Rev. David Holwick Z First Baptist Church Ledgewood, New Jersey July 17, 1994 James 4:4-10 TRUE REPENTANCE =============== I. Do Christians have to change? A. Notorious testimonies: Mickey Cohen, "Christian gangster." 35 years ago, a notorious gangster Mickey Cohen attended a meeting in Beverly Hills which was being led by Billy Graham. Billy Graham was just starting out in evangelism and no one had really heard of him. Mickey Cohen was much better known. Cohen like what he was hearing. Graham and some of the others talked to him about salvation, but he made no commitment at that time. A while later a Christian friend read Revelation 3:20 to him- "Behold, I stand at the door and knock...." This friend asked him to receive Jesus into his life. And so Mickey Cohen did. The news of his conversion made quite a sensation, and the ministry of Billy Graham became known across the nation. There was only one small problem - nothing in Mickey Cohen's life really changed. When his Christian friend confronted him, Mickey complained: "You didn't tell me I would have to give up my work!" [mafia] "You didn't tell me I would have to give up my friends!" Mickey had heard that so-and-so was a Christian athlete, and so-and-so was a Christian actress, and he thought he could be a Christian gangster. #1062 B. Modern Christianity is missing repentance. 1) We want to make our faith attractive and easy. 2) We don't want to offend people, or drive them away. 3) It makes it easy for us, too. II. Our God is a jealous God. A. Church adulteresses. 4:4 1) Few events endanger a relationship more than adultery. 2) Relationship to God is a marriage, not slavery. (OT) 3) Sin breaks God's heart, just as adultery does ours. 4) All sin is sin against love. -2- B. We cannot be friends of the world. 4:4 1) "World" here stands for world's standards, as opposed to standards of God's Kingdom. a) We cannot love everything. b) Some choices have to be made, and some are difficult. 2) God demands much, but there is a reason. The captain of the ship looked into the dark night and saw faint lights in the distance. Immediately he told his signal man to send a message: "Alter your course 10 degrees south." Promptly a return message was received: "Alter your course 10 degrees north." The captain was furious; his command had been ignored. So he sent a second message: "Alter your course 10 degrees south - I am the captain!" Soon another message was received: "Alter your course 10 degrees north - I am seaman third class Jones." Immediately the captain sent a third message, knowing the fear it would evoke: "Alter your course 10 degrees south - I am a battleship." Then the reply came: "Alter your course 10 degrees north - I am a lighthouse." In the midst of our dark foggy times, all sorts of voices are shouting orders into the night, telling us what to do, how to adjust our lives. Out of the darkness, one voice signals something quite opposite to the rest - something almost absurd. But the voice happens to be the Light of the World, and we ignore it at our peril. #2072 C. God longs for us. 4:5 1) Verse 5 is most difficult in book. a) KJV, NIV: "our spirit tends toward envy (sin)." b) Better: "God longs for our spirit." -3- 2) God is jealous, and longs for our love (O.T.). a) "He gives more grace" is a new sentence. 4:6 b) God make great demands, but gives great grace. c) The greater the demand, the greater the help. 1> We can never be tempted beyond our limit. 1 Cor 10:13 III. Certain attitudes follow those who wish to be close to God. A. Movement. "Come near/resist." 4:7-8 1) Toward God. The story is told about a young man who applied for a job with the Penn. Department of Transportation. His application was accepted and he was given the job of painting the white lines on a nearby roadway by hand because all the machines were temporarily out of order. The first day he painted eight miles. The second day he painted four miles. The third day he painted two miles. The fourth day he only painted one mile. In the beginning, his supervisor was very pleased with his performance. As the production level began to slide, he got curious. The young man replied, "I am getting slower and slower because the paint can is getting further and further away." #2237 a) Spiritually, are you where you should be? b) When we come near, he meets us. 2) Away from the devil. 4:7 a) It's not enough to do the right things. b) You have to stop doing the wrong things. B. Desire for purity: "Wash hands." 4:8 1) From ritual to morality. When Henry David Thoreau wrote his classic wilderness book, WALDEN (1854), he told of a powerful custom among the Mucclasse Indians. Once a year they had a village-cleanup called a "busk." -4- First, they would make new clothes for themselves, and new furniture, and pots and pans, and all the other necessities of life. They would keep all of these new things in a new building just outside of the village. When everything was ready, they would begin the annual spring cleaning. Every corner of every house was scrubbed. Every stick of furniture was thrown out. Every child's toy went on the garbage heap. The dirt paths were swept, and the weeds were plucked up. Even the food that was left over from the winter was thrown out the door. Now all the refuse was gathered together. They piled it high in the center of the village. Then the chief set the heap on fire, and while they were watching it burn, they took off their old clothes, and threw them into the flames. They tended the fire carefully, and made sure every last piece of garbage was burned. They even waited for three days to make sure everything had been destroyed, and no coals were still glowing. And on the fourth morning, washed and bathed, and dressed in their new clothes, they gathered again at the heart of the village. Now the chief started a new fire, by rubbing sticks together, and from the fresh flames each family took a burning branch home. The old was gone. Life was beginning again! #2439 2) Purity requires single-mindedness. a) Not enough to be torn, must make a commitment. 1> Many take a laid-back approach to salvation. 2> Christianity becomes a part-time hobby. b) Real salvation is shown by fruit of life committed to God. C. Emotional reaction. "Grieve and mourn." 4:9 1) Emotional reaction to sin. a) (Sin must be hated??) b) Sounds negative and morbid, but often necessary. c) Americans treat sin lightly. (illust) -5- 2) Do we really HATE sin, weep over it? a) Russian Baptists - no tears, no genuine repentance. An early missionary to Russia complained that Russian evangelicals seemed to feel that a person must make at least one public confession with weeping. "This they call conversion." "I have heard people question the reality of someone's conversion experience if they were not sufficiently impressed by the remorsefulness of his weeping." Soviet Evangelicals, p. 342 #2729 b) Emotions can be faked. 3) "I'm sorry" is not enough. In his book, "Dear God, What Religion Were The Dinosaurs?," David Heller gives this actual letter from a child to God: Dear God, What happens if you do a few bad things and say you are sorry, but are not sure if you really are? Does it matter if you are only 10? Jan, age 10 #2140 4) Yet genuine change should shake us to our soul. a) If never moved in heart, probably not converted. b) (John Wesley and "heart strangely warmed") IV. The way to God is through humility. A. God doesn't help us until we see our need. B. Humility is hard for us. 1) Associated with demeaning concepts like submission. a) Ephesians: "Celeste, submit to David." 1> Husbands like this. b) James: "David, submit to God." 4:7 1> None of us like this. 2> We are married to God as submissive wives. -6- 2) Mickey Cohen thought he could get God to submit to him. a) Genuine salvation works the other way around. b) We must be willing to do what God wants. 1> Easy to say. Almost a cliche. In THE ESSENTIAL CALVIN AND HOBBES by Bill Watterson, the cartoon character Calvin says to Hobbes, "I feel bad that I called Susie names and hurt her feelings. I'm sorry I did it." "Maybe you should apologize to her," Hobbes suggests. Calvin ponders this for a moment and then replies, "I keep hoping there's a less obvious solution." When we want to restore our relationship with God, we need to remember that he has a liking for the obvious solution. #2173 C. Genuine humility. 1) Desire to glorify God. 2) Desire to serve others. ================================== Original sermon: December 6, 1987 ================================== I. Do Christians have to change? A. Notorious testimonies. 1) Mickey Cohen testimony. 2) Larry Flynt testimony. B. Modern evangelism is missing repentance. II. Meaning of repentance. A. Simple word, meaning change direction of life. 1) Salvation is more than wanting to go to heaven. 2) People like to hold back. B. Spiritual adultery results. 1) Relationship to God as marriage, not slavery. 2) Sin breaks God's heart, just as adultery does ours. 3) All sin is sin against love. III. We love to sin. A. It is ingrained in us. 1) The spirit in us tends to be seduced by world. KJV,NIV 4:5 2) Can also be translated other ways. a) God jealously longs for the spirit in us. 1> God is a jealous God, especially in OT. B. We are pressured to compromise. 1) Sin provides relief for stress, loneliness, failure. 2) It seems impossible for us NOT to sin. C. God makes big demands on us. 1) God make great demands, but gives great grace. 4:6 2) The greater the demand, the greater the help. IV. The way to God is through humility. A. God doesn't help us until we see our need. B. Humility is hard for us. 1) Associated with demeaning concepts like submission. a) Ephesians: "Celeste, submit to David." 1> Husbands like this. b) James: "David, submit to God." 4:7 1> None of us like this. 2> We are married to God as submissive wives. 2) Mickey Cohen thought he could get God to submit to him. a) Genuine salvation works the other way around. b) We must be willing to do what God wants. 1> Easy to say. Almost a cliche. V. Certain attitudes follow those who wish to be close to God. A. Desire for purity. 1) Wash hands. 2) Grieve, mourn. a) Emotional reaction to sin. b) Do we really HATE sin, weep over it? 1> Russian Baptists - no tears, no genuine repentance. 3) "I'm sorry" is not enough. a) Real salvation is shown by fruit of life committed to God. ===================== I. Simple word, meaning change direction of life. A. Salvation is more than wanting to go to heaven. B. People like to hold back. : For years, the opening of The Wide World of Sports television program showed "the agony of defeat" of a painful ending to an attempted ski jump. The skier appeared in good form as he headed down the jump, but then, for no apparent reason, he tumbled head over heels off the side of the jump, bouncing off the supporting structure. What viewers didn't know was that he chose to fall rather than finish the jump. Why? As he explained later, the jump surface had become too fast, and midway down, he realized if he completed the jump, he would land on the level ground, beyond the safe landing area, which could have been fatal. As it was, the skier suffered no more than a headache from the tumble. To change one's course in life can be a dramatic and sometimes painful undertaking, but change is better than a fatal landing at the end. #2035