Untitled Sermon (36)

Understanding James (Living Life without the Lord! (James 4:13–17))

Living life without the Lord!

(James 4:13–17)

Time has been called the money of the 21st century.

1980’s: We got the VCR, Microwave oven, automatic teller machines, fax machines, Federal Express, home delivery and 24 Hour Convenient Stores.

1990’s: We got the Internet, Cell-phones, TV home shopping, and notebook computers.

Common Denominator of all these technological advances is to save time.

There is 24 hours in a day; 1,440 minutes in a day; 86,400 seconds in each day.

We do not know though how many days that we will have. Psalm 90:12, “So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

Illustration: When as a child, I laughed and wept time crept.

When as a youth, I dreamed and talked time walked.

When I became a full-grown man time ran.

When older still I grew—time flew.

Soon I shall find in passing on—time gone.

Time is slipping away from each one of us and we need to be living our life for the glory of God and to be pleasing to the Lord Jesus Christ.

ETS: James declared the foolishness of planning without God, the fleeing of life, and the futility of living for self.

ESS: A life without the Master will end in disaster.

OSS: Saints would seek God’s will for their everyday lives, submit to His will, and do His will every day.

This text reveals some rebukes about living without the Lord.

I. The audacity of our planning (vs. 13–14)

A. Our lofty projection (vs. 13)

“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit.”

Come Now: usually implies disapproval and conveys a sense of urgency.

James is rebuking such a person that will arrogantly plan with any thought of God.

Planning ahead is not sin, but planning ahead without God is sin.

James teaches us that there are some that will plan their future out with great detail without thinking about the Lord or inquiring of the Lord.

The man had some major problems.

His problems was not forming goals but in forgetting God. James did not make a distinction. He calls all who say these things.

Say: (lego) means to say something based on reason or logic. With our finite minds we can make great and lofty projections of our future.

Many of us our guilty of constructing a plan for our lives; choosing a place for our lives; calculating a period for our lives; considering a purpose for our lives; and computing a profit for our lives without ever inquiring of the Lord.

J. Ronald Blue wrote, “He is self-assertive in his travel plans; self-confident in his time schedule; and self-centered in his trade relationships.”

This man thought he knew when he was going (Today or tomorrow)

He thought he knew who was going with him (we will go).

He thought he knew where he was going (to such and such a city)

He though he knew the watch he was going for (spend a year there).

He thought he knew what he was going to do (buy and sell, and make a profit).

This guy had a lofty projection concerning his life.

Someone has well said, “We are to plan our work as if we were to live forever as indeed we are, but we are to work as if we were to die tomorrow as if we may.”

R. Kent Hughes said, “It is practical atheism to live without serious reference to God’s will.”

Johnny Hunt said, “We are to plan ahead, but God wants our planning to be done with Him and His will in mind. We are to allow space for Him to step in and interrupt or alter the plan.”

Our lives are not so important and so busy that we leave God out.

Some people say, ‘I don’t have time for God, I don’t have time to read the Bible, I don’t have time to worship, I don’t have time to witness.’

I say to you today that you do not have time not to.

In verse 13 we’ve seen our lofty projection.

Next we see:

B. Our limited perspective (vs. 14)

“whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”

We have a very limited perspective of life in general and even specific circumstances.

It would be foolish for us to plan our lives around God and away from God.

James says that we do not even know what is going to happen tomorrow.

Warren Wiersbe wrote, “Man cannot control future events. He has neither the wisdom to see the future nor the power to control the future.”

Have you heart the saying, “Hindsight is 20/20?’

No one knew that thousands of people were going to die on September 11, 2001 when 2 planes crashed into the World Trade Centers.

Looking back we can see signs of the coming calamity.

James teaches us that at best we have a limited perspective of things.

Our life is fleeing from us as I speak.

Proverbs 27:1, “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.”

Some has put it into business terms. Yesterday is a cancelled check. Tomorrow is a promissory note. Today is the only cash we have.

Dr. R.G. Lee once said, “Yesterday is in the tomb of time, tomorrow is in the womb of time, only now is yours.”

Many of us live each day like we have all the time in the world.

Our lackadaisical approach to life will get us in trouble with the Master.

Illustration: The story is told of a soldier in WWII that was court marshaled because of a lack of duty.

This young man was a tail-gunner on a fighter plane.

During the court marshal the prosecuting officer asked the young man, ‘Son what did you hear in your headset while you where in combat?’

The young man replied, ‘I heard my squadron leader cry out, ‘Enemy planes at 5:00; Enemy planes at 5:00; Enemy planes at 5:00.”

The superior officer said, ‘What action did you take?’

The young man said, ‘Why, sir, I just sat back and relaxed because it was only 4:30.”

Listen to this preacher, life is coming to an end.

We are going to die. We need to be busy about the Master’s business.

James Merritt said, “Death can come at anytime by design, by decay, by disease, or by disaster.”

Illustration: It is said that long ago when an eastern emperor was crowned at Constantinople, the royal mason would set before his majesty a certain number of marble slabs.

One he was to choose then and there for his tombstone.

The ancients thought it wise for him to remember his funeral at the time of his elevation, for his life would not last forever. Verse 14, “For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”

Job 14:1–2, “Man who is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. He comes forth like a flower and fades away; he flees like a shadow and does not continue.”

We have a limited perspective of things because we have a limited life in time.

Illustration: A man went to see his doctor because he wasn’t feeling well. After the doctor examined the man he told the man that he had a terminal illness.

The doctor told the man that he had 6 months to live.

Man: Doctor you’ve got to do something!

Doctor: There’s nothing I can do you are going to die.

Man: Doctor, please I’ll pay any money, I’ll go anywhere, I’ll try any treatments. You’ve got to help me!

Doctor: Sir, there’s nothing I can do, you are going to die.

Man: Surely there is something you can do. I will do whatever you would do. Doctor, what would you do if you only had 6 months to live?

Doctor: The first thing I would do is move to Siberia. The man took a pen and paper and wrote down, Move to Siberia.’

Next I would buy a pig farm with 500 of the stinkeness pigs I could find. Man wrote, ‘Buy stinking pigs.

Finally, I would find the ugliest Siberian woman I could find with 9 children and I would marry her. Man wrote, ‘Find and marry ugly Siberian woman with 9 children.’

Man: Let me get this straight, you think I ought to move to Siberia, buy a pig farm, and marry an ugly Siberian woman who has 9 kids. Is that right.

Doctor: That’s exactly right!

Man: Are you telling me that that is going to cure me.”

Doctor: No, but that will be the longest 6 months that you have ever lived.

In verses 13–14 James rebukes us about the audacity of our planning.

Next we see:

II. The adherence to His purposes (vs. 15)

A. A correction (vs. 15a)

“Instead you ought to say,”

James is calling for believers to adhere to God’s purposes for our lives.

God has a special and unique purpose and design for each one of us.

He has gifted us in different ways and He has called us to do different things.

James corrects the false and independent way of thinking. John MacArthur wrote, “The present infinitive form of the verb translated to say reveals that submission to God’s will must be habitual and continual.”

James says, Instead of doing what we want to do and doing in the way we want to do it, we ought to plan to do His will. This word is so relevant and speaks to our society and culture today.

R. Kent Hughes wrote, “So pervasive is our culture’s arrogant independence of God that even many (most?) Christians attend church, marry, choose their vocations, have children, buy and sell homes, expand their portfolios, and numbly ride the currents of culture without substantial reference to the will of God.”

James rebukes us today for doing that!

If we are making our plans without Jesus and living our lives without Jesus and His will then we need to be rebuked.

Jimmy Draper wrote, “We are to live in an awareness that our lives are under His inspection. We plan, but we plan with God in mind.”

James is calling us to revise our planning in life and to recognize the passing of life.

In verse 15 James gives a correction; next we see:

B. A confession (vs. 15b)

“If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”

James is not giving us some secret remedy to pleasing God. Saying these words and yet not meaning them from our hearts is useless.

When we speak these words, they ought to come from a heart that is willing to accept and readily receive what God’s will is for our lives.

Warren Wiersbe wrote, “God does not reveal His will to the curious or the careless, but to those who are ready and willing to obey Him.”

We must confess with our mouth and mean what we say. This helps us be aware of God’s plans and purposes for our lives.

Proverbs 3:5–6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”

John Phillips wrote, “We should acknowledge reverently that we are completely dependent on the will of God for the accomplishment of anything. Even in forming our plans, we should seek the Lord’s will humbly and involve Him in even the mundane, ordinary affairs of life.”

God is calling us today to adhere to His purposes.

Do you know that God has a plan for your life? He has a perfect will for you?

Are you submitted to His will? Do you know His will? Are you doing your own thing in life with no regard for God and His will?

James teaches us about the audacity of our planning. The adherence to His purposes. Next we see:

III. The admonishment of our practice (vs. 16–17)

“But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.”

James had someone specific in mind, it may have been an individual or several in the flock who boasted of future plans.

James admonishes the church and calls us to practical obedience to the will of God.

Boast: (kauchaomai) can mean ‘to be loud-mouthed, or to speak loudly.’

This word can refer to legitimate rejoicing or touting one’s own accomplishments.

Here the word refers ‘to glory’ or to pride one’s self.’

It refers to empty claims. James is speaking of a person that boastfully says he is going to do what in reality he don’t have the power or perspective to do it.

This person boast in their arrogance.

Arrogance: (alazoneia) comes from a root word meaning ‘to wander about.’

All such boasting is evil. All such boasting is of the devil. This defiant and boastful attitude has been in this world from the beginning.

This boastful attitude is seen in lives and written for all to hear.

Illustration: In 1875 William Ernest Henley wrote a poem entitled “Invictus” which in Latin means ‘invincible.’

On June 11, 2001, Timothy McVeigh was executed for his role in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. The 33 year old McVeigh declined to make a final statement before his execution at the Terre Haute, Indiana federal prison.

Instead, he asked that a hand-printed copy of this poem be distributed to the media witnesses.

McVeigh adapted the poem to his own situation as a defiant and unrepentant killer of 168 people.

After being pronounced dead, one of the reporters read the poem.

Poem: “Out of the night that covers me, black as the Pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever sods may be for my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance my head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears looms but the Horror of the shade, and vet the menace of the years finds, and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the sate, how charged with punishments the scroll. I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.”

Timothy McVeigh was wrong! William Ernest Henley was wrong!

That boasting is evil. These are sins of commission.

In verse 17 James makes a switch. He not only talks about the things we do that we shouldn’t do, but the things we neglect to do that we should do.

Jimmy Draper says, “There have been many people who have thought that as long as we do not shake our fists in the face of God and denounce Him, we are all right. But James says we are evil if we do not include God in our plans. If we do not let God be a part of our today’s, we will find our tomorrow’s crashing in about us.”

verse 17: “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.”

Knows: means to be acquainted with or to be responsible for.

Illustration: A Sunday School teacher asked her class, ‘What are the sins of omission?’ One little boy raised his hand and said, ‘Teacher, the sins of omission are the sins that we should have committed but we didn’t.”

The sins of omission occur when we fail to do something that we ought to do.

Great Truth: We can do wrong by doing wrong, but we can also do wrong by failing to do right.

Billy Graham said, “The greatest sin in the life of the Christian and non-Christian is not the sin of commission, it is the sin of omission.”

We tend to come down hard on the sins of commission, but rarely give second thought to the sins of omission.

James is admonishing the church about our practice or here the lack of our practice.

Challenge: When we know we ought to tithe and we do not tithe we sin. When we know we ought to pray and we do not pray we sin. When we know we ought to witness for Jesus and we do not witness we sin. When we know we ought to worship and we do not worship we sin. When we know we ought to read and study God’s word and we do not we sin. Are we guilty of living our life without the Lord?

Are we guilty of the sin of planning our own life apart from the Lord? Are we guilty of boasting about what we are going to do?

Are we guilty of not submitting to the Lord’s purposes and His will for our lives?

Are we guilty of the sins of omission?

God’s word has challenged us to live with a constant awareness of Jesus and His will for our lives.

Would you respond to God’s call today?