Latest / HBCWestminster / James Session Seven 7.24.19

Transcript

James Session Seven 7.24.19 · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  We're going to spend some time in God's Word tonight. James chapter 4. James chapter 4, beginning in verse 13 and going through chapter 5 and verse 6. There are some sermon notes on your table if you guys would like those, if they're a blessing to you. If not, that's okay. They may help you though to keep track of kind of where we're at and all of that. The title this morning, or this evening's message, sorry, You Ain't All That. And I think, you know, it's kind of two funny passages to run together. I've never taught.
• 0:31
  James 4, 13 through 5, 6. I've never put those two passages together. But we've got to remember that the chapter and verse divisions in our Bibles are not inspired. Those are man-made, okay? And so when the letter was originally written from James to the dispersion, the 12 tribes and the dispersion,
• 0:50
  it was made without that chapter division. And so it would have been very logical. He was following a logical flow from chapter 4 and verse 13 through chapter 5 and verse 6. There was no division there. And so I've put these two together this evening and I've titled them You Ain't All That because it appears that there was a group of people among the dispersion that thought more highly of themselves than they ought to think. And we've all been guilty of that at some point. We've all been in danger of elevating ourselves.
• 1:19
  And thereby displacing God on his throne in our lives. Or elevating ourselves and thereby looking down on and condescending. Being condescending, becoming condescending toward others. You'll recall that our study this summer has been a challenge to grow into mature men of God. A challenge to progress in our faith. To become Christian men, not mere boys. And even a cursory reading of the New Testament.
• 1:50
  will reveal that God's will is not just for you to be saved. God's will is not... And make sure you zone in for just a second. Make sure you hear it. Don't misquote me on this. God's will is not for you to be justified. God's will is for you to be sanctified. Okay? Justification is only the first step in the sanctification process. We were never meant to be justified and left.
• 2:19
  declared innocent and left. That's not what God wants. He doesn't just want to forgive us. Certainly He forgives us. He doesn't just want us to cross over from death to life. Certainly we do that. But He actually wants us to walk in newness of life. He wants actually for us to pattern our lives after His Son.
• 2:40
  And so if you've been a one and done prayer guy, I said a prayer 30 years ago, I said I should be covered. My Sunday school teacher said that if I said the prayer, I'd be saved. Isn't that true? Well, yes, that's true. But that's not where it ends. God's will is for us to become mature men of God, for us to become like the Savior. Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 1 even says,
• 3:05
  leave the elementary doctrines of Christ and go on to maturity. We are not called to be the spiritual equivalent of grown men living in our mother's basements. We are called to act like men. 1 Corinthians 16 and 13 says, and yet we find the opposite to be true in many cases in the church. We find that Christian males do not always become Christian men.
• 3:33
  We find ourselves oftentimes lingering in Christian adolescence, unwilling to take stands for what is right, unwilling to discipline ourselves in righteousness, unwilling to lead others to do the same. At the beginning of the summer, Pastor Nathan began our study with a call to patient endurance of trials. He said that the sad reality is that trials come to every man. But, he said the good news is that in Christ, the victims of these trials become the victors.
• 4:03
  We also talked about how easily deceived we often are, thinking that the spiritual grass is always greener somewhere else. Thinking our voices and opinions are the most important in the world. We looked at James 1.27, what pure and undefiled religion is. Religion that is focused on others rather than ourselves. Chapter 2, Pastor Sam studied favoritism. Favoritism, that God doesn't play favorites and neither should we. We studied dead works, religion, and living faith. We studied the power of the tongue.
• 4:34
  And the control we must exert over our speech. Last week we studied selfish ambition and the danger of friendship with the world. And this evening's text is a rebuke to those who would think more highly of themselves than they ought. To those who would, if you'll allow me to word it this way, to those who would have given the opportunity, recommit the sin of Satan, dethroning God and seating themselves in his place.
• 5:06
  I have found, I'm 43 years old, I've been a believer for 30 years. And I have found that I am very willing to dethrone God in my heart. More willing than I care to admit. More willing than I would ever confess to anybody from a microphone. I am very willing to think very highly of myself and very lowly of others. I've told this story before.
• 5:34
  Some of you may have heard it. Some of you may remember. But I also don't presume that anybody remembers anything I say from week to week. And so I'm going to tell the story again because honestly, it is one of my favorite things that's ever happened to me in my life. If I could choose kind of the greatest sermon illustration events in my life, this is very near to the top. When I was a youth pastor, probably 15 or so years ago, I don't even know that Zach was born yet. Pearson was very small.
• 6:02
  I decided we were living in North L.A. County. I decided that I was going to take our youth group, any of them that wanted to go, down to see a television filming in Hollywood.
• 6:13
  Okay, and there was this show that ran for many years on television, a singing competition called American Idol. And some of you guys will recall that show. Right, America votes in, everybody sings, America votes in, and whatever. You narrow it all the way down to this one kid who's going to get some crazy contract and hopefully become a superstar. And so the finale of that show was being filmed in Hollywood. And so we got three tickets to go see this event. And so I took about 25 or so, Hallie and I took about 25 or so of our high school students down to see this.
• 6:42
  And so we're standing on Hollywood Boulevard and Vine. The corner of Hollywood and Vine is the Kodak Theater where they filmed this finale. And what they did, we were using these tickets called seat fillers. And seat fillers meant that you got an orange bracelet. And because it was live television filming, they never wanted seats to be empty.
• 7:06
  Okay? And so if you're ever watching a live television show and every single seat is full, it's because they're using these seat fillers. If somebody stands up to use the restroom, they don't want an empty seat. And so what they'll do is they'll give you an orange bracelet. You stand in the back of the auditorium. If somebody stands up for two minutes to go use the restroom, they send you running down there to sit in that seat. So no matter when the thing is being filmed, no matter when it is, it's always a packed house. Okay?
• 7:30
  And so we're using these seat filler things. It's free. We stand there with our orange bracelets in the back. Well, we're standing out on Hollywood Boulevard. We're waiting to go in the side entrance to get our orange bracelets. And we're all doinking around and having fun with each other and making fun of each other. And I wasn't much older than them at the time. I was in my late 20s. And some of them were 17, 18, 19 years old. And so we're hanging out and having fun.
• 7:52
  And we noticed that before they let any of us in, this very official looking woman with a clipboard came out and she started assessing the crowd of us. And so she's walking up and down and she had a clipboard and a headset thing.
• 8:04
  And then she had all of these little cronies, you know, that were doing her bidding. And so they're going through and they're assessing each individual. They're coming our way. And so, of course, we're asking, what are they doing? What is it that they're looking for? We're trying to figure out what's going on. And every now and again, they pull somebody out. They tear off their orange bracelet and they give them a purple bracelet and they take them inside.
• 8:23
  Okay, and this one, but not that one. And this one, but not these two. And they're getting closer and closer and closer. So we're trying to figure out what in the world is going on. What are they doing? And then we began to realize as they got closer and closer to our group, we figured it out. There was a group down in the orchestra section of this theater that were always going to be in the shot.
• 8:44
  Okay, you know those kids that are down there screaming and waving their hands and doing whatever that are right off the stage and you can see them all the time. And so they were going through the seat fillers and they were trying to find the good-looking people. And they were pulling them. Find a pretty girl, you yank her out, you take her orange one off, you give her a purple one. The ugly girl doesn't get in. Okay? And so, of course, they're getting closer and closer to our group. And so we're all thinking what?
• 9:09
  Which one of us is getting a purple bracelet? Here is a quantifiable measure of your good looks. Okay? This is a non-biased...
• 9:19
  objective third party is now going to assess you. And so they're getting closer and closer to our group. And I'm not kidding. I'm standing there on the sidewalk, you know, and I'm up toward the front of our group. And I'm standing there. I'm like, all right, I'm giving it my best shot. You know, I'm standing up nice and tall and I'm sucking in my gut. I'm thinking, all right, I ironed my shirt. You know, I'm good. This is my best I got, you know. And I'm standing there and one of the little cronies comes over and is looking at me and looking at other people in our group and then comes back to me. And pretty soon the producer lady gets there.
• 9:48
  And the little assistant runs over and, I mean, just out loud, you know, out loud. Everybody could hear. She says, what about that guy? She points at me. And the director looks at me and does this. No. And you guys, if you think you laughed, 25 of my high schoolers behind me, I mean, it was, it was pandemonium for two minutes. It was just erupted.
• 10:19
  In the street there was laughter and echoes of laughter at my expense. And I thought, I am never going to forget this moment. Danny, you are not. You're not one of the purple pretty people. You're not. You're an orange bracelet wearing troll. Okay? And that's just who you are. So get used to it. No amount of sucking in and no amount of ironing is going to fix that. That's who you are.
• 10:52
  It has been said, and I agree, that God is in the business of humbling men. It's His business. It's what He does. And if you're anything like me, then business is good. Anytime I think too highly of myself, God does not mind knocking me down a step. And that's exactly what He does in our text this evening. You'll notice at the outset in chapter 4 and verse 13, it starts with...
• 11:24
  Come now. Do you see that? Come now. If you flip the page, look at chapter 5, verse 1. Come now. Both sections of the passage that I'm going to teach tonight begin the same way. And what's interesting about this phrase is that that is the only two times in all of Scripture that this phrase is used. It's used twice. And it's used to introduce both of the sections that I'm teaching tonight. Come now. Now these two words, both in English and in Greek, are meant to startle the reader awake.
• 11:56
  You can imagine the author grabbing us by the shoulders and shaking us and yelling, listen, wake up. The author, you can tell, loves those to whom he writes. And he felt like they were walking down a deceptive path. They weren't being deceived by others. They were deceiving themselves. He didn't want them to fail. And yet he felt like so many were failing anyway. And so he's grabbing us by the shoulders and saying, come now, come now. And you'll notice we often fail.
• 12:29
  When it comes, or we think of ourselves too highly when it comes to the will of God. Look at verse 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. You don't know what tomorrow will bring. It's your life. You're a mist. You appear for a little time and then you vanish. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills.
• 12:54
  We will live and do this or that. As it is, you boast in your arrogance, and all such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him, it is sin. We have been told for two generations at this point, ever since the four spiritual laws, tracts were made, that God loves us, right? And has a wonderful plan for our lives.
• 13:23
  We have heard that over and over and over. God loves you and has a wonderful plan for alive. We know this, we believe this, but have you ever asked him what that wonderful plan is? And are you willing to subject your wonderful plan for your life to his? Warren Wiersbe says this, too many Christians look on the will of God as bitter medicine they must take instead of seeing it as the gracious evidence of the love of God.
• 13:54
  Now James says that we can have two responses to the will of God here. We can either ignore it, as in the case of verses 13 to 16, or we can obey it, like verse 17 says. And he gives two warnings about the folly of ignoring the will of God and thereby presuming upon his grace for even our very survival. Right? We'll just completely ignore the will of God and we'll make all of these plans and he's going to say, you know what, you don't even know if you're going to be alive tomorrow. Really?
• 14:23
  We presume upon His grace for even our survival or we arrogantly disobey the will of God and thereby bring upon ourselves the punishment earned. And so let's look at these two warnings. First is the folly of ignorance. The folly of ignorance. You find this guy who says, I'm going to go do all of this. I'm going to go there and then there and then there and tomorrow I'll go to such and such town and spend a year. And not only is he presuming upon his calendar, but he's even presuming upon his bank account.
• 14:51
  I'm going to make all kinds of money. None of us wants to look like a fool. In fact, many of us go to great lengths to look good, to look smart, to make others think that we're cool or tough or no nonsense. We protect our feeble images so that they matter. And here our text says that only fools presume upon God's grace in their future plans.
• 15:24
  Often, and if I'm honest, often my own future plans are made without the Lord even coming to mind. I will make appointments with people presuming, presuming. I'll schedule my calendar presuming. Often deals are struck without the consultation of God. And often success in this life is determined by how often we got our own way.
• 16:00
  You think that's true? Often I feel like when God interrupts my plans, I don't take it as blessing, but burden. When things don't go my way, when things don't run smoothly, I take it as burden, not blessing. A good illustration of this is the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul had no interest in being shipwrecked. Right? No plans on being shipwrecked. And yet, when you read his account in the book of Acts,
• 16:36
  It says we sailed all over the place, we got caught in a storm, and guess what? We ended up having to chuck all the cargo over, and we still all almost died. Do you remember Paul saying that, telling the captain of the ship, if you want your guys to live, you stay with me. Right? Anybody who jumps off of this boat, I cannot be accountable for. But if you say, you'll live. Why? Because I know I'm not supposed to die today. I mean, that was basically his argument. I know the Lord's not finished with me yet.
• 17:04
  You read 2 Timothy and you get a very different story. He says, I'm done. I'm finished. I'm dying. Okay? But in the book of Acts, he says, I'm not done. You stay with me, you'll live. And so all of those sailors did. They stayed together in this little pack. God's ship wrecks the Apostle Paul. They end up on some Mediterranean island. Right? Inhabited by savages. The Apostle Paul could have said, my plans are ruined. Lord, I prayed before I left my driveway. I prayed.
• 17:36
  For traveling mercies. I submitted it on my connect card. The staff prayed on Wednesday mornings. I even got the card in the mail. That said. Dear so and so. We pray for your request today. So thankful to have you at Highland. May the Lord bless and keep you. Pastor Danny. I got the card in the mail. And yet here I am shipwrecked on an island. What were you thinking? This surely is failure. Not success.
• 18:05
  And yet the Apostle Paul did not view it that way. But instead did what? Here's where I wanted to talk. What did he do? He went and got bit by a snake. And they all thought it was a poisonous snake. And it turns out it was a poisonous snake. And then they sat around waiting for him to die. And he says, listen, I'm not going to die. Why? Because I know this God. And he begins to share. And people came to Christ. And a church was eventually planted there. Because he was shipwrecked? Here's a man who looked at his calendar and said, not my will, your will. Not my way, your way.
• 18:43
  Not my life, your life. It's yours. It's yours. He refused. He refused to presume upon God's grace. Even in his scheduling of his life, he was not the fool, the ignorant fool. Proverbs 27, 1. Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring. Matthew chapter 6. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
• 19:13
  And all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow. Tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Verse 14, it seems, makes two observations about our lives that we'd be fools to ignore. First, that our lives are uncertain. Look at verse 14. You don't know what tomorrow will bring. Our lives are uncertain. You don't know. These men were making plans a year out when they couldn't even anticipate what would happen tomorrow.
• 19:40
  We can worry and fret and labor and toil about what may come to pass and then the stock market could crash. We can go bankrupt. Fortunes can fly away. Our lives are uncertain. Verse 14 also says that our lives are brief. What is your life? He says. You're a mist. You're a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes like the steam off the top of a cup of coffee. Here for a moment and then gone.
• 20:09
  Perhaps one of the most repeated themes in scripture is the reminder to mankind that this earthly life will not last forever. To us, I think sometimes life seems long. My middle son, Zach, is taking driving school right now. He was in there today. Eight hours, you know, 830 to 430. He's over there at community driving school. You know, ticking the boxes and getting all the stuff done so he can get his permit. It's hard to believe that my little baby muffin, Zach, is going to be able to drive a big boy car. But here we go.
• 20:41
  Man, I picked him up today after the thing was done. How was it, Zach? Boring. Although we did get to see a video of a guy getting run over. Well, that's good. Boring. Dad, it's so long. Do you remember when you had that perspective as a ninth grader? Minutes just tick by. Tick. Tick. When am I going to get out of here? Tick. Now I'm in my 40s and it feels more like...
• 21:13
  Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, right? And I've heard from men in their 60s who are saying it's going tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. Like, man, it's just flying away. Time is flying away. Do you remember when life seemed long? And now you look back at it and you think, minutes just drag agonizingly on, and yet decades fly by. Isn't that true? Kelly has this sign in our entry.
• 21:42
  It says, the days are long, but the years are short. The days are long, but the years are short. And it's meant to be a reminder to us to savor every moment while our boys are young. Danny, the days seem long. It's hard to have a nine-year-old. It's hard. But don't forget, Danny, you won't always have a nine-year-old. You look back at that. The years seem very short. We'd be foolish to presume that we still have years to look forward to.
• 22:11
  The reality is, we all know this is true, but very few of us live as if this is true. The reality is that we could die in our sleep tonight. In our sleep tonight, this could happen. This story is reminiscent of the farmer from Luke 12 who had a bumper crop one year, decided to build for himself bigger barns. And you'll recall in Christ's rebuke, Luke 12, 20, you fool, do you not know that your soul will be required of you this very night? This foolish man.
• 22:39
  ignored, ignored the will of God and made his own plans. You notice, though, that not only was there a folly, an ignorance, but also a danger of arrogance. Verse 16, as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him, it is sin. Now, some of us may try to ignore God by planning our lives without him, but some will just blatantly and willfully disobey. Boastful arrogance, this says,
• 23:09
  is evil. And our arrogance, sometimes disguised as confidence, I think, cannot change the future. Our boasting about it may seem so trivial from heaven. Can you imagine these boasters understanding the world? Let me explain to you how the world works. These men who would boast about themselves, boast in their pride, boast in their arrogance, boast about tomorrow, boast of their fortunes, and heaven just looking down at him and saying, what are you?
• 23:42
  What are you? Our boasting only covers up the fact that we are completely impotent without the Lord. Isn't that true? We're completely impotent. We're completely powerful without Him. The Warren Wiersbe, again, tells of a time when he was spelunking the mammoth caves in Kentucky. Talks about how impressed he was with the density of the darkness when the lights were turned out.
• 24:11
  When they reached the famed pulpit rock, one famous rock inside of these massive caverns, the man in charge of the tour preached, he said a five-word sermon. And he quotes, stay close to your guide, was all he said. And it was good advice. It was good advice. When the lights are out, when we recognize that we don't actually know what's going to happen.
• 24:35
  When we will forsake our arrogance and lean wholly independently on the Lord who can see all things and knows all things. It's like following the guy who has turned on the light. Following the guy with the flashlight. Stay close to your guide. It's foolish to presume upon the future that only God knows. And it's downright dangerous to boast about it as if we have any control over it. That's first the will of God. Notice also the wealth of man.
• 25:02
  Chapter 5, verses 1 through 6. He says, come now again, listen, wake up, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. You're going to notice two observations about worldly wealth. First, in verses 1 to 3, it is ill-used. It is ill-used. In verses 4 to 6, it is ill-gotten. So let's look at verses 1 to 3. Rich, weep and wail and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted. Your garments are moth-eaten.
• 25:31
  Your gold and silver have corroded and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. A couple of things first. Is this addressed to all who are rich? And I think the answer is no. Not every rich person, not every wealthy person should presume that they should weep and howl because misery is coming upon them. Don't forget the intended audience of James' letter. Verse 1 says to the 12 tribes in the dispersion.
• 25:59
  Now James writes specifically to those Jews who were spread across the Roman Empire, dating all the way back to the time of the Babylonian captivity in the 6th century BC. By the time of James' letter, there were Jews living all over the empire. Some, although not many, Matthew 7.13 says, sought the Lord diligently and found him in the person of Jesus.
• 26:24
  But a vast majority of the Jewish nation, and especially those in this worldwide dispersion, rejected the Savior and remained in the darkness. And because so few early Christians were wealthy and influential men, it is highly unlikely that James was writing to believers in this passage. Rather, I think, his crosshairs were trained on wealthy, unbelieving Jews who were oppressing the people of God, and we'll see that in the next point.
• 26:55
  Second question we'll ask, does this mean that it doesn't apply to us today? And I think the answer is also no. I think applications here can be easily drawn depending on how you view and use your wealth. You know, some of the godliest men and women I've ever had the pleasure of knowing have been extremely wealthy. I heard one time a pastor named Matt Chandler charge the wealthy people of his congregation to continue in their generosity all the more.
• 27:26
  Because they had such great ability to advance the kingdom in ways that others could not. You know, when we talk about as a church, we talk about paying off our mortgage. We talk about planting and replanting churches. We talk about sending missionaries. We talk about training up our young to become pastors and pastor's wives and elders and accountants and missionaries and church planters. I do not assume that it's the young adults who are going to pay for those things.
• 27:59
  Right? You guys, they're broke. I know them all. We don't have a single rich 21-year-old. Zero trust fund babies in this church. Zero. And yet when we talk about church planting and missionaries and training up our people and coming alongside hurting churches, the heartbeat of this church resonates with that message, right? It's not the 21-year-old.
• 28:31
  Poverty stricken college kids. But instead those of us who have worked. And God has blessed. And we've been faithful with our money. And we've paid off our debts. We don't owe anyone anything. And now we've got this expendable income. The Lord says what will you do? What will you do with it? Do I think he's talking to all who are rich? I don't at all. In fact Abraham himself was a wealthy man. The Bible even says wealthy.
• 29:02
  And yet, blessed every person on earth through his lineage of Jesus Christ. So I think he's talking here to wealthy, non-believing oppressors, not wealthy, generous believers. So that's first. It is ill-used. These people were storing up treasure in the last days rather than considering their treasure or storing up for themselves treasures in heaven, like Jesus said. That's first. Second.
• 29:33
  worldly wealth is ill-gotten. Look how they got their money. Verses 4-6, Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you. So they defrauded the people who worked for them. They stole their money. These people worked and they didn't get paid. He says, These people are crying out against you and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
• 30:02
  You've lived on the earth in luxury and self-indulgence. So in other words, they've only spent their money on themselves. They were not generous. They didn't care about the needs of others, the hurts and wants of others, but instead served only themselves. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. Now that can't be good. You've fattened your hearts. Not only that, but this says they've actually, the implication in James 5, 6,
• 30:30
  is that they've actually been controlling the courts through bribery. Okay, look what they've done in verse 6. You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. And he doesn't resist you. These people have manipulated the system so that they can get away even with murder. When people try to stand up against them, these non-believing, wealthy, evil, wicked men have even put others to death.
• 31:03
  Let's be careful not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. Turns out, we ain't all that. We aren't purple pretty people. We're not. Just orange bracelet wearers. Anytime we ignore the plans of God or disobey Him altogether, or view our wealth as ours, we're declaring ourselves more important than we really are. To pray with me, Lord, I pray that we would take to heart this passage from my own heart, God.
• 31:36
  in ways that I have not been generous or hospitable, in ways that I have built up or amassed treasure for myself. God, in ignoring you in future plans or just downright disobeying, knowing your will and going the other direction, God, I repent. Lord, may we confess that together as the men of this church and say, Lord, your way, your will, and not our way, not our will. Lord, your church, your bride, not our bride.
• 32:09
  God, thank You. Thank You again for Your grace upon grace in sending to us Jesus Christ and saving us who are helpless and hopeless. God, may we extend that same grace toward others. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.