Alright, let's take our notes and take our Bibles and turn to the fourth chapter of the book of James this morning, James and chapter number four.
James chapter number four.
As a way of encouragement, I teach from my iPad, and I have a little app that I use that scrolls through my notes easily.
And so far we are two hundred and sixty pages into our series.
Can you imagine that?
Pat yourself on the back.
You've come a long way with me.
And uh that's awesome.
We're teaching tonight.
You're welcome to come be with us at 6:30 in Mark chapter number two.
And uh the story of four men bringing their invalid friend to Jesus, tearing off the roof, lowering him to the Lord Jesus.
And here's here's uh the men's lesson your miracle is their miracle.
You know, when God does a miracle through you, he always allows others to be a part of it.
And uh when God works in your heart, he inevitably works in someone else's heart to bring his uh his will and healing to their life.
I'm almost there.
The only part about this app I don't like, I have to scroll through them page by page.
And so there we go.
All right, I'm ready.
Are you ready?
Okay, what's what's taking you so long?
Okay, here we go.
Verse 13, chapter 4.
Go to now ye that say, Today or tomorrow, we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain.
Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow, for what is your life?
It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away.
For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this or that.
But now ye rejoice in your boastings, all such rejoicing is evil.
Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him, it is sin.
Now, in all fairness, I'm giving a whole week to verse 17 next week.
That verse fascinates me.
We're going to be in verses 13 through 16 this morning, and I want to speak on this the idea of presumption or the sin of presumption.
In this passage, James is really describing some first-century businessmen who had their whole life figured out.
They knew where they were going, they knew when they would return, they knew what they would accomplish and had already budgeted for their success.
And it was not that they made a plan, not for the reason that they had made plans that James writes them.
James writes them because they made plans in their lives and had no thought of God.
James is uh, he's like a spiritual roller coaster, right?
We think we're going this way, and wow, we're going this way.
And then we get into this flow, and wow, we're we're zigging and zagging back this way.
And so he's talking about presumption in this passage, and now he brings it into the business world.
And I want us to uh easily outline this passage by first of all talking about the sin of presumption.
That's in verse 13.
Go to now.
He's saying, Come now, get with it, focus, think this through.
Go to now, ye that say, today or tomorrow, we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain.
Now we know that in the first century, James is talking about three kinds of merchants.
There were Greek mariners who traveled the seas, there were sea and caravan traders, and then there were travelers who combined business and leisure.
Whatever the case is of these men he's talking about in verse number 13, he's describing men that make plans without God.
Now notice four things that involve their plan in verse 13.
First of all, they knew where they were going.
Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city.
Now, this is very specific.
As if they're pointing at a map.
This is where we're going.
We know exactly where we're going.
Secondly, they knew how long they would be gone.
Look at it there.
Today or tomorrow, we will go into such a city and continue there a year.
They knew where they were going.
They knew how long they would be gone.
Number three, they knew what they would be doing when they arrived.
We're going to buy and sell.
This is exactly what we're going to spend all of our time doing.
Now, how many of you are minute by minute vacation planners?
Will you raise your hand?
You are minute by minute.
They're one of you.
God bless all one of you.
No, okay.
Anybody?
Who is the freelance, free spirit?
Just go where the wind blows, you vacation kind of person.
Okay?
Okay, some of you didn't vote.
How many of you say I have plans, but I'm welcome to change them if that's okay.
There's more of you there.
Okay.
So this fella here has so micromanaged his time.
He knows where he's going.
He knows how long he'll be gone.
He knows what he's going to be doing when he arrives.
And number four, uh, he knows to what extent he will be successful.
Notice it again, verse 13.
He'll go and buy and sell and get gain.
Now, in each case, this is really important to interpret this passage, in each of these four cases, James uses a future tense verb.
We will.
We will go into the city, we will be gone for about a year, we will buy and sell, and we will get gain.
These are our future plans.
So looking out over the landscape of their lives, they had it all figured out, but they left one thing, or shall I say, they left one person out.
Ecclesiastes describes the life of Solomon, who very much lived that way, only to discover that life without God is what?
It's vanity.
Ecclesiastes 2.1, I said in my heart, go to now, I will prove thee with mirth.
Therefore enjoy pleasure.
And behold, this also is vanity.
I was in a counseling session this week, and I said to a man, I said, Solomon said that a living dog is better than a dead lion.
And he said, Can you say that again?
I said, A living dog is better than a dead lion.
Whoa, he said, that's profound.
He said, Who said that?
I said, Solomon.
Do you know?
And if I'm correct, Solomon, I think, had a thousand and five of those expressions.
He had lived with extensive knowledge and pleasure and gain and possessions, and we know his affinity for women.
He lived that precise, pleasureful life.
And Solomon comes to the end of it in conclusion in Ecclesiastes and said, Life under the sun without the sun is vanity and pride.
So I want us to review these four plans that they had and include God into them.
Number one, they thought they knew where they were going, but it is God who guides where we ought to go.
Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, we know these verses, right?
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not into thine own understanding, and all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy past.
Psalm 37, 23, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.
He delighteth in his way.
Again, I was speaking regarding the Corinthian church and Paul's coming into Macedonia.
Acts chapter 16, verse 7, and they, being Paul and Silas, were come to Messiah.
They essayed to go into Bithynia.
They were going to go to the northeast.
But the spirit suffered them not.
And they passing by Mysia came down to Troaz, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night.
There stood a man in Macedonia and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia and help us come southwest.
They wanted to go northeast, God sends them southwest.
Number one, we discovered that it is God who guides where we ought to go.
Somebody said, We make our plans and God laughs.
Again, he's not saying we shouldn't make plans.
He's saying that we should prayerfully consider our plans and allow the Lord to guide our lives.
This is bringing God into the equation of our life.
Number two, they said that they knew exactly how long they would be gone.
But the Bible says God holds our days in his hands.
Psalm 89, verse 47, remember how short my time is.
Wherefore hast thou made all men in vain?
Job 9, verse 25 says, Now my days are swifter than a post.
They flee away, they see no good.
They are passed away as the swift ships, as the eagle that hasteth to the prey.
God holds our days in his hands.
Number three, they said they knew exactly what they would be doing when they arrived.
But the Bible says that God determines what we shall do.
Proverbs 16, verse 9, a man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps.
And number four, they said that they knew to what extent they would be successful.
They would buy and sell and get gain.
Oh, but the Bible says God provides meaningful expression for our work.
Deuteronomy 8:18, but thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant, which he swear unto thy fathers as it is this day.
And then Paul says to the Corinthian church, 1 Corinthians 4, 7, for who maketh thee to differ from another?
And what hast thou that thou didst not receive?
Now, if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hast not received it?
So again, James is not attacking preparation.
Rather, he is warning against presumption.
On each of these four steps, these people had given no regard for God, and that's the problem.
It is that we can live our whole lives, if we can live our whole life without God, rest assured that we are not doing God's work.
Psalm 127, verse 1.
Except the Lord build the house.
They labor in vain, but build it.
Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh, but in vain.
I was watching an interview of Tim Tebow.
You all know Tim Tebow.
Tim Tebow is a missionary kid.
He grew up in the Philippines.
And then finished his education in the Jacksonville area.
Went on to be Heisman-winning quarterback, two-time national championship quarterback for the Florida Gators.
And I grew up hating the Florida Gators, but I love Tim Tebow.
Tebow had a short NFL career.
I think the one thing you can't do in the NFL is kneel in prayer before the game.
And he was blacklisted and his career was really shortened.
But there's a fellow that catches multimillionaires and billionaires on the street and asks him a series of questions.
He's on social media.
So this guy catches up with Tim Tebow.
He says, Sir, can I ask you a question?
He said, When did you make your first million?
He talked about it.
How much do you think you're worth?
Probably$50 million.
Okay.
And he was talking to him about his belief system and why he lives his life.
And Tebow now has given really almost all of his attention to the issue of human trafficking, sex trafficking.
Tim Tebow is a great human being.
And Tebow said this.
He said, the greatest failures in life are successes in things that do not matter.
Isn't that powerful?
The greatest success failures in life are successes in things that do not matter.
Now he got a hold of something, didn't he?
We can plan our work, but let's work in God's plan.
Marie's pastor used to always say, We grow up saying, I want to know God's will for my life.
And he said, we ought to turn it around.
We ought to give our life for God's will.
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, but long-suffering, not willing that any would perish, but all should come to repentance.
It is the will of God, even your sanctification, you flee from fornication.
If we'd give ourselves to God's will, we'd find ourselves in the midst of so many joys and things that actually matter with our lives.
I love Psalm 124, verse 1.
If it had not been the Lord who was on our side.
Now may Israel say, if it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us.
The commentator said of this passage, the divine will had been left out of this formula entirely, just as it was left out of the compulsion to judge others in the previous verse.
Here's what he says Time and space belong only to God, and thus all the features necessary for human action are dependent on him.
And then he concluded with this without trust in God, these believers become nearly indistinguishable from the wicked who take no account of God.
We as Christians want to attack radical atheism, don't we?
Radical atheism.
You know, one of the great persistent problems in our world today is not radical atheism, but practical atheism.
Not the espousal that there is no God, but living as if he doesn't exist.
And that's what James is addressing here.
Go to now.
Listen.
Sit up, pay attention, think about this, he says.
We will go this place and do this thing and be involved in this activity and receive this compensation.
Whereas, verse 14, ye know not what shall be on the morrow.
Famous verse.
For what is your life?
It is even a vapor.
It appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away.
We saw the sin of presumption.
But secondly, notice the shortness of our lives.
The shortness of our lives.
And he makes he makes three not statements here.
There's three not statements.
Number one, you know not, is the first statement.
You don't know.
I remember I was in high school chapel, and just a poignant illustration.
I just I remember it.
And the preacher had a long string.
It went from one side of the sanctuary to the other side of the sanctuary.
And he called up three volunteers to help him.
And he had affixed the string to that end of the room, and he'd affixed the string to the other side of the room, and he gave three paper clips and he said, That's the day you were born, and that's the day you die.
And let's suppose that's zero and that's a hundred years.
Now I want you to go and I want you to take your clothespin and I want you to put it where you think you are.
Birth and death.
I want you to put it where you think you are on the timeline.
The fact is, all three of them are wrong.
Why?
We don't know the number of days we have, as it is appointed unto men, once to die, and after this the judgment.
You know not, he says, what shall be on the morrow.
Now remember, our four verbs in verse 13 are all in the future tense.
Remember me saying that to you?
Okay.
Now notice verse 14.
Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow, he brings them back to the present tense verb.
He pulls them out of the future, he brings them back into the present.
You do not currently know, he says, what will happen tomorrow.
There's a few songs that just make me super reminiscent of my childhood.
And here's one of them.
Many things about tomorrow I don't seem to understand, but I know who holds tomorrow, and I know he holds my hand.
It's exactly what James is saying here.
It's what Jesus said too in Matthew chapter 6.
Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed, for after all these things that the Gentiles seek, for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
He's saying, get out of the future and start living in the present, viewing God as the dictator of the future, not your own plans as dictating your entire life.
You don't know, you know not.
The second not statement, he says, you are not.
What are you not?
Look at it.
What is your life?
It is even a vapor.
You are not limitless.
You are finite.
A puff of smoke is the word here.
The word vapor speaks of the steam from a kettle which the wind quickly drives away.
What a vivid picture of the brevity of life.
It vanishes away.
The word means to render invisible, to become unrecognizable.
The passing of time.
It just so quickly disappears.
Job 5.7, yet man is born unto trouble as the spark fly upward.
Man that is born of a woman is a few days and full of trouble.
You're not limitless.
Now watch.
Everyone has to come to that day in their life when they recognize they are limited in their power.
That's good.
Oh man, I'm not infinite.
I'm not limitless.
That's good.
You know why that's good?
You can't fully appreciate how God is eternal and immutable and immortal and infinite and transcendent.
You can't appreciate who God is until you recognize who you are.
Once you recognize your limitation, you lean into God's limitlessness.
When you lean into your mortality, you discover how awesome is His immortality.
When you lean into the fact that our lives change, you lean into that great theological word, He is immutable.
He never changes.
And that's the problem in pride.
We place all of our lives and all of our dreams and all of our goals and ambitions in our own selves.
I was talking to a family this week about dual enrollment, is one of the real issues of our day today.
Maybe some of your grandchildren are dual enrolled in high school and college.
You guys know what I'm talking about.
So you can take a lot of college courses in high school now.
I've known young people that graduated high school with a two-year AA when they graduated high school.
I knew a girl who was wanting to pursue international business who did that very thing.
She went to um Belmont University in Nashville, graduated college, and she had raced so far ahead of herself that she was, upon graduation with an international business degree, she was too young to work in the field.
And I was talking to my friend about this, and I thought, you know, when a young person graduates high school, they have so much pressure on them of what they're supposed to do with the rest of their lives.
What a ridiculous pressure.
Do you guys know what you're going to do with the rest of your lives?
Like people say, what do you want to be when you grow up?
I don't, I said, I don't know, I'll let you know.
What are your 10-year plans, Pastor?
I said, I don't know.
I have a 10-minute plan.
It's working really, really well.
But the point is, bringing God into the present of our lives.
I am weak, but thou art strong.
Jesus, keep me from all wrong.
I'll be satisfied as long as I walk.
Let me walk close to thee.
Just a closer walk with thee.
You are not limitless.
You are finite.
And this is wonderful because in our weakness he becomes strong.
I quote Pastor Sexton every week.
I'm going to do it now.
Are you ready?
He would say, There is a strength that makes us weak.
And there's a weakness that makes us strong.
Paul said, Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me, for when I am weak, then I am strong.
Except I'm not strong, in my weakness Jesus becomes my strength.
You know not.
You are not.
Number three, you say not.
Now this takes us into verse 15.
For that ye ought to say.
This is a good Christian colloquialism, isn't it?
This just makes for good Christianity.
Well, if the Lord will, good Lord's a willing in the creek don't rise.
Okay.
Do we mean that?
Right?
James again comes back to.
The present tense verb.
For that ye ought to say, speak this to yourselves.
Ye ought to be saying, if the Lord allows, if the Lord desires, this is what, this is what we hope to do.
Now, watch this.
Verse 15, you ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that.
Now, what tense did he go back to?
He's back to the future.
Except the man looking to the future in verse 15 is different than the man looking to the future in verse 13 because he made one great change.
What did he do?
Oh, he brought God into it.
We ought to bring God into our way of thinking.
I want to show you something here.
We're going to come back here to James, but go to the Old Testament with me.
I've been working through the Old Testament.
I'm in Deuteronomy in my chronological reading.
I was there this morning.
I was recently in Leviticus, but we're going to start in Exodus really quickly here.
Exodus chapter 33.
Now, this is this is one of my favorite Bible stories.
Moses is the leader of the people, and he's in the mountain with God.
God's giving him the Ten Commandments and not just the Ten Commandments, he's giving them the civil, dietary, religious law, he's giving them the sacrificial system, he's giving him the pattern of the tabernacle.
And Moses is in the mountain with God, and the people are down at the base of the mountain waiting on Moses, and they they became bored.
An idle mind became the devil's workshop.
And they had all of this gold that the Egyptians had thrown at them when they released them on the night of Passover.
And so the people were bored, and Aaron took up an offering, and he makes one of the more incredulous statements of the Bible that he had all of this jewelry and he put it into the fire and out came a golden calf.
Just a magical, magical thing.
Well, the golden calf was actually an apus bull.
That was one of the gods that was worshipped in Egypt.
And when God put a moraine on the cattle, he was addressing one of the gods that they worshiped instead of Jehovah.
So it wasn't just an animate object, it was an Egyptian symbol of worship.
And they bowed down to it and angered Moses.
On this occurrence, he broke the commandments.
You cannot obey the Lord's voice, he says.
And now the children of Israel are in a real struggle because it seems as if Moses and Jehovah are mad at God at the same time.
And so God says to Moses in this passage, I tell you what, I'll just choose another people and you can lead them into the promised land.
Oh, no, no, no, no.
No, no, no.
We don't want that to happen.
And so God gives Moses assurance that he'll go with him.
And this is Moses' heart.
Notice in verse 14 of chapter 33, and he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.
I'm going with you.
The journey to Canaan will involve the person of God.
It's the New Testament word for Holy Spirit is Paraclete, one who goes beside.
Aren't you glad we have a comforter that walks beside us in our lives?
I'll go with you.
Verse 15.
And he said unto him, this is Moses saying to God, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up.
Hence, if you're not with me, I can't go.
If you're not with me, I won't go.
There's a new fellow here at church, and he's been asking me to sing a song.
I'm eventually, I think Sunday's my last chance.
So please remind me.
It wants me to sing the old song, I can't even walk without you holding my hand.
If you're not going with me, I don't want to go up.
Because if you're not with me, we'll certainly be we'll be defeated.
Alright, now let's go to Numbers.
Numbers chapter 14.
Now, Numbers, in Numbers we have the story of the spies that go out to investigate the land of Canaan.
Twelve spies went to the land of Canaan.
Ten were bad and two were good.
What did they find in the land of Canaan?
Ten were bad and two were good.
Some saw clusters, some saw giants big and strong, some saw clusters, great vines long.
Some saw God was in it all, ten were bad and two were good.
Okay, you know that story.
Well, this disheartens the people, and because of their sin, they've now foisted a whole generation of Hebrews who are going to die in the wilderness because of their doubt and the promises of God.
But Caleb and Jephunah and everybody under 20, they're going to see the promise of God.
Not even Moses is going to see the promise of God.
So look at verse 43.
Look at verse 40 for context.
So we have some disbelieving people.
And God has said, because of their doubt, they're not going into the promised land.
And they said, well, okay, we'll see about that.
They rose up early in the morning, verse 40, gather them up into the top of the mountain, and saying, Lo, we be here, and we'll go up unto the place which the Lord hath promised, for we have sinned.
Well, we're already here.
Now God said we're not going in, but we're already here.
Let's just go in and see the promise.
And Moses said, verse 41, Wherefore now do you transgress the commandment of the Lord, but it shall not prosper.
Go not up.
Here's the phrase: go not up, for the Lord is not among you.
That ye be not smitten before your enemies.
Now this mirrors exactly what Moses said earlier in Exodus 33.
If you're not going, don't carry me up.
They said, God has not promised us to see it, but we're already here.
Let's go look at it.
And Moses says, if you go up without the presence of God, what's going to happen?
He says, You're going to die.
Verse 43.
For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword because you are turned away from the Lord, therefore the Lord will not be with you.
Oh, there's that word.
But they presumed.
They presumed to go up into the hilltop.
We're going to go up, we're going to come back, we're going to do this or that, we're going to get gain.
Nevertheless, the ark of the covenant of the Lord and Moses departed not out of the camp.
The Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that land and smote them and discomfited them even unto Horam.
Why were they defeated?
The Lord wasn't with them.
For that ye ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall.
But if the Lord will not, we shouldn't try.
We should only live by acts of faith and motion which the Lord desires.
Let me give you the last point here.
The sin of presumption.
The sin of presumption, the shortness of our lives.
Number three, the silliness of glorying in anything but Jesus.
Let's go back to James.
Verse 16.
But now the present tense.
Ye rejoice in your boastings.
All such rejoicing is evil.
What is the boasting?
Planning, success, gaining without God.
We don't need God.
Come in, Savior, and go out, Lord.
That's what Vance Havner used to say.
Most Christians say, Come in, Savior, go out, Lord.
Everybody wants a savior.
Nobody wants a Lord.
Why call you me Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say?
Boasting in life without Christ, the silliness of glorying in anything but Jesus.
Now let me say to you as we close, boasting does have a place in the Christian life.
Did you know that?
Boasting has a place in your life and mine.
Where we place our glory, though, is really all that matters.
Psalm 34, verse 2, my soul shall make her boast in the Lord.
Psalm 44, verse 8, in God we boast all the day long.
For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
1 Corinthians 1 31, that according as it is written, he that glorieth, same word, boast.
He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
Again, he says, 2 Corinthians 10.17, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
Galatians 6.14, God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Boasting, though, has a way of going poorly.
Luke 12, and he thought within himself, saying, You saw it, didn't you?
What shall I do?
The problem with spell check and word is if the word is spelled right and it's still the wrong word, it won't tell you the right word.
It just makes sure the wrong word is spelled the right way.
Okay.
What shall I do?
If your wife is gone poorly, okay, what shall I do?
I have no room where to bestow my fruits.
He said, This will I do.
I will pull down my barns, I will build greater barns.
There will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.
And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years.
Take thine ease, eat and drink, and be merry.
But God said, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.
Daniel chapter 4, the king spake and said, Nebuchadnezzar, is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty?
While the word was in the king's mouth, there came a voice from heaven saying, Oh King Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken, the kingdom is departed from thee.
The silliness, the silliness of boasting in anything but Jesus.
Think about the Apostle Paul writing to the Corinthian church.
It's foolish for me to boast.
I don't want to boast.
I don't want to defend he said who I am.
An apostle.
I've seen the Lord.
I've been given revelations of the glory world.
It's foolish for me to boast.
It's foolish that you would make me.
Why did he say that?
He said that because he recognized the foolishness of boasting and anything that would make someone think Paul was something he was not.
Paul called himself the chief of sinners.
That's who he was.
And if he boasted, he didn't want to boast in anything or anyone but Jesus.
As we plan our lives, let's make sure we bring God into the equation.
Where we should go, how long we should be there.
Pastor Sexton used to say, people would tell him all the time, we're moving to such and such a town.
And we've purchased a house and I have a job, and there's nice stores and malls, and he would say, Did you ever pray about Did you ever pray about finding a family, a faith to worship with?
Did you even bring God at all into the equation?
We need God to order our steps.
And let's be spirit-led as we implement this passage into our lives.
May we pray.
Thank you so much for being here.
We've had a great time.
Don't forget.
Now listen.
If I find these empty candy wrappers all over the church, I'm gonna know a lamp and a light to our path.
Well, I have 22 minutes if I'm gonna be true to my time here, so let's listen quickly today, okay?
Let's go to James chapter 4, the Gospel of James, and chapter number four.
I've been enjoying so much this series and what James has for us by way of advice.
Last week he was talking about the sin of presumption, wasn't he?
The sin of presumption.
I'll go here and there and do this and that, and I'll come back and I'll have my pockets lined with cash and I'll have the strength to do that and the blessing of my journey.
I have my whole life figured out, and that was okay to have plans, but it wasn't okay to have plans without God.
You know, one of the dangers I see in the Christian life is the willingness to become a person who thinks we don't have to live by faith.
We rest too often on our experience, don't we?
But it is a walk of faith.
It's a walk of faith.
I remember hearing someone ask me this question years ago.
What are you involved in right now that only God could finish?
Isn't that a great question?
I'm gonna ask you that question.
What are you involved in right now that only God can finish?
Because guess what?
If we can finish it, it's probably not a faith.
And so this sin of presumption, I will live my life without any thought of God.
And he says to them, No, you need to be reminded of the brevity of life.
As smoke ascends out of a kettle, driven away by the wind.
That is the length of our life.
What is your life?
It's even a vapor, it appears for a little time and vanishes away.
And then he says, What you ought to do is say, if the Lord will, we will do this or that.
We'll have his blessing on it.
We bring God into the equation of our lives.
Now we come to verse 17.
And as you read through this passage, you almost feel like this verse is a bit out of place.
It's not out of place.
It's kind of keeping along with this theme of not evil boasting and rejoicing, but living by faith.
Notice what he says in verse 17.
Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
Now, can we say that together?
James chapter 4, verse 17.
Ready to begin?
Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
Now I've got to warn you.
You're gonna hear something in the message today.
And after hearing it, if you don't do it.
Say, is that a threat?
No, it's a promise.
To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him, it is sin.
I was studying, I was studying this verse.
Where did this statement come from?
Well, it's not found in the Old Testament.
Some Bible commentators suggest it might have been an expression from the ancient world.
Maybe loosely connected to the truth of Proverbs chapter number three, where it says, Withhold not good from them to whom it is due when it is in the power of thine hand to do it, say not to thy neighbor, go and come again, and tomorrow I will give when thou hast it by thee.
What James is really doing is connecting this statement with the truth of verse 14, where he's saying, Because you know the because you do not know the future of your life, if you know what you're supposed to do, do it now and do what's right.
And in the moment when we know what's right and we don't do it to us, it is sin.
Now, there's obviously here a connection to preaching.
You now know what to do, and if you don't do it to you, it is sin.
What Bob was saying to us as we started the service today is that we as Christians ought to find our place in a Bible-preaching church.
The reason for that is God did not create us to live in isolation.
We are sheep.
The nature of sheep is community.
And if you ever find a sheep alone on a distant hill, isolated and all by himself, you have found a sheep in great danger of harm.
There's protection, not just in the community of other sheep.
There's protection under the leadership of our great shepherd and an under-shepherd, according to Hebrews 13, that cares for our souls.
To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him, it is sin.
Well, there's three things I want you to notice in this little verse today.
First of all, notice this is a statement of absolutes.
Notice the absolute nature of this verse.
Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him, it is sin.
First of all, he says it's a sin.
That's an absolute statement.
He says it's a perversion to know the truth, to walk in the light, to receive instruction from God and not to do it.
It is sin.
He doesn't call it a mistake, an error in judgment, a failure of moral turpitude.
He says it is sin.
There's a famous old book by, I think, Carl Menninger entitled, Whatever Happened to Sin?
What did ever happen to sin?
All right, we talk about addictions and diseases and foibles and scruples, and no, no, no.
He says, no, it's it's a sin, and the wage of sin is death.
Number two, it's it's a personal statement, therefore to him.
Now, I want you to circle that expression, if not in your Bible, in your heart or your mind, therefore to him.
And I want you to put your name in that verse.
It's personal.
In other words, God has given me an opportunity into the light of his truth.
How many of you have been given opportunity to live in the light of God's truth?
Will you raise your hand?
Now, people often ask about degrees of separation or punishment in hell.
And the fact is, the book of Revelation describes that the wicked are judged and the books are open.
They're judged according to their deeds.
Now, we as Christians stand at the Bemis seat and we're evaluated by the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
He evaluates our lives.
And the reason it's an evaluation is because we all have different opportunities.
The New Testament word is dispensations, openings into the truth of God and the light of God.
To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him, it is sin.
God has been so good to me.
He's been good to me.
I remember I worked for a gentleman in Tampa who did not go to Bible college and didn't really grow up in church.
He hired me because he needed someone to lead music and work with teenagers, but he hired me because I worked for someone he greatly respected, and he thought that I could teach him what I'd learned from my mentor.
And I never forget what he said.
He said, I've never had anyone mentor me.
He said, I know that the greatest people I know, you've had access to them.
Man, I'm so blessed.
I was reared in a good Bible preaching church with a Bible preaching pastor.
I had great teachers, great mentors, great friends.
I still have great friends who provide encouragement and accountability in my life.
To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not.
This is not a verse that we can poke our neighbor in the side and say, hey, he's talking to you today.
No, I'm talking to all of us today.
Therefore to him that knoweth to do good.
And doeth it not to him, it is sin.
And then he says, notice this third absolute saving, if he knoweth and doeth it not, it is, shall I say, preventable.
Remember what we learned in the first chapter, verse 22, but be ye doers of the word and not, what's the word?
Hearers only, deceiving your own hearts.
For if any man be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass.
For he beholdeth himself, he goeth his way, he straightway forgetteth what manner of man that he was.
Now the word doeth.
Here is found twice in our verse, to do good and doeth it not.
There is a decision between doing and not doing.
So it's a statement of absolutes.
I think we'd all agree with that.
Number two, it's a statement of omission to him that knoweth to do good.
And what does it say?
Doeth it not.
Now, I don't think, I don't think, now, I I've heard people say, I've been a Christian 50 years, I've been a pastor 40 years.
Nothing surprises me.
That's a foolish, foolish statement.
That's a foolish statement.
I was recently in a counseling session with an older, very much older gentleman, and there were some things he said to me that they surprised me.
Sins of commission.
He's not talking about sins of commission.
My pastor used to say, if the devil's going to get me, he's not going to get me on some bar stool in some nightclub Friday night.
That's not how he's going to come after me.
Commission.
James is talking about what we call the sin of omission or the things that we ought to have done.
The problem, if I could say it just really simply, the problem with separation is that oftentimes we account for our Christian lives based on the things that we don't actively participate in.
But James is giving us another measuring rod for our spiritual effectiveness, not based on the things, evil things that we do not partake in, but the good things that we omit from our doing.
To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him, it is sin.
And Jesus makes this emphasis as well, Luke 12, 47, and that servant which knew his Lord's will and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
I wonder if the judgment seat of Christ, I remember as a kid thinking that the judgment seat of Christ was like a heavenly drive-in movie theater.
Big screen set up, and I come and stand before the manifest presence of Jesus, and all my friends gather around, and he, like a cinema, he replays all of my life.
Everything we wouldn't want people to know.
Would not want them to know, he said.
I think it's way worse than that.
You know, Paul said, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.
That every one of us shall receive the things done in our body, whether they be good or whether they be evil.
Therefore, knowing the terror of the Lord.
Whoa.
Terror of the Lord.
I thought that was for the great white throne.
Somebody said, There's no tears in heaven.
I sang my first song in church.
I was about five years old.
I sang with my family.
Do you remember the old song?
No tears, no tears up there, no tears.
Anybody know that song?
No tears in heaven.
Sorrow and pain will all be gone.
No tears in heaven.
Well, that's partially true.
He does not wipe away all tears from our eyes until he perfects the church at the judgment seat of Christ and casts the wicked into hell.
And then in Revelation 21, he wipes all tears from our eyes.
When he shows us, not just what we did with our time and opportunities, I think he shows us what we could have done.
What we, why am I talking about faith today?
Because we'll be evaluated, not based on what we did, but what we left off, the risk we didn't take, the steps of faith that we didn't act upon.
Why?
Because we didn't fully trust God.
That's what he's talking about.
He knew the Lord's will.
He knew he was to engage, and he was punished.
Luke 11, 42.
Woe, unto you Pharisees, ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs and Passover judgment and the love of God.
These ye ought to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
He's talking about the sin of omission.
I just ask a question maybe this morning.
What are we omitting from our Christian faith?
Not committing.
Pastor Sexton used to say the Christian life ought to be lived on the high road.
And then he would say this the high road is not choosing between the good and the bad.
Anyone can do that.
The high road is choosing between the good and the best and always choosing the best.
You know what he was touching on?
The sins of omission.
I'm a pretty good person, Pastor.
I'm sure you are.
That's not the standard he's giving us here.
Goodness or badness is not always based upon what's not part of our life.
Goodness or badness in his eyes is based upon what we're not doing with what he has given us to do.
God brought us here as stewards.
When I walk this campus and I walk through these buildings and I dream and envision what God can do.
Do you ever do that?
Just to dream what God can do.
Let's not be guilty of the sin of omission, of not stepping out by faith and doing what God has put in our hearts to do.
But number three, and where I want to spend most of my time here this morning, it's a statement of conscience.
It's a statement of conscience.
To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
Now there's a hierarchy here, and I want you to get this in your mind this morning.
First of all, there's God's word as our final authority.
God's word as our final authority.
Can we say that together?
God's word, our final authority.
The scripture is our final authority.
Martin Luther said, unless I am convinced by the testimony of scriptures or by clear reason, I am bound by the scriptures I have quoted, and my conscience is captive to the word of God.
John Wycliffe, Holy Scripture is the highest authority for every believer, the standard of faith and the foundation for reform.
A historical document called the Westminster Confession gives this great truth.
The supreme judge by which all controversies of religion are to be determined can be none other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture.
Now that that statement flies in the face of postmodernism.
Postmodernism says, live your truth, live your way.
Self is the king.
Self is not the king.
Christ is king, and he's revealed himself in the Holy Scriptures.
So the Bible is our final authority for faith and practice.
Then notice number two, our conscience.
Or our witness.
How many of you have a conscience?
Will you raise your hand?
How many of you?
Okay.
It's a trick question.
We call that general revelation.
This is how God's revealed himself to everybody in the world.
General revelation.
Creation.
Man looks at the created world and in his heart he ruminates, he sees design, and he says, wow, if there's a design, there must be a designer.
If there's intelligence, there must be one greater than the intelligence created that created it.
If there is law, there must be a lawgiver.
If there is morality, there has to be a moral being who created it.
So he didn't just give us creation, he gave us conscience.
What is conscience?
It is that voice, that witness inside of us.
And it's in every person.
The Bible says in the book of Romans, in chapter 2, verse 14, for when the Gentiles which have not the law, but by do by nature the things contained in the law, having not the law, are a law unto themselves, which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness.
It's general revelation.
God's revealed himself to every man through creation, through conscience.
That's general.
Now, why is scripture greater than conscience?
Because conscience is general revelation given to every man.
Scripture is special revelation because it reveals to us the person and work and will of Jesus Christ.
And it is through the scriptures and ultimately through God's Son, the Lord Jesus, that we fully come to know who that God is and what he did for us on a cross.
So we have people all around the world recognizing there's some kind of God.
And you know what they do?
And we see this in the anthropological historical record throughout all the world.
They know there is a God, and so they fashion gods that look just like them.
They make them out of stone, they make them out of wood, they make them out of precious substances, they they worship trees, they worship groves, they worship certain places.
Why?
Because innately they know there's a God.
But does it mean does that mean that they're going to heaven?
No.
What do they need?
They need the scriptures, but aren't you glad that in Englewood, Florida today, that every unconverted person in this town has a law within that governs their behavior.
Now the Bible says this conscience can accuse or excuse.
It can accuse us and it can excuse us.
So, number one, what I want you to note about the conscience is that it's not our final authority.
It cannot be.
Conditioned.
Jeremiah says of the of the Jews, they had no blush.
They lost their blush.
We live in a generation that's lost their blush.
Why?
The conscience is seared.
How did it become so seared?
It was conditioned.
How was it conditioned, Pastor?
It was conditioned through what they listened to, it was conditioned through what they watched.
It was conditioned through what was normalized in society.
It was conditioned through what they were taught at school.
It was conditioned through the friends that they had and the conversations that they had and the books they read and the media that they enjoyed.
It can be conditioned.
It has tremendous power.
Sophocles said, there is no witness so terrible and no accuser so powerful as conscience, which dwells within us.
We have the scriptures, we have conscience, and then we have, notice this, personal liberty.
That's the application of truth.
Lord willing, I'm preaching from Romans chapter 6 on Sunday, and Paul makes this amazing statement.
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
God forbid.
Why'd he say that?
Because we weren't saved to sin.
We were saved, and death is identified in us in Jesus.
Sin was put to death when we came into Jesus.
And the grace of God teaches us that we are to deny ungodliness and worldly lust.
Somebody said they could sin as much as they wanted to.
But because of Jesus, they just don't want to.
Can I say it this way?
When we become a Christian, he puts a new want to inside of us.
We ought to please God with our lives.
Personal liberty.
Liberty is those areas in our lives which may be enjoyed through our freedom in Christ and that which are not against Scripture.
Now watch carefully.
People say their conscience isn't violated by certain behaviors.
Pastor, my conscience is not violated by that.
Wait a minute.
If it's found in black and white and sometimes red, it doesn't matter how your conscience feels about it.
If it's spoken of in Scripture, it's right or it's wrong.
Liberty is not to be used for the flesh.
Galatians 5 1.
Paul says, stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.
Our pastor used to say that liberty in Christ is freedom to do everything that Jesus Christ wants us to do.
We're free in Christ.
Liberty is not to be the deciding factor of our lives.
1 Corinthians 8.7, howbeit there's not in every man that knowledge, for some with some conscience of the idol, unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol, and their conscience being weak is defiled.
The conscience.
This is so powerful.
So what is sin?
What is sin?
To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him, it is sin.
I've been saved a long time.
Probably not as long as some of you, but I've been saved a long time.
God has led me in my life and guided me.
He's worked through his word, through the Holy Spirit, he's worked in my conscience.
You know the good news about the conscience?
The writer of Hebrews says that the blood of Christ is able to purge our conscience.
There are things in our past lives that we regret, aren't there?
But you know what the Bible says?
The Bible says that the blood of Christ cleanses our conscience so that we cannot be accused of our conscience, but live in the fact that we've been set free by the power of Jesus.
Praise God for that.
So what is sin?
According to James here, sin is that which cannot be done by faith.
Romans 14, 23.
And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith, for what servers not of faith is sin.
If God has so led our conscience and our conscience says no, here's the old rule of thumb.
When in doubt, don't.
I will say this, if you'll give me a few more minutes.
I was having a conversation with the vice president of the college that I was teaching at.
And we were talking about standards and conscience issues of our day.
I want to illustrate something.
When the Apostle Paul writes about conscience, he was writing about predominantly meat that was offered to idols, sacrificed in what are called the shambles, pagan altars whereon sacrifices were made to Zeus and Jupiter and Baal.
And there were some born-again rednecks in the Roman world that saw that meat offered to idols was nothing more than meat, sheep steak, porter house, prime rib, filet.
I thought somebody would say amen right there.
And some believers said I would abstain until the stars fall, because that meat was offered to idols.
And you have a controversy.
Some see it as nothing more than dinner.
Some see it as a sin against God.
And Paul says to those whose conscience would be violated by eating meat, don't eat meat, because if you believe it's sin and you do it, it's sin.
In that case, what we would call the stronger conscience is actually called the weaker brother.
The stronger brother was of such his conscience was not violated by eating of that meat.
And there was Christian liberty that was coming at odds in this church.
And we were talking about this New Testament controversy.
We were ministering in a school that had extremely high standards.
Just allow me just to be specific, okay?
If I'm not specific, the illustration will fall apart.
I said we now are ministering in an environment where some would say, if a woman wears a pair of pants, that is sin.
If a preacher has facial hair, that's sin.
If someone goes to the Christian or goes to the movie theater and watches a decent film, sin.
Some of you know what I'm addressing and talking about.
And it occurred to me in that conversation, I said, you know, Dr.
R.
I said, the fact is, we in the Western world in America have such an easy way of life calling ourselves Christians.
We've never suffered persecution.
We've never suffered threats for being a Christian, for passing out tracts, for preaching the gospel.
We've paid very little price.
And because of that, a lot of our conscience issues that we fight about seem to be so petty in light of what issues were faced by Christians throughout history.
Think about Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Bonhoeffer was a German pastor.
He was part of the non-confessing church.
He would not bow to Hitler.
He was part of an assassination attempt against the Fuhrer.
He was arrested, spent the rest of his life in a concentration camp, and died a week before victory in Germany.
That's a conscience issue, isn't it?
But James is making a universal appeal here.
I think it's important for us.
To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him, it is sin.
He's speaking to two crowds here, and I'll finish here.
He's speaking to those who hear.
The conscience calibrated by truth.
And then those who know.
The mind that's been informed by truth.
Let's finish in Matthew 11.
I want you to see this.
Matthew chapter 11.
Conscience is one of the harder issues in the Christian world.
All of us are from maybe a different faith tradition and background.
We carry so much of that infrastructure along with us.
I had grown a beard several years ago.
I was getting a master's degree from a small college, and it was a stated policy in their handbook that men couldn't have facial hair.
I was a pastor.
And they called me, they said you can't walk across a platform with facial hair.
That made me so mad.
I'm just being honest, it made me so mad.
How petty, I thought.
How silly.
How outdated Jesus had a beard.
I had children watching what I was going to do.
I could shave and go and get something I earned, or I could not shave and they would mail it to me.
Had church members planning to meet me there.
The Holy Spirit said, you know, it'll grow back pretty quickly.
It has nothing to do with Matthew 11.
I just wanted to tell you that story.
Look at verse 20.
Jesus began to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done because they repented not.
Woe unto thee, Korazin.
Woe unto thee, Besseda.
Notice this.
For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you.
And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shall be brought down to hell.
For if the mighty works which had been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.
But I say unto you that it should be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee.
Why is he judging them?
Because they know.
Why is he judging them?
Because they heard.
Why is he so harsh to them?
Because they know who he is and what he's done.
With increased power, with increased knowledge, becomes increased responsibility.
Many people may go to the judgment seat and really say, Lord, I didn't know, I never heard.
I can't say that.
He that is faithful in that which is least, he said he'll make to be faithful also in much.
And so James takes us to the woodshed once again, doesn't he?
To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
And if God is speaking to us about a sin of omission, may we pray and just say, Lord, help me to follow through and apply that to my Christian life.
Well, I owe you ten minutes.
I'll give it back next week.
But I appreciate you being here.
Thank you for listening.
Please say hi to Bob on your way out.
And if you're interested in the work of the Gideons, and uh many of you are often looking for a ministry to be a part of, and I just want to say if that would be something you'd like to participate in and be involved in, I would wholeheartedly