TEXT: Jas. 4:1-10 Text: Jas. 4:10 James 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
Introduction: If I were to fill out a resume, I would like to be able to say that I have much experience as a Folk-Lift Operator. No, I didn’t say, “FORK lift”; I said “FOLK-Lift.” Do you know that most people are DRAGGING through life? They need a LIFT, brother! Others have left their vehicle some miles down the road and are now barely making it as they travel down life’s highway, hoping someone will make their trip easier. You don’t have to be DOWN all the time. God is willing and able to LIFT YOU UP! Let me mention a few means by which God lifts up those who are cast down.
I. THERE IS THE LIFT OF SALVATION Psalms 40:2-3 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. 3 And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD. Luke 13:11-13 And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. 12 And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. 13 And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.
A. This is a divine lift
1.Notice in Luke 13:13 that the woman could IN NO WISE LIFT HERSELF. EVERYONE will go to hell unless they get help from heaven!
B. This is a dramatic lift
1.From miry clay to solid rock, amen!
2.I think of it as a person sinking in quicksand. Without help, a person in quicksand has nowhere to go but DOWN. They say that the best thing to do in that situation is to STOP struggling, don’t move, and look for help.
3.Likewise, no sinner will ever be truly saved until he rests from his own efforts (do-goodism, baptism, church membership, etc.) and relies completely upon the crucified, buried, and risen Son of God for his salvation. The songwriter penned: “From sinking sand, He lifted me. With tender hand, He lifted me! From shades of night, to plains of light… O praise His name! He LIFTED ME!”
II. THERE IS THE LIFT OF SEPARATION 1 Peter 3:20-21 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. 21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: The above passage has been used by Campbellites (the Church of Christ) and other heretics to teach the damnable heresy of salvation by water baptism. Before we go further, I want to point out that salvation has three tenses:
1.We HAVE been saved from sin’s PENALTY.
2.We ARE being saved from sin’s POWER.
3.We SHALL BE saved from sin’s PRESENCE. The word “saved” may be used in scripture to refer to one or all of these aspects of salvation. In 1 Pet. 3:21, I believe the baptism is SPIRIT, not water, and that the salvation mentioned is that present salvation from sin’s power, or what we generally refer to as practical and progressive SANCTIFICATION. It is a separation from the world in the life and practice of the believer. The baptism which accomplishes this lift is called “the operation of God” in Col. 2:12, which says we are buried with Him, Jesus, in baptism, and risen through faith in the operation of God.
A. This is a powerful operation of God
1.Water baptism does not give the new birth nor make a sinner into a child of God. Likewise, those in the WATER in Noah’s day DROWNED, unless they were first in the ARK! The ark was what saved those who were in danger from the flooding waters. The salvation BY WATER was something else altogether.
2.Water baptism does not lift a person up. The salvation Noah received by WATER was a lifting up above the world!
3.The Holy Spirit puts a person in Christ by a spiritual baptism (1 Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:27; 2 Cor. 5:17) in salvation from sin’s PENALTY, and then it begins to lift him up above the world in salvation from sin’s POWER.
B. This is a present operation of God
1.”…doth … save us…”
2.This is a lift that God is doing NOW in your life, if you are already born again.
C. This is a progressive operation of God
1.As the waters gradually lifted up Noah and his family above the world after their security had been obtained, so the Holy Spirit gradually helps the believer to grow in grace and live holier, having secured him for eternity in Jesus Christ.
2.People don’t become instantly mature in Christ; it is a gradual process. When someone gives indication of instant maturity, it is not real.
D. This is a purposeful operation of God God’s purpose in this lift is to SEPARATE His people from those who are condemned in their sins. God wants His people to live on “Higher Ground.”
III. THERE IS THE LIFT OF THE SAINTS Galatians 6:1-2 Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. 2 Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. Hebrews 12:12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;
A. This should be a lift of concern God’s people should be concerned about weak and the backslidden Christians. God’s people should be concerned about the lost condition of the unsaved. The Psalmist said, “No man cared for my soul”; unsaved people should know that we care.
B.This should be a lift of comfort 7.The Bible says we should comfort others with the comfort God has given us (1 Cor. 1:3-4).
C. This should be a lift of cleansing The humble attitude of Gal. 6:1-2 is helpful in lifting that believer who has gone astray.
IV. THERE IS THE LIFT OF THE SECOND COMING 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
A. This, THE RAPTURE, is a future lift It could happen at any time. It is not subject to Old Testament prophecies; it is a mystery. The second part of the Second Coming, which we call THE REVELATION, IS the subject of prophecy. It has signs, but there are no signs to precede the RAPTURE. The Rapture could have occurred in the days of the early church without disrupting any prophecies.
B. This is a fantastic lift Fantastic in its transportation — out of this world, brother! Fantastic in its translation — changing us in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, making us like Jesus Christ, conforming us to His image.
C. This is a final lift Enoch walked through this world, in opposition to ungodly men, but he received a glorious lift to end ALL lifts! Elijah got down in spirit after being threatened by a wicked queen, but he received a wonderful lift which picked up his spirits forevermore! One of these days WE shall get that final lift, and we shall need no further lifts, for we shall be like CHRIST, able to freely go ANYWHERE in God’s creation, worlds without end, in God’s will!
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