Practical Atheism

Intro:

Look with me, if you will to the book of Matthew 5:3

Illustration: One of the greatest thefts of all time was that of a thief who made his way into a jewelry store in the middle of the night. He didn’t tip anyone off, he didn’t set off any alarms, he seemed to have barely made a sound and as he made his way to the glass showcases where the jewelry was, he does the unthinkable; instead of hurryingly stuffing his bags full of jewels he instead begins to switch the cheap items with the expensive ones and he does this with item after item and finally he packs up his bag and goes. The next morning comes and the intruder enters the store with clerks happy to greet him. He goes on to explain to them that he has a limited budget but he knows exactly what items he wants so here they come marching all of these items out before him where he goes on to purchase thousands and thousands of dollars of jewelry for almost nothing and then they pack up his bag, shake his hand, and off he goes.

Now, a similar thing has happened today. Within the eyes of man, the things which are to be most valued such as purity, love, sacrifice, gentleness, meekness, and patience have been considered worthless while the worthless things of this world are considered most desirable.

Well, here in Matthew 5 we find the Lord straightening out that which is confused as he goes on to preach His great Sermon on the Mount and as He opens His mouth He says,

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.”

And we think to ourselves, “The Poor!?” within Greco-Roman Culture the poor weren’t valued! And so we must ask what does this word poor mean? Well, the word “poor” comes from the word, “Ptochos” and gives us a beautiful illustration of a beggar who is found to have no belongings, no talent, no abilities, and no hope and he is begging on the side of the road knowing that unless someone shows him an act of mercy he has no hope to live! And this is truly the same case with us all. We, as Romans so clearly describes, are dead in sin, we are rebels against God, we are hopelessly lost and bankrupt of all righteousness and it is only by the regenerating work of the Spirit that we come to this realization to which all we can do is cast ourselves at the feet of God knowing that unless He shows us mercy we will not survive! And these are the people, Christ says, that are the Kingdom Heirs.

Now, realizing that this is such a bedrock truth of great importance we need to ask the question, “Is this same behavior still important, or necessary, after our salvation?” And if so, are you and I living like it? I want to invite you to turn with me to our primary focus for today which is James 4:13-17 and as you turn there I want you to journey with me back to 2012….At this time I was so focused on being successful I asked Pop, “How do I become wealthy?” To which he replied, “Hunter, people stay poor because they act like they’re rich, and the wealthy become wealthy because they lived like they were poor.”

Now, I always took that as a great piece of financial advice, but while I was studying this passage that same statement popped back up in my mind and I believe it applies to us here today in that those who realize how ruined they are without Christ are the same ones who bask in the unsearchable richness they have within Him. And so we have to take inventory of ourselves and ask, “Do I live as though I acknowledge God in my life or do I live as a practical atheist?” Well, we will look at that today in James 4:13-17, let’s go ahead and read that together.

The first thing we must notice today is:

The Attitude of Practical Atheism

This attitude is what James calls in v16 “boasting arrogance” and “evil”! But why? This is the man who gets a sense of power and supremacy in mapping out what he will do with his life and where it will go. John Philips said, “you get a certain pride in yourself in planning your future with such confidence.” And so, what we find in this text is a war of the sovereigns with one being an imposter and here we find James tapping us upon the shoulder and saying, “We are not in charge!”

In verse 13 we must note the phrase “Come now,..” This is a phrase that was used fairly often throughout history by men such as Athaneus, Cicero, and Horace. It would’ve primarily been used to prepare the listener for a coming argument or harsh words. And from my studies this is the first, and only time aside from James 5, that this word is used and so, we find that James is shouting “Hey, this kind of behavior is not fitting Christians!” It is not the words that are coming off of their lips, but the attitude that is in their hearts. This is the sin of presumption that once it takes hold, will affect all matters of our actions as we will see here in v13.

It begins by saying, “Today or tomorrow”. This is a man who feels as though he is confident that time is on his side. He is confident that he will be around next year! He knows there won’t be any illness, car wreck, or accident that will claim his life. No, as he looks over his plans he takes the very beating of his heart for granted because he has forgotten that it’s not himself who is in charge.

Tomorrow it is not merely the time that he thinks he is solely in control of but he thinks he will accomplish every action he desires to accomplish. He’s going to go to that city and nothing will stop him!

And once he does what he plans to do he is confident that it will be successful. This is a man who has every aspect of his life planned out from time, to actions, to outcome and the sad thing is, he thinks he is the lord over his life.

Is that how we’ve been living our life? Do we assume we will live another day because we are owed that much time because of our youth? Do we have every detail planned out and find ourselves angry when it’s derailed? Do we ever stop to think, “Lord, it is by your grace that I will go here or there and do this or that?”

Now, you may be thinking, “Hunter, I think this is a little overkill. I mean, I’ve heard everyone speak like this!” And that certainly would be the case, during that time trading would’ve been the easiest way to make a good living. And I believe that is exactly where James is wanting to hit us. The reality we see here is that these men consider the Lord no more than the world does in their day to day lives.

And James, sniffing out this spirit of practical atheism within these men, will go on to give an analysis of practical atheism.

The Ignorance of the Future

(v14) “Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be!”

Isaiah 41:22-27 and The Trial of the Idols. The idols of our life may not be wood, hay or stubble but may be ourselves.

You have the next year planned out but you don’t even know what will happen tomorrow!

The Ignorance of Their Fragility

(v14) “For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes.”

Psalm 39:5 “In fact, you have made my days just inches long, and my life span is as nothing to you. Yes, every human being stands as only a vapor.”

Papa and Nanny

Lastly, James will provide us with the Antidote to Practical Atheism. (v15)

Dependence upon the Lord “If the Lord wills...”

Douglas Moo “James attributes no magical significance to the words themselves. “If the Lord wills” can become nothing more than a glib formula without any real meaning. James, rather, wants us to adopt the attitude expressed by the words as a fixed perspective from which to view all of life. This perspective should add an element of contingency to all our planning—“if the Lord allows this to happen.” But it should also force us to evaluate our planning from a biblical ethical perspective—“if this kind of plan is in accordance with the Lord’s will expressed in Scripture for his people.”

Address a Question: Does this mean I shouldn’t plan?

This most certainly doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t plan. However, it means we should plan with the glory of the Lord in mind and with a heart of submission to His will.

In 2009 Northwest Airlines was bought out by Delta. After hearing the news two airline pilots decided that they should do some research on how things might be changing for them while on the job. However, while they were distracted with this their airplane flew for 91 minutes out of contact with the ground and overshot their destination city by 150 miles because they had their personal laptops on top of their control board in the plane, following this incident they were immediately fired. And while these details seem important, they took their focus off the primary task which caused issues. In our Christian lives when we are filled with desire to glorify God with all that we do and we begin by governing our lives in accordance with His Word, we are moving in the right direction.

Application:

So, to you who are worrying over whether to take AP, Honors, or Dual Credit Chemistry to beef up your transcripts so you can get into Duke to become a leader in Biomedicine or maybe you’re trying to decide whether you’re going to go onto college at all. Maybe you’re just 13 and the greatest goal for you right now is to have a sense of belonging and your goals and plans revolve around fitting in or maybe your biggest plan is getting home so you can plan fortnite and watch tiktoks. Whatever your plans are, I want to plead with you to submit all of your plans, your desires, and your dreams to the glory of Christ understanding that if there is a detour upon the road ahead, it is one that the Lord has placed there for you to travel for His glory.