YouTube video sermon
James 4:13-17
Let me invite you to take your copy of God’s Word and turn with me to James 4. We’re concluding this little series that I’ve called 7 Questions God Asks of Us, and we’re looking at the question: “What Is Your Life?” Let’s walk through this text together, see the picture of God that’s here, and how James says it should affect us.
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. 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.
“Our God and our Father, we bow before You this morning. And we thank You for Your grace and goodness to us. We pray that as we think about what the Bible says, and as we think about the issues that are raised by our question, that You will help us to be honest, that You will help me to be clear, and that by Your grace and goodness You will enable us to be responsive. Bless us and help us, then, we pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.”
I would venture to say that nothing is more characteristic of a Christian than a desire to do the will of God. It doesn’t mean we always do it, but the desire is there; and when we fail to do it, there’s a sense of shame. The psalmist said, “I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart” (Psalm 40:8). And if, as Ezekiel said, the law of God was to be written in the heart, and if as Jeremiah identified it in the new covenant, the law was written in the inward part, then it must be true that if I’m a new creation, God has planted His law within me; He has planted therefore in me the knowledge of and the desire to fulfill that law. So, we can safely say that it’s a mark of a believer that he or she desires to do the will of God.
The psalmist also says, “Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God!” (Psalm 143:10). It’s as if he’s saying in one place, “I want to do it,” and in another place, “I’m not sure I know how. I delight in doing it; teach me specifically how.” Basic to one’s relationship to Christ then is doing the will of God. Is that your strong desire, today? Do we want to do the will of God?
There are four possible attitudes toward the will of God that flow out of this text. And the first one, I’m calling the foolishness of ignoring God’s will.
FOOLISHNESS OF IGNORING GOD’S WILL
There are some people who just flat out ignore God’s will. They live as if God wasn’t even around. His will isn’t even on their radar. It’s not something that occupies any of their thoughts. And we meet them in the illustration of the businessman in verses 13-14.
James begins by using language to catch their attention: “Come now…” That means, “Get this.” That means, “Listen up.” So, in a very abrupt and a very forceful and a rather insistent way, James says, “Now I want you to get this, and I want you to get it good.” And then he uses the illustration of a typical Jewish merchant.
Many of the Jews in the ancient world were traders, as they are today. They were businessmen and they were very successful. As towns sprung up in the ancient world, or as they flourished and grew, or as they became the trade route towns where there was the intersecting of people from various countries, they became focal points of business. And a strategizing businessman would set out to do his trade in a hot spot where he could succeed and lay out his plans. All of that makes sense. Today, if you’re in business, especially small business or retail-oriented business, you seek to do the same thing.
The merchant has constructed his entire plan of operation, but there are no contingencies. Notice, “Today or tomorrow we will go in to such a city, such-and-such a city. We’ll stay there a year, we will do our business, and we will make money.” That’s pretty confident talk, isn’t it? That’s typical non-contingency self-designed planning.
First of all, they choose their own time. Remember, this is a hypothetical situation, but notice how they chose their time: “Today or tomorrow.” Basically, saying you choose your own time, the time that you affirm. Secondly, you choose your own location, “we will go into such-and-such a city.” Thirdly, you choose your own timetable, “and we will stay there for a year,” or literally the Greek says, “do a year there.” And then you choose your own operation, “and we will do business.” So, they choose their own time, their own location, their own timetable, their own operation, and even their own objective: “We will make money. We will make a profit.”
Now in and of itself, that kind of planning is NOT sinful. There’s nothing ethically wrong with planning like that. In fact, Proverbs 21:5 (along with others) says, “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.” So, I don’t think, in and of itself, there’s anything immoral or unethical about it. There aren’t any spiritual principles violated in that verse by anything that’s said. In fact, any businessman worth his salt ought to have some kind of plan, right? The issue here, then, isn’t in what’s said, rather, it’s in what’s not said; that’s the problem. And what’s not said is that there’s no thought of God.
Today, we might call that practical atheism – living your life as if there’s no God. The foolishness of ignoring the will of God. Planning your life as if God doesn’t exist, even though you might actually believe He does. And believe me, there are folks who believe God exists, but don’t include Him in their plans.
This is the man who runs his own life, this is the woman who runs her own life, foolishly ignoring God and showing utter disrespect for His sovereignty; no contingencies at all. And the fatal flaw, frankly, is presumption. How do you know you can do it today or tomorrow? How do you know you can get to that city? How do you know that you can stay that long? How do you know you’ll be able to do business? How do you know you’re going to make money? You don’t! But you plan as if you know everything. You plan as if you’re omniscient, omnipotent, and invulnerable. That’s presumption.
Life is complicated. Life is hard. Circumstances and plans and people and all sorts of other factors have a way of changing without warning. Rather we ought to remember Psalm 37:3-5 “Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him, and He will act.” Give your life to the Lord; give your future to the Lord. So, the first thing about ignoring God’s will is that it manifests itself in disaster, because you’re ignorant.
Secondly, your fragile. Notice verse 14 (our question), “For what is your life?” Now, I want you to see the shift. We’re so familiar with this verse that we often don’t recognize it. Think about it with me. If I asked you the question, “What is your life?” most of us would respond by saying something like, “It is… [fill in the blank].” Right? “What’s your life?” “Well, it’s… [pick your description].” But that’s not what James says. James says, “For what is your life?” And rather than say “it is…” he says “you are…” Do you see the shift? Do you see how James personalizes the answer?
And what does he call our lives? A mist. A breath. A vapor. A smoke. A breath on a cold day that’s visible and then gone. That’s all we are – steam that’s appearing for a little time, and then vanishes. The Greek term is actually atmis, as in atmosphere. What he’s saying is this, “You and I, we’re so temporary. It’s coming to pass that we’re going to die very soon.” And like the rich man in Luke 12 it was going to be the next day, or even that evening.
Life is so brief. Life is so short. And James is saying, “Ignoring God’s will is not only foolish because you are ignorant of the future, but it’s foolish because you’re so frail, so vulnerable, so fragile. How ridiculous to plan as if you were eternal, to plan as if you were almighty, to plan as if you were all-wise and all-knowing.”
Go back to the oldest book in the Bible – the book of Job – and in chapter 7 we find statements like this: “As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away, so he that goes down to Sheol.” In other words, our lives are like a cloud that moves across the sky and vanishes; so temporary, so passing. The foolishness of ignoring God’s will.
ARROGANCE OF DENYING GOD’S WILL
Second, is the arrogance of denying God’s will. Not only are there those people who presumptuously ignore the will of God, but there are those who arrogantly set up their own will as superior to God. They may even know that God is there. They acknowledge Him. They may even know that God has a will and a purpose, and that He’s sovereign; but they deny it in practice.
They’re not only practical atheists, but they’re self-theists, if you will; they’ve made themselves into God. They may consider that God has a will. The first group didn’t consider that God had a will at all, they didn’t even consider God. These people may consider it, but they don’t think it’s as important as their plans. Their plans are the most important.
And you know something? Even as Christians, we can fall into this. Boy, we can stumble into this sin. Although it’s not characteristic of our nature at all times to disregard or to seek to push the will of God aside, it can happen. There’s a will that God has for every dimension of our lives. And yet, Christians can sometimes arrogantly put certain parts of their lives above God’s will.
Let me give you one example that’s prevalent in our society today. 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 says, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God.” Christians of all ages and all walks of life have sometimes been arrogant enough to sweep aside that dimension of God’s will in subjection to their own desires. It’s not something that Christians do all the time. It’s not a dominating and ongoing part of our nature as believers to live that way, but it can happen. Think about King David, or Samson and Delilah, or King Solomon and his many wives and concubines. And sexual sin is just one dimension of our lives that Christians can arrogantly deny God’s will and put our own will above.
Let me give you one other dimension of our lives that God has a will for, and all of us are guilty of denying God’s will on this one and putting our own will above His. You ready? 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” Yet, all of us – at one time or another (or perhaps frequently) – have exhibited the arrogance of denying God’s will by being angry or bitter or resentful in our circumstances.
Back to our verses. Notice verse 16 and see how James speaks about the arrogance of denying God’s will, “You are boasting in your arrogant bragging.” The word that’s translated “bragging,” or in some versions “boasting,” is a word that originally referred to the idea of wandering about. Notice what he says at the end of verse 16, “All such boasting is wicked . . . all such arrogance is wicked.” The word “wicked” is used of Satan who is ho ponēros, the Wicked One, the original sinner who sought to replace God, who said, “I will be like the Most High God. I will ascend into the heights,” the one who sought to usurp the throne of God. He was the original ponēros, the original Wicked One. But when you and I exalt our wills over God’s will, then we’re like Satan, ponēria, wicked. That’s what God thinks of our boasting.
So, the first attitude James notes is the foolish attitude of ignoring God’s will all together. Then there’s a second group, who arrogantly deny God, and live their life flaunting it in His face. The third attitude is to disobey God’s will.
DISOBEYING GOD’S WILL
Look at verse 17. Here’s the person who knows there’s a God, who affirms there’s a God, who knows God has a will, who knows God’s will is supreme, and yet who disobeys it? They agree that God is there, they agree that God’s will is supreme, they wouldn’t be in the first group of people – those who foolishly ignore God’s will – and they wouldn’t be in the second group – those who arrogantly deny God’s will – but they just flatly don’t do it.
Verse 17 is a truism or an axiom, “So whoever knows the right thing to do” – that is, to do God’s will – “and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” Here’s the person who believes in God, and believes God is supreme, and knows God has a will, and just doesn’t do it. This person possesses the knowledge of God and His will; they understand what’s good, what’s morally excellent, what’s worthy of honor; he knows what’s right. I think all of us have found ourselves in this category from time to time. We know and believe in God, we know God is supreme, we know what His will is, and we just flatly don’t do it.
The classic illustration of this is God’s very own prophet – a guy by the name of Jonah. Remember him, the prophet who took a short ride really on a long fish? Jonah knew God’s will; it couldn’t have been clearer, “Go to Nineveh and preach. Go to Nineveh and preach” (Jonah 1:1, paraphrased). Yet, he turned around and went the opposite way from God, and God made him pay. You can’t flagrantly, openly violate the will of God without consequence.
So. you have three possible negative ways you can treat the will of God. One, you can just foolishly ignore it as if there were no God at all. Two, you could acknowledge there is a God, but that your will is supreme to His will. Or, three, you can acknowledge there is a God whose will is supreme and just not do it. Those are not the things that characterize a believer. They may pop up from time to time, but they aren’t the consistent position of Christians to God’s will.
What characterizes a believer is found in verse 15, and this is the positive side. You ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” Isn’t that good? That’s pretty practical stuff, isn’t it? I mean, your life is blessed when you acknowledge God’s will. And that’s our fourth point: the blessing of acknowledging and obeying God’s will.
ACKNOWLEDGING AND OBEYING GOD’S WILL
If you want to live life the way God intended, then you put God at the center of all your plans. The true believer is the one who seeks divine counsel. The true believer is the one who has a heart to obey the counsel he seeks. And sure, there are times of disobedience. Sure, there are times of disregard and even defiance against God’s will. But down deep in our heart is that longing to do that which His will dictates. Submission to divine authority, submission to divine will, submission to divine providence is basic to the life of a believer. The bottom line is this: Christians accept the lordship of Christ over all their plans.
And so, James says, “If the Lord wills… If the Lord desires… If the Lord permits, then we’ll live and do this or that.” God controls life. God controls birth. God controls death. Look, Job said, “The Lord gives, and the Lord (what?) takes away” (Job 1:21). The Lord does it. Preaching to the highly sophisticated Areopagus in Athens, Paul said, “In Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). The Lord sets the boundaries. It’s Jesus Christ who has the keys of death and hell. And so, life and death are in His hands.
And so, James says, “If God desires, we shall live; and if God desires, we will do this or that.” All subjects of life fall under His will. All people in life fall under His control. All events in life fall into His calendar. All circumstances fit somewhere in His plan. So as believers, we should be marked by a sort of constant commitment to the contingency of the will of God. No matter what we’ve planned, no matter what we pray, no matter what we set out to accomplish, always with the flexibility that says, “If the Lord wills.” That’s how we live. What a wonderful thought.
I’ll close with this. Henry Ward Beecher, that great preacher of old, put it this way. He said, “Imagine a man building a house, and the man building the house decides to build it by his own plan rather than the plan of the architect. And so, the man proceeds to build, and the architect comes to check on the progress, and there’s no relationship between the two plans. The result is absolute chaos.” Henry Ward Beecher said, “So it is in building a life. God is the architect, and a man would be an absolute fool if he decided to build it any way his whims dictated.”
God has designed how life is to be built. And if you’re a true child of God you’ll find yourself enamored, settled on, and committed to seeing God build your life the way He wants to build it. It doesn’t mean, as I said, that we’re perfect; we’re going to fight it from time to time. But that’s the underlying desire of the heart. The message of James is simple: live your life in the will of God. That’s what God wants to do in you. That’s what Christ died to make possible in you. That’s what the Holy Spirit wants to energize in you, that you would do His will. And God is working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Do you desire to do the will of God? If the answer is yes, then you belong to Him. Or maybe you would answer and say yes, but you’ve never been saved. Perhaps you feel your heart is reaching out in faith to Him, today. Do not put it off any longer. Come, and repent, and receive God’s free gift of grace. All of us must take a look at our lives, and our hearts, and ask: are we constantly denying God’s will, ignoring God’s will, disobeying God’s will, or are we obeying God’s will? May we not only desire to do the will of God, but may we faithfully follow through and accomplish it for His glory.
“We thank You, Father, for this rich and practical portion of Your Word. We bless You for the constant richness that we enjoy as we sit at the feet of the Holy Spirit, who is our teacher through the pages of the Bible. Help us to be desirous of Your will in everything. Help us to do Your will from the heart, to do all of it all the time, and to know that that’s what the Spirit of God is doing in us; and give Him all the credit, for He provides all the strength. Thank You, in the name of our Savior. Amen.”