I invite you to open up to James chapter 4. We’ll be looking at verses 11 through 17 this evening. Picking up where we left off, I think about it was a couple weeks or so ago. Continuing on this series in James. James chapter 4. Verses 11 through 17.

My goal is next Sunday night to start chapter 5, and then I think I’m preaching the Sunday after that. I need to make sure about that. But the next Sunday I preach to actually finish off this series in James. So I don’t know about anybody else, but I’ve certainly learned a lot through it. But James chapter 4, picking up in verse 11, James writes, as inspired by the Holy Spirit, Do not speak against one another, brethren.

He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge of it. There is only one lawgiver and judge, the one who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you who judge your neighbor?

Come now, you who say, today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit. Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that. But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.

Let’s pray. Heavenly Fathers, we open up your word tonight and look at what James has to say. I pray you open up our hearts. receive these words and we allow the Holy Spirit to use the Word of God to convict us of the sin in our lives and to help us grow in our faith. I pray that the Holy Spirit is with me as I preach this evening. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Albert Einstein, the famous scientist and physicist, at least I think that’s what he was, once said, Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.” I like that quote. Kind of what he’s getting at there is those who seek to become the arbiter of what is right and wrong and what is truth will be brought down. There’s only one who determines what is right, there’s only one who determines what is true, and that is God. Now, whether or not Albert Einstein was speaking of God, I’m not sure. But what he was saying is, man cannot be so proud as to think that he knows completely what is right and wrong, the standard for everything. And I think this quote that Albert Einstein gives, it actually gives somewhat of a helpful description of what pride can be. To become a prideful person becomes the judge of what is right and true, no matter what God has said.

They determine what’s right and what’s true. They want to be in total control, master of their fate, master of our fates. And every human being is prone to pride. Prone, though, might be a weak word. It’s more so we’re naturally proud. We’re born sinners, which means we’re born proud. We’re born with pride. And we tend to like being proudful.

Augustine of Hippo, the famous early century theologian, described pride as the beginning of sin, meaning that all sins come from a desire to do what we want and not what God wants. I think that’s a helpful sort of understanding of pride. From it, that desire to basically do what you want, become the arbiter of what is true, of what is right and wrong, and from that flow many other sins. And this sin of pride, it plagues every human being from the day we are born.

There’s no way to dodge it. There’s no way to avoid it. It’s a reality. And even if you’re saved, even Christians must continue to fight it. Now, if you’re saved, you have the ability to fight it with the Holy Spirit in your life and the Word of God. But it’s something we still must fight.

And when we come to this passage in James 4, we see that Christians are to reject a prideful judgment and a prideful planning. But by way of reminder, let’s just recap of where we are in James. James just finished telling his readers that they are to reject the world and submit to God. Submitting to God means he is Lord of our life and we must obey him. It means we must humble ourselves before him.

And verses 11 through 17, which is our text tonight, could be thought of as describing what not humbling yourself looks like. So James, kind of in verses seven through 10, describes sort of what submitting to God looks like. What humbling yourself looks like. And what he’s gonna describe tonight is, okay, this is what humbling looks like, and this is what not humbling yourself looks like.

This is what it looks like to just live a life full of pride. And he’s, remember, he’s focusing on Christians are to act, how we’re to live our lives in a godless world. And 11 through 17 focuses on a couple ways that pride can manifest itself in our lives. Christians are to reject prideful judgment and prideful planning. Which brings us to our first heading, prideful judgment. This will cover verses 11 and 12. And I’m gonna read verse 11 real quick again.

He says, do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge a law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge of it. And this prideful judgment that we’re looking at this evening can manifest itself in our speech, specifically in the way we speak to each other. And even more specifically, and kind of what James is getting at in this passage, the way Christians speak to one another. And we see in these two verses alone, 11 and 12, we see allusions to other things James has already talked about. Partiality, the tongue, and even what he talked about in chapter one, about being a doer of the word.

And James tells his audience that they are not to speak evil to each other. And like I said, he uses brothers again. Brothers meaning your brothers and sisters in Christ, Christians, fellow God, fellow Christians who have been saved from their sins. He’s saying, hey, you cannot speak to other Christians in this way. And this evil speech is oral mistreatment of others, whether it’s slander, verbal attacks, gossiping, whatever it is, it’s an oral mistreatment.

But it’s also a judging. We see in this verse, in verse 12, he talks about judging, and we’re going to get into it a little bit more. But that judging of placing yourself in the position of God, almost looking at yourself as better than others. Now, James has already discussed in chapter 3 how the tongue can be powerful and destructive. But in this passage, he’s going to shine a light on the heart behind those evil things that are spoken. So in chapter three, if you remember, he talked about the destructive nature of the tongue, how dangerous it can be, how we need to be careful with it. And here in these passages, specifically verse 11 and 12, he’s kind of, he’s getting to the heart of the matter in a way almost, looking at sort of the heart behind the things that are said.

James goes on to show that the one who speaks against his brother is judging his brother. And he has in verse 11 what’s a very interesting parallel. He says, the one who speaks against their brother judges their brother. Okay, so the one who speaks against their brother judges their brother, but he doesn’t stop there, he goes on to say, the one who speaks against the law judges the law. So he’s paralleling these two thoughts, they’re next to each other. Which is interesting, as I was studying this passage, I was like, it’s interesting that he says, the one who judges the brother, and then he brings in the law. But he does it for a reason.

The law here probably refers to the Torah, as it was fulfilled in Christ, so kind of the law of Christ. Which Jesus sums up in Matthew chapter 22, starting in verse 37. Jesus talking to the scribes and Pharisees. He says, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it. You shall love your neighbors yourself. Upon these two commandments hang the whole law and the prophets.

So kind of summarizing the law of Christ. So when James is referencing law, and we’ve already talked about this in the book, but when he uses the word law in his letter, that’s probably what he’s referring to. And we see that these Christians are breaking the law by speaking evil to each other, which comes from a lack of love. So they’re breaking the law. And one verse from the Old Testament, which is what they’re breaking, says this, or it’s two verses, Leviticus chapter 19, verses 16 and 18.

You shall not go about as a slanderer among your people, and you are not to jeopardize the life of your neighbor. I am the Lord. You shall not take vengeance nor hold any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.”

So it seems that these Christians James is writing to, they’re breaking these two commandments. They’re slandering against each other. Oral mistreatment against each other. And in light of that, they’re also showing a lack of love for one another. So they’re breaking the law.

Disobeying God’s law. Disobeying His commands. And what James says here in verse 11 when he says, he who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks against the law and judges the law. And what he’s saying here is that those who break the law put themselves above the law. They are saying that certain laws do not apply to them. That’s kind of what happens when you break a law.

You look at whatever is prohibited, whatever it might be, and say, I don’t want to do it. I don’t need to do it. I’m going to do what I want. And that’s what he’s saying here. He’s like, when you break this law, you’re saying you’re above it. You’re saying it doesn’t apply to you. Saying that certain laws don’t need to be obeyed.

Which means they’ve become the judge of men and the judge of the law. They are practicing a prideful judgment. And in our prideful state, in just our pride, we determine we say what is right and wrong. We determine what laws apply to us. And we can even see this in our own lives at times. We may think there are certain laws or rules that maybe don’t apply to us that we can break. We do this sometimes with maybe stop signs or speed limits. We think, oh, this is what the speed limit says, but I’m just going to go a little bit faster.

And I’m not saying if you break a speed limit, you’re a hardened criminal who needs to be locked up for 100 years. I’m just saying we have to be mindful that we’re not placing ourself above the law. I’ll never forget when Carrie and I first got married. Well, I’ve got to be honest with the congregation of Fellowship Baptist Church. I have a rebellious streak in me.

Whenever you’re entering, whether it’s a big superstore, whether it’s a Walmart or Publix or whatever, there’s always two main entrances. You have the inter-entrance, and then you have the exit, which is technically not an entrance. And every once in a while, as I’m walking into the store, I happen to walk past the exit first. And I think to myself, I’m going to walk in the exit. Oh yeah, they can’t stop me. What are they going to do, chase me down? And I do it sometimes.

I haven’t gotten in trouble yet. And that’s a silly illustration, but I say it to illustrate. There are some times we look at things in life and we think, that doesn’t apply to me. I don’t need to do it. I’m better than that. And that’s what James is talking about. He’s saying, when you break this law, when you slander against your brother, sister, when you do not love them as you should, you’re breaking the law and you’re putting yourself above the law. You’re saying, I don’t need this. In fact, more than that, I determine what’s right. I can tell you how to live your life. As we move on, we’ll see one of the serious dangers of that. That’s what James is getting at.

And these Christians really are the same as the Pharisees. that we’ve been reading all about in John, in this study of John that Pastor Ryan’s been going through. These Pharisees who claim to follow God’s law, but in reality just placed themselves above it and became judges. We see it all throughout the Gospels. The Pharisees say, we know the law. We have it memorized. We follow the law. Jesus says, no, you don’t. You don’t follow the law. You do not love me. You do not know who I am. You refuse to believe who I am. You do not obey your father. They’ve made themselves the judges.

We see a lack of obedience from the Pharisees. And that’s kind of what James is getting at here, too, with these Christians, a lack of obedience. And as we move into verse 12, James is showing who the only lawgiver and judge is. There’s only one lawgiver and judge. It’s God. Verse 12. Therefore, there is only one lawgiver and judge, the one who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

The descriptors of lawgiver and judge, paired with the one who can save and destroy, really indicate that James is talking about God. Because he actually doesn’t say God, he doesn’t say Yahweh. But the fact that he says lawgiver, judge, the one who can save and destroy, indicates he’s talking about God. He’s talking about Yahweh. Which as these Christians were listening to this or reading this, that should have been what popped in their head. Like, oh, he’s talking about God. Only God can do those things. Only God can save and destroy. Only He is the judge. James has just described the sin of the people.

Now he will give another look at why it is sin. He’s going to show them what their pride does. And he’s already shown them what their pride does in one way, makes them a judge. But he’s taking it a step further in verse 12. He’s showing how this prideful judging places us above God. It is saying we know better than God.

When you say, this law doesn’t need to be followed. I can speak to this person however I want to. I can judge this person however I want to. I don’t need to do this. You’re looking at God’s law, the way he’s told us to live, and saying, I don’t need what you’ve given me. I’m better than you. You’re essentially telling God, you’re wrong and I’m right.

And this is what happened with the first sin that we see in the garden. Genesis chapter three, verse six, we have Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, perfect state, free of sin. Perfect relationship with God. And then we see this, the serpent tempts Eve, and then we read this fateful verse, Genesis chapter three, verse six.

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, She took some of its fruit and ate. And she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate. And that set us on the pattern we are today. We do the same things they did.

We say, God has said this. You know, we can’t claim ignorance of God’s law. We can’t claim ignorance of saying, oh, I don’t know what God wants from me. It’s clear. It was clear to them what God expected of them. He told them what they were to do. But they said, you know what, maybe we can be wise.

Maybe we can be better than God. Maybe we can be God. And sin, that’s what came about. Adam and Eve decided they knew better than God, and that’s what James is talking about here. And this is often not what’s going through our head when we’re disobeying God, when we’re maybe speaking evil to each other, judging each other. We’re not often thinking, oh, I’m placing myself above God. But that is what’s happening. And it’s helpful that we need to remind ourselves of that reality.

James is like, hey, only God who can save and destroy people and the one who’s given the law can judge the law. He’s saying, hey, God, you can’t save and destroy. You didn’t give the law. God gave the law. He’s the judge. Only he can judge. God created the law, therefore he is the master over it, not us. When we disobey and we’re thinking, I’m going to pick what rules and things I want to follow, we’re looking at God who created the law as saying, I know you created this and it’s yours, but I’m going to do what I want with it.

They can’t do that. It’s like the little kids who are building Legos. And Jimmy’s Lego set’s over here, and Tommy’s like, you know what? I like Jimmy’s. I’m going to go take it. Like, no, you can’t do that. In this scenario, they’re not sharing. That’s how that Lego scenario is working. They’re not sharing in that case.

But we can’t look at what God has created and say, I’m going to do what I want with it. That’s not how it works. So when we place ourselves above the law, we are placing ourselves above God. James ends verse 12 with another rhetorical question. He’s been using those all throughout the letter. And tended to show his audience how wrong they are. He ends verse 12 saying, But who are you who judge your neighbor? He’s basically saying, who do you think you are? God is the one who saves and destroys. He’s basically saying God is omniscient. God is all powerful. You’re not. Who do you think you are?

You did not give the law. You cannot save. You cannot judge. And yet you sit in judgment over others. He’s basically saying you’re way off. You’ve got to stop. Now James is not saying, we need to mention this, he’s not saying that Christians cannot rebuke other Christians who are sinning. He’s not teaching or preaching against church discipline. That’s not what he’s talking about here. What he’s trying to do is show them the foolishness of what they’re doing. He’s trying to show them we are not the judge or determiner of what is right and wrong.

We cannot place ourselves before or above God. We must reject a prideful judgment. As we look at this idea of rejecting a prideful judgment in our own lives, we need to remember that we are not above God’s law. We are not above what he tells us in his word. We are not above what James is talking about here. We must not fall into the trap of thinking some things apply to us and some don’t.

In reality, we’re talking about those people who think this applies to me, this doesn’t. What that really boils down to is what you want to do and what you don’t want to do. At the end of the day, that’s what it is. I want to obey God in this, but I don’t want to obey him in this. all about what we want. But we cannot pick and choose which of God’s commands we want to follow. It doesn’t work like that. And this is what we see in liberal churches.

We see them say, hey, yeah, God’s real. He loves people, but we’re not going to follow all these things. You can do whatever you want with your body. You can talk however you want. That’s what we see in liberal churches these days. It’s them picking and choosing what they want to obey, what they want to do.

We need to remember that we need God. Because when we become the judge, we’re saying we don’t need God. But we need God. Need Him to tell us what to do. We don’t often like to think about that, but we do. That’s one of the things of being a Christian is, God, I need you to tell me what to do. I need you to tell me how to live my life.

We need to listen to His word when it tells us we are sinners in desperate need of salvation. Because the only way for that pride to be broken is to be redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. Now, like I said, as Christians, we’ll still fight pride, but once you are saved and you’ve given your life to Christ, you have the strength to fight that pride. That strength only comes from being a Christian.

And we must obey God’s laws, which means we must love and speak kindly to each other, not think we are better than others or can tell them what to do. Matthew 7, verse 1, very famous verse, do not judge so that you will not be judged. God is the judge. We can’t go around pointing out other people’s sins, trying to make ourselves seem better than we are, especially when we have our own glaring sins to work on. God is the judge. We need to focus on our relationship with God and others. That’s our priority. Our main relationship in life is our relationship with God.

Prideful judgment is sin, and so is prideful planning, which brings us to our second heading, prideful planning, which covers verses 13 through 17. And James is now describing how pride can mend itself in the way we plan our lives. And he begins this new unit by getting his audience’s attention. Verse 13, he says, come now, you who say, today or tomorrow, we will go to such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business to make a profit. That come now is intended to grab their attention. He’s saying, listen up to what I’m saying. He wants them to pay attention to what he’s about to say. They need to hear how they’re messing up.

James is explaining to these Christians that they are not trusting in the sovereignty of God when it comes to their lives. One New Testament scholar had this to say about this verse He says James is criticizing the godless presumption of thinking that one’s life future plans and success Rests in one’s own hands. That’s a very helpful quote. What James is saying is your life Everything about your life. It’s not all in your hands. You don’t control everything and He’s talking, he’s telling these people, like, you’re rejecting the sovereignty of God. You may not be saying it verbally, but in the way you’re living your life, you’re rejecting it.

They’re trying to do everything their way, trying to control everything, and he’s saying, no, that’s not right. In fact, individuals who are trying to do everything themselves, that their life, future, plan, and success are in their own hands, that’s sometimes how we get workaholics. People who think, if I work so much every week, I’ll get this amount of money, then we’ll be set for this and do this and this and this and that.

But we have to trust God and trust in His sovereignty. These are people who are going about their life without any thought to God. Masters of their faith. They don’t need anyone else, especially God. These people think that how they live their life is completely up to them. And there’s a lot of tying with verse 13 with the above two verses. Individuals playing God. They are pridefully planning their lives. And they are doing it without God.

There probably, we see in verse 13, verse 13’s interesting because he gives the example of sort of business or commerce. And there probably would have been, you know, this is during the era of the Roman Empire. This area of the world was under the rule of the Roman Empire, so there would have been a lot of commerce in this area of the world. And these Jewish Christians that James was writing to probably would have been involved in this commerce and would have had business ventures. And James is like, hey, your business belongs to God too.

Now he’s not criticizing them being in commerce or business, that’s not what he’s saying. He’s not criticizing people making a profit. What he’s saying is that you shouldn’t do it apart from God. God affects every aspect of our life and he wants them to think that way.

And he goes on in verse 14 to describe how foolish these people are. Verse 14 he says, yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. They are not sovereign. They cannot control all things in their life. He’s told them, hey, this is how you’re going about your life. You’re doing it without God. You’re not giving any thought to God. But he’s like, you’re just a vapor. You don’t know what tomorrow’s going to bring. And he doesn’t say this outright, but one of the things that pops into my mind is God is omniscient. God knows all things. We don’t. And like I said, they’re almost playing God. We see that again in these verses. They’re acting like they’re sovereign over everything, that they have total authority and power. James is reminding them they’re fallible, that they’re human.

They don’t know what tomorrow will bring. We can plan. We can have all these different plans in place. We can have an idea of what tomorrow will bring. I have an idea of what tomorrow will be like for me, going to practice, doing this, doing that. But I can’t say for certain what will happen. Only God knows.

And planning is good. There’s nothing wrong with planning. That’s not what James is talking about here, and I’m not saying don’t plan. Plans are good. I love plans. But planning, where you act like you know what will happen, and that nothing can interfere with your plans, is prideful.

The planning that says, this is my five-year plan, this is what I’m gonna do, nothing can change it, nothing can interfere with it, this is my plan, I’m in control, that is a problem. You have to say, this is the plan I have. This is the plan I will follow until God leads me in a different way. Until He changes the direction in life for me.

We do not control our lives, and we cannot control our lives no matter how badly we want to sometimes. And let’s just be honest, we really want to control things. Pastor Ryan this morning talked a lot about suffering. When we’re in the midst of suffering, we really sometimes want to be in control.

Okay, this is going wrong, this is bad, how can I fix it? How can I make this better? Especially because I don’t want this to happen again. How can I fix the situation? But we have to remember that we’re dependent upon God. And those times where we’re tempted to take control over everything and say, I’ve got it, I’m gonna fix everything, and we forget God, it’s those moments where we need to step back and say, wait a second. I’m not God. I don’t control everything. I have a plan, but I need to submit it to God’s will. Because he is ultimately in control. Because God can interfere in whatever he wants to interfere in. No matter how much you don’t want him to interfere, he will. It’s pride to think we can control our lives. God is the one in control.

But James just doesn’t stop at their lack of knowledge. He just doesn’t say, hey, you’re not omniscient. You don’t know what tomorrow brings. He doesn’t stop there. He goes on to say, you are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. I’ve got to be honest. It’s almost like an insult. He just doesn’t stop at, you don’t know much. Then he goes, you’re just a vapor. If someone came up to me on the street and said, you’re a vapor, I’d probably be a little surprised. But it’s not really like, you don’t want to be called a vapor.

He’s saying almost, you’re just here and you’re gone. You’re not as great as you think you are. Psalm 144 verse 4 says this, man is like the breath. His days are like a passing shadow of breath. It’s there and it’s gone. Sometimes you don’t see the breath, the shadow, it’s gone. Our lives, in the grand scheme of reality, sometimes are very quick, the blink of an eye.

And he’s not saying, I don’t want us to walk away from this passage thinking, oh, James is saying we’re not important, that our lives don’t matter. That’s not what he’s saying. What he’s saying is he’s really giving them a reality check. He’s saying, hey, you think you’re pretty big right now? You think you’re better than God? You think you’ve got everything under control?

You will die one day. And that’s a reality check for everybody. Facing the reality that we will die. Because God doesn’t die. I mean, Jesus did die, but he came back to life. But he did not stay dead. But we will die. Humans die. We will not be on earth, on this earth, this sin-filled earth, forever. Death comes for us all.

So James is reminding these Christians who think they have complete control over their lives that they don’t have control and they one day will die. And like I said, that’s a reality check saying, you’re a vapor, you will be gone one day. There will be people who didn’t know you were alive who will maybe even forget you.

And that’s what they need to hear. And instead of trying to control everything, And as we move into verse 15, we see James telling them, you don’t need to control everything. He’s saying they should trust the will of God and submit their lives to it. Instead of trying to control over everything, they need to recognize that God is the one in control and they can trust him. Verse 15.

So he’s given, he’s told them the problem. He’s diagnosed the issue. But now he says, instead, you ought to say, he’s told them a lot of things they shouldn’t say, but now he says, you ought to say, the Lord wills who will live and also do this or that. So far, these Christians he’s writing to have been doing everything on their own, the way they want to. But James tells them what to do.

Submit their lives to God’s will. And the will of God, simply put, is what God desires to come to pass and His plan for it to come to pass. The will of God is what God wants to do. Psalm 115 verse 3 says this, but God is in the heavens, He does whatever He pleases. And that’s true, God does whatever He pleases, and everything He does is good. And more specifically, the will of God deals with what He wants His creation to do, even more specifically, what He desires for us to do, which is to obey Him. So when we say, when Christians say, if the Lord wills, we are recognizing that God has a perfect plan for our lives and that we can trust it no matter what. And this is really a humble dependency upon God. And that’s what if the Lord wills requires. If you are truly saying, I’m gonna do such and such and such, if the Lord wills, that’s a humble dependency upon God.

You’re recognizing you need him. And as we move into verse 16, we see that James shifts the discussion back to the problem again. In verse 15, he says, this is what you ought to say. This is how you should live your lives. But in verse 16, he goes back to the problem.

He says, but as it is, you boast in your arrogance, all such boasting is evil. So he gives them a solution in verse 15, but then he’s like, but you’re not doing it. This is what you’re doing. But as it is, you boast in your arrogance, and all such boasting is evil. They have pride in their prideful plans, which means they have pride over their sin, and this is wicked. They’re sinning, and they’re happy about it. They say, look at what I can do or what I have done. Look at the life I’ve created. Look at all these businesses I’ve made. Look at this and this and this and this. Look at what I have done. And James is reprimanding them for this.

And when I think of this verse, verse 16, I’m reminded of King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel chapter 4. A great and powerful king, the king of Babylon. Has immense wealth, this great palace, great armies. And in Daniel chapter 4, verse 30, we see this. The king, meaning Nebuchadnezzar, began speaking and was saying, is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty? His majesty, his power, his might.

It’s all about what he’s done, what he’s created. What happens in Nebuchadnezzar? Well, he goes crazy for about seven years, lives like a wild animal. But then we see at the end of the chapter, really one of the most beautiful stories of redemption in the Bible, we see he’s redeemed, and we see him really praising God and giving glory to God, and actually what we see at the end of chapter four is him recognizing the sovereignty of God. You see Nebuchadnezzar go from a really prideful man who looks at what he’s done and says, this is what I’ve done, I’m in control, I’m great, he’s humbled, and when he’s humbled he says, you know what, God is the one who does great. God is the majestic one. He’s the one who deserves praise. Nebuchadnezzar is a great picture of what it looks like to do the opposite of what these Christians that James is writing to are doing. They need to be humbled. They need to be humbled.

And as we move into verse 17, we see that James tells his audience that to not submit to God’s will is sin. Verse 17, Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do, and does not do it, to him it is sin. Scholars point out how knowing the right or good thing probably refers to submitting to God. What he’s doing is he’s going back to verse 17, referencing the one good thing he’s talked about, saying, when you go about your plans in life, say, this will happen if the Lord wills.

Depending on and trusting God and not in themselves. That’s what these Christians are to do. To depend on God and not on themselves. To give up their prideful planning. James is telling his audience that they know this is what they should be doing. And that to not do it is sin. He’s saying, hey, you guys know what to do. Especially now because I’ve told you what you need to do. And to not do it is sin.

To not recognize God as the authority and judge in all things and to submit your life to Him, to not do that is sin. We must reject prideful planning. We must not fall into the trap of thinking that we can plan our life. And this is hard when making plans. Like I said, make plans. I am not saying do not make plans. I’m not saying to not have budgets and different things. That’s not what James is saying. Those are good. It’s good to have plans.

But we must recognize that God is the one who ultimately decides what happens. And when we make these plans, we must relinquish control of them to God. Say, God, this is the desire of my heart, but ultimately I desire what you desire. And that’s hard.

That is. Because sometimes there are things in life we really, really want. And they may not be bad things. Whether it’s a job or a house or even the desire for a family. Ultimately God is the one who’s in control and that will of God we were just talking about That’s his perfect plan for our lives. Even in certain moments. It doesn’t seem like it We must entrust every aspect of our life to God work family food and friends God controls it all And we need to pray to God about our lives. Like I said when we make these plans say God if If you will this is what will happen Say, these are the desires of my heart, God, but I want to desire you more and more, ultimately. Let us echo Christ’s words from the garden right before He’s crucified. Not my will. Talking to His Father. Not my will, but your will. And that’s a hard cry, but it’s what we’re to do.

We must reject prideful judgment and prideful planning. When we judge and slander others, we assume and put ourselves in place of the judge. Which means we take the place of God. And usurping God will also result in us seeking to control every part of our life. Living a life filled with pride leaves no room for God. It doesn’t. We end up making ourselves God.

And at the end of the day, we must remember that He is God and we are not. Please stand as I pray. Heavenly Fathers, we close this evening. I pray that we reflect on the words of what we just studied, that we remember you are God and we are not. We are your creatures and you tell us what to do and we need to submit to your will. We need to reject a prideful judgment and reject a prideful planning. In Jesus’ name, amen.