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Crossing the line
How many have seen the police scenes either on the
television or at the theater? I'm talking about places
where a crime has been committed, the police officers
arrive, and with a yellow tape they encircle the area
where it all took place. I'm sure that all of us here,
at one time or another, have seen that plastic yellow
tape, with the words "police line do not cross" in bold
black letters, correct? Either in the news or at the
movies, we have all seen this tape and some of us more
than others. We also all know that this tape was
designed to keep people out. It was designed to keep
people out of the crime scenes to prevent contamination
of any evidence that may be located within. I know that
many of you are asking yourselves, why is he giving us a
lesson in police procedures? But I assure you that I'm
not here to teach you police procedures today. Let's
turn to the Word of God and let's begin with today's
message.
James 4:4-10
- Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that
the friendship of the world is enmity with God?
Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the
enemy of God. 5Do ye think that the
scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us
lusteth to envy? 6But he giveth more grace.
Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth
grace unto the humble. 7Submit yourselves
therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee
from you. 8Draw nigh to God, and he will draw
nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify
your hearts, ye double minded. 9Be afflicted,
and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to
mourning, and your joy to heaviness. 10Humble
yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift
you up.
When we read this chapter from the beginning we clearly
see that James tells us that the main cause of our
problems is lust or passion (James
4:1-2 ;) the passion to satisfy the desires of
the flesh. This is an internal war that we all face
daily, something very difficult to control, and very few
people manage to do it. Second we see that James teaches
us about our prayers (James 4:3
;) we are warned that on many occasions our prayers are
improper. Although we may know God, and we might have a
close relationship with Him, we must take care not to
pray improperly. What do I mean by that? Brethren, in
many instances our prayers are “amiss,” in other
words we ask improperly. I’m talking about prayers in
which we ask for things only to satisfy our own passions
and pleasures. These are prayers that do not reach the
ears of our celestial Father. I say this because he
knows exactly what we need; He knows what is good for us
and what is not (Matthew 7:7-11.)
But I don’t want to concentrate on this today; today I
want us all to see the yellow crime scene tape that God
has placed around the scene of the crime.
Let’s begin by asking ourselves, what has to exist
before the crime scene tape can be put up? In order to
have a crime scene, the first thing that must be present
is a crime, correct? Therefore let’s all examine our
lives, let’s examine our surroundings, and let’s play
cops and robbers. Let’s play the role of a detective to
se if we can locate a crime scene. In verse four we
find that James tells us: “Ye adulterers and
adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the
world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a
friend of the world is the enemy of God.” Here we
see that James uses very strong language; words that are
meant to make us reflect. But, what does he mean by
this? Simply stated, what we are seeing here is the
scene of the crime, we are seeing the crime against God
that many of us are guilty of. How so? In the Word of
God we find that the second coming of Christ is
described as the wedding of the Lamb (Revelations
19:7; 19:9.)
Therefore, when we read these verses we can clearly see
that James is not speaking about a physical adultery, he
is speaking about spiritual adultery. Let’s reflect on
this for a few moments; let’s reflect in the spiritual
adultery.
Unfortunately this is the crime against God that occurs
frequently. I say this because in many instances we
don’t give God the place He deserves in our lives, we
don’t give God the number one spot in out lives, often
times He is given third, fourth, and at times even
worst. The problem is that when we allow the things of
this world to take precedence over God, what we are
doing is that we are telling Him that we don’t need Him,
we are telling Him that we don’t need His blessings; we
are in fact rejecting God’s glory, might, and power. In
essence and simply stated we are being unfaithful to
God, and we then begin committing spiritual adultery.
We commit spiritual adultery because we stop trusting
God.
It’s very easy to fall into this trap; it’s very easy to
think that we can resolve the situations that present
themselves in our lives by our own abilities. It’s a
trap that was designed with the purpose of separating us
from God’s will, and it’s a trap that still works very
well. This is the reason why we find James’s warning
here today when he says: “Do ye think that the
scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us
lusteth to envy? 6 But he giveth more
grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but
giveth grace unto the humble. 7 Submit you
therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee
from you.” As the people of God, as His church, as
His bride, we can’t allow our desires, lusts, and
appetite for the things of this world to rule our life.
If we allow this what we are doing is giving the
criminal the weapon to use against us. Let me ask you,
if you were about to get robbed and you had a gun, would
you give it to the robber to use? Of course the answer
is NO, but in many instances this is exactly what we
do. In many instances we give the criminal, we give the
devil the sword to use against us. When we seek only to
fulfill our lusts and pleasures we give our enemy the
sword to cut us with. This is why we have to examine
ourselves frequently; we have to reflect daily in our
actions, words, and testimony, to see if we are being
faithful to God. We have to trust in God not once or
twice a week; we have to trust in God for everything
that we do. We have to trust in God every second and
every minute of our life, and most importantly we have
to be convinced that He will take care of us (Hebrews
11:6.) We have to submit to God otherwise we are
being unfaithful. Well, I think that as good
detectives, we have all located the crime scene. We
have found that man’s crime against God has always been
the unfaithfulness as demonstrated throughout the bible
history. The question then is, what about the yellow
tape?
As we continue reading the verses that we are using
today we see that James tells us: “Draw nigh to God,
and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye
sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your
laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to
heaviness. 10 Humble yourselves in the
sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.” Can
you see the yellow tape that stops God from entering the
crime scene? The first hint to finding the yellow tape
around us is “Draw nigh to God.” You still can’t
see it? Brethren, the yellow tape is the Word of God.
The Word of God is the barrier that exists between God
and us. Let me explain myself a little further. In the
world there are a large number of people that think that
no matter what happens, and no matter what they do, God
is with them. There is are large number of people that
think that once they have accepted Christ they can
continue to sin, and that God guides them and blesses
them at all times. This is the biggest lie ever told;
the major reason why people believe this lie is because
they don’t know the Word of God. When we have taken the
time to know His Word, when we take the time to develop
a personal relationship with Him, we will not have to
seek too much to find the truth (John
8:32.) The truth is that we can’t say that we
serve God if we continue living a life of sin. Listen
to me carefully; we can’t serve God if we live in sin (1
Corinthians 10:21-23.) It’s very saddening to
see how people that have been shown the errors of their
ways do not accept it. These are the moments when all
ministers have heard those words, “God knows me and
accepts me how I am,” or “remember pastor that we are
saved by grace and not by the law.” There is a great
truth in both statements; God does know us individually,
He knows us better that we know ourselves. Yes we are
saved by grace since no man has ever been able to
fulfill the law (Romans 2:23.)
But, because we are saved by grace, does this mean that
we can continue sinning? The answer to this is NO! (Romans
6:15.)
This is the biggest problem with the people of God; this
is where the problem lays with all of those that think
that they are well with God. Being well with God means
that we seek more of Him at all times, it means that we
walk towards the perfection that is Christ Jesus. We
are not perfect, we will not be perfect, we will not be
able to fulfill His law, and that is why He poured out
His mercy over mankind so that we may have the privilege
today of being called children of God (John
1:12; Galatians 3:25-27;
1 John 3:1-2.) But
this does not mean or imply that we have a license to
sin. This does not mean or imply that God will be
present in a sinful life. When we allow sin to abound
in our life, when we allow sin to control us, then we
are not with God. When we allow sin to control our way
of thinking, of acting and of being, God is NOT with us
(1 John 3:16.) The
barrier exists, the yellow tape exists, and the “Word of
God” separates us. The truth of it all is that God is
holy a He will not dwell in sin; God will not compromise
His holy and divine Word for anyone (Matthew
24:35.) James tells us here: “Draw nigh to
God.” We are the ones that have to cross the
barrier that exists, we are the ones that have to seek
holiness; we have been called to be holy (1
Peter 1:16.) The truth of it all is that if we
continue a sinful life, we will never obtain the eternal
life that Jesus died in the cross to give us (Romans
6:23.)
Here we see that James also tells us: “…Cleanse your
hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double
minded.” Let’s ask ourselves a question, when we
dirty our hands and we go wash them, do we only cleanse
ourselves partially, or do we clean our hands
completely? Of course that no one just washes away part
of the dirt, we wash all of the dirt off, and the
problem is that many don’t keep their hands clean. Once
we come to the Lord, His blood cleanses us and leaves us
completely clean (1 Corinthians
6:11; Revelation 1:5,)
but as I said, we dirty ourselves again. Many of us do
not keep our hands clean, we continue playing with the
dirt; we continue playing with sin. But know this; sin
separates us from the presence of God (Isaiah
19:2.) We try to justify sin, we try to justify
our bad actions, but God has placed His Word around that
crime scene, and He will not cross it. He can’t cross
it to come to us because He is holy (Leviticus
20:7-8,) we are the ones that need to cross over
to reach him (Matthew 11:28.)
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, God will not
change His Word to please mankind. It is mankind that
needs to change in order to please God. After all, if
God changed His word, what’s the sense in recompiling
His Word? What’s the sense in revealing to mankind
through the prophets, that which pleases Him and that
which He condemns? Because through His written Word God
warns and admonishes us with the purpose of saving us.
But if He continually changed His Word, then it would
make no sense at all to have it written down, as the
written version would always be obsolete.
In conclusion. Here we see that James tells us:
“Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he
shall lift you up.” God sent his only begotten son
to die for mankind because God loves man (John
3:16; 1 John 4:10.)
The truth of it all is that God loves the sinner, but
condemns sin. God wants us to have an intimate
relationship with Him, God desires for us to turn our
backs on sin and for us to walk in Jesus Christ.
Although God loves us strongly, He will not change His
Word and character for any of us, but He is willing to
forgive and cleanse us. If we don’t seriously listen to
the warning in these verses, then it will become very
easy to fall once again into a life of sin. It will be
very easy for the enemy to once again lock us up in a
prison of suffering, in a prison of pain, in a prison of
sadness, in a prison of depression. Christ is here to
liberate you; Christ is here to cleanse you of sin and
free you from the chains that bind you (Galatians
5:1.) Christ is here calling us to cross over
the yellow tape that separates us; He is here calling us
to turn our backs to sin and to walk with Him (1
John 3:6.) Listed today to His voice, listen
carefully to the warning, let’s cleanse our hands today,
and let’s seek his face. Christ came to call all of us
(Luke 5:32.) Listen
today for He is telling you: “cross the yellow tape.”
© Jose R. Hernandez |
