Living by the Will of God: Part 1

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Living by the Will of God: Part 2

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Turning back to the book of James, and I like to title this message just to be part one of living the will of God, or should
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I say, how to respond to the will of God. And you wouldn't think that this text deals with the will of God, but everything in this text actually is focused on God's will.
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This is what this text is about. So we'll be returning back to our study in the book of the
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Epistle of James. Isn't it great? It was good to have that time of the holidays to focus on the incarnation of Jesus Christ and His birth,
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His wonderful birth, and Him coming into the world to redeem
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His own people and to save us from our sins, and then we focused on His glories.
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Praise God. But all of it's God's Word. It's all inspired. It's all about Jesus, right?
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So as we look to this wonderful text and what we'll be looking at today on how to respond to God's will or living
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God's will, I believe this is going to be very beneficial and a blessing to each and every one of you here today. As I was studying it,
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I said, you know, I know these things, and you know, we can know these things, these truths in our mind.
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But it was so refreshing as I was studying. I said, I need this in my own personal life.
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I need to be reminded what is God's will for my life in the everyday, mundane, ordinary life that we live.
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And God has a plan for each and every one of us here. It's not as complicated as you think.
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It's big, but it's the mundane and the small. And in those small things,
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God uses it for big things. And that's the wonderful thing about our Lord, isn't it?
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That's encouraging. He's interested in the small things. And I think
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Elizabeth Elliot said something to this effect one day. She said, you know, and she was referring to the book of Jonah.
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And she said, you know, God used the monster, the sea monster, the whale. And look at the size of that great fish.
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It was of huge proportions, large. But God used the worm just like He did the whale.
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Amen. He prepared both. God spoke to the worm just like He spoke to the whale.
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So God uses all of it. And I like what Sproul says, you know, if God's not sovereign, then
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God's not God. But God is God. And I love the way
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Brother Keith started that out. You know, the sovereignty of God is in a woman a man's responsibility. So it's all there.
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So this is really what our text is talking about today is about God's will. And it's going to be really a blessing to you.
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So turn with me please to the book of James. James chapter 4. This is actually the paragraph.
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We'll be finishing out chapter 4. Lord willing, then we'll be going to chapter 5. And chapter 5 is it.
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And Lord willing, I really sense the direction that the
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Lord would have us go is go to the next book after James, 1 Peter.
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And then I really feel that in that direction, once we finish 1 Peter, let's go to 2 Peter. What about that?
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Because 2 Peter is a follow -up 1 Peter, of course, obviously. But it deals with the false teachers, the last days, and the second coming of Jesus.
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We're there, sisters and brothers. We're there. So we're going in that direction. So praise
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God. And I believe the material, Ben, Brother Ben, I think he's in process of ordering
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R .C. Sproul, all that great theology. Wow, I'm going to have to borrow some of those
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DVDs. I know I can't make it to Wednesday night, but that's going to be great to have that. Well, let's go to our text.
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Praise God. Chapter 4, James. Looking at verse 13 through 17.
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13 through 17. Hear the word of the living God. And I'm reading from the NASB.
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Now come, come now, come now. You who say today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.
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Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
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Verse 15. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live.
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And also do this or that. But as it is, you boast in your arrogance.
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All such boasting is evil. Right to the point. Verse 17.
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Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.
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May God richly bless the reading of His word from our ears to our hearts. Let's pray.
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Our Father as it has already been spoken, our great desire this morning is first of all to hallow your name.
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Hallowed be thy name. Your name is absolutely holy. The next petition follows that which says, thy kingdom come.
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Lord, our desire is to see your kingdom come. Lord, we have a great part to play in this and we're thankful for it.
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It humbles us of being part of something so great and so large in magnitude.
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It's beyond our imagination. And the next and third petition, Lord, as it's been spoken is, thy will be done.
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Thy will be done. Lord, teach us. Teach us in humility.
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Thy will above everything in this world. Your will.
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Your will to be done. And it's done in heaven. Lord, our prayer is that it will be done in earth as it is in heaven.
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I pray, Lord, give us a heart to delight to do thy will above all things. Father, my prayer this morning is,
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Lord, that may your holy will, your desire, your desire be above everything in our lives.
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May this be the ultimate priority in our lives. The ultimate priority. To know you and to do your will.
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Breathe upon us, O Lord, by your Holy Spirit, through your grace. And bless your words.
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Teach us as we sit and learn at the feet of Jesus, the Lord, through your word.
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And Father, we will be very careful to give you all the praise and the glory. In Jesus' name,
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I ask this. Amen and amen. Wonderful text before us. The Apostle James began chapter 4 talking about war with God.
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Conflict with God. And he ends this chapter by talking about the will of God.
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Now, I want you to think of this. The two themes are related.
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They are related when a believer in Jesus Christ is out of the will of God, he actually becomes a troublemaker and not a peacemaker.
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Think of that. For example, Lot moved into Sodom and he brought trouble to his family.
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He was out of the will of God. King David is another example. Committed adultery.
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But what happened? It brought trouble into his family and into the kingdom of Israel.
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And of course, the prophet Jonah is a classic illustration. Disobeyed God and almost sent a shipload of heathen sailors into a watery grave.
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Each case, in each case, there was a wrong attitude toward the will of God.
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And that's what I like for us to focus on this morning is our attitude toward the will of God. We must have the right attitude.
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Now, God would have a plan for each and every one of His children. It's really an obvious truth.
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Because God does have a plan for each of His children. Because God is a
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God of wisdom. He is all -wise. He's omniscient. And knows exactly what is to happen.
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And when it should happen. And when it should occur for our good. Romans 8, 28.
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And we know that all things work together for the good.
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To those that are the called according to His purpose. That's God's word.
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But also, not only God is all -wise. He is love. This is
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God's nature. He is absolutely loving in every way.
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He never changes in this. Aren't you glad of that? He doesn't warm, nor He cools.
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We're warm and cool. We're fickle. But God is constantly changeless.
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He said this. I am the Lord, I change not. That means in His love,
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His wisdom, His grace. And all that He is. He will never change.
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He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We can rejoice in that. He always and must desire the very best for His children.
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And too many Christians look at the will of God as really bitter medicine they must take.
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But rather, it is seeing God's will as really gracious evidence of the love of God.
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That's the way we should see it. The scriptures give many, many marks of a true
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Christian. And such as love for God is one of them.
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That's one of the marks. Next would be repentance from sin. This is a true
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Christian. Repentance from sin. Then you have true humility. That's a true mark of a
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Christian, is true humility. How about devotion to God's glory? I think that's a very good mark and a sign that a true
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Christian is a true Christian. Prayer. He loves to pray. But he prays for the right reasons, right?
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For the right motives. Not for himself. He prays directly. That everything we mentioned about the first, the second, the third, the fourth petition.
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That God's will be done. God's kingdom come. Love for others is a mark and a sign of a true believer.
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Separation from the world is another mark. That one is to be set apart from the world.
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He's in the world, but he's not of the world. Growing in the grace and the knowledge of the truth is another mark.
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And obedience to God's word. Now all those are true marks of a born -again believer in Jesus Christ.
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He is a believer and those are the things that marks him different.
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But nothing more clearly, and this is what I'm really getting to, clearly summarizes the character of a genuine believer in Jesus Christ than a desire to do the will of God.
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To do God's will. To do those things that God desires, that God loves.
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And actually I heard this years ago when I was converted to Christ. A believer is one who loves the things, he loves the things that God loves.
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This is his intent of his heart. This is the things that really mark him out.
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He loves the things God loves and he hates the things God hates. He is one with God through Jesus Christ.
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But the desire is there to do God's will. Now it doesn't mean we always do it.
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We don't always do it perfectly by no means. But the desire is there. The desire to do
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God's will. And when we fail to do God's will, there's always a sense of shame upon us.
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In Psalm 40 verse 8, David wrote this, I delight to do your will, oh my God.
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Listen to his cry, he's praying. I delight. Notice that word.
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There's duty, but there's delight. He delights, that's the love of his heart.
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Oh my God, I delight to do your will. Your law is within my heart.
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That's why. That's why he loves to delight in God's will because his law is in his heart.
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He has a new heart. So we can safely say it is a mark of a true believer in Jesus that he or she desires to do the will of God.
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You can really say that. You can mark that out. A true believer loves to do God's will. He loves the things
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God loves. And when we go to Scripture, we see God loves to be glorified.
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That means we glorify God because He loves to be glorified. He loves His kingdom.
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We love God's kingdom, don't we? I love God's kingdom. You know, and also, the psalmist also wrote in Psalm 143 .10,
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he added, teach me. Not only to desire, but he has an attitude. Teach me to do your will.
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For you're my God. Now, it's as if he's saying in one place, I want to do your will.
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He desires it. And in another place, he says, I'm not sure I know how to do this.
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So I delight in doing it, but Lord, would you teach me specifically in how to do it? Teach me, that's the mark of humility.
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He comes before Jesus and he says, I don't know how to. I desire it. But he falls at the feet of Jesus in prayer and worship and says,
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Lord, how many times have you done this? Teach me, Lord, to do your will.
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Teach me. That should be constantly upon our lips. I delight in doing your will,
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Lord. So then he goes on. So basically, the one's relationship to Jesus Christ is doing the will of God.
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In Mark chapter 3 verse 35, Jesus taught this.
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He said, whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and my sister and my mother.
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You're part of the family of God. Isn't that great? Aren't you glad to be part of the family of God?
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Brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, we all are one in Jesus to do one will.
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And that is the will of God. Not our will. As Brother Keith said, our will must be undone for God's will to be done.
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You see, that's paramount is doing the will of God. Now, John chapter 7 verse 17,
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Jesus declared this. If anyone is willing to do his will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak for myself.
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Now, that's Jesus. That's the head of the church. You know, if you know the teaching of God, that's why it's so important to know sound doctrine, isn't it?
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We've got to know the truth. We're all about truth. Redeeming grace is all about truth.
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It's all about Jesus. Who is the truth? Jesus Christ. He said, I am the way, I'm the truth, I'm the life.
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Who teaches the truth? The Spirit of truth. The Spirit of truth has come to make His vote in us to teach us all about Jesus.
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And then God, He is truth Himself. You see, and this is everything
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Jesus is saying. Again, Jesus identifies a relationship with God. Linking it,
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He links it with the will of God. He links it up. Now, in Matthew chapter 7 verse 21, just to show you from Scripture, you don't have to turn there, but this is in my introduction here, but how important it is to do the will of God.
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Jesus makes a very, very sober warning on the Sermon on the Mount, and actually He concludes it.
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And He says this, everything He says beforehand, and then He concludes it, this is what's paramount right here.
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This is what is distinctive between those false professors, the hypocrites, in which
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He refers to, to those who are the true believers. Not everyone who says to me,
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Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven. Then He says, then you put comma, but he who, what?
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Does the will of God. Who does my Father's will, who is in heaven, will enter.
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And Jesus basically underscores it. It's he who does the will of God will enter into the kingdom of heaven.
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That's how important this is. The Apostle Peter exhorted Christians, I believe
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Peter and James is both linked up together, and they're getting this from the Master on the Sermon on the Mount. 1
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Peter 4 .2 says this, to live the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for the lust of men, but for the will of God.
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That's why we live. We don't longer live for the desires of the lust.
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That's the same word, actually, interchangeably, but we don't desire what we want to desire ourselves, it's what
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God desires. We want to please our God. And the Apostle John, 1
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John 2 .17, this is a very important verse, and most of you are very familiar with it. And it's one
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I think should be memorized. John the Apostle says it in clarity, with clarity. 1
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John 2 .17, and the world passes away, and the lust thereof, but he that is doing the will of God is abiding forever.
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That's how important the will of God is. So in other words, the people with eternal life, within them are the people who do the will of God.
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It is then a characteristic of true faith, true faith, saving faith, salvation, true
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Christianity, that has a right relationship to God that we desire to do and obey
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God and to do His will one degree or another. And it will be obedience to His will.
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Now, I love this. As I was thinking of this and putting this down in my introduction,
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I could not help but think, who is the greatest example who did the will of God perfectly?
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There's only one, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. You know, it was
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He who said, I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.
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None other than Jesus Christ Himself. In John's Gospel, chapter 4, verse 34, listen to some of these verses.
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And also chapter 5, verse 30, pretty much He says the same thing here. He says,
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I came into the world to do the will of God. I came into this world to do my
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Father's will. Jesus subjected Himself, even being God, the second person of the
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Godhead, was in subjection under His Father's authority,
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Jesus Himself. In other words, when you and I became a believer, both of us, we look at Jesus as the perfect example and the model for doing the will of God.
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I believe He's the one we always should look at. That's a sermon in of itself. You know, we see the very essence of a relationship to God bound up in perfect obedience in Jesus.
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And though my obedience and your obedience is imperfect, Jesus was completely perfect, completely flawless.
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Isn't that incredible? It is nonetheless characteristic of my relationship to your relationship to Him as a child of God, bearing
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His nature, that I have a desire to do His will.
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Now, on the other hand, on the other hand, if there is in the heart no desire to do
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God's will, that's a sure mark of a rebel. That is a sure mark of one who has not been transformed or born again.
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One who does not know or love God. I can assure you of that. You show me people out there, even those that claim to be or profess to be a
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Christian, and they do not have a desire to do God's will, I can assure you, that is a mark that they are not a believer in Jesus Christ.
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Now, people would say, Judge, not least you be judged. You know how they take those things out of context. Well, Jesus says,
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You know a tree bites fruit. Now, yes, amen. Yes, and that's the truth.
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Jesus said that. I didn't say that. But there's evidence. There are evidence of people who know
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God and who don't know God. You can test the spirits, whether they're of God or not. Now, so James, going back to James here, as we come to verses 13 through 17, of all that,
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I said all that to say this, doing the will of God is another test.
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It's another test here, as we've been looking at different tests, of faith, patience, endurance, and so forth, trials, test of living.
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It's a test of living and active faith. Whether our faith is living or dead. Whether we have the real faith.
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It's another way to examine our hearts to see if we're genuinely
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God's child. This is a good way to test it, right here. Are we doing
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God's will? True Christians are characterized by doing the will of God from the heart,
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Ephesians 6. Now, He does it joyfully, willingly, desirously.
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He prays again. Your kingdom come, your will be done.
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The Apostle Paul's delight in God's law in Romans 7 .22 is another way of expressing the same attitude.
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He loved God's law. He knew there was a war. We know that war that goes on, that conflict.
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We have that conflict every day. But the paramount desire in the child of God's heart is heart.
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I love to do your will. What you desire. And we're going to look at that.
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So, you know, think of it. It's another way of expressing that. So, does that come easy from us?
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Well, because that cry of the heart is of a true child of God seeking to do God's will from the heart.
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Again, Jesus was the only one that did it perfectly. To His short -sighted disciples at the time, they were focused on earthly things like us.
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Jesus explained in John 4 .34, My food. Think of this. I get convicted every time
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I read Jesus' words on this. He says, My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish
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His work. In other words, Jesus was saying, This is everything to me. I take this in. I digest it.
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I eat this. God's will is everything in my life.
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And you know His will was to go to a cross and die for our salvation. That was the
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Father's will. That was the Father's commandment. And that was everything. Now, take you from that, when we talk about the cross, you know what happened in Gethsemane.
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There was an agony. There was a battle in Gethsemane when Jesus' sweat mingled with blood as He was prostrate on His face before the
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Father, facing that awful reality of the cross before Him for our salvation, beloved, for Him to take the sins of the world upon Him.
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And yet, He prayed this, My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.
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If it be possible now, then He prayed, yet not as I will, but as You will.
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Jesus went all the way to the cross because it was the Father's will.
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There was a battle there. Think of the battle. I don't know. We can't really relate to that because it's so far beyond us.
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I like what MacArthur said. He said, He who was perfectly holy, holiness was not foreign to Jesus.
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That was His nature. That's who He is. Tell you what was foreign to Him?
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Sin. You see, it's opposite with us. Holiness is foreign to us.
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You see, we're at home with sin. But with Jesus, it was opposite.
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And He had to take upon the sin of the world. And that was such a foreign thing.
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He knew no sin. It became a sin offering for us that we might become the righteousness of God.
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So He was obedient to death. The Lord Jesus Christ perfectly modeled the most essential element of a relationship to God.
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Obedience to the Father's will. And that's pretty much the point here. Now, in James 4, verses 13 -17,
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James points out several great truths for us. And we need, by God's help, of the Holy Spirit to catch these truths.
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Just not to put them here. I never will forget when I was in seminary and they taught this and I didn't really get it the first time.
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They said, this is better caught than taught. And I thought, what in the world is he saying? And I'm thinking, caught than taught?
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And really what he meant, he said, this is more something you will catch and experience than you would just me speaking it to you verbally.
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And how true that is. You know, you can hear it. And you can know it. But it's another thing to walk it.
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And go into that dark valley. And down the road, when I was in the backside of a desert,
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God was saying, you see, this is what I've been trying to teach you. And I'm thinking, whoa.
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I've got it, Lord. I've got it. So it's better caught than taught, beloved. So we need to catch it.
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If you don't get it here, you'll get it somewhere. I can promise you if the Lord wills it. Amen? If the Lord wills it.
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Well, there are negatives and there are positives. Now, the truth that drives home is really humbly being submissive to the will of God.
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And that's really what he's talking about. The positive, on the other hand, and the negative is, well,
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I'm sorry. The negative is being haughty and arrogant and prideful and rebelling against God's will.
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It's a constant disregard of, or disinterest, I should say, in God's will that is a mark of a prideful person.
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The ugly sin of underlying conflict and worldliness and slander, which really
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James has already pointed out from verses 1 through 12. So everything's in context here.
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What has he been talking about? He's been speaking against pride and arrogance. That's really what
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James is focused on. If you can set those two things before you and line it up and say, okay, here he's speaking against pride, but really what he's trying to teach us is be humble before the
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Lord. Beloved, he said, you know, to disregard God's will in effect is saying
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I am the sovereign ruler of my life. That's being arrogant, isn't it? I'm the ruler.
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You stand up. Amen, that's a negative. In other words, I'm in charge of my life.
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That's what this text is saying. Such a prideful, arrogant attitude is opposite of a saving faith, isn't it?
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How do we know this? Look at chapter 4 verse 6 in James. God is opposed to the proud, but He gives grace to the humble, to those that are humble.
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Those are the ones He gives grace to. So those who refuse to submit to God's will will give evidence that their lives have not been transformed by the saving grace of God.
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Titus chapter 2 verses 11 through 12 says this. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men.
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That's an invitation, really, external call to all men. Verse 12, instructing us.
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Now what instructs us? Think of this. What is instructing us? The grace of God. You know, a lot of people think it's grace.
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Oh, I'm grace. I'm in the kingdom. I'm out of hell. It's fire insurance from hell and I'm into heaven. I got a ticket to heaven. Not so.
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What you gonna do in between? What you gonna do here while you're on this earth? Well, He tells us. The grace of God instructs us.
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It teaches us how to live. This is so practical. I think to myself, this is so down to earth.
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This comes right where I live. Instructing us to what? To deny ungodliness.
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Anything that is ungodly, deny it. Worldly lust, worldly desires, deny it.
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And to what? That's the negative. To live sensibly. He wants you to have good sense, right?
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Righteously. Godly in this present age. In this present age until Jesus comes.
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Basically, that's what He's saying. So this is what God's grace teaches us to do. And in a nutshell, this is the will of God.
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So the true pattern that James has for us is follow through his epistle. He takes a very practical approach to the issue of responding and living out
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God's will. So in a passage that is built around seemingly mundane illustration of a businessman's plans.
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And that's what he does. He takes an illustration of a businessman. And we're gonna see why a businessman in a minute.
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James gives a significant and very significant insights into how people respond to God's will.
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In so doing, he presents three negative responses and one positive. I was thinking, wow, look at the ratio there.
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But today in part one, we're gonna look at the first. Actually, I'm gonna try to get three in. But we'll definitely look at the first two negatives.
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And then later on, Lord willing, in part two, we'll look at the positive. Next Lord's Day, Lord willing.
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I gotta say that. We will look at one negative and one positive. But today, let's first look at these two negatives or three negatives.
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Let's look at the first. The first one, I would like to put it in these terms. The first attitude, it's an attitude, right?
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What we see is the attitude of the foolishness of ignoring
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God's will. The foolishness of ignoring the will of God.
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Let's look at this. There are some people who live in this very sad state of ignoring God's will for their lives, right?
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In effect, they live as if God was not around. They live as if they're atheists.
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We know that they're not true atheists, but they live like that. As if God doesn't see them or God doesn't hear them or God is not even involved in their lives.
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That's the way they think. Or even as if God is not present. God is not at all in their thoughts.
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God is not in their agenda. God is not even in the forefront of their mind. God is not at all in their thoughts or in something that occupies any thought at all for them.
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God is out of their thoughts, right? We know this. We meet these people every day, don't we?
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Just drive on the road. You see what I'm saying? In the form, and by the way, we see people that are businessmen in a hurry to get to work, right?
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They'll run over you and they'll trample over you and they'll get on your bumper and they'll plow you over. Well, that's the way the world is.
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Somebody once said, dog eat dog. I think it's hog eat hog. That's what my grandmother said and she's right about that.
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It's hog eat hog. They don't like you at all and they'll run over you.
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And they got one thing in mind, their agenda. God's not in their mind. God's not in their thoughts.
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Well, look at verse 13. Now, you gotta keep in mind, these are people that are false professors.
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James knows how to get their attention. Notice what he says first. Verse 13. Come now. Come now.
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He starts out. You know what that means in the Greek? He's saying, now listen. It's like an evangelist gets up and says, now listen.
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Get this. That's what come now means. This is a signal phrase.
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It's a way of addressing such people and familiar actually in the Old Testament prophetic style.
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He uses the terminology as a prophet. How do we know this? If you look in Isaiah chapter 1 verse 18, the prophet
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Isaiah says this. Come now and let us reason together, says the
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Lord. You get that? Come now. Let us reason together, says the
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Lord. I could say that all day. I said, well, that's good. That's sweet. That's sweeter than honey.
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Amen. Come now. He's saying, come on. Get this.
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Give me your listening ear. That's what God's saying. Come now. James is saying, come now.
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Let me have your ears. I've got your attention. I want your attention. I want your ears. You listen to me.
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That's what he's saying. You listen to me. He's direct. He's to the point. He says, come now.
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He's insistent. And rather brash. It's rather brash. It's a call for attention.
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That's why he says, come now. Notice in chapter 5 verse 1, what does he say? Come now.
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Come now, you rich. Then he says, weep and howl. Oh, wow. He didn't have good news for him, did he?
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He said, you need to weep, you need to howl, for your miseries are coming upon you. Oh, that's not love, pastor.
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What are you talking about? It's love because he's warning them. He's telling them to come to repentance.
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You need to come. Amen. And so he's saying, come now. It's attention getter. He's saying, come now.
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These are the only times. Now, I was studying this, and this is what MacArthur said. These are the only times that particular address are used anywhere in the pages of New Testament scripture.
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New Testament now, the only time James uses it in a prophetic style.
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It's a very strong way of getting people's attention. Listen up. You get it.
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Give me your ear. And notice, he directs or targets his rebuke. To who?
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Notice what the text says. To those who say. To those who are making the profession, and they're saying, oh, today or tomorrow we will go to such and such city, and spend a year there, and engage in business, and make a profit.
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That's the kind of people he's addressing. The Greek text literally reads like this.
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The ones who are saying, indicating the people who are habitually living without regard for God's will.
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You see that? They're habitually living without any regard to God's desires, to God's will.
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So the underlying Greek verb is lego. Lego. It means to say something based on reason or logic.
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Based on reason or logic. So James is actually rebuking them. Those who habitually think through and articulate their plans as if God does not exist, or God does not care whatsoever about what they're doing.
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So God's not in their thoughts. This specific illustration James closes, or I'm sorry, he chose was one that would have been a very familiar to his
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Jewish readers. Again, his audience are Jewish. We've got to keep this in mind. They're not
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American. They're Jewish people. They're dispersed. Because many of the
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Jews that were dispersed throughout the ancient world, and I didn't know this.
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This is interesting. They were successful businessmen. Isn't that interesting?
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They were successful businessmen. They were successful merchants in that time period in the ancient world who naturally sought out to the flourishing trade centers in which to do business.
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These are the people that he's addressing. Now, that's important to know, the audience, because it gives you the right background.
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Why is he saying these things? Now, it's important to note this, that wise planning and strategizing in business is not, of course, sinful in of itself, right?
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It's really commendable. So, the sin is not the planning. The sin is the really, let me tell you, the spiritual principles are validated by anything the businessman has said here, but the problem lies not in the planning.
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The problem is what they did not do. What is it they didn't do? They excluded
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God. Excluded Him. They didn't include Him. They excluded
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Him. God, you're not in my plans. You're not in my thoughts. You're not in my life. I'm going to do what
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I want to do, and I'm going to make my plans, and I don't care what anything happens.
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God was ignored and not part of their agenda. Well, why is this so frightening?
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Well, we know the truth about this because of the revelation of Scripture. But, and again,
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I give MacArthur credit for this. Like Satan's five self -centered I will,
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I will, I will, I will, I will, in Isaiah chapter 14, 13 through 14, that caused an archangel to turn into a devil was that caused his fall.
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This businessman's statements contains five presumptuous elements indicating their ill -advised confidence in themselves.
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Wow. Isn't that incredible? The same thing coincides with what
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Satan does. And James knew exactly what to bring this in. He said, well, let's look at this.
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This is good. Let's look at the text in detail, in detail.
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Amen, it's God's Word. First of all, what did they do first? They chose their own time.
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Look, look at this. Today or tomorrow, they chose their own time. Second, what did they do?
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They chose their own location for doing business. What did they say? Such and such a city. Third, they chose their own duration.
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Descending, deciding to spend a year there. That's what they said, would decide to spend a year there. Fourth, they chose their own enterprise to engage in the business and literally to travel into an area for trade.
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See, and finally, they chose their own goal, their own objective, and that was to make a profit.
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Notice those five distinctives that they did. It was all about themselves. Do we live in this kind of world, beloved?
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We see this everywhere. That's all people think. And the love of money is what drives them.
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But really, let me tell you what's behind the love of money. It's the pride. It's all about them.
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It's like the Tower of Babel. I was thinking about the Tower of Babel. Everything they did there was to reach the heights of the heaven.
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Oh, we're going to be like God. God's not going to be involved, but we're going to make a city.
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We're going to build a city for ourselves. We're going to make a name for ourselves. That's exactly what
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James is talking about here. He is talking about this. Their planning was leaving out
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God completely as if they were God, as if they were omniscient, as if they were omnipotent and invulnerable, as if they were the ones that were saying with a fist in God's face that I'm going to do what
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I want to do. This was the same exact attitude, beloved, get this, you're going to like this, that the rich man in the parable that Jesus spoke of.
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Let's go to it. If you go to Luke chapter 12, we'll see the same identical attitude.
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Jesus knew exactly what to bring out about this. And the Lord gave an illustration.
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Actually, it's an illustration of folly. Of folly. You see this constantly in the
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Proverbs. But the folly of presumptuously leaving out God out of one's plans.
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Look at Luke chapter 12, verse 16 through 21. Jesus says this. And he told them a parable, saying the land of a rich man was very productive.
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You see that? He's productive. And he began reasoning to himself, saying, what shall
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I do since I have no place to store my crops? Then he said, now he's talking to himself.
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Notice what he's saying. Then he said, this is what I will do.
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Get that? I will do. I will tear down my barns.
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My barns. I. My barns. And build larger ones. And there
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I will store my grain. Get that? Not God's grain.
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My grain. And my goods. And I will say to my soul, soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come.
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Take your ease. Eat, drink, and be merry. Hey, this is the world, folks.
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This is people's attitude today. But. There it is. Transition. But God said to him, you fool.
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This very night your soul is required of you and now who will own what you have prepared?
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So is the man who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.
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I tell you what. I don't even have to make any comments about that. Jesus drives that truth home.
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Basically, that everything is said right there about those who love themselves and they love riches.
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That's the reason they love riches. They love themselves. It's pride. That's what James is addressing.
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Pride. See in verse 14. Back to James. He gives us two important reasons to those who presumptuously leave
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God out of their planning. They're foolish. Number one. Hey, that's it. They're foolish. What did
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God call this man? You fool. You fool. As David says, the fool has said in his heart, there's no
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God. But you know something? There's another translation of that. He says, no God.
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In other words, not only there's no God, he's atheistic. He's saying no to God. You see, he's saying no to God.
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James says to such people, you do not know your life. You don't know what your life is going to be like tomorrow.
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In other words, James is saying, who do you think you are? And we're going to get to that. Well see, like the rich fool, the rich fool in the
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Lord's parable, they were ignorant of the future. Proverbs, let me give you a proverb. Proverbs 27 .1.
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Notice how it ties in here. It expresses the same exact principle. Solomon said this, do not boast about tomorrow.
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For you do not know, I love that. You do not know. We do not know what a day may bring forth.
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We don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. Pastor John MacArthur says this. I love what he says here in his commentary.
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Quote, life is far from simple. It is a complex matrix of forces, events, peoples, contingencies, and circumstances over which we have little or no control.
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Isn't that true? No control, making it impossible for anyone to ascertain or design or assure any specific future.
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And he goes on to say this, despite that, some people foolishly imagine that they are in charge of their lives.
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Sadly, such people ignore not only the existence of God's will, but also its benefit.
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Christians have the comfort of knowing that the sovereign, omniscient, omnipotent
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God of the universe controls every event and every circumstance of their lives and weaves them into His own perfect plan for them.
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End quote. I love that. Glory to God. You see, amen.
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Brother Keith, see, you nailed it. You're talking about God's sovereignty. See, God's in charge.
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That is everything to the Christian. God is in charge. That's why Spurgeon said you can rest on that pillow.
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You can put your head down at night and you can rest knowing that God has everything in control.
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Totally. Now, we see the evil. We see, we think, sometimes I think to myself, I said,
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I don't understand why these things have happened but I tell you what, my trust and confidence in the one that knows who holds tomorrow.
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He knows exactly what's going on and it is in His plan. God knows.
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Romans 8, 28, and we know that God calls us all things to work together for good to those who love
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God. Amen. To those who love God. To those who are called according to His purpose.
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David wrote in Psalm 37, 33, and five. I know Ms. Lillian knows what I'm talking about here. Chapter 37, sister, amen.
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Through her years of life, I know she's leaned on these scriptures. Trust in the
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Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the
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Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord. Trust also in Him and He will do it.
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You see, and He keeps His promise. In the same vein, Solomon wrote in Proverbs 3, five through six,
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Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. What we lean on?
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God's everlasting arms. Hey, and all your ways acknowledge Him. Some of your ways?
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No, sir. All your ways. All your ways. All your ways. Acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight.
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God knows what He's doing, beloved. Now, you know, notice in these verses. Hey, I love this.
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Notice in the verses I just quoted The key phrase is in the Lord. In the
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Lord. In the Lord. Keep that before you. Not us. Not unto me.
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It's not about God. It's not about me being, trying to be God. It's God being God.
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I like when one person said, you know, when I read in Scripture, God is God and I'm not. He is
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I am and I am not. Let's keep that before us. Praise God.
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So, the first reason that James is talking about to those who leave God out of their planning are, what?
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Foolish. They are fools. God calls them a fool, right? God calls them a fool.
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James gave those that were tempted to do so a second reason here.
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And the second reason is this. Not only were they leaving out God out of their plans and that is being foolish, but also he brings to our attention,
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I like this, is the brevity of life. The brevity of life. Now, this here, beloved,
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I got to be careful. I could preach a whole sermon on this. Amen.
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The brevity of life. What does he say? The text says in verse 14, look at verse 14, back to James.
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Yet, you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. Or literally, the little translation says, what will happen tomorrow?
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Or what kind of life is yours? He says, you are just a vapor.
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I like that. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
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Now, I want you to think about that. Brother Keith said the word there, sobering. It is so sobering and actually it is meant to sober us.
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And there is a reason for it. When we open up this book, we open up the eternal mind of God. You move out of time and into eternity, beloved, when you open this book.
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Life is like a puff of smoke from a fire. You know, we was having a little fire around the fire pit when
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John was here and I could not help but think as I saw the sparks flying upward. You see it?
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Gone. Sparks. All kinds of sparks. I was thinking that is human life. That is the whole human race.
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Spark after spark. Gone. Gone. That is the way our life is. We are here, but for a short time, beloved.
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I mean short. Like the streams that rises from a cup of coffee. Steams, I should say.
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Or the breath. Like your breath in the cold air. You see it? It is gone.
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That is the brevity. The frailty. How frail life is.
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And you know this, the older you get, you see how more frail you are and how short life is.
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You see this more and more. And you see how foolish in the light of brevity how frail the earthly life is.
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And you also see to plan to live it without consideration of God's will is foolishness. The Bible has much to say about brevity.
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Just look at it. I picked out a few verses because my time goes by so quick here. Good night.
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Anyway, I'm not going to tell you what time it is. Let's just keep on going. Job said this in the first book of Scriptures.
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One of the earliest books in the Bible, Job was no doubt one of the oldest manuscripts.
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Chapter 7, verse 6, Job laments, My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle. They come to an end without hope.
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Verse 9, he added, When a cloud vanishes, it is gone. So he who goes down to Sheol, in other words, the grave, the abode of the dead, that's the original translation, to the grave, he does not come back up.
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Now what he's talking about, he's not talking about, he's not leaving out a resurrection. He's basically saying when you're dead, you're dead.
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That's what he's saying. Your body goes down until the resurrection. But until then, ain't nothing going to bring that body back.
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Ain't nothing going to bring your soul back. So chapter 8, verse 9,
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Bildad the Shuhite says this, We are only of yesterday, and know nothing because our days on earth are as a shadow.
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Job 9, verse 25 -26, Job continues his lament. Remember, he's lamenting.
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He's suffering. Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away, they see no good.
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They slip like reed boats. Like reed boats. Like an eagle that swoops up its prey.
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Isn't that amazing? It goes to nature. That God's creation. Then Job, in chapter 14, verse 1 and 2,
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Job's complaint. Now he has a complaint to God. He complains to God. We know that God answers him later, right?
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I love the last chapters of Job. Job's complaint to God. By the way, you know this.
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God comes back question after question, a series of questions. And you know, Job is just silenced.
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He's sitting there and he puts his hand to his mouth and he's got nothing to say. He just, oh my.
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Job's complaint to God. He aptly summarizes the frailty and brevity of human existence. And this is what he says.
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Man who is born of woman is short -lived. And full of turmoil. Who can say amen to that?
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Full of turmoil. Like a flower, he comes forth and withers. He also flees like a shadow and does not remain.
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So those are just a few verses from the book of Job about the brevity of life. Now, Psalms. You know, we can go through the whole
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Psalm chapter 90. That whole chapter is about that. But verse 10, I just got one verse for you.
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Verse 10 says this. Excuse me. As for the days of our life, they contain 70 years.
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Or if due to strength, 80 years. And I thought about you, Miss Lillian. When he talked about those 80 years.
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80 years. Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow.
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For soon it is gone. We fly away. Fly away.
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It's all over with. Even 80 years, 100 years. I think about all the people that lived years, years ago.
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They lived up hundreds of years ago. They're gone. You know, even old
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Methuselah. You know, he lived almost a millennium. He's gone. But think of it.
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Time goes by. We've got eternity facing us, folks. That's why we've got to make sure we get things right with God.
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Now, Psalm 102, 11. Listen to this. My days are like a lengthened shadow.
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And I wither away like grass. Now, Scripture has a lot to say about grass.
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Ain't it interesting people say, you've got to be kidding me. In the Bible, grass, that important? Has the illustration for us.
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Listen to this. Psalm 103, 15, 16. David says, As for man, his days are like grass.
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And then he says a flower. As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
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It blossoms out. But when the wind has passed over it, it's no more.
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And its place acknowledges it no longer. It's gone. It was there one time.
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It flourished. That's the way our life is, folks. And you know Isaiah 40, of course, 6 -8.
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6 -8, a voice calls. What's it say? Call out. Then he answered, What shall
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I call out? Hey, this is pretty important. All flesh. Oh, my.
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Listen to that. Not some flesh. All flesh. All flesh is grass, and its loveliness is like the flower of the field.
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The grass withers. The flower fades. But when the breath of the Lord blows upon it, surely the people are grass.
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Does that sober you? Oh, my. The grass withers. The flower fades.
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But, but, the word of our God stands forever. You see,
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Peter quotes the same thing in 1 Peter 1 and 24. Identical of what
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Isaiah just said about the word of God enduring forever. He quotes this verse from the prophet
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Isaiah. So, man's life is very frail. Life is very short. So, then next,
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James 4, verse 16. Let's look at this very quickly. Last is the arrogance of denying
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God's will. Denying God's will. You see, arrogance of denying
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God's will is in verse 16. But as it is, you boast in your arrogance, and all such boasting is evil.
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He's to the point. He tells us it's evil. How evil being arrogant is.
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So, the first wrong response to God's will is presumptuously ignoring it, living as though God and His will does not exist.
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But there are also those who, while acknowledging God exists, that He has a will, nevertheless, they arrogantly reject it.
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So, those are in the first group of the particular atheists. Now, I'm going to skip a lot of notes here, but I want to end my point there.
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I've got another point, a third point, but we're going to look at that and pick it up in that glory to win next week. Let me give you some application real quick.
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Well, pastor, what about God's will? Can we know it? Yes, you can. The Bible gives us in His book, and I should say one book, compiles 66 books of inspired,
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God -breathed writings of God Almighty. Aren't you glad we have it in our language?
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Oh my. So, what is the will of God? First, let me say very quickly, I want to pull this together very fast.
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Before we go into Scripture, I do want to say this. God's will is not some mysterious maze that it's out there that we are not to know.
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God has specifically designed it and given us what His will is, and He wants us to know it.
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He desires us to know it. His will and His plans for each one of us. First of it is this.
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I really believe this. We must be born of the Spirit of God in order to know His will. You must be born again.
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You know that. I said, well, pastor, that's such a Christianity 101. Oh, it's the most important.
01:00:18
Jesus said you must be born again. Born of the Spirit of God. Born from above to even know what His will is from above.
01:00:23
Yes. You see? It comes from above. You've got to have the mind of Christ.
01:00:30
So, in order to have the mind of Christ, you've got to be born of the Spirit. So, that is first and foremost.
01:00:37
And it speaks of 1 Corinthians 2 9 -16. I was going to read that, but read that in your devotional time, but it talks about the things of the...
01:00:46
The natural man only understands the things of the natural man and the things of the Spirit.
01:00:51
So, in other words, and Paul picks this up, too, in Romans chapter 8. You've got to be of the
01:00:58
Spirit to understand the things of the Spirit. That's why Nicodemus was saying, how can these things be?
01:01:06
Here's a man, a theologian, and he's talking like a two -year -old child to Jesus, and Jesus said, what are you talking about?
01:01:13
You should know these things. It's in the Scriptures. So, Jesus rebuked him for that. But, honestly, it's important, isn't it?
01:01:19
So, specifically, specifically, the Bible tells us that God's will, number one, we do know this.
01:01:28
It is God's will that people be saved. People to be saved.
01:01:34
Now, turn real quickly to 1 Timothy 2. We'll see this. 1
01:01:41
Timothy 2. I love this. Look at verse 3.
01:01:49
Chapter 2, verse 3. What is he saying?
01:01:56
This is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior. He is our
01:02:02
Savior, right? Notice what he says in verse 4. What is he saying? Who desires.
01:02:08
That's God's will, right there. God desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
01:02:15
Now, that doesn't mean all men will be saved, but he does desire all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
01:02:22
And those who do believe and are saved are the elect, right? We know that. Verse 5.
01:02:28
Well, there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.
01:02:38
I'll stop right there. But we do know that God desires all men to be saved. Now, if you got...
01:02:44
Let me read this. You don't have to turn there. 2 Peter 3, 9 follows up that, that the Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.
01:03:01
God desires this. God... I love this. God has an immense capacity in His patience before He breaks forth in judgment.
01:03:14
Doesn't He? His patience... And by the way, that's why people are living right now. That's why me and you have breath.
01:03:20
That's why this world is even living. Because God's immense capacity in being patient toward those that hate
01:03:30
Him. Such love. We were there. Verse 15.
01:03:37
And it is a regard to the patience of the Lord as salvation. Now, think of it.
01:03:42
God endures endless blasphemies against His name, which is absolutely holy, along with rebellion in multiple millions, or maybe
01:03:55
I should say billions. Murders... You know, we only see just bits and pieces of it, beloved, from this filthy media.
01:04:05
But God sees every single thing that happens. Murders, blasphemies, evil upon evil, the ongoing breaking of His law.
01:04:19
Then God waiting patiently in His goodness while He is calling to redeem to Himself.
01:04:25
It is not impotence or slackness that delays final judgment, beloved.
01:04:33
It is His patience. Patience. God is patient.
01:04:39
Patient. I can't say that enough, beloved. That humbles me.
01:04:47
And here in the text, not willing that any should perish. God is so loving.
01:04:55
And that word any must refer, I think, to whom the Lord has chosen and will call to complete the redeem.
01:05:02
It's patient toward you. Toward you. Since the whole passage is about God destroying the wicked,
01:05:09
His patience is not so that He could save all of them, but so that He can receive
01:05:14
His own. His ones that He has called to Himself. And by the way, not until that last one comes in,
01:05:24
Jesus is coming back. And who knows this? Only God knows this.
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Amen, brother. I tell you, He can't be waiting for anyone to be saved since the emphasis is that of He will destroy the world and the ungodly.
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Those who do perish and go to hell are because of their own depravity. And only and worthy of hell.
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And rejected the only remedy of their sins, and that is Jesus Christ. Not because they were created for hell.
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No. God has not created hell for the souls to go there. He really originally created for the demons and the fallen angels.
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But man's depravity because of his saying no to God.
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You've got to understand this. There is a hardness. God passes over them. But God is not the author of that.
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Right? It's grace that brings us in. And you see, and then there's a teaching out there, you may know about this, this predetermined view that God elects some to hell.
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That's hyper -Calvinism, double predestination, which is false. But the path to damnation is a path of the non -repentant.
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It's that simple. Those who reject Jesus Christ, the person in the works of Jesus, God desires repentance.
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By the way, He not only desires repentance, He commands repentance. And not only He commands repentance,
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I love this, He provides the gift of repentance. Isn't that wonderful? What He commands,
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He provides. In other words, God says, I command you to repent. And then He says, I'll give you the gift to repent.
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Isn't God good? Glory to His name. Amen. Some people would say right there,
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Pastor Howell, I got one word, Grace. Grace. God's grace.
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I fall on my face and say, God's grace. God's will.
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Well, I don't have time to get into all these, but it's God's will for people to be saved. It's God's will to be sanctified.
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We're to be sanctified, meaning to be holy, to set apart. Turn with me very quickly to 1
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Thessalonians 4. I got to get this in. Tell you what, if I had another 30 minutes,
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I'd go. Oh my goodness. And nobody's going to listen to this.
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It's an hour and a half, brother. Days of Spurgeon's over with, but I love it. Spurgeon would preach an hour easily.
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Notice what it says in 1 Thessalonians 4. Finally then, it's
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God's will to be sanctified. Now listen. Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that you receive from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please
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God just as you actually do walk. He's commending them. And then he says this, that you excel still more.
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Now he said don't stop in your sanctification. You need to progress. You don't get content with sanctification, right?
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It's a constant, you know what I'm talking about. It's a constant battle. Verse 2. For you know what commandments, there's commandments, we gave you by the authority of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. He's not on his own authority here. He's on the authority of Jesus Christ. This is
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Paul. Underscore verse 3. For this is the will of God.
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Your sanctification. That is, you abstain from sexual immorality.
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They had problems in the church back then with sexual immorality too. They didn't have the internet. It's doubled.
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It's tripled. It's even quadrupled now. But the church at that time had problems with fornication, immorality, even in that time.
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And Paul was telling them this is the will of God. You are to be sanctified. Didn't I tell you this comes right down to where we live?
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He said abstain from it. In other words, flee it. Get away from it. Don't do it.
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Verse 4. That each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification.
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He's talking about your body, beloved. Your body. How to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion like the
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Gentiles who do not know God. And that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the
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Lord is the avenger of all these things. Just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you.
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Verse 7. For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification and holiness.
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So, now notice how Paul puts this hallmark of authority on it.
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So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man, but God who gives
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His Holy Spirit to you. Much more to say about that later. I'll pick up,
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I promise you I'll pick up here next week, Lord willing. God desires for people to be saved.
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God desires for you to be sanctified. God also desires for you to be filled with the Spirit.
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That's God's will. Go with me quickly to Ephesians chapter 5. It's all over the pages of Scripture, God's will.
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I'm telling you. And this comes down to where we live. It's not something way out there. Lord, what do you want me to do?
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What's your will? What's your location, Lord? No. God wants you to live like this. Notice in chapter 5.
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What does he say? Let me see. Verse 15. Let's go to 15. He talks about walking in wisdom here.
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Therefore, be careful. I love this. Be careful how you walk.
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Not as unwise men, but as wise. Verse 16. Make the most of your time.
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You want to make the most of your time? Redeem the time? Because the days are evil. Verse 17.
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So then do not be foolish. Notice the same thing that James is talking about. Don't be foolish. But understand what the will of the
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Lord is. In other words, he wants people in the church, the believers in the church to understand clearly this is what
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God is saying. Do not get drunk with wine. That was a problem too.
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He said you don't have to be drunk with wine. For that is dispensation.
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That's another word of basically wasteful.
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Pagan worship ceremonies of that day. That was going on. Ecstatic communion.
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I could go on and on. Now he says this. But be filled with the
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Spirit. That's the will of God. God desires for you to be filled with His Holy Spirit.
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Don't you desire to be filled with the Spirit? Next, God desires that all believers be submissive.
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Be submissive. You can read this in 1 Peter 2. Verse 13 -15.
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But it's there. It's the will of God that you be submissive to the government.
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Fifth, and I'll pick up here later on like I said, is God's will also to be thankful. Would it have a thankful attitude?
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Didn't I tell you this is all about attitude? Would it be thankful? 1 Thessalonians 5 -16.
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Rejoice always. Verse 17. Pray without ceasing. Verse 18. I love these clusters. In everything and everything give thanks for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.
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God's will, beloved. His desire for you and me and His attitude of mine, of Jesus Christ, is to do
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His will. And sixth, this is the toughest one, but it is
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God's will to suffer. To suffer. You don't hear this preached much. Are you talking about God's will for me to suffer?
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Hey, it's there. 1 Peter 3 -17. Hey man, that attacks the prosperity gospel. What does it say?
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For it is better, listen to this, it is better if God should will it that you suffer for doing what is right rather than doing what is wrong.
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God said that. It's better to suffer. To the person obeying these six aspects of God's will, the
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Bible says, delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. There it is. Simply put, that is,
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He will both plant the desires and fulfill them. That's what John MacArthur said.
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I got that from him. I give him credit for that. That's a good saying. So in other words, if God, if you delight yourself in the
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Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart, simply put, that is, He will both plant the desires,
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He plants them, and He will fulfill them. Isn't that beautiful? Those who know
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God's will are responsible to obeying God's will. We are responsible for this.
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And if we fail to do so, we are in sin. Wow. Well, the classic illustration is that old prejudiced prophet
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I think of. What's his name? Jonah. Boy, didn't God have a lesson for him.
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Read that book. It's only just a few chapters. You could read it in a couple minutes actually. But this man knew
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God's will, beloved. He knew. He was a Jewish prophet. God told him to go to Nineveh and give him the word of the
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Lord. He refused. He said, I'm not going to do it. Why? Well, because the
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Jews thought they had a monopoly on God, didn't they, Brother Michael? In other words, salvation was for the
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Jew first. And that's true. But God had the desire to reach those heathens over there too.
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He did. He said, Jonah, you go. Give him the word. The word of the Lord came to Jonah.
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He didn't want to go. What does he do? He runs directly opposite of where God wanted him to go.
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He goes to Tarshish. God says, no, you go to Nineveh. Here he is.
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God says, go, go. This is what I love about God. He disciplines him.
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He can't get away from God. He goes to the furthest parts of the sea.
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Runs into the storm. By the way, God prepared that storm. God is going after him.
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You know, He's following him. He goes, he hides in the bottom of the boat. And finally, these heathens realize what's going on here.
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And they said, they get him up. And Jonah basically says, throw me off. It's because of me.
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I'm a Hebrew. I'm running from God. He says, I fear God. Well, you know what happened.
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They cast lots and bam, there he goes. Well, this reluctant prophet, instead of attempting to flee, he runs to Tarshish, directly opposed.
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And then God even prepares the whale to swallow him up. Ravenhill says, the first submarine to transport him.
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God transported him. And in the midst of his transportation, God was providing for free.
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God was teaching him a lesson and giving him a good old fashioned whooping. Isn't that the truth?
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That's God's love. Three days and three nights, that man was in that darkness, in that acid.
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And he was praying. You know, he had to be running out of oxygen. But boy, did he pray.
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Next thing you know, God, that submarine took him right where he needed to be.
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He spit him up, right on the land. Right where he needed to be. What a lesson.
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Isn't God good? See how God lovingly, like a wonderful, all wise parent, teaches him.
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He disciplines him. He runs. The prophet runs from God. God says,
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I got a lesson for you because I love you. I got to close this. And only after being severely disciplined by God, John finally submitted to God's will.
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And even after the whole, you read the story. After it was all over with, he was pouting.
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And he got mad. And God prepared the worm to take away his shade. Because he was pouting because about his own self.
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He was a selfish prophet. God taught him a lesson even in that. And the book actually ends in a very unordinary way.
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But that's, you know, think of it. We should have the right attitude. Amen, brothers and sisters? Yes, sir.
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We should have the right attitude. What's the right attitude? We always should say, if the
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Lord's will. If God permits it. If God, always say that because that's your attitude in saying,
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God's in charge of my destiny. I don't know the next day. I'm not going to wake up.
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I may not wake up. I may go home to be with the Lord and sleep. I'm not going to, make it a redeeming grace next week.
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That's why I said, Lord willing. Lord willing. Let's always put that before us. Let's pray. Praise God.
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Father, we thank you for this word that is so powerful. There's so much that could be said, but I believe,
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Lord, today enough has been said. Lord, we have enough here to chew on for the rest of this week.
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Lord, to meditate on from your holy word, from these verses that you have spoke to us about.
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Lord, from your word. Lord, drive it home to us. And again, it's better caught than taught.
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Oh, blessed Holy Spirit, I pray that you drive it hard into our hearts. Father, help us.
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Even if we fail to learn these lessons, Lord, you've got a lesson for us. You can discipline us because you love us.
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And Lord, we see this. That's why you love us. That's why you discipline us.
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It's because you do love us. So, Father, we thank you. We know these things because we love you.
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And we know these things not because we're so intelligent and smart, Lord. We humble ourselves and say,
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Lord, it's only by your blessed Holy Spirit these things have been revealed to us. So, Lord, keep us humble.
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May we humble ourselves. And always submit to your authority and say, the
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Lord will. The Lord will. Blessed be your will, Father. Your desire above all things.
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All glory to your name. And we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. Praise God.