The Good You Ought To Do

The Sins of Omission in James 4:17

Please turn in your Bibles with me to the epistle of James and chapter 4. James chapter 4. What to remind you that this is God's holy and infallible word. I'm going to read the entire chapter. Where do wars and fights come from among you?

Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members you lust and you do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain you fight and.

War.

Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive. Because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulterous is do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God.

Whoever therefore wants to make himself a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the scripture says in vain the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously? But he gives more grace.

Therefore he says God resists the proud. But gives grace to the humble. Therefore submit to God resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts.

You double-minded lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up. Do not speak evil of one another brethren.

He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother. Speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law you are not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy.

Who are you to judge another? Come now you who say today or tomorrow we will go such-and-such a city. Spend a year there buy and sell and make a profit. Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow for what is your life.

It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say if the Lord wills We shall live and do this or that. But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil and now the singular verse that we'll be considering today.

Therefore to him who knows to do good and does not do it.

To him.

It is sin. May the Lord be pleased with our consideration of his most holy word. Please pray with me now. Oh Lord, I pray for these your people That you would appropriately convict and Show the error of our ways, but also Lord that you would comfort us with the wondrous love of Christ.

Oh Lord show us the good that we ought to do that. We might more faithfully lived up to the holy name By which we were called and we ask all these things in the name above all names in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ our King.

Amen.

Please be seated. The title of the message today is the good you ought to do and We're going to get hit with a convicting subject and that is the sins of omission. Today, I've created a six-word thesis for the message.

Hopefully all of this will be reflected under this heading. Idleness in the face of duty idleness in the face of duty the sins of omission. The good you ought to do and this good that we ought to be done ought to be done by us is Performed toward God and toward our neighbor.

Idleness in the face of duty sins of Omission, this is the central point. I want to lay out some general scriptural principles.

Sin as Want of Conformity and the Law of God

Our.

Confessional standards offer a great question and answer to this question of what sin is and We blow through the first part because we're more familiar with the ideas of committing sinful acts. So the question is what is sin.

And The answer is sin is any want of conformity unto It's very important or transgression of the law of God. When we think about sin we normally think about the Transgression of the law of God. The first part of that answer is equally important.

It's the want of conformity unto. The inaction is sinful. The locus classicus texts of this subject which we would turn to most commonly I'd like us to do it is found in Luke chapter 10. He's turned to Luke chapter 10 and I have a couple one of them which will be a little bit more Surprising.

There are many texts so you shouldn't feel that this list is exhausted. We could not go through all the sins of omission nearly every command that we could state in terms of transgression we could also State and talk about in the sense of inaction so we could list almost every command in the scripture in these two ways.

We're going to focus on a couple just to help us understand the concept that James is relaying to his hearers. Luke chapter 10 and this is starting in verse 25 and behold a certain lawyer Stood up and tested him saying.

Teacher.

What shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said to him what is written in the law. What is your reading of it?

And.

He answered and said You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself. Jesus responds. The text says he said to him you have answered rightly do this and You will live.

I should point out to you in verse 27 the summation of the law of God a further summary of the ten words of the Ten Commandments. A Huge portion of our duty and obligation is found in our action. We are called to love God in a certain way.

We're called to love our neighbor in a certain way and you could say well, I haven't violated the third commandment today. I haven't taken the Lord's name in vain. Am I keeping the spirit of this command?

The sin of omission is the failure to worship God and to honor him in this way. To love him with the entirety of our person. To not only not steal from my neighbor. But to promote all the good for my neighbor that I possibly can you see it's the activity in our inaction.

That is the thing we have to worry about now for us. We should be under some conviction today. For us I feel that our sins of omission. They're they're quieter. They're more acceptable. They're not as loud.

For us the sins of omission may be greater than our violations and transgressions of the law. They won't see that more in a few minutes continuing the lawyer asks a lawyer like question and who is my neighbor.

And Jesus answered a Certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves. Who stripped him of his clothing wounded him and departed leaving him half-dead. Now by chance a certain priest came down that road and when he saw him he passed by on the other side.

So the context here is there is a Obviously a man who's a part of the nation Israel he's going from Jerusalem to Jericho and he's going to be passed by by Two men who according to their understanding of the law by birth and by occupation they know better.

They know the good they ought to do but they don't do it. The priest comes he sees him verse 31 the ending he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite when he arrived at the place came and looked and passed by on the other side but a certain Samaritan.

Think John for the woman at the well. Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Half breeds worshiping on the wrong mountain accepting only the five books of Moses. Detestable in the sight of the Jewish people.

They are dogs. Maybe worse than a Gentile because they betrayed the heritage that was given to them in some measure. This is a very convicting very powerful very sharp very piercing heavy blows from Christ here in this explanation a Samaritan as he journeyed came where he was.

And when he saw him he had compassion. So he went to him and bandaged his wounds. Pouring on oil and wine and he set him on his own animal brought him to an end and took care of him. The Samaritan knew the good that he ought to do and he did it.

It was very costly to him personally and He's in effectively ministering to and helping his enemy here. The next day verse 35 when he departed He took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said to him take care of him and Whatever you spend when I come again, I will repay you.

So he's made this great sacrificial act to patch him up in this triage to give him a place to stay. He has to travel on his own business and he says whatever is charged to this man's account I'll pay it when I come through.

The question is answered. Asked by Jesus I should say verse 36. So which of these three? Do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves? And he said he who showed mercy on him and Jesus said to him go and do likewise.

You and I May not run over our brother in the road. But do we stop to help him? We may even say hey brother, I'm gonna pray for you. I hope that tire gets fixed and keep going. This requirement is a higher higher moral and ethical obligation and duty to our brethren.

Not only in the church, but without to seek their good to help them. To do the good that we know we ought to do. This is very costly. It's very messy. It's very very inconvenient to love this way. Well, there's another important one who Section I'd like you to consider still in Luke.

I chose these to be close together somewhat turn to Luke chapter 12. Just a couple chapters over this one's going to be very short. Luke chapter 12. Again, we want to understand this category of sin. Sins of omission.

That the good that we are to do that we often fail to do and the Lord has given us ample Evidence in Scripture to for us to understand. I'll begin reading in verse 42. Who then is that faithful and wise steward whom his master will make ruler over his household?

To give them their portion of food and do season. Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will make him ruler ruler over all that he has. But if that servant says in his heart my master is delaying his coming.

Here's the the sinful part. The master's eyes aren't on me. I'm free to kind of do what I want. Integrity demands that we do the right thing even when no one's looking right an Integrity before the Lord tells us the Lord is always watching.

So we have an obligation to do right no matter what the circumstances inconvenient. It's not expedient in every occasion. We must do the right thing. My master is delaying. Then he begins to beat the male and female Servants and to eat and drink and be drunk and it's obvious that this behavior is very contrary to the will of the master.

Verse 46 says the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and An hour when he is not aware and will cut him in two and appoint his portion with the unbelievers. It's a pretty harsh penalty.

Verse 47 says. And that servant who knew his master's will and did not prepare himself or do according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know yet committed things deserving.

Of stripes shall be beaten with few. I Want you to listen very carefully.

For.

Everyone to whom much is given from him much will be required. And to him to whom much has been committed of him. They will ask The more Oh people of God how much? Have you been given? Salvation union with Christ communion with God unity communion with his people.

The apple of God's eye his affection rests upon you his children. He has lavished grace upon grace upon grace on us and to us. Much has been given to us and much is.

Required.

We can't be those who give inaction. Complacency apathy laziness when action is required. We'll talk more about that in just a moment. One that may be a surprise to you. I want you to turn to Luke chapter 15 In the parable of the prodigal son.

I appreciate you turning with me. Because I believe this is a neglected part of the church's understanding of sin the sins of omission. Now the parable of the prodigal son Usually focuses and and we think about that the son who went away.

The son who took his father's wealth and treated him as if he was dead and spent it on profligate living. Begin reading in verse 11 Luke 15. Again we're looking for Not so much the sins that are committed the transgressions obviously of the law of God but the want of conformity the omission.

A Certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father father Give me the portion of goods that falls to me. He's viewing his father believe me in the context that his father's dead he wants his inheritance.

So this is an ungrateful son saying I want you dad give what's coming to me. It's very wicked. So he divided to them his livelihood in verse 13 and Not many days after the younger son gathered all together Journeying to a far country and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.

But when he had spent all there arose a severe famine in that land and began to be in want and he went and joined Himself to a citizen of that country and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. Of course the picture is He is a servant to unclean animals.

You can see the depth of his fall. He's a Jewish man. He doesn't have any dealings with unclean animals. And now his job is to feed the unclean animals. He's fallen to a low place the lowest of places.

He says he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself He said how many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger.

I will arise and go to my father and I will say to him father I have sinned against heaven and before you for I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants and he rose and came to his father.

When he was still a great way off his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. The son said to him father. I have sinned against heaven and in your sight and I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

But the father said to his servants bring out the best robe and put it on him put a ring on his hand and sandals on His feet and bring the fatted calf here and kill it and let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead and is alive again.

He was lost and is found and they began to be married. Now pay close attention now. We forget about this part of the parable there is a Lot of sins of omission in the older son. Now his older son was in the field.

And as he came and drew near to the house He heard music and dancing. He calls one of the servants and asked him what these things meant and he said to him your brother has come. Because he has received him safe and sound your father has killed the fatted calf.

But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. So we answered and said to his father lo these many years I had been serving you. I never transgressed your commandment at any time and yet you never gave me a young goat.

That I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came who has devoured your livelihood with harlots. You killed the fatted calf for him. And he said to him son, you are always with me.

And all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad for your brother was dead and is alive again and was lost And is found. What were the sins. I want you to start thinking now.

What are some of the sins of the older? Brother. First he did not rejoice in his brother's repentance. When a sinner turns back to the Lord the angels sing in heaven. The people of God should respond with Rejoicing and encouragement.

He should have been running out and kissing his brother and saying oh, I'm so glad you returned home. He doesn't rejoice in his brother's repentance. Deeply abiding within the responsible older brother it seems He was very ungrateful for the provision in the Lord that he had.

He was not one who was giving. Thanks. It seems That this brother may have had the same heart within him, but he was playing the long game. He wanted his father's wealth. He wanted his father's property and he knew he had to comply To do it.

Maybe I'm speculating. Maybe his heart wasn't so different than the younger brother. It was quiet. It was hidden. It was concealed. He was a crafty wise kind of man How many of us are. Could only see the want in our lives.

Oh How the Lord has abundantly supplied for us as people. I wonder If we spend too much think time thinking about what we don't have instead of giving thanks for what we do and.

Maybe.

Most profoundly I Think the older brother doesn't honor his father. He breaks the fifth commandment it's evidenced by his ingratitude. Look how selfishly he responds and how He's almost seething. Look how many years I have been serving you.

I've never transgressed your commandment at any time. You have owed it to me. You won't even give me a young goat. That I might make merry with my friends you and I Can certainly be prodigal sons, but I fear that we might be the older brother.

That we fail to actively love our father and our brother our father in heaven and our neighbor as we ought. So we can get away with this sin. The other ones we can't this one we can get away with by the Lord and his glorious mercy reveal these things to us that That we might be those who repent and turn from our sins of omission.

David's Idleness and the Fall with Bathsheba

Well.

I'm not going to turn there. But I want to bring to remember. It's one last one. That is the sin with David and Bathsheba and as has been recounted by many great scholars Essentially all of the commandments are ultimately broken in his dealings with Bathsheba but in 2nd Samuel 11 in verse 1 we have a very important interpretive clue as to why all of these things happen and it's a sin of omission that gets the ball rolling for David with Bathsheba.

David's sin with Bathsheba Started with David's idleness in the face of duty. It happened in the spring of the year. At the time when Kings go out to battle. That David sent Joab and his servants with him in all Israel and they destroyed the people Amman and besieged Ravah and Here it is.

Five words. But David remained at Jerusalem. David should have been fighting in the battle. David should have been leading his men. And so he said all these sins of omission. They're not such a big deal.

These sins of omission have catastrophic consequences. What kind of consequences are there if a father fails to discipline his son? To correct him. What kind of Consequences would there be if you let an armed intruder hurt your family and he did nothing to stop them.

What kind of consequences were there for Adam who? Didn't restrain and keep out talking. Serpents out of God's garden. The sins of omission are great. They're weighty. They're heavy inaction. When action is required do you today are you worshiping God?

With all that you are with all that your strength, I think we could have left some of that in reserve today. Do you adore him and honor him and praise him and delight in him as your joy. Do you hang on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God?

The word. Do you have great Thanksgiving for all that he has done? Do you go to scripture first when you encounter a problem and seek an answer there? Do you meditate on his word day and night? Do you make use of any and all of the spiritual disciplines?

Husbands. Do you love your wife as Christ loved the church? I know you love her, but do you love her that way. There's sins of omission. There failures to do that. Wives. Do you see that you respect your husband principally.

You do, but are you actively? Honoring and respecting your husband. You're not defaming your neighbor, but do you? Promote their good name. Do you step into the the real messiness of their life and turn them away from sin or do you Go outside on the other side of the road and go the other way.

There's lots of good that we ought to do. That we do not do. How often do we say to our family? I've said it to my children. I've regretted it. Stay out of the conflict. It doesn't really concern you.

It could be wise or it could be inaction. We're called to be peacemakers. Maybe we're the ones who have been called to make peace between the warring parties. We really don't want to get sullied up with that.

We're tired. We don't want to we have our own problems. What about in the life and ministry and mission of the church. Someone else is doing it. Every day every week. Not condemning you. Someone else is paying for it.

Someone else is studying. Someone else is praying. Someone else is gonna clean up at the end. Someone else will do it. We're the people we have to do it. Our inaction is sin. There's a couple of other words that I think fit.

And I want to bring that to your mind. I'm gonna try to cut this a little bit short. So what I could say there's some related sins and if you're taking notes, I would write them down. The first is Complacency.

The second is abdication. Your responsibility, but you're hoping someone else will take care of it. Third is laziness and fourth is apathy. Just don't care. All of these are grand sins of omission.

All of these.

Shorten the blessing in our lives and our sources of our conflict with one another and the reason there's a lack of peace in us. Could be partially because we're failing to address these sins of inaction.

We've learned in James that Wisdom is the right application of knowledge. If any of you lacks knowledge, have you? failed to open your Bibles To make use of the means of grace. We've been learning a lot of great things about the doctrine of the church and Sunday school and many of you are not there.

Have you when encountering a situation? Have you prayed and sought counsel of godly men? Or you tried to do it in your own? Lack of wisdom. We know that if we lack wisdom that we can ask God and he will grant it.

Have you asked him? for it. It seems that the foolish man Not the wise man knows the good he ought to do.

And.

Fails to do it. Ecclesiastes 9 says whatever you your hand finds to do do it with all your might. It's a hard verse for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom and shale. To which you were going.

Proverbs 21 whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered. Proverbs 18 whoever slack in his work is a brother to him who destroyed. Have you slacked off at the office a bit?

Your brother to one who destroys sins of inaction have great consequences. First John chapter 3 if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need yet Closes his heart against him. How does God's love abide in him?

Little children let us not love in word or talk. And boy the reformed world needs this. We got a lot of talk. We've got a lot of word. But indeed and in truth, that's how we're to love one another. Those things are very important.

We're to love indeed and in truth. We talk about it, but we don't do it. Sins of inaction. The last one I'll give today and the defense of this idea is this in Romans 12, but love be without hypocrisy.

A Poor what is evil? Do you have a profound hatred for what is evil? I think there's a sin of omission for us. I don't think we hate it. It's useful to us in some way or should say it's it's comfortable.

We're used to it. We are called to a poor evil. Do you equally with with great fervency and effort and and striving cling to what is good? Are you kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love?

Do you really love the brethren? Or is it just a principle? Yeah, we love one another. Is it active love for the brethren? Do you give preference to one another? Is your diligence lagging. Are you fervent in spirit or lukewarm?

Do you rejoice in hope? Are you patient in tribulation? Do you continue? Steadfastly in prayer distributing to the needs of the Saints. Are you given to hospitality brethren? The people of God are failing to act.

When action is required.

Well.

Quickly, let's turn back to James. I'm going to provide a conclusion. There are two principles in James that I think are very important to understand. Verse 17 of chapter 4. I'm going to remind you of those.

The first is that definition at the end of chapter 1 of what pure and undefiled religion is. We pray for orphans and widows. But do we actually visit them in their trouble? See the Samaritan he goes all the way in the visitation.

Doesn't he you and I says I'm praying for you. Hopefully you actually go follow through and pray for them, but that's it. And the second description about keeping yourself unspotted from the world. I wonder.

Do you actually draw near to God and hunger and thirst for righteousness that you might not be unspotted from the world? The sin of omission and practical holiness would be to not go hard after God. To not be immersed in his word to not be a person who's praying.

Continually, it's it's an idea that say hey I'm not going to be corrupted by the world if you are not. Drawing near to God with the means of grace that he has supplied you are going to be spotted by the world.

And finally. Referencing the catalog it could have. I have a list of things all through James. We don't have time for that. I think the. The real question for us is do we really love God? Do we really love our neighbor if you really fulfill the royal law?

James 2 8 According to the scripture you shall love your neighbor as yourself. You do well. But if you show partiality you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. Of course it continues if you stumble on one point you're guilty of all brethren.

I can't spoon-feed perfectly the application for you, but I run. I want you now To to really sincerely and earnestly ask the question. What are the areas of my life that require action?

Obedience.

Faith and trust in the Lord. But I have given inaction. What failures are there in your love for God and your love for neighbor? Identify them that you might repent and walk in fresh and new obedience.

Should be a convicting time for us. Take just a second and have something else. There is a list of Omissions that cry out against me and they cry out against you. But we have a Savior who is Christ the Lord and there are no sins of omission with him.

This.

Glorious salvation of Christ encompasses not only the transgressions of the explicit law of God, but every failure of ours To conform to it. Oh if you be in Christ today, you should be rejoicing this grand Impediment which should keep you from communion with God and fellowship with his people has been taken away in Christ.

He bids you again to remember this great Salvation that he has supplied and now with the the grace washing over you as the waters of baptism washed over Piper. With that grace now you go and walk in fresh new obedience.

You put to death the sins of the flesh and you look and you seek out and you ask God. What are the sins of omission? What are the areas of life the good I ought to do that I'm not doing. In what ways am I failing to act when?

Action is required. Probably the most memorable theme of James is to be doers of the word and not hearers only and I think a huge percentage of that Command that imperative is found in this area of the sins of omission.

We have to search it out and be doers of the word. I praise God for the Lord Jesus Christ and his salvation and his forgiveness and his Consecration and sanctification that we too again might walk in newness of life.

Amen. Let's pray together. Oh Lord. I thank you for your promises. We fall so short, but we have a Savior who never does.

Oh.

My sin the thought of it. The weight of it is nailed to the cross. Oh Lord Jesus. Thank you. I pray your people will be equally sober and circumspect about their lives and their faithfulness, but That will be eclipsed by their great joy and the salvation that you have supplied.

Help us to be a thankful and grateful people. Maybe one of our greatest sins in our failure to worship and honor and adore you is our failure to to act in this way. And I ask all these things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.