Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.Be subject therefore unto God; but resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
10 sermons cite this verse
… Resist the enemy. The Bible tells us in James chapter 4 verse 7, Submit yourselves then to God. Resist the devil and he will. say it with me, flee from you. As you've heard me say a million times, we're not fighting for victory. We've already won. We're fighting from it. So don't act like a loser. Satan cannot go toe-to-toe with you or me because we have Jesus. We have the dynamite power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. So we fight, we identify, we expose, we resist, we confront, okay? We hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught so that he can encourage others of sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. And then we engage. This is the sixth thing. We engage with the fight. The Bible says in Ephesians chapter six, verse 13, therefore put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground. Sounds pretty tough to me, doesn't it? And after you've done everything to stand. …
… earth. So we serve an all-powerful God. And the third thing is the best defense is a good offense. The Bible says, submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. You see, the problem with the sons of Sceva is they had no relationship with God. They just, oh, in the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, and the demon's response is almost humorous. Jesus, I definitely know. Paul, I know, but who are you? It reminds us that the devil knows those who are a threat to his kingdom. So he knows, oh, that person, that man, that woman, they're a problem, they're a threat. I'm gonna focus my energies on them. Remember when Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, Simon, Satan has been asking excessively for you that you would be taken out of the care and protection of God? Wouldn't that freak you out if Jesus said that to you? You're just hanging out. All of a sudden he turns to you, says your name twice. …
… The Bible says, James 4, 7, submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. What will he do? He'll go plan a different attack, but he's got to flee from this one. So the first thing I want you to say is no. The second thing I want you to know that you need to say every day is this, the name, the name. The devil doesn't want you to say the name. What's that name? Not the man upstairs, not the higher power, not even just God. He, the devil, is terrified of the name above every name. I'm talking about Jesus Christ, our Lord. Why do you think the devil has it kind of put in as a curse when people hit their thumb with a hammer? Because he knows there's power in it. He wants it to be used in a way that's in vain. But when we use it in worship, when we use it in surrender, when we use it in trust. …
… the nature of the dark realm is vulnerable this way James 4 verse 7 says therefore submit to God resist the devil and he will flee from you we're not listen we are not to be victimized and vandalized by the devil and his cohorts the Christian has the power to submit to God first of all that's your covering and then secondly the result is resist the devil fight him in the word of God with the word of God If I stick true to my notes, we'll get to that tonight. The word of God is our offensive weapon system against the devil. When Jesus was in the wilderness and he was starving 40 days and Satan comes to him, when Christ is actually near death in the wilderness, having been without food and water sustained by God himself, then Satan comes and says, why don't you turn these rocks to stone? What did Jesus say? That would taste terrible. No, he didn't say that. Jesus said it's written in the Bible. …
… There is an adversary who wants to destroy your marriage. The Bible doesn't say, ignore the devil and he will flee from you. It says, resist the devil. He will flee from you. So let's hear Jesus' words. Matthew chapter 19, verse 1. We need to hear his words. When Jesus had finished these things, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. And large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause? He answered, Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female? And said, Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. They said to him, why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away? He said to them, because of your hardness of heart, Moses allowed you to divorce your wives. But from the beginning, it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality and marries another, commits adultery. The disciples said to him, if such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry. But he said to them, not everyone can receive this saying, but only to those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs …
… Don't go down the wrong path. But he gives more grace. Therefore, he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. So what should we do? Submit to God. Resist the devil. and he will flee from you. That's a promise. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands. James is so subtle. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Wow. That sounds like a coach talking to you. Strong, beautiful. And the second thing is this. Look at verses 16 to 17 is that we need to stand up against lust. lust it says in verse 16 to deliver you from the immoral woman from the seductress who flatters with her words why does she do this? well she forsakes the companion of her youth and she forgets the covenant of her God so this is the introduction in the Bible to the adulterous woman but let's be honest I mentioned this last week this is Solomon talking to his son he's going to be speaking to his son about the adulterous woman obviously there's the adulterous man right this is not gender dynamic this is gender fluid in the area of if a woman can do it a man can do it and what is that? …
… verse number 7 James 4 verse 7 Once you found it, once you say, I got it. If you can't find it, say, Lord, help me. He helped you. It's on the screen. Thank you. That's right. James 4, verse number 7. I want us to read it together with uplifted voices. Everybody, come on, let's declare it. Submit yourselves then to God. Bless the Lord. Amen. I want us to read it again with a little bit more them vigor and vitality. Come on, everybody. Submit yourselves. God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Bless the Lord. You may be seated. You may be seated in the presence of the Lord. James 4 and 7, submit yourself to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. I want to preach for a little while today using as a subject, you gotta stand up for yourself. You gotta stand up for yourself. Would you point that bony finger at your neighbor and tell them you gotta stand up for yourself? …
… This is part of being human, Paul says. But I love what James says in James chapter four, verse seven. And he says, submit to God, resist the devil, and he will run away from you. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. So it's possible to resist the devil. Nobody has to give in to temptation. The devil can't make you do anything. The dark side, it cannot make you do anything. You either go along with it or you choose to resist it. And it's possible to resist it. And I love how Paul talks about this. So when Jesus was tempted, Jesus quoted scripture to the devil. He quoted scripture to the devil. By the way, the devil quoted scripture to him too. So the devil can twist in our minds, the devil can twist scripture to make us do something we know we shouldn't do, right? Or at least to try to coax us to do that. But Jesus quoted scripture back to the devil again and again. …
… It's what you decide to fill your life back up with that denies his plans. James 4 says this, submit yourself then to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. you need to decide today I'm going to fill my house back up my soul back up with some things that are going to deny the plans that the enemy has in February and April and March in December he's coming he's coming back are you going to be ready you're going to be spotlessly clean are you going to be full we need to become a house of the word if you want to learn who you are and whose you are. It can't be done by songs and worship. It can't be done by sermons. It can't be done by anything else except for you learning to pick up this book and reading what he says about you. This is the most powerful, unstoppable thing that you can access and begin to put into your life. It changes everything. Hell cannot stand against the mighty word of God. I need someone to understand this today. Even if you don't believe what this book says about you, the enemy does. …
… Notice there, to resist, to resist. This is the language of James in James chapter 4 and verse 7. Listen to what James says. Resist the devil, and he will what? Flee from you. You don't have to chase him and send him anywhere. Resist. Resist. Peter said the same thing. Listen to the words of Peter, 1 Peter 5, 9. Verse 8 says, Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith. We're talking about resistance. And really the only way to resist is to have on the armor. With that armor, you'll be able, says Ephesians 6, to stand firm, to stand firm. So that leads us up to that most important subject of the armor of the believer, and we'll look at that next time. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, we thank You for the consistency of Your Word, for its clarity. Thank You for showing us not only glimpses of Your holy kingdom, but even of the unholy kingdom. …