April 7th | 1 Corinthians 11:23-29 | Good Friday Service
Notes
Transcript
TEXT: JAMES 4:13-17 | MAGNIFICATION OF MINIMIZED SIN
TEXT: JAMES 4:13-17 | MAGNIFICATION OF MINIMIZED SIN
INTRO
INTRO
EXPLANATION: James has walked us through these final verses of chapter 4 over these past few weeks.
EXPLANATION: James has walked us through these final verses of chapter 4 over these past few weeks.
We have been faced with the question, “What is your life,”
We consumes your focus.
Then we were challenged with not taking our life into our own hands and instead putting it in the hands of the One Who already knows your tomorrow.
v.14 told us, you don’t know what tomorrow holds… but God does!
And then we were given that somber reminder that your life is but a vapor
Like a breath in the cold it appears for just a moment and then vanishes away.
So what are you using your vapor for?
For so many it is only used to further our success in this life
But James was reminding us here that we ought to live for something that’s bigger than our own life!
One preacher said it this way, “We ought to use our life, so the use of our life, outlives our life!”
To invest your life in that which will matter and last for eternity!
ILLUSTRATION: I’ve shared this before but it’s one of my favorite passages about the apostle Paul.
ILLUSTRATION: I’ve shared this before but it’s one of my favorite passages about the apostle Paul.
Paul was awaiting the arrival of Silas and Timothy in Athens.
And while he was waiting he became so stirred by what he saw! Acts 17:16-18
16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.
17 Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him.
18 Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection.
I love what it says there in v.18… they “encountered him.”
They had the Paul experience.
You didn’t just meet the apostle Paul… you experienced him!
One thing that we can be certain about Paul was that everywhere he went, when he left, he left an impact!
Because he was investing in something that would outlive his life.
Paul was witnessing everywhere he went.
Paul was training others to step in his place!
Paul was leaving a mark for the cause of Christ that was bigger than himself!
APPLICATION: And that’s the same call that God has made to us today through His Word!
APPLICATION: And that’s the same call that God has made to us today through His Word!
But that is the struggle that we find ourselves in, in the verses this morning.
EXPLANATION: You see James brings what he has been discussing to a head in v.15,
EXPLANATION: You see James brings what he has been discussing to a head in v.15,
15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
James wasn’t saying that before we do anything that we should stop and recite the words, “If the Lord wills.”
I’ve heard from the lips of my mom many times, “Lord willing and if the creek don’t rise.”
And I always thought, we lived on the side of a hill and baring a flood similar to Noah’s day, the creek shouldn’t affect our plans too much.
No, she was drawing attention to this verse, not according to my plans but according to God’s!
But for some it has become nothing more than words that are said, “Lord willing”
ILLUSTRATION: It’s similar to the prayers we used to pray as children before we ate our food.
ILLUSTRATION: It’s similar to the prayers we used to pray as children before we ate our food.
“God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food, for everything, Amen.”
As kids we would pray that before we ate our food every time.
It began so young, I can’t even remember my parents teaching me… it was just ingrained in me.
They were teaching us the importance of praying and thanking God for our food.
But it was the principle they wanted us to catch, not simply the memorization of a prayer.
As I got older, I stopped praying that same prayer before I ate, because it wasn’t about the words of that prayer, it was the principle that it’s good to pray and thank God.
7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
APPLICATION: And the same is true with what James is saying in v.15.
APPLICATION: And the same is true with what James is saying in v.15.
As we mentioned these last few messages in James, God isn’t looking to be a part of your life by He wants to saturate every part of your life!
And in every decision and in every situation of your life, we should live with the mindset of “what would God have me to do in this moment.”
We OUGHT to live that way.
But that is exactly the problem that James brings us to as we close out chapter 4.
V.17, THE MAGNIFICATION OF A MINIMIZED SIN
V.17, THE MAGNIFICATION OF A MINIMIZED SIN
17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
EXPLANATION: In the Christian life we set our focus on the things we shouldn’t do.
EXPLANATION: In the Christian life we set our focus on the things we shouldn’t do.
It isn’t good to steal
It isn’t good to lie
It isn’t good to cheat
It isn’t good to gossip
It isn’t good to be controlled with anger
It isn’t good commit immortality
It isn’t good to commit murder
When we think of sin, we immediately can rattle off all the things we are not supposed to do!
We know there are places we shouldn’t go
Things we shouldn’t say
Things we shouldn’t do
Because if we do them, they are a sin!
And you can almost hear a sigh of relief from the believers in James’s day because they weren’t involved in some of the sinful acts going on around them.
They weren’t involving themselves in the pagan practices of false religion
They weren’t boasting of their religious superiority like the pharisees
They weren’t involved in the persecutions that were going on all around them, in fact they were the ones being persecuted.
And it could be so easy for them to reach their arm all the way around for a big pat on their own back for all the things they weren’t doing!
ILLUSTRATION: Not doing the wrong things is something we are taught from a very early age.
ILLUSTRATION: Not doing the wrong things is something we are taught from a very early age.
It’s been estimated that a child will hear the word ‘no’ 5 times as much as the word ‘yes’.
No don’t touch that
No don’t go there
No don’t spit that out
No don’t hit your sister.
And as a parent we spend the bulk of our time teaching our kids what not to do!
APPLICATION: So it is no wander that as a believer we grow up and all of our emphasis is on the things we shouldn’t do.
APPLICATION: So it is no wander that as a believer we grow up and all of our emphasis is on the things we shouldn’t do.
And that is certainly a part of the Christian life… but that is only one side of the coin.
EXPLANATION: You see James writes to these believers and he tells them it’s not just about what you aren’t supposed to do… it’s a neglect of what you know you should do.
EXPLANATION: You see James writes to these believers and he tells them it’s not just about what you aren’t supposed to do… it’s a neglect of what you know you should do.
17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
James is putting an exclamation point on things he has discussed throughout his book
You don’t have to rewind much to find yourself in v.7-11
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
11 Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.
There is no less than 11 commands in those 5 verses and of the 11, 10 of them are commands to do something… only 1 is a command not to do something.
Because while it is a sin to do something God commands us not to do… it’s just as much a sin to not do what God has commanded us to do!
Rather than sins by commission, it is sin by omission.
APPLICATION: I wonder what in your life God desires for you to do… but you have decided not to?
APPLICATION: I wonder what in your life God desires for you to do… but you have decided not to?
You see we ought to live by the principle, if it is God’s will for me to do something, to not do it is sin.
To not do it is to take my life in my own hands, and as we have seen from v.16 these past few weeks, it is prideful and it is evil!
Yes it is a sin to lie, cheat, steal, and kill.
But if we would view our disobedience to God with the same lens as we view our sins of commission, maybe we wouldn’t be so comfortable to doing things our own way!
ILLUSTRATION: Back in 1 Kings, Saul was the first king of Israel.
ILLUSTRATION: Back in 1 Kings, Saul was the first king of Israel.
God had given him the command to destroy the Amalekites.
It was a group of people that attacked the children of Isreal in generations prior and God had given them over a hundred years to get things right… yet they had refused
Now the day of judgment had come.
2 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.
3 Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
So Saul and his army planned to carry out God’s command
But 1 Samuel 15:5-9
5 And Saul came to a city of Amalek, and laid wait in the valley.
6 And Saul said unto the Kenites, Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them: for ye shewed kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.
7 And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest to Shur, that is over against Egypt.
8 And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
9 But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.
God knew right away off Saul’s disobedience, his act not of commission, but of omission… not doing what he was supposed to do.
When Samuel confronts Saul things get awkward really quick.
13 And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the Lord: I have performed the commandment of the Lord.
14 And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?
He said, I can hear the sheep and the oxen, what do you mean you did what God said.
And that’s when the truth comes out from Saul’s lips
15 And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.
Saul’s plan… Saul’s way… surely that was better than doing what God had commanded.
To in essence say “no” to God, and yes to his own will!
And then we have those familiar verses that make so clear God’s feelings of disobedience toward him.
22 And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to hearken than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, He hath also rejected thee from being king.
To reject what Saul knew was right and do his own thing, God says was like witchcraft and idolatry.
Can I tell you who the idol Saul was choosing to worship was? It was Saul.
I guess we could say it like this, James 4:16
16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
Pride
APPLICATION: You see when we just to do sins of commission it is saying “yes” to sin!
APPLICATION: You see when we just to do sins of commission it is saying “yes” to sin!
But when we commit the sin of omission it is saying “no” to God!
And you can try to minimize the sin of omission but God puts the magnification on it.
When God speaks to your heart to do something for Him and you say “no”… well, James 4:17
17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
That means when God speaks to your heart about something and you say, “no”... that is sin.
Now that is all easy to say and we would all agree… but what about practically in our life...
“Submit yourselves therefore to God”… No
“Draw nigh to God”… No
“Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” No
6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
You can say no… but just because you say it doesn’t make it right...
You see, sometimes we are like Saul more than we care to admit… and we believe the commands of God are more like suggestion which we can pick and choose what to follow.
But when God speaks, and we refuse to listen… the only alternative is prideful sin.
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
APPLICATION: Friend, what is God speaking to you about today?
APPLICATION: Friend, what is God speaking to you about today?
Is it an area of serving Him?
Is it an area of your life you haven’t surrendered?
Could it be that God has given His plan for salvation but you think you are just going to do it your way?
ILLUSTRATION: One of the most popular books in the Bible.
ILLUSTRATION: One of the most popular books in the Bible.
Even the world knows the story.
It’s the story of Jonah… an entire book dedicated to a man who simply said “no” to God.
APPLICATION: Maybe you’ve gotten really good at patting your own back for all the things you don’t do… but your pride in the sins you don’t commit has blinded you to the obedience to God you’ve neglected.
APPLICATION: Maybe you’ve gotten really good at patting your own back for all the things you don’t do… but your pride in the sins you don’t commit has blinded you to the obedience to God you’ve neglected.
And it can be real easy to find ways to spiritualize our simple disobedience to God
I think it would be good for each of us to allow the magnifying glass of God’s Spirit to peer into each of our lives, and allow God to bring to the surface the areas we’ve said “no” to God.
And then submit yourself therefore to God.
Because James 4:17
17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.