If the Lord Wills

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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April 11, 2019

00:00: If you would, take out your Bibles if you've got them.
00:03: Turn to chapter 4 of James.
00:05: We're going to try to finish the 4th chapter, and then we'll move on into chapter 5, and we'll make a beeline to the end, and then I'll have to decide what we're going to do next.
00:14: Because I haven't thought much about it.
00:18: This is the good thing about verse-by-verse teaching is you just preach what's next.
00:23: James chapter 4, verses 13-17.
00:31: Yeah, chapter 4, James 4, verses 13-17.
00:35: I think most of you are there, so I'll read it.
00:39: Come now, you who say today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town, and spend a year there, and trade, and make a profit, yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.
00:54: What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time, and then vanishes.
01:03: Instead, you ought to say, If the Lord wills, we will live, and do this or that.
01:10: As it is, you boast in your arrogance.
01:14: All such boasting is evil.
01:16: So whoever knows the right thing to do, and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
01:24: Father in Heaven, we thank You for another morning to study and to examine the Scriptures together.
01:33: Father, I thank You for James, for You setting him down to write this, and inspiring the writing.
01:42: And Lord, as we examine today the subject of chance, the subject of order in the universe, and the fact that You have not left the future up to chance, but You have in fact ordained the end from the beginning.
01:57: And Father, when we examine Your sovereignty, when we examine Your guidance, Your direction over our lives, and the purpose that You have for all things, I pray, O God, that You would by Your mercy, first and foremost, Lord, keep me from error as I teach.
02:14: Open the hearts of Your people to listen and learn and understand.
02:19: Use this time to draw forth believers to Yourself, and those who have not yet bowed to the knee of Christ, that this might be to them an awakening time, that they might see that Jesus is wonderful, and glorious, and beautiful, and worthy of praise, and worthy of submission.
02:38: He is the Lord of all.
02:41: And Lord, may He be Lord of us.
02:44: May we submit to His Lordship today.
02:47: In Christ's name, amen.
02:55: This past week, I was...
02:59: just happened to be on the computer, and somebody posted a video of a pastor up in Winnipeg, and the pastor said, If you believe God's in control of everything, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
03:16: God's not in control.
03:18: God puts us in control.
03:24: Needless to say, I disagree.
03:32: Absolutely.
03:35: And that's not in my notes, that just kind of came to me as I was praying.
03:38: I remember seeing that video, and I remember thinking, Here's a man who is consumed with error, and yet he's the one standing up in front, and everybody's amening and listening to what he has to say.
03:54: So today we're going to talk about God's control.
03:57: We're going to talk about God's sovereignty, but we're going to talk about it from this passage.
04:04: Because ultimately, chapter 4, verses 13-17 is dealing with one major issue, and that is the will of God.
04:14: The will of God is the focus of verses 13-17.
04:20: And I've written a few words on the board here as I came in this morning, got here a little early so I could write what I wanted to write.
04:27: The first words I wrote is, No chance.
04:31: That's the title of today's lesson.
04:34: No chance.
04:35: And normally when you hear the phrase, no chance, it's in the sense of, well, is there any chance so and so is going to happen? No chance that can happen.
04:43: Is there any chance X and Y is going to happen? No chance X and Y is going to happen.
04:47: That's not what I mean.
04:49: When I title today's lesson, No Chance, what I mean is this.
04:53: From God's perspective, there is nothing that is left up to chance.
05:02: From God's perspective, He knows the end from the beginning.
05:09: And there is no doubt.
05:11: He doesn't wonder what you're going to do tomorrow.
05:14: He doesn't wonder what He's going to decree next year.
05:18: God doesn't sit on His throne and ponder what could be as if there is some unthinking force that's guiding the universe.
05:31: And that's the way people live.
05:33: People live and they say, well, I live my life by chance.
05:36: Or I know this happened to me by chance.
05:39: Or whatever.
05:41: And when they talk about chance in that sense, chance becomes almost like a figure.
05:47: Almost like a specter.
05:49: Chance is guiding my life.
05:51: No, it's not.
05:53: It's not by chance.
05:58: In fact, there is no chance.
06:00: You've heard the phrase, no chance in hell? Well, there's no chance in heaven.
06:05: Because when it comes to the mind of God, there's no such thing as chance.
06:11: Yes, sir? You've got a definition of chance.
06:13: Chance.
06:14: Well, this is where I have to be careful because the actual definition of chance is the idea of the possibility of one thing or another.
06:25: And from our perspective, like we'd say, if I had two coins in my pocket and one of them was red and one of them was blue, I'd have a 50-50 chance of pulling out a red one versus pulling out a blue one.
06:40: Right? So that does exist in our minds.
06:44: But God knows whether it's going to be red or blue.
06:47: God has determined it's going to be red or blue.
06:50: And that's the point I'm making is from God's perspective, there's no such thing as chance.
06:54: Brother, you had your hand up.
07:07: God is sovereign over those things.
07:09: Well, God is sovereign.
07:13: Now, we are still responsible for our choices, and I'm not going to deny that because if you make a choice and that choice ultimately brings you harm, you are responsible.
07:23: I look at the story of Joseph.
07:25: Joseph, when his brothers sold him into slavery.
07:28: Remember that? In the book of Genesis? At the end of their time, in Genesis 50, verse 20, they're scared to death Joseph is going to kill them because now he's all powerful in Egypt and he can bring their death.
07:41: And they're standing before him quaking in their little boots.
07:44: Right? Well, sandals maybe.
07:46: And he looks at them and he says, What you meant for evil, God meant for good, that He could save today many people alive.
07:53: Same verb.
07:54: What you meant, what you did, God did.
07:58: You were acting, God was acting.
07:59: You're guilty, you did wrong, but God used it for His purpose.
08:04: So yes, you're still guilty.
08:06: That's the thing.
08:07: You can't alleviate your guilt by placing it on God because it's still doing what you want to do.
08:12: Do you do what you want to do? Most of the time, right? In fact, Jonathan Edwards, when he wrote the book The Bondage of the Will, I'm sorry, he wrote The Freedom of the Will, he said that man always does what he wants to do.
08:24: Man always does what he wants to do.
08:26: You've never not did what you wanted to do at that time.
08:28: I'm not trying to argue with you.
08:29: Do you want to say something else? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to over talk you.
08:31: You've always done what you wanted to do.
08:34: Somebody puts a gun in your face and they say, give me all your money.
08:38: You say, well, if I don't give you your money, what are you going to do? I'm going to shoot you.
08:41: You still got a choice.
08:43: You can get shot.
08:46: Right? You can say, I'm not giving you my money.
08:48: Bang! He shoots you and takes your money anyway.
08:49: But you had a choice.
08:52: Right? And you made a choice.
08:54: Might have been the poor choice, but we cannot say that God's sovereignty eliminates our responsibility.
09:01: If we do, we become hyper-Calvinist.
09:03: That's dangerous.
09:03: Don't allow yourself to become so enraptured on one side that you lose the responsibility on the other side.
09:10: That was sort of off my lesson, but I do want to make sure that is understood.
09:14: You are not alleviated from anything that you do and the culpability thereof.
09:19: You will.
09:19: You are going to face God and you're going to give an account for every idle word you speak, for every sinful act you give.
09:26: And you will either pay the penalty of that sin in hell or God will pay that penalty in Christ.
09:30: But that sin will be accounted for, either in the blood of Christ or in your being sent to hell.
09:37: So that kind of got me a little off, but I appreciate you asking.
09:40: I'm glad you asked.
09:40: I want to be able to engage on that.
09:43: So we're going to talk right now real quick about the will of God.
09:46: As I said, this whole section, verses 13-17, is on the will of God.
09:50: God's will in Scripture is described two ways.
09:54: One, we have the revealed will of God.
09:57: And then we have what we might call the hidden will of God.
10:01: The revealed will of God comes to us through what is called exegesis.
10:07: What is exegesis? Anybody know? Exegesis means interpreting the Bible.
10:16: Thou shalt not commit murder.
10:19: That's revealed will.
10:21: God tells us, don't do that.
10:24: So if you choose to commit murder, you're choosing to go against the will of God.
10:29: Amen? I mean, that's simple enough, right? God has said don't do this.
10:35: You've done it.
10:36: You've gone against God's will.
10:37: Jesus said if you look at a woman to lust after her, you've committed adultery in your heart.
10:43: Right? So we know that when we see that woman walking by in whatever she's wearing that might be alluring, we ought to take that thought captive and look away or find a way to eliminate that thought from our mind because we know that chasing that thought becomes lust and lust is adultery of the heart.
11:04: Right? So God's revealed will is in His commands and in His law and in His Word.
11:15: We find that, like I said, through exegesis.
11:18: And we know that prior to.
11:19: That's why I put the word prior up there.
11:21: We know that prior to the action.
11:24: I know what God's will is when it comes to murder.
11:27: Don't do it.
11:28: I know what God's will is when it comes to lust.
11:30: Don't do it.
11:31: I know what God's will is when it comes to stealing or abusing another person or any number of things.
11:39: God's will is very clear.
11:41: And we call that the revealed will of God.
11:44: The hidden will of God, and the Bible does describe it as such, talks about the things that are hidden belong to the Lord.
11:53: Right? But the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children.
11:58: The hidden things belong to the Lord.
12:00: So that's the language of Scripture.
12:02: I'm not just making it up.
12:03: That's the language of Scripture.
12:05: The hidden will of God is that He is working out His will for history to bring about His glory.
12:14: And in doing that, we don't know what His will is going to be, such as for me.
12:20: On the way home today, I could get hit by a semi-tractor trailer and I could die.
12:25: We're going to pray against that.
12:28: But I don't know if that's God's will for me today.
12:32: I don't know if God's will is for me to live.
12:35: I just turned 39 years old.
12:39: And I don't know if God's will is for me to live 10 more years, 20 more years, 30 more years, or 30 more minutes.
12:49: Because God has not revealed that to me.
12:53: Thus, I would call that His hidden will.
12:56: And we learn revealed will through exegesis.
12:59: We learn the hidden will through experience.
13:01: I won't know it until it happens.
13:04: You understand? And that's why I call this the post.
13:07: You have the prior and the post.
13:09: This I know before.
13:11: I know don't do that because God said don't.
13:13: Or do this because God said do.
13:14: But I don't know this until after.
13:18: And that's the thing.
13:19: James is actually dealing with both of these.
13:22: And that's why I said today's a heavy lesson.
13:25: Today is a lot to think about.
13:26: And it's a lot for us to consider.
13:29: Because we're looking at what James has said and he's telling us something about the will of God.
13:37: Now before we get to the text, I just want to make one other comment.
13:41: We are blessed that we live in a world that is not governed by chaos.
13:50: Now you might think, well the world is chaotic.
13:52: Yeah, but it's not governed by chaos.
13:55: The Bible, or rather the world, is governed by what we call cosmos.
14:01: Alright? And you've probably seen this word before.
14:05: Cosmos.
14:07: And I say cosmos versus chaos.
14:09: Chaos.
14:11: Chaos would mean nothing is predictable.
14:14: Nothing is understandable.
14:17: Nothing is orderly.
14:19: We live in an orderly universe.
14:21: We live in an orderly world.
14:23: We live in a world of cosmos.
14:25: That's what cosmos means.
14:26: It means it's ordered.
14:27: It's beautiful.
14:28: It's symmetrical.
14:29: It works.
14:30: Chaos means it's crazy.
14:32: It doesn't work.
14:33: In fact I read a book and it had a title, The Chaotic or the Chance World.
14:40: And I want to read to you what it describes.
14:43: It described a world in which everything happened by chance.
14:45: One day the sun would rise, another day it wouldn't.
14:48: It might appear at any hour, or the moon might appear at any hour.
14:51: Or the moon might show itself instead of the sun.
14:53: The book described children born with one head and the other with twelve heads.
14:58: Some had their heads on their shoulders, others didn't.
15:00: Some even had no shoulders.
15:02: If a child jumped up in the air, it wasn't sure it was going to come down.
15:05: One day he might come down, another day he might stay up.
15:08: One day a man couldn't get off his chair, another day he could go right through the floor down to the basement.
15:12: The force would be so strong.
15:14: Gravity was always changing.
15:15: The sun and moon were always changing.
15:17: Everything was always changing.
15:19: What kind of a world would that be? Nightmare.
15:23: Absolute nightmare.
15:25: If we didn't have any confidence the sun was going to rise, if we didn't have any confidence that gravity was going to maintain our footing, if we didn't have any confidence that water was going to freeze at 32 degrees or boil at 212 degrees, this world would not only be difficult, it would be impossible to live in.
15:40: We live in a world of order.
15:42: We live in a world of cosmos because God created it so.
15:48: In fact, I would say this, the reason why water boils at 212 degrees is not because nature caused it to happen, it's because that's the way God designed it.
15:56: The reason why water freezes at 32 degrees is not because of nature.
16:00: There is no mother nature, there's Father God.
16:02: Tim, you wanted to ask a question.
16:04: I'm sorry, go ahead.
16:05: What is cosmos? Cosmos means orderly or beautiful.
16:09: It's where we get the word cosmetic.
16:11: And it's the world, it's cosmos.
16:14: It's the Greek word for world.
16:17: And it's also the world, you never heard the term cosmos talking about the universe? Yeah, that's what we're talking about, the order of the universe.
16:24: It's cosmos, not chaos.
16:26: It's ordered, not disordered.
16:30: Does that make sense? I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
16:33: The world is orderly, not chaotic.
16:36: Maybe that would be a better word.
16:38: Instead of cosmos, think of it order versus chaos.
16:45: Okay, is that helpful? Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.
16:48: Yes, brother.
16:50: Wouldn't you say that with the water freezing and everything, to me, that God, those are to me what would be called absolute truths? Yeah, but it's absolutely because God determined it to be so.
17:08: But it seems like the new age of, and I don't want to get you all covered, but it seems like, I've seen some of these things and the new generation likes the new church because they don't really go by what if, oh, I can just be whatever and still go to church and live this life.
17:31: And they don't really believe in the absolute truth.
17:33: There's always a what if with them now.
17:35: I'm 45 years old, and I'm like, this is the way God made me.
17:41: You see it even in the Supreme Court.
17:43: They're going to change laws now with bathrooms.
17:48: You know what I mean? You are what you are.
17:50: What? But they want to go against it.
17:53: You know what? We're looking for loopholes now.
17:57: Well, what we're seeing, I don't mean to cut you off.
17:59: I'm sorry, but what we're seeing is the the living out of Romans 1.
18:06: Romans 1 18 for the wrath of God is revealed against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth for what can be known about God was plain to them for He made it evident to them.
18:20: And yet what do they do? They suppress the truth.
18:26: Yeah, it goes on to say at the end of chapter 1 of Romans it says though they knew these things were evil and those who did them should be put to death, they not only did them, but they approved of those who did them.
18:37: Yes, sir.
18:37: Like what you said, if He wanted it that way, that's how it's like.
18:41: When I went home in November, we went past this hillside, and it was just nature of God because the leaves were yellow, maroon, brown.
18:53: And it's beautiful.
18:54: And it was beautiful, just like a jasmine flower.
18:57: It throws off that scent, so they can't change that.
19:00: And that's the point I'm making.
19:02: We live in an orderly world.
19:04: Even if man tries to bring disorder, we live in an orderly world.
19:08: We live in a world that's in a way predictable, right? It's going to be summer soon.
19:16: It's going to be hot.
19:18: And then after that...
19:19: Go ahead.
19:36: Man wants to create chaos where God has brought order.
19:39: Absolutely.
19:40: Absolutely.
19:43: We see God creating a world of cosmos.
19:47: We bring chaos.
19:49: And man is an agent of chaos in that regard.
19:55: Well, that's been it from the beginning.
19:57: That's what Eve...
19:58: That was the temptation of Eve.
20:01: Eat of this fruit, and you will be like God.
20:09: Exactly.
20:10: A rebellious heart.
20:13: But let me get to what I was trying to...
20:15: Because I just want to point this out.
20:17: Because the world is somewhat predictable.
20:22: Summer's coming.
20:23: It's going to be hot.
20:24: Winter's coming.
20:25: It's going to be cold.
20:26: Night's coming.
20:27: It's going to be dark.
20:28: Right? Because the world is somewhat predictable, because God is orderly, man begins to think that the world is mechanical, and therefore he can completely make his plans based on his predictions.
20:46: He can control what's going to happen.
20:48: That's what James is dealing with here.
20:50: James is dealing with the fact that, hey, I can look out and see it's going to be dark tonight, it's going to be light tomorrow, it's going to be cold in the winter, it's going to be hot in the summer.
20:56: I can see this world of order, therefore I can order my life.
21:01: And guess what? You don't get to order your life.
21:04: So that's what brings all this to a head.
21:06: Right? God is the one who's actually going to...
21:08: You can make plans.
21:09: And I want to say this very quickly.
21:12: James is not telling us not to make plans.
21:15: What he is saying is this.
21:17: In our plans, we have to understand that we're not sovereign.
21:21: In our plans, there's somebody who is greater than us.
21:25: And so we have to be willing to say, if the Lord wills, we're going to do this or that.
21:33: Yes, brother, you want to...
21:36: If man tries to create order, we basically just throw it into chaos, right? Not always.
21:43: What I'm saying is if a man tries to set himself up as God, if I say this is absolutely what's going to happen, I could die tonight.
21:50: I could say in my heart, I am going to go tomorrow and I'm going to set the world on fire for Jesus.
21:58: And I'm going to go to Israel and I'm going to preach the Gospel from the Temple Mount.
22:02: And come month May, I'm going to be there.
22:05: And then tonight I die.
22:06: That's James' point.
22:10: It's pride that says I'm going to do this, that, or the other outside of the will of God.
22:16: Yeah.
22:17: I've got to be able to say if the Lord wills.
22:22: In fact, it's a pretty common expression.
22:24: Most of you probably heard that.
22:25: Somebody will say, I might go see you at church on Sunday.
22:28: What do people say? Lord willing.
22:30: And they're not being facetious.
22:33: They're not being sarcastic.
22:35: What they're saying is, Pastor, my plan is to be at church on Sunday.
22:39: But it's the Lord's will that's going to get me there, not mine.
22:42: I plan to go, but on the way there, I could get stopped by a bus.
22:47: I could have something happen between here and there that stops me from coming.
22:51: If it's up to me, I'll be there.
22:52: But it is not ultimately up to me.
22:56: So that's what James is trying to say.
22:58: He's dealing with the issue of pride.
23:01: Pride is what says I can and will and must do X, Y, and Z, and God's up in heaven laughing.
23:07: The Bible says God laughs at the pride of men.
23:10: It's kind of like the old saying, if you tell God your plans, He'll hear them laughing.
23:14: Yeah, and that is the joke, right? If you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans.
23:20: What were you saying, brother? No, I was going to say by exercising that way of thinking, you take God out of the picture and you put yourself on the throne.
23:33: Absolutely.
23:34: Absolutely.
23:35: There's only one throne and God gets to sit on it.
23:37: But we're constantly asking Him to step down and sit on His throne.
23:41: Yes? I like that verse in Psalms where it says delight yourself in Yahweh and He'll give you the desires of your heart.
23:48: When we delight ourselves in Him, He places His desires.
23:51: That's right, and I agree with that.
23:53: The desires we get are His.
23:57: So yeah, I would absolutely agree with that.
23:59: Well, let's walk through the text in James.
24:01: I just want to make a few comments as we go and then I have a concluding illustration.
24:05: So let's go to verse 13.
24:07: I'm going to make comments on these words of James.
24:11: He says, Come now...
24:13: And any time you see the word now in Scripture, that usually indicates a new literary section.
24:20: So He's dealing with a section of something.
24:23: Especially come now means listen to this.
24:26: But it doesn't mean it's not connected to what came before because what came before is all about how you use the tongue.
24:31: Using your tongue to judge.
24:33: Using your tongue to teach.
24:34: Using your tongue to do these things.
24:35: Now He's going to talk about the person who says...
24:39: Notice that.
24:40: Come now you who say...
24:41: That's using the tongue again.
24:43: So He's still dealing with what we say.
24:45: Come now you who say today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit.
24:54: Notice this.
24:55: It's a typical businessman.
24:58: He's got the time.
25:00: Today or tomorrow.
25:01: He's got the place.
25:03: We're going to go to such and such a town.
25:04: He's got the duration.
25:05: We're going to spend a year there.
25:07: And he's got the goal.
25:08: We're going to make a profit.
25:09: So he set everything out.
25:10: This is the guy who's...
25:12: He's the businessman.
25:13: He's got it all laid out.
25:14: He's got the time, the place, the duration and the goal.
25:18: And here's the thing.
25:19: None of that's bad in itself.
25:22: I want to just point you to a few Scriptures.
25:24: You can write these down or just listen as I read them.
25:27: Proverbs 21.5 The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.
25:34: That tells us that people who make plans usually are more successful than those who simply run headlong hastily without making a plan.
25:44: Proverbs 6.6-11 talks about the aunt.
25:48: It says, Go to the aunt, O sluggard.
25:49: Consider her ways and be wise.
25:51: Without having any chief or officer or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer, gathers her food in the harvest.
25:57: How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber and want like an armed man.
26:08: So here we have the picture of the aunt that prepares for the coming seasons.
26:13: And the aunt does these things that are making preparations because the aunt knows it's going to be cold or the aunt knows it's going to be hot.
26:19: So the aunt makes preparation and then becomes an example to us.
26:23: Even Jesus gives us an example of counting the cost.
26:28: Remember that in Luke 14? He says, For which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost, whether or not he will be able to complete it.
26:37: That's making plans, right? That's thinking.
26:40: And actually the analogy there, Jesus is talking about following Him.
26:43: If you're going to follow Me, you've got to understand there's going to be cost.
26:45: You're going to give up your life and follow Me.
26:47: Before you follow Me, you better count the cost.
26:52: So if it's not wrong to make plans, what's James saying here? What's the point? I've already said it.
26:59: He's denouncing those who make their plans apart from God.
27:03: He's denouncing anyone who would make their plans without consideration for the will of God.
27:10: This is why he goes on to say, verse 14, Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.
27:16: You've made the plans.
27:17: You've made the plan of time.
27:18: You've made the plan of place.
27:20: You've made the plan of duration.
27:21: You've made the goal.
27:22: And yet at the same time, you don't know what tomorrow will bring.
27:28: And I would say in this time, in James' time, it's even worse than today.
27:34: Because today we have meteorologists who tell us there's a hurricane coming.
27:38: We have seismologists that might tell us if there's an earthquake or a volcano that's going to erupt.
27:47: They didn't have those things.
27:50: Seasonal weather patterns and changes were pretty constant, but there were times where massive storms would just arise out of nowhere.
27:59: We see that in Scripture.
28:00: Beyond the sea, and the sea just erupt and storm.
28:02: And what are you going to do? Jesus, we're perishing, and You're asleep, remember? So there was always an opportunity that this could be the end.
28:12: You don't know what tomorrow will bring.
28:19: We ought to just write that on our arm right here.
28:24: I don't have any interest in tattoos myself.
28:26: I don't like needles, but that might be a good one right there.
28:28: You don't know what tomorrow will bring.
28:30: Yes, sir? Now that's a good point, and that could take us into a long other direction.
28:48: Let me say it like this.
28:49: I'm going to go off what my brother earlier said.
28:52: The first thing we should do is delight ourselves in God.
28:56: Because if we do delight ourselves in the Lord, our decision making becomes a little easier because we know we want to do what He wants us to do.
29:04: And we know we're trying not to do just what our flesh wants to do.
29:07: So that's the first step of making good decisions, is delighting ourselves in the Lord and asking Him to give us the desires that He wants for us.
29:14: So if somebody calls me and says, Pastor, I've got a job in Mobile, Alabama, and I've got a job in California, and I don't know which job to take.
29:23: They both pay the same.
29:25: They both have the same benefits.
29:27: They both have good schools.
29:28: They both have good this, good that.
29:29: I don't know what to do, Pastor.
29:30: I don't always know either.
29:33: I don't know, brother.
29:33: I don't know where you should go.
29:34: I don't know what you should do.
29:35: I'm going to pray for you that God would make the right decision, or help you make the right decision.
29:40: And you're either going to go and it's going to be blessed, or you're going to go and learn a lesson, but you're not going to...
29:46: At the end of the day, God's going to work it out.
29:48: But yes, it's hard to sometimes know.
29:51: But that's where the revealed will comes in.
29:53: We know the things God doesn't want for us.
29:55: We know the things God commands of us.
29:57: And so that's the first step, right? It's trying to look at our life and measure it out by what He's called us to do.
30:05: And so if I'm getting up in the morning and I have a desire to get drunk before lunch, that's probably not of the will of God.
30:11: I would say not probably.
30:12: It's absolutely not of the will of God, right? And I'm not saying that's your issue.
30:16: I'm saying that's anybody, right? So I can start out with that and then delight myself in the Lord and ask, Lord, give me what You want me to want.
30:27: Because I know what I want to want is not always what You want me to want.
30:30: So give me what You want me to want.
30:33: That may sound silly, but that's really what it is.
30:35: God, give me what You want me to want.
30:37: Yes.
30:46: That's what I'm asking.
30:47: That's what I'm saying.
30:48: God, give me the desires that You have for me.
30:51: Give me the desire.
30:52: And here's some simple ones, right? If you're married, give me the desire for my wife only.
30:57: Make me so infatuated with her beauty and her love and her embrace that I would never think a lustful thought, that I would never desire a lustful encounter.
31:09: God, give me that desire, that all I want is eyes for my wife.
31:14: You know, that would be a good starting point.
31:16: Yeah, yeah, because I know that's what He wants.
31:18: So I say, God, give that to me.
31:20: And you can go away.
31:21: God, give me a desire to lead men to Christ.
31:26: Give me a desire not to be angry when people hurt me and so spitefully wicked when somebody does something wrong to me that I want to hit them back twice as hard.
31:37: All right, all of those things is a way to begin.
31:40: All right, I want to look here where He says, You do not know what tomorrow will bring.
31:44: And then He asks this question, What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
31:51: I tell you what, that truth is so sobering.
32:00: Since December, I have buried four friends.
32:06: Three of them were members of our church.
32:13: Actually, five.
32:15: I buried five friends.
32:17: Because three of them were members of our church.
32:18: One of them was a son-in-law of a member of our church who himself was a member of our church years ago.
32:26: And then one was a mentor of mine when I was a young man.
32:29: He was my band director in high school.
32:30: And when he was influencing my life, he was the age I am now.
32:36: He was right in the late 30s when he was the most influential in my life.
32:40: And I just stood over his body and preached his funeral.
32:44: And I was thankful to do it.
32:45: I was thankful.
32:46: He influenced thousands of students.
32:48: And yet his family asked me to come preach his funeral.
32:51: And I was grateful for that.
32:53: But my heart aches because here is just an example of one after the other after the other after the other of the reality that life is going to end.
33:02: And you're not going to live forever.
33:05: And this life is like a vapor.
33:07: If you close your eyes for a second, think about when you were 12.
33:12: That's what it feels like yesterday.
33:15: Think about when you were 20.
33:16: If you're not that much older than 20, maybe it's not that hard.
33:19: But for me, when I think about 20, I've been married to my wife for 20 years.
33:22: I sometimes feel like I barely know her.
33:24: Because it's gone by so fast.
33:29: It is.
33:31: That song, I know it's kind of silly, but that country song, Don't Blink, it really is.
33:34: And you blink and your life, you go from a boy to a man, from a man to a middle-aged man, from a middle-aged man to an elderly man.
33:43: Absolutely.
33:45: I've got five of them.
33:47: My son is about to leave to go in the United States Air Force.
33:50: And two months from now, which is going to feel like an instant, he's going to be gone.
33:55: He's going to be gone for years.
33:58: Now, he may come home at times for different things, but that time, he's going to be gone.
34:04: Your life is a vapor.
34:07: You're a mist, man.
34:10: He said, well, you're just a mist.
34:13: You come in, you come out.
34:14: There's going to be a time, if the Lord tarries, where one day, somebody's going to think about you for the last time on this earth.
34:23: That's heavy, isn't it? There's some time in the future where somebody's going to think about you for the last time.
34:31: And yet, you think you can control your future.
34:34: And yet, you think you can control the world around you.
34:37: That's the point James is making.
34:40: It's pride.
34:43: You are not the center of the universe.
34:46: You're not even on the rock that's in the center of the universe.
34:49: You understand? So, verse 15.
35:00: Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will do this, or we will do that.
35:07: If the Lord wills, we will do this, or we will do that.
35:12: That's the heart of all this.
35:14: And I've had people say, well, pastor, do I have to say that every time I do something? Do I have to say that? Do I have to every time I get up, well, I'm going to the coffee shop if the Lord wills.
35:26: I'm going to go to the living room if the Lord wills me to make it.
35:30: And I do think sometimes we overly try to force these little euphemism words into our language.
35:41: Here's the thing.
35:42: It's not a verbalizing thing.
35:45: It's a lifestyle thing.
35:47: It's a lifestyle that says when I get up in the morning, it's because God woke me up.
35:52: When I go do whatever I'm going to do, it's because God is bringing this about in my life.
35:57: When I encounter people in my life, those are divine appointments that God has for me.
36:02: My heart is beating every time it beats at the rhythm that God has commanded.
36:09: And at the moment that God is finished with me, my heart will stop because He's in control.
36:15: I've seen people survive things they never should have survived.
36:18: Police officers survive 14, 15 bullets to the body.
36:22: Survive.
36:23: I've seen somebody get in a fender bender and break their neck.
36:28: You know what I'm saying? That's what James' point is.
36:34: That's what James' point is.
36:35: You do not know.
36:38: And who are you to look at God and say, I'm the king? You're not the king.
36:44: God is the king.
36:45: If the Lord wills, you'll do this or you'll do that.
36:50: But as it is, verse 16, you boast in your arrogance, and all such boasting is evil.
36:59: So he goes on to say this, and this is why I think the revealed will...
37:02: We talked about this earlier, right? I said the hidden will and the revealed will are both in this passage.
37:06: The hidden will is bound up in this.
37:09: If the Lord wills, I'll do this or that.
37:12: That's the hidden will because I don't know what His will is.
37:14: But here's the revealed will.
37:16: The revealed will is in verse 17.
37:19: Because verse 17 says this, so whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, to him it is sin.
37:25: Going back to you, brother, you asked the question, what should I do? First, seek the revealed will because that's what we can know.
37:31: We can't know the hidden will until after it happens, but we can know the revealed will going in.
37:38: Pastor, I met a woman.
37:39: I want to marry her, but she's a rank pagan and she hates Jesus.
37:42: Don't marry her.
37:44: God says don't be unequally yoked.
37:48: You see what I'm saying? But she's beautiful.
37:50: Yeah, she's going to make you miserable.
37:54: Beauty is vain.
37:58: Well, I didn't know.
38:01: But you understand though how that works.
38:05: We see the revealed will of God.
38:07: We know what we should do.
38:09: And when we know what we're supposed to do and we don't do it, it is a sin.
38:15: Simple enough, right? That's right.
38:19: Sin is one, disobeying God, but two, failing to do what He says to do.
38:32: The Bible talks about sin in two ways.
38:34: It talks about trespass and sin.
38:38: Sin means to fall short of a mark and trespass means to go past it.
38:44: When Moses was on the mountain, do not allow anyone to come up onto the mountain.
38:50: Don't even let livestock set their foot on the mountain.
38:54: That was the rule God gave.
38:56: Only Moses can come up to the mountain.
38:58: No one else, no priest, no Levite, not even an animal is to come up on this mountain.
39:05: There is a fence, an invisible fence around the mountain that God has set and only Moses is to be there.
39:12: No one else.
39:16: God sets His border.
39:23: When we go past that, it's called trespassing.
39:26: That's what trespassing is, to trespass the border of God.
39:29: And ever since God set the border of His Word, we've been trying to move the posts.
39:36: Every time I talk about lust, somebody wants to ask me, well, pastor, is it really lust? They gave me some example.
39:45: And I say, well, probably for you, because you're trying to figure out a way around it.
39:49: You're trying to move that post.
39:51: You're trying to make a loophole.
39:52: And as soon as you start making loopholes, you know you're probably in the wrong.
39:56: But God made her a beautiful woman.
39:58: Yeah, exactly.
39:59: And He made me a man.
40:01: I know.
40:02: I've heard it all before.
40:06: But again, him who knows what to do and does it not, to him it is sin.
40:11: Ultimately, the worst sin is pride.
40:13: And I don't want to spend the rest of the time...
40:16: Pride is the root of all sin.
40:18: Pride is what caused Eve to eat the fruit.
40:21: You will be like God.
40:22: Pride is what caused Adam to follow after his wife.
40:25: Pride is what causes every man to say to God, I'm going to do what I want to do instead of what you want to do.
40:30: I'm going to do what I believe is right instead of what you tell me is right.
40:33: That is pride.
40:35: Pride is the root of all sin.
40:37: That's why verse 16 says, you boast in your arrogance.
40:40: That's another word for pride.
40:44: And just to give us a little humble pie, I want to end with an illustration and I'll draw it to a prayer.
40:53: I want you to imagine...
40:54: So just a little illustration.
40:56: I want you to imagine you had 10 pennies.
41:00: And you took 10 pennies and you wrote on each penny a number.
41:03: 1, 2, 3.
41:06: So now you've got 10 pennies.
41:08: They all feel the same, but they all look different because each one has a different number on it.
41:13: And you put 10 pennies into your pocket.
41:17: You give your pocket a shake.
41:20: Now, what's the chances you're going to draw out number 1? 1 in 10.
41:27: 1 in 10.
41:29: Now, you put that one back.
41:30: What's the chances you're going to pull out number 2? No.
41:39: It's still 10% that you're going to pull 2.
41:41: But what's the chance you're going to pull 1 then 2? Nope.
41:46: You pull 1, that's 10%.
41:49: When it goes 1 to 2, it's 1 in 100 chance.
41:52: Now, what's the chance you're going to pull 1, 2, 3? Yep.
41:57: What about 1, 2, 3, 4? That's right.
42:02: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
42:04: If you could pull 1, pull 2, pull 3, pull 4, it would be 1 in 10 billion chance that you pull 1 at a time out and you would pull, putting each one back in, giving yourself again, but you're pulling them out in sequence.
42:22: 1 in 10 billion chance.
42:26: Here's my point.
42:27: If you can't control 10 pennies in your pocket, why would you think you control what's going to happen tomorrow? Yeah, that's heavy, right? So that's really what James is reminding us.
42:40: When we look at our life, when we look at our plans, when we look at our decisions, we need to say first and foremost, we know what God's revealed will is, it's in His Word.
42:50: We don't know what God's hidden will is, it's in His heart.
42:53: So what we ought to say is we want to do this because it would please God, but ultimately, I can only do it if the Lord wills.
43:03: I want to pray, but go ahead.
43:05: There is a verse that says the secret of Yahweh is with those who fear Him.
43:09: Yes, but the secret things, though, we would have to say is His will.
43:15: I would say that there are things that God reveals to His people that He doesn't reveal to the world.
43:20: Jesus said that when He talked about the parables.
43:22: He said, when I speak in parables, I speak to those who, hearing they may not hear, and seeing they may not understand, but when I speak to you, I speak plainly.
43:28: And that's because God's people, we are given His Word and we understand it.
43:31: The Spirit of God comes to help us understand it.
43:33: But that doesn't mean we know what's going to happen tomorrow.
43:35: Yeah, I know.
43:37: That's what I'm saying.
43:39: Absolutely, absolutely.
43:40: So yes, we are given the will of God in His Word.
43:43: We are given the Spirit of God to understand His Word if we are His, but we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, so we live our lives saying this, if the Lord wills, if the Lord wills.
43:56: Let's pray.
43:57: Father, we thank You.
43:59: Pray, O God, that we would submit to Your will.
44:02: Pray, O God, that when it comes to submission, we would have a heart that truly says, Lord, Your will be done.
44:08: When Jesus was in the garden, He said, Lord, if it is Your will, take this cup from me.
44:13: Nevertheless, not my will, but Thy will be done.
44:15: Lord, let us have that same contrite, that same submissive heart within ourselves that's willing to say, Lord, whatever may come, let the Lord of the will, let the will of the Lord be done.
44:30: In Christ's name, amen.