell about James. It’s an amazing Bible study. Because it doesn’t take much reading between the lines before you can find out that he was hostile towards his brother. And can’t we all see that, if you grew up with a brother that never made a mistake, never had a sin? And if Mary came and said, “Who left this out? Come on, tell me.” Jesus would have said, “James.” Can’t lie. “James.” It’s so interesting that James would say this, because he realizes now that he submitting to his elder brother, who he had such a hard time with in the last few years of Jesus’ human life.

Can we do it? Because he says, “God resists the proud.” And I think he realized he was proud. Besides, you understand the whole concept of James is all about the tongue. He talks about the tongue so many times. Why? You can talk about it, if you’re an expert in it. And you can see, he thought he was. And he had these issues.

James 4:6-7 – “But God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble. Therefore, submit to God.” Period. Then “Resist the devil” – resist the devil – “and he will flee from you.”

So, that’s the two steps. But, as much as submitting to God is a task – is the first thing. Because he didn’t have it the other way around, did he? He didn’t say, “Well, go resist the devil, and then submit to God.” No. For us to overcome, for us to resist the devil, we have to submit to God, and then God’s going to work these things out. Because there are going to be times we have issues, we have problems, we’re fighting with something – powers of this world – that are really working on us, and we need God’s help! I’ve even done it, where I walked in my prayer room, raised my hand, and said, “God, I need your help! I’m not equipped to handle this. I don’t know what I’m doing. I need your help.” And I knew where the problems, the temptations… where they come from. That’s why he said, “Resist the devil.”

Resist the devil. It’s interesting because this term – just like huppotasso – this term “resist the devil,” which this word resist in the Greek, it meant – because it was a military term – it meant to stand as a wall. There’s a wall over there. Okay? If this door wasn’t here – I doubt you’re going to get through a window – but if there were no windows in it and it was a wall, and we said, “Well, come on in,” you go run up against a wall two or three times, you’re not going to get anywhere. So, when he says, “Resist the devil, James is using the words which mean make a stand – not being flexible! Not being like, “Ah, it’s good today. I’ll have a better day tomorrow. I’ll stand tough tomorrow.” No, he says for us to resist the devil because he keeps coming.

Resist. I means not only like a wall, not only means to oppose – which it does – but the one I never really understood until I got into this a few months ago, it means to fight, as in war! To fight as in war. So this isn’t like, “Oh, just resist.” No, it’s resist! Stand strong! Be ready to fight! Don’t just look at it like, “Oh, I’m just a defensive player. I just need to put up a wall, and hopefully, he doesn’t come through.” No! It means to put up that wall and then fight! Because we need to.

And I guess I never really understood it quite like I did before I talked to my second cousin. He lived about five miles from me, and would come over. He was about twelve years older than I was. But, after we were both adults, he’d come over and help, I’d be over at his house and do some work, or whatever, and just talk. He had land that my nephews hunted on. His name was Lloyd Mingle. And Lloyd was an only child. Lloyd got drafted into Vietnam. And Lloyd was not a big guy at all. I mean, he was, maybe, five-foot-eight, weighed 125 pounds soaking wet. Even as he got older, he didn’t weigh that much. He wasn’t a big guy. But, when he was drafted into the army to Vietnam, they sent him over. Of course, the one thing he was good… he grew up in Tennessee and he could hunt and fish, and knew all these things – knew his way around the woods. But now he had a jungle. I remember him, one Sunday morning I went over to deliver something to him, and he didn’t talk about the war that much. But he did this day. He told me about he and another guy going through the jungles of Vietnam. They were covering this side, and he was just spying out this side to see if the Cong had laid any traps, and they didn’t find any. But as they were walking back through this trail, all of a sudden, they were confronted by a group of soldiers – North Vietnamese soldiers. And there was nothing they could do. There was like eight of them. They turned down this path and there they were – had their guns on them. And so, he told me, “We didn’t know what to do. We couldn’t understand their language. So they took our guns.” He said, “They took my knife, which I was hoping they would not take, that I had stuck on the back of my leg,” as they checked us all out. He said, “Then, they separated me and my friend. And they started pushing. ‘Walk.’” He said, “We started walking. My friend, I don’t know what ever became of him.” But he said, “We walked and we walked for about five or six hours through the jungle. It was hot.” And he said, “Not knowing, what in the world am I going to do?” He said, “Because they told us, you don’t want to be a prisoner of war. Do everything you can do, because you don’t know what they’re going to do to you, if they ever take you prisoner.” And Lloyd said, “As they started walking again, after just a short rest, they started walking another three or four hours. And it was starting to get towards dark. And he said that he looked at the two guys that had him, because the other ones took everybody off, and he said, “The one guy was, maybe, my age, but other young man with him was maybe thirteen, fourteen years old – just a kid.” And he said, “I noticed that the young kid was getting sleepy – tired – and would fall asleep at different times while still walking.” And he said, “I didn’t know how much time I had before we would get to the place where they were going to keep me as prisoner of war, and torture me, or whatever. So I just thought in my mind, I’m not going to go there.” So, he looked at the guy, and he said, “He had my gun,” and he said, “I waited, and the right opportunity came when I saw the young guy, as we stopped, he dozed off.” He said, “That’s when I jumped the guy, and I took my gun, and I killed him as he was fighting, and then,” he said, “the young boy.” He said, “That’s what always bothered me. I had to kill him” – the thirteen to fourteen- year-old boy – “I had to fight. Because he only knew one thing. It was, kill or be killed.” And he said, “You know, I never told my parents about that, because I didn’t want them ever to worry and so forth.” But then he said, “Then I spent two days getting back, only traveling at night – worried about booby traps and all this – but I knew I couldn’t travel during the day. In two days, I got back to my unit.”

That flashed in my mind as I was reading about resist – of what this word means. It means to fight for your life. Fight – that’s why it’s a military term – fight like it is everything! And, if we did this in our spiritual lives, we’re going to be in His Kingdom. Because it says, “Resist the devil,” and what? “He will flee from you.” He will flee from you. The actual word flee is pheugo, but it’s pronounced fugo. And that Greek word means to run away, escape, vanish, to flee like everything. And it’s gone! To vanish. So he says, “If you resist the devil, and he will vanish from you.”

Do you remember when Jesus Christ had to resist the devil? Remember? It’s in Matthew 4 – one of the great chapters there. It tells how He’s confronted by the adversary. What a great example for us! Because what did Christ do as a human being? He used the Word of God, didn’t He? He used the Word of God. To use the Word of God, we need to know the Word of God. That’s why we read the Word of God – so that we can use the Word of God.

And why would he flee? Because there are easier fish to catch, as the old saying goes. For someone who resists… It’s just like, if you go to Miami, and you walk down some of those streets that I’ve walked in, or you’ve gone to the projects where I have that I’ve counseled people or talked to people, I don’t just look around (looking back & forth with shoulders slumped). No walk like I own the street. Because anybody that… they want weak. They want to prey on the weak. Satan loves to prey on the weak, because he can spend a long time with them. I remember hearing one time, “Satan loves to prey on the weak so he can spend a week with you.” But you can resist him if you have God’s Word. I’ve prayed many times, “I know Satan is there. He’s trying to…” and I say, “Not today, Satan. Not today. You’re not going to get me today.” And I’ll throw out a scripture or two.

This is what James is trying to tell us about Satan the adversary. And why? Because Satan hates the word of God. He hates it! That’s why Christ used it. Why? Because the word of God, as 1 Peter 2 said, and Psalm 119 said, the word of God is forever! It’s eternal. It’s going to be here forever. And Lucifer – Satan, the adversary, whatever you want to call him – is not. He hates it. It is our greatest weapon when we fight, when we resist. We’re to fight! Not just be on the defensive. Fight! Because it is God’s Kingdom we’re fighting for.

I want to go to my last set of scriptures, and then we’ll end here today – this part. Let’s go to 1 Peter. Many of you know these verses. But I just love it, because here James was telling us what to do here – about submitting to God and resisting the devil, and he will flee from you – and then Peter covers it in 1 Peter 5:5.

1 Peter 5:5-9 – “Likewise, you younger people” – what? Hupotasso – “submit yourselves to your elders.” Why? At a young age, if you learn to submit, it’s not a problem later. I had to learn that lesson about saying, “I’m sorry.” Because I always want to say, “I’m zzzzz. I’m zzzzz, sah, errr,” but I never really wanted to say it. But once you say it and you mean it, it becomes part of your vocabulary – “Hey, I’m sorry.” I bump into somebody – “Oh, I’m sorry.” “Well, I didn’t even know you did.” But that’s part of it. But it’s so much easier when you learn to submit younger. “Likewise, you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive” – the same – submissive – “to one another, and be clothed with” – what? – “humility. For God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Two different men writing at two different times, but on the same… because they have same Spirit there, and these words just flow, because it’s the Holy Spirit that’s guiding them writing this. Then verse 6: “Therefore, humble” ­­– humble – “yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.” Do you know what he writes this? Because, if you go back and study James… but you go back and study Peter, you realize Peter had a lot of pride. Peter had… doing things his own way. Peter was no angel. As a matter of fact, he told Christ the first real time that He spent with Him, “Stay away from me. I’m a bad man!” And Christ had to call him down, and say, “Get behind me, Satan. You don’t know what you’re talking about, Peter.” So this is a man that is speaking from experience. That’s why his words mean so much. “Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” God’s doing this whole thing because He cares for us. He said: “Be sober” – right? – “be sober, be vigilant…” And there’s because. In the original Greek, because is not in there. It’s not in any single manuscript – not in the majority manuscript, any manuscript. Somebody put it in there. So I like to read it… because in my Bible, I sometimes have those crossed out. If they weren’t in it, I want to read it the way that it was intended. So, “Be sober, be vigilant: your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” And then, what does he say in verse 9? Resist him – remember the military term? – “resist him” – fight him, fight for your eternal life, fight so he doesn’t get a foothold, use the Word of God – that’s what Christ did. Christ didn’t give up. Never gave up! “Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.”

The two-step – to me, the greatest two-step in the Bible, and the greatest two-step that I’ve ever heard. Submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. The two steps, the two stages, the two things necessary, the two-step process, brethren, to the Kingdom of God.