Lord Willing
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Connection: A famous poet once wrote: I am the captain of my own soul. This idea has permeated our modern era. In fact, in some ways, it has also intruded into the church. This could not be further from the truth. Such a saying smells more of atheism that it does of Christianity—for such a saying exalts the self as the King of kings rather than the Lord Jesus Christ as King of kings. In contrast to this sinful perspective on the future is a humble declaration by James: Lord-willing.
This is a phrase in Christian circles that I’m sure you’ve heard countless times: Lord-willing. We say this often; sometimes it is attached to the end of our emails or texts. But do we really know what it means? And do we really mean it when we say it? And do we assume it when we don’t say it? This is where the Book of James takes us this morning.—away from us being the captain of our own souls, to fixing our eyes on the true captain of our souls. Thus the title for my sermon is:
Theme: Lord Willing
Need: James has been seeking to humble us in our need to draw near to the Lord our God, as our Creator and Sustainer—yes—but especially as our Redeemer. He has been casting us down to build us up—the Holy Spirit desires this for us all today. We need to be brought low so that our perspective is godly and proper. We need to acquire humility, the wisdom from above, and especially humility regarding the future; so that we can properly say in faith, and in the fear of the Lord: Lord willing.
Purpose: To rebuke any pride and arrogance relating to our lives and the future; to humble us in our human frailty; and to exhort us toward submission to the divine will or decree of God.
Read Text: James 4:13-17 ESV
PRAY - PRAY - PRAY - PRAY
(1) We are a Fleeting and Frail People - v13-14
(1) We are a Fleeting and Frail People - v13-14
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
(1) We are a Fleeting and Frail People - v13-14
(1) We are a Fleeting and Frail People - v13-14
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”
James here has in mind the business men of his era. These are likely people in his church that were in a vocation that required them to travel for their income, and to make deliberate plans in order to secure that income. They would map out there entire year. James addresses these merchants, these business men, and quotes them in their plans. Such people are confident that they know what the future holds. Such people richly enjoy feeling a sense of control over their day-by-day operations. Such people largely find comfort in being sovereign over the plans of their life. Such people buy a planner each year and fill it out as neatly as possible so that they can reign and rule over each day, week, month, and year as it passes.
Maybe you’re like this? Maybe you are a planner? Maybe you are a business man? Maybe you’re not a business man but your job still requires you to travel and plan out your income? Maybe you’re none of these things, and you work locally, but you still plan out your income and plans for each fiscal year.
Now, before anyone gets too uncomfortable here, James clarifies for us that it is not this planning that is the problem—it’s the motive, perspective, and purpose behind such planning. The book of proverbs is full of godly wisdom that includes planning. Planning is not the issue. Godless planning is the issue. Planning that directs ones life according to the principles of Atheism is the issue. Planning that assumes that we are the captain of our own souls is the issue. Planning that assumes that we actually have control over the future is the issue. This is where James takes us. He continues:
14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.
These business men need to be reminded about something fairly important as they are planning out there entire year and their fiscal income and expenses, maybe their expected investments and gains. James says, oh hey! Just remember that you don’t even know what tomorrow will bring. Just remember that you don’t have the slightest control over human history. Just remember that you don’t have the capacity to gaze into the future with certainty.
Such planning is actually atheistic pride. It is living as if we are god who is sovereign—it is living as if there is no God who is Sovereign. It is living as if we have predestined the future in our calendar—it is living as if God has not predestined the future in his wisdom. It is living as if we can decree human history—it is living as if God has not decreed human history. Such living, James says, is absurd.
Do you ever fall into this snare and temptation? Do you ever, like Israel of old, fall into the sin of mumbling and complaining because your plans did not fall into place exactly the way you wanted? Do you ever get frustrated and grumpy when something puts a road block in your purposes. Do you ever fall into depression because the whole idea of you being the captain of your own soul doesn’t actually work out too well? Do you ever find yourself angry at God because you don’t like his plan or his ways? Do you ever groan at your circumstances and hardships? Do you ever get irritated when trials of various kinds arise? Do you ever say to yourself: here we go again… you’ve got to be kidding me … are you serious? … now my whole day is ruined.
I truly believe that this was one of the refining purposes of God in sovereignly sending the pandemic. Covid revealed to us how much we thought we were in control. David Gibson writes:
As we move through life, the world just constantly dupes us into believing a false story. We become enchanted with a false view of ourselves and the way the world is. Our heads and our Bible might tell us , ‘God willing’, but we are immersed in the oxygen of the world, which says, ‘Me willing’. I am in charge, and I will decide—and then 2020 came like a wrecking ball into our lives to show us just how easily we believed that lie. We presume we are in charge, and so we presume we can plan in pride (148).
How true is this? How many of us did, or maybe still do, believe the lie that we are in charge. Hear these words from the book of Job 38:
1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: 2 “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? 3 Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. 4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. 5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? 6 On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, 7 when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? 8 “Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb, 9 when I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band, 10 and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors, 11 and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed’? 12 “Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place, 13 that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it? 14 It is changed like clay under the seal, and its features stand out like a garment. 15 From the wicked their light is withheld, and their uplifted arm is broken. 16 “Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep? 17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness? 18 Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare, if you know all this …
[this goes on for 4 chapters and then picks up):
1 Then Job answered the Lord and said: 2 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
The Apostle Paul likewise adds:
You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?”
Oh beloved, we need the fear of God—we need to remember that we do not know what tomorrow will bring—we are not God Almighty—we are not in control of our lives—we are not the captain of our own souls—we are not the Creator or Sustainer of the Universe—we are God’s creatures, and must submit to God as our Master and Creator, as our Author and Sustainer. We depend upon him, and as Paul says in:
for
“ ‘In him we live and move and have our being’;
as even some of your own poets have said,
“ ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
But if this wasn’t humbling enough, that we finite humans do not even know what tomorrow will bring, James continues to humble us in our fleeting and frail human natures. He also adds this declaration:
What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
This passage echoes Psalm 103 which says:
As for man, his days are like grass;
he flourishes like a flower of the field;
for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
and its place knows it no more.
James is reminding us of our frailty due to the curse and fall of man. After Adam and Eve sinned against God’s Law and Covenant, they recieved the Curse of the Law and Covenant. One aspect of this curse is death and decay. God says to Adam, after his heinous sin: “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19).
Wow. What a humbling few texts of Scripture. James is comparing our dying lives as a mist that appears for some time then vanishes out of thin air. David Gibson again writes:
What was your great-great-grandfather’s name? What did he love? What did he hate? What did he do? What did he achieve? Few of us could say. Like the mist, he is gone. For some of us this is very hard to understand … but James isn’t trying to depress us. All he’s trying to do is humble us. ‘Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you’ (4:10). The brevity of life is one of God’s greatest tools for nurturing humility in his creatures.
How shall we attain God-honoring humility? By looking at the brevity of life. We are like mist, that appears for some time, then it vanishes. At the last church I worked at I was great friends with the janitor. He was only in his fifties. He was in great health. He went on a vacation with his family and within 24 hours he developed a blood infection, sepsis, and died a terrible death. 24 hours beforehand he was completely healthy—24 hours later he went to be with Jesus. That was a hard funeral to attend.
As Christians we do not grieve without hope—but oh we still grieve. Jesus wept over death—because death is his enemy. In the Gospel Jesus has defeated death. “Where oh death is your sting!?” (1 Cor. 15:55). It is gone for death is swallowed up in the Cross and we look forward to the Resurrection of the Dead as Christians. We can rest in Christ and in the Victory of Jesus over Death. Nonetheless we must come to grips with our fleeting and frail natures.
Every single second almost two people die around the world. We have no idea when our time will be up. We have no idea when we shall return to the dust. We have no idea when we will die—let alone what will happen tomorrow. This is humbling.
Who are we to try and delude ourselves and to act like God Almighty, who are we finite creatures of the dust to think that we can overturn and overrun and overpower the infinite, eternal, almighty, and unchangeable God; the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—the Blessed Trinity—Yahweh the Lord of all Creation. None can stay his hand. Who are we to think that we are the captains of our own souls. James humbles us in our fleetingness and frailty.
To quote Gibson again he says:
James is plucking us from our high horses and bringing us down low. He is aiming to drive down deep into my soul the knowledge that I am a character in the story of the world that God is writing, not the author of my own play. God is the author, the playwright, the one painting a glorious picture of all of world history. In the center of this picture is a throne, and there is a King on it, and that King is not you or me. It is the Lord of glory. The point of the world is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is for him and about him, not us.
(1) We are a Fleeting and Frail People.
This leads us to our second point for this morning:
(2) We must be a Humble and Holy People - v15-17
(2) We must be a Humble and Holy People - v15-17
15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
(2) We must be a Humble and Holy People - v15-17
(2) We must be a Humble and Holy People - v15-17
15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
Here it is. This is the radical difference between atheistic principles of planning—and Christian principles of planning. The former is godless and self-exalted and self-confident, the latter is godly, God-exalting, and Godward in confidence. Here is the key principle we must all take away—in all of our planning we must, nay, we ought to say, either verbally or internally, Lord-willing.
But what does this phrase mean? Lord-willing. So often it is thrown around without proper understanding. To put it simply, the phrase Lord-willing means that we subject all of our plans, desires, and decrees to the sovereign plan, desire, and decree of our Almighty and Caring Heavenly Father. We must do this or else we are failing to be humble and holy. To say this in faith, and to mean it with the fear of the Lord is to recognize that God has decreed the future, that God is in control—and to put it bluntly, that God has predestined the future, that God has planned the course of our lives. This is the plain meaning that the Lord Jesus Himself teaching us in Matthew 10:
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
Nor even a single sparrow or bird can fall to the ground apart from the will of our Father who is in Heaven. The will of God here, when we say Lord-willing, is the Sovereign-Plan of God over all things.
Likewise the prophet Isaiah writes these words of God in Isaiah 46:
“Remember this and stand firm,
recall it to mind, you transgressors,
remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me,
declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
calling a bird of prey from the east,
the man of my counsel from a far country.
I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass;
I have purposed, and I will do it.
Do you see the all-encompassing nature of God’s control. He has decreed all things—he sovereignly willed all things—no one can change this unchangeable decree. This is the plain meaning of the phrase Lord-willing: we subject all of our plans, desires, and decrees to the sovereign plan, desire, and decree of our Almighty and Caring Heavenly Father.
Oddly enough this phrase is used by people who deny such sovereignty of God—but they cannot consistently use this phrase without affirming that it is God’s sovereign will which decrees, plans, and directs the future. To say Lord-willing without affirming that our Triune God is in complete control of the future is worthless. James wants us to recognize that our God is Sovereign over all or he is not Sovereign at all.
But theres another layer to this phrase Lord-willing. When Christians subject there plans to the plan of God we are not just subjecting our plans to a cold-deity who sits back on his throne—we are subjecting our plans to our loving and caring Heavenly Father who knows what is best and who “works all things for our good” and for his glory (Romans 8:28).
If we are being honest, it would be a fearful thing to entrust the future to a God who is not our Father but who is our Wrathful Judge. It would be a fearful thing to say Lord-willing if the Lord is not for us but is against us. It would be a fearful thing to entrust the future to a the Lord if we were not his beloved children. Sadly, this is the state of all unbelievers. Unbelievers cannot have any ounce of comfort in the future because they are not right with God. God is not their Father, he is their enemy. God is not their Friend, he is their foe. And therefore the future does not come with the promises of God but with the curses of God’s temporal wrath and one day, his eternal wrath in the flames of hell.
But oh what a comfort it is to believers who are entrusting the future to a God who is not their Wrathful Judge but their Pleased Father; to their God who is not against us but who is for us; to our God who has bound us to himself in the new covenant of grace which is ratified and sealed by the blood of Jesus Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit who compels us to cry Abba Father! Thus, like the Lord Jesus Himself, we can cry out with confidence, as hard as it may be: “Father, not my will, but your will be done” (Matt. 27:39).
And the Lord Jesus assures us with his absolute peace and grace and mercy and love that if we are trusting in Jesus, in his life, death, and resurrection, for us and for our salvation from sin, death, and hell, then we can know that in all things, good and bad, that “God is for us and not against us” (Rom. 8:31). Oh what a comfort it is for poor and needy Christians to now that all things work for our good and that our Father’s heart of love pulses through every single circumstance of our life—”He will never leave us nor forsake us” (Heb. 13:5).
So we hear this words from Christ in Matthew 6:
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Oh beloved, you do not know what tomorrow will hold—but you don’t need to. If you are a Christian tomorrow will be a great blessing to you, in prosperity or in affliction, because God your Father cares for you with an infinite and all powerful care as he accomplishes his sovereign will which is coupled with his gracious promises to your dear soul. Take heart, beloved—your future is secure and safe in the arms of your God and Father.
So when we say, Lord-willing: we subject all of our plans, desires, and decrees to the sovereign plan, desire, and decree of our Almighty and Caring Heavenly Father. This must permeate all of our planning and all of our purposes in life—and when circumstances change or alter by God’s will, we do not need to grumble, but we can accept them as God’s loving plan. And when we do grumble, we can repent, renew our faith, and draw near to God who “give more grace” (Jas. 4:6), “grace upon grace” (John 1:16), and he does so “generously to all without reproach” (Jas. 1:5), so therefore we can “count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds” (Jas. 1:2).
We can have joy in all of life because all of life is lived in the presence and plan of our Sovereign Father in Christ Jesus our Lord by the power of the Holy Spirit. This New Year, let your plans be coupled with the phrase: Lord-willing. And don’t just say it in Christianese, mean it in faith and with the fear of the Lord. And when you don’t say it (which you don’t have to after everything you say), you must assume it and imply it and mean it in with a humble heart-posture.
Before our conclusion James has two more things to say to those who fail to subject all things to God’s sovereign will:
16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
To those who do not subject their plans in godly humility to the sovereign will of God, James rebukes and reminds us that such a reality is prideful and arrogant boasting which is not delightful in God’s eyes. One commentator writes:
People not only leave God out of account in planning their lives; it is the essence of sin that they brag about it as well—“I” takes center stage in place of God.1
God hates sin and God hates our pride. Do not boast in your arrogance for such a thing is wickedness and full of evil rebellion. We must not exalt ourselves and our will, no, for God “opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God … Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you”…(Jas 4:6-7; 10). Flee from such pride by fixing your eyes on Jesus Christ, and by drawing near to your Father through Him, and plead for the fruit of the Spirit, the wisdom from above, that you might grow in Christ-like meekness and humility.
James closes with this summary statement, putting us all in our rightful place and in our rightful duty to God Almighty:
17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
Here James basically just reminds us that we are without excuse with regards to this matter. If we fail to do this we are sinning against God and the light of our conscience which God’s Word and Spirit have supplied. We cannot plead ignorance—we know the right thing to do, we know we are called to humble ourselves before the Lord, before each other, and before the future—and we must do this because we are the children of God who are called to be humble and holy and full of the Spirit. We are called to this so that we may be useful in the hands of God in this New Year of 2024 as we “seek first his Kingdom and his Righteousness” (Matt. 6:33). May God give us the grace that we need to continue in repentance, confession of sin, renewed faith and assurance, and the power of the Spirit to live for his glory alone, under the authority of Christ alone.
(2) We must be a Humble and Holy People.
This takes us to our final conclusion:
Conclusion + Big Idea:
Conclusion + Big Idea:
(C) Our Human Will must be Humbly Subjected to God’s Sovereign Will—for He is our Gracious Lord.
Such a posture does not eliminate the call for us to work, plan, desire, purpose, and aspire—however it does mean that we must recognize that none of our plans will come to pass apart from the “counsel of his will”, by which all things are made sure (Eph 1). So we “commit our way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will do it” (Psalm 37:5).
God’s Sovereign will does not make us robots, nor does it excuse our laziness—for God accomplishes his sovereign will, through the mysterious harmony and exercise of our will. Our moral obligation is to humbly subject our will to God’s will, knowing that He is in control and that we can entrust the future to Him as we work and live for his glory alone.
Keep your eyes on Jesus, beloved—on his Person, his Gospel, his Kingdom, his Will, and his Glory—it is here that the “blessed man walks in the counsel of the Lord” (Ps. 1).
We are not the captain of our souls—Jesus Christ our Gracious Saviour and Lord is. He has Redeemed us from the pits of hell and is guiding us home to our heavenly abode. We can entrust our future into his loving arms. Our only comfort in life and in death is that we belong to Jesus Christ our Gentle and Lowly Saviour. Trust in Him for your salvation and for your future. He is worthy and He is faithful.
(C) Our Human Will must be Humbly Subjected to God’s Sovereign Will—for He is our Gracious Lord.
Amen, let’s pray.