Specific Steps To Freedom From Sin
Neverthirst Recovery Group

 "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  
Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, 
and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your 
laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.  Humble yourselves before the Lord, 
and he will lift you up" (James 4:7-10).

Today we will see from Scripture that we are to take specific steps to be free 
from sin. But first, let us notice from the above passage some characteristics 
of those who are in sin. Let us list them here:

1.	They do not submit to God (verse 7). 
2.	They do not resist the devil (verse 7). 
3.	They remain at a distance from God (verse 8). 
4.	They have dirty hands and a defiled heart (verse 8). 
5.	They are double-minded (verse 8). 
6.	They are light and joking, and laugh much (verse 9). 
7.	They are prideful (verse 10).
8.	I can think back into my time of habitual viewing of pornography and 
sexual impurity and see every one of these characteristics in my life: 

1-My spirit was domineering and dictatorial, not submissive toward God or others,

2-I freely embraced pornography on many occasions, not realizing that in so 
doing I was worshipping at a demonic shrine (1 Cor. 10:20-21), 

3-I was far from God during this time, even though I claimed to be a servant of 
His. My life illustrated Proverbs 28:9 "If anyone turns a deaf ear to the law, 
even his prayers are detestable."  

4-My hands were dirty from all my sin activity and my heart was defiled all the 
time. Oh what a horrible condition to be in. Now I understand why Scripture 
compares sin to leprosy, for leprosy is a disease that defiles one entirely, 
and makes them unclean. Just as lepers had to remain isolated or in colonies of 
other lepers, so I came to feel that I should be banished from society because 
my guilt and shame were so great. How I thank God He still cleanses lepers!

5-I was double minded and unstable, because while I attempted to pray and meditate 
on Scripture, my thoughts often slid into pornographic images. This hindered time 
with my family as I was always entertaining some sinful image. It made me unstable 
for I could not keep my thoughts together on any one subject. James says, "That man 
(who doubts God) should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a 
double-minded man, unstable in all he does" (James 1:7-8), 

6-I was never very serious, but was light and airy, joking all the time and laughing 
quite frequently. This was a cover up for my sinful ways, as I tried to hide all my 
pain with laughter,

7-I was very prideful and often put others down, hoping to lift myself up.

Course Member Mike writes: I too can see each one of these characteristics in my 
past involvement with pornography, especially the pride part. Nobody could tell me 
anything; I knew it all. And when it came to spiritual things I was a 
self-proclaimed expert, always using Scripture to justify myself while condemning 
others. I can see how these verses in James point me to the way out of my bondage 
in pornography, Lord help me to do them!"

Question 1. Thinking through the above 7 characteristics, which one (or several) 
describe your life when you were when you were in pornography? Please give some 
instances where these characteristics showed themselves most clearly.

These verses also show us the remedy for our sin-sickness, and we are about to 
study specific steps on how to be free from habitual sin. But let us be careful 
to note that doing what Scripture commands requires the grace of God. This would 
be a good point to stop today's lesson and beseech God for grace to actually do 
each of these steps. I often pray, "God help me to apply what I learn today. I 
need your grace to actually do what your Word says to do, so please keep me from 
just gaining knowledge but help me to obey You." Feel free to write out a prayer 
here if you would like to.

Step 1: "Submit yourselves, then, to God." (verse 7). Submission is: "A Greek 
military term meaning 'to arrange [troop divisions] in a military fashion under 
the command of a leader'. In non-military use, it was 'a voluntary attitude of 
giving in, cooperating, assuming responsibility, and carrying a burden'".
[1] Submission in Scripture is obeying God, whereas sinning is obeying the evil 
one. Job 22:21-27 contain much truth on how to be free from sin, and the first 
step is listed in verse 21: "Submit to God and be at peace with him;" 

Question 2. Please write out in what areas you have failed to submit to God in 
the past, and then explain how you will submit to Him from now on.

Step 2: "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (verse 7). Resist means to 
set yourself against someone or something, or to stand in opposition to them. For 
me, this meant developing a "battle plan" of how to set myself against the evil 
one. Among other things, this meant taking the TV out of my hotel room at night, 
and giving away my notebook computer.  

Question 3. How will you actively resist the devil, and stand in opposition to 
him? (specific)

Step 3: "Come near to God and He will come near to you" (verse 8).  Friend, let 
me speak a truth to your heart right now: there will be no real freedom, nor any 
lasting victory in a life that is not seeking closeness and union with Christ. 
Sure, we may be able to "white-knuckle" it, grit our teeth and use sheer 
"will power" for a short time but we will not have Pure Freedom because that 
comes only through intimacy with Christ. We must not only resist the devil, but 
we must also draw near to God and experience His presence in order to overcome 
sin. For me, that meant spending much time in prayer and Bible study, attending 
church whenever possible, counseling with my pastor…etc. 

Question 4. What will it look like for you to draw near to God? Again, please be 
specific. 

Step 4: "Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded" 
(verse 8). There must be a cleansing of what we do (our hands) what we love 
(our hearts) and what we think (our minds). Scripture admonishes us to 
"wash" and "purify" and this requires diligence and effort, as well as proper 
tools to clean with. 

Question 5. Please list how you are planning on cleansing your hands, your heart 
and mind.

Step 5: Become single minded (verse 8). Yes, it is entirely possible to rid our 
brains of those pornographic images. It requires not allowing ourselves any access 
to additional images, and cleansing our minds of the images that are still there 
from what we have viewed in the past. It also requires the ceasing of masturbation, 
as masturbation solidifies those images in our brains. This cleansing took me a few 
months to do, once I began the process of coming out of pornography, but I can tell 
you that I have not had a pornographic image lodge in my brain in nearly two years 
now. 

Question 6. Are you "double minded" now? Or can you remember what it was like in the 
past? 

Step 6: "Grieve, mourn, and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to 
gloom" (verse 9). The basic instruction in this verse is to get serious, rid your 
life of flippancy, and begin to mourn over your sin. Now some will say that this is 
a life of morbid despair and gloom, and is contradictory to all the passages that 
refer to unspeakable joy (1 Peter 1:8) and being content in life (Hebrews 13:5). But 
this is not so. This passage in James refers to a person who is in need of 
repentance, whereas the other passages refer to the effects of repenting. Genuine 
repentance includes submitting to God, resisting the devil, gaining intimacy with 
Christ, purifying ourselves, changing our joy to gloom, and mourning over our sins. 

Question 7. Have you sincerely mourned over your sin? Are you seeking to exchange 
light-hearted laughter for seriousness and sadness, at least for a time? 
Please explain…

Step 7: "Humble yourselves" (verse 10). During my years of pornography I thought 
myself to be the final say on Scripture. I considered myself to be an authority 
because of my much study, and I did not like to be challenged by those who I 
considered to be inferior to me, such as my pastor, my seminary teachers, and 
obviously everybody else. Oh how deceived I was, and how ignorant to the ways of 
God! When I went to my pastor in January of 1999 and asked for help I determined 
not to argue with him, nor to teach, or "prove my point" but only to ask for help 
and listen to his counsel. THIS is what is required to get out of habitual sin. It 
requires humbling ourselves.

We can tell when God is working in the heart of a course member here because they 
find themselves not wanting to argue, or point out all the wrongs of the course, 
but simply to learn and ask for help. They recognize their need and so they humble 
themselves and ask God and us for help. We have noticed that the people who are 
serious about humbling themselves always find victory. Indeed, the last half of the 
verse that tells us to humble ourselves says, "and He will lift you up" (verse 10). 
Victory and Pure Freedom are the results of those who humble themselves!

Question 8. Finally, please share what you have learned today, or what you will put 
into practice. Have you seen yourself in this passage, and are you now aware of some 
things that will need to change in order to be truly free from habitual sin?

Scriptures to consider:

"Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, 
but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body 
is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You 
are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body" 
(1 Corinthians 6:18-20).

"But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of 
impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people" (Ephesians 5:3).

"Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you. 
22Accept instruction from his mouth and lay up his words in your heart. 23 If you 
return to the Almighty, you will be restored:  If you remove wickedness far from 
your tent 24 and assign your nuggets to the dust, your gold of Ophir to the rocks 
in the ravines, 25 then the Almighty will be your gold, the choicest silver for you.  
26 Surely then you will find delight in the Almighty and will lift up your face to God. 
27 You will pray to him, and he will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows. 28 What 
you decide on will be done, and light will shine on your ways" (Job 22:21-28).

"There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor 
(valley of Trouble) a door of hope. There she will sing as in the days of her 
youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt" (Hosea 2:15).