The Full Course Of Repentacillin - James 4:8-10 Series

James 4:5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he caused to live in us? 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Introduction

We have been studying through the book of James, and last week we left off right in the middle of this very helpful passage on how to deal with sin in your life. How do you handle guilt? What should you do after you sin? How do you overcome those sins that just keep getting the best of you? The answer is – repent. That is how we deal with sin in our lives – we repent. That is the difference between a believer and an unbeliever – we repent. And in this passage James takes out his scalpel and dissects true repentance for us so that we can see all the various parts. And one thing we learn here is that repentance is a two-sided coin. One side of it faces toward God, and the other side faces toward your heart. Last week we studied the part that faces toward God. When you sin, submit to God, and return to God. Submitting means letting go of your own self-will and doing what you know is God’s will. Our self-will is like a horse – it needs to be broken so that it is responsive to the rider, and it submits to the rider’s will. And that makes it useful. Our self-will must be broken so that we become responsive to God’s will. That is submitting to God.

Returning to God means making a decisive break with the devil, and coming to your senses so that you realize that happiness and joy and fulfillment are found in your Father’s presence, not in the pleasures of this world – so you return to the Father, like the prodigal. You fight against Satan using the truth of God’s Word to expose his deception, and you devote yourself to righteousness. Then Satan will flee, and you will be able to draw near to God, which is your only hope in the war against sin. When you are not near to the presence of God, you try to fight even the slightest, smallest temptation, and you fall.

So drawing near to the presence of God is both the means and the end. Nearness to God helps me resist sin, which enables me to draw even nearer to God. If you are fighting against sin just so that you don’t have the painful consequences of sin in your life, you are not really fighting against sin. Atheists do that. True repentance is slamming the door on sin for the purpose of turning back to your Father in heaven so that you can be near to His presence.

So, those are the two things you do with respect to God – submit to Him and return to Him. Now let’s look at the two things you do with regard to yourself. The first one has to do with purification.

Wash Your Hands

7 … Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Cleansing Yourself

There are two different ways that Scripture talks about cleansing from sin. One is the cleansing that God does.

Psalm 51:2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

That is one kind of cleansing. But when the Bible talks about cleansing yourself, that’s something different. Cleansing or washing yourself means letting go of the sin.

Isaiah 1:16 Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong.

Only God can wash the stains away after we have rolled around in the mud. But our part in the cleansing process is to stop rolling around in the mud.

And, of course, the power to do that comes from God as well. As you walk by the Spirit, He gives you the power to resist sin. So it is God’s power, but it does involve effort on our part.

So James calls us to take action against sin – in two areas: hands and heart.

7 … Wash your hands … and purify your hearts

Hands have to do with actions, and heart has to do with what is on the inside.

Hands

So washing your hands means physically doing something to distance yourself from sin. If it is drunkenness, maybe you dump out on your alcohol. If it’s your computer, maybe you install some accountability software. If it’s Netflix, you cancel your subscription. If it’s your phone, you have an accountability partner put a password on it so you can’t download an app without them present. If it’s overspending, maybe you set up a budget or cut up your credit cards. You call your prayer group leader or one of your pastors and ask, “What passages of Scripture would be good for me to study to overcome this sin?” You listen to some sermons on that subject. You find a helpful book on that subject. You set up an appointment for biblical counseling. True repentance goes way beyond just, “I’ll try harder next time.” It takes whatever action it can take to wash your hands of that sin.