“If the LORD Will: An Attitude Commended”

The point: Reflect soberly on how you regard the future, especially the new year, in relation to your own life and plans.

Martin quotes the phrase 'master of our own fate and the captain of our own soul' to exemplify the arrogant disregard of God condemned by James.

Whereas scripture clearly teaches that it's God who controls the duration of your life and my life and every life. And it's God who controls the events of our lives. So here was arrogance of the worst sort. The creature saying in the words of Psalm 2, let us cast away his cords from us.

4:51 - 5:10 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin begins by reviewing the previous sermon's points on James 4:13-17, highlighting the 'call to fixed attention' and the 'attitude condemned' – an arrogant disregard of God…

Martin uses the analogy of children not knowing calculus versus burning hands on a hot stove to distinguish between excusable ignorance and willful ignorance, applying it to those who admit life's uncertainty but plan as if they know.

But James says, though these people will admit it, they don't live in the light of it. So it's willful ignorance. There's an excusable ignorance. I don't hold my children accountable for not knowing calculus.

5:54 - 6:05 Read in full sermon

The point: If your future planning is characterized by arrogant disregard of God, willful disregard of life's facts, and materialistic values, you face the new year under God's condemnation and must listen to His word.

Martin explains James' metaphor of life as a vapor or a 'little pot of smoke' that appears and vanishes, emphasizing the fragility of life.

The fragility of life itself. He says your life is a vapor. It's like a little pot of smoke. A little vapor that appears and then vanishes away.

6:48 - 6:56 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces the commended attitude: 'If the Lord will, we shall both live and do this or that.' He explains this requires an intelligent, pervasive, and delightful…

Martin uses the analogy of living in an isolated galaxy versus the complex world to illustrate that acknowledging God's control means recognizing His sovereignty over all intricate interactions of life.

When you say, acknowledging is this, you are acknowledging that God has absolute control over all men and all plans in my life and the events that touch me, if the Lord will. Ah, but wait a minute, you are not living that life in an isolated part out here in the middle of the galaxy M57, M57, somewhere. You are living it right here in this world with all of the complexity of the interaction of all of its faculties.

11:17 - 12:01 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces the commended attitude: 'If the Lord will, we shall both live and do this or that.' He explains this requires an intelligent, pervasive, and delightful…

Martin gives the example of God's control over 'crazy drivers' in metropolitan areas to illustrate the pervasive nature of God's providence in daily life and personal safety.

When you say, if the Lord wills, I shall live, what is involved in your living? Well, if you live in the metropolitan New York area, it involves God's absolute control over all the crazy drivers up here. Well, you are not going to live very long if you have to drive very much. It does mean that.

12:04 - 12:22 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces the commended attitude: 'If the Lord will, we shall both live and do this or that.' He explains this requires an intelligent, pervasive, and delightful…

Martin uses the example of pharmacists putting the right medicine in the right bottle to show that God's control extends to seemingly small, yet critical, details of life.

Once in a while I have to get a prescription. Not often, I am grateful for that. That means I believe God controls all those pharmacists so that they put the right thing in the right bottle because sometimes they haven't done it and what should be medicine has been poisoned and killed people.

12:46 - 12:59 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces the commended attitude: 'If the Lord will, we shall both live and do this or that.' He explains this requires an intelligent, pervasive, and delightful…

Martin compares some people's use of Romans 8:28 to rubbing a 'lucky charm' or 'talisman,' arguing that true comfort comes from an intelligent, biblical grasp of God's absolute control, not superficial sentiment.

We know that all things work together for good. It's not like rubbing a lucky charm over your heart and over your spirit when something bad comes on you. I feel a lot of people use Romans 8.28 sort of like a lucky charm.

13:47 - 13:58 Read in full sermon

Driving home: There's all the world of difference between the doctrine of blind, cold, wooden, fatalism, and the doctrine of the providence of a God whose heart we read in the cross of Jesus Christ.

Martin uses the analogy of truth 'seeping into all the cracks of my mind' to describe the pervasive recognition of God's relationship to one's future, permeating the whole inner life.

And so I submit that if we as God's people are to fulfill God's will, fulfill the directive that James gives to us, this recognition of God's relationship to our future must not only be intelligent based upon the acknowledgement of the doctrine of general providence, but it must be a pervasive recognition, one that has, to repeat the phrase, has seeped into all the cracks of the mind and into all the crannies of my inner life. And then thirdly, it must be a delightful, delightful recognition. You see, there's a doctrine of fatalism that is the devil's imitation of the doctrine of divine provid...

17:54 - 18:37 Read in full sermon

Driving home: There's all the world of difference between the doctrine of blind, cold, wooden, fatalism, and the doctrine of the providence of a God whose heart we read in the cross of Jesus Christ.

Martin contrasts the 'devil's imitation' of divine providence, fatalism (like a Mohammedan saying 'Allah willed it'), with the delightful providence of the loving God revealed in the cross of Jesus Christ.

And so I submit that if we as God's people are to fulfill God's will, fulfill the directive that James gives to us, this recognition of God's relationship to our future must not only be intelligent based upon the acknowledgement of the doctrine of general providence, but it must be a pervasive recognition, one that has, to repeat the phrase, has seeped into all the cracks of the mind and into all the crannies of my inner life. And then thirdly, it must be a delightful, delightful recognition. You see, there's a doctrine of fatalism that is the devil's imitation of the doctrine of divine provid...

17:54 - 18:37 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are not yet convinced of the doctrine of general providence, read Flavel's 'The Mystery of Divine Providence' to understand God's absolute control over everything.

Martin uses the metaphor of his 'little pea brain bound by time' versus God banding 'eternity with a glance of His eye' to illustrate the delight in acknowledging God's superior wisdom in planning.

But, who am I to know? I see one little parenthesis of time. God bands of eternity with a glance of His eye. So I delight to acknowledge that my little pea brain bound by time can't conceive what is ultimately best for me.

20:14 - 20:36 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are not yet convinced of the doctrine of general providence, read Flavel's 'The Mystery of Divine Providence' to understand God's absolute control over everything.

Martin recounts a story of a church member discovering the comfort that 'the devil's God's devil,' meaning God controls even the devil's activities, to illustrate the need to be convinced of general providence.

I remember one of our own members here, graduate of a Bible school, sat under good, sound preaching of varying degrees for a number of years saying to me just about a year or so ago, you know I made the most wonderful discovery a short time ago that the devil's God's devil was at the end of his rope. So always in my mind I had an area out there that was no man's land. That's not where the devil operated.

21:34 - 21:56 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are not yet convinced of the doctrine of general providence, read Flavel's 'The Mystery of Divine Providence' to understand God's absolute control over everything.

Martin refers to Satan needing permission from God to touch Job, illustrating God's absolute control over the devil's activities.

Where does he have to go first? He's got to go get permission from the boss.

22:17 - 22:21 Read in full sermon

The point: If the doctrine of providence hasn't permeated your inner life, engage in meditation, prayer, and crying to God for the Holy Spirit to burn this truth into your heart.

Martin wishes there was a 'little pill' to make truth sink into the cracks of the mind, but states that meditation and prayer are the only means, emphasizing their necessity for adopting the commended attitude.

Well, I wish there was some little pill I could give you that would do it. But the only way you get any truth to sink down in the cracks, meditation, prayer, crying to God that the Holy Spirit is with you, the Holy Spirit would burn the truth into the heart, that He would drive it with pressure into every fiber of your being. And if you're too lazy or too busy for meditation and prayer, then you're too lazy and too busy to be able to adopt what James says is the will of God for His children. For that ye ought to say, if the Lord will.

23:50 - 24:24 Read in full sermon

The point: If you struggle to joyfully say 'If the Lord will' due to hard thoughts about God, read God's heart at Mount Calvary, not Mount Sinai, to understand His love and pity.

Martin shares his personal comfort in telling God, 'Lord, you know, here I am, just a pile of dust,' to illustrate a humble and delightful recognition of God's pity and understanding.

I find great comfort of telling God, Lord, you know, here I am, just a pile of dust. That's what I came from. That's what I'm going to. Lord, what more can you expect from a pile of dust?

25:38 - 25:46 Read in full sermon

The point: If you struggle to joyfully say 'If the Lord will' due to hard thoughts about God, read God's heart at Mount Calvary, not Mount Sinai, to understand His love and pity.

Martin uses the metaphor 'Don't read God's heart at Mount Sinai. Go read it at Mount Calvary' to encourage a view of God's love and grace, especially for those with hard thoughts about Him.

This is why some of you can't say delightfully if the Lord will and say it as a glad confession that His way is best. May I tell you, dear one, don't read God's heart at Mount Sinai. Go read it at Mount Calvary.

26:01 - 26:16 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Well, my friend, what grounds do you have to believe that that confession is genuine, that you will embrace the secret will of God when it unfolds, if you aren't embracing the revealed will of God that's already unfolded…

Martin uses John's argument about loving God whom you haven't seen versus loving your brother whom you have seen, to illustrate the impossibility of claiming submission to God's secret will while neglecting His revealed will.

You see, it's impossible. It's like John saying, you say you love God but you can't see, oh yeah, I love Him. Every time I hear His name, my heart feels all warm. John says, is that right?

28:15 - 28:26 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine what dispositions of divine providence you are currently chafing against (e.g., intelligence, physical traits, thwarted life plans) and stop fighting God, resigning yourself heartily to His will.

Martin challenges listeners to consider if they are fighting God's dispositions of providence, even those related to their physical makeup from their mother's womb, citing Psalm 139.

If only the Lord... Maybe you've got some quarrel with the dispositions of providence that go way back to what happened when you were knit together in your mother's womb.

34:12 - 34:20 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine what dispositions of divine providence you are currently chafing against (e.g., intelligence, physical traits, thwarted life plans) and stop fighting God, resigning yourself heartily to His will.

Martin gives the example of thwarted college or career plans leading to secret resentment against God's providence, illustrating a lack of hearty resignation.

Maybe some of you are fighting the dispositions of providence related to some crisis issue in your life that seemed to change the whole direction. You were purposing to go off to college with a view to getting such and such an education and such and such a job. And there was something that caused a drastic turn and you've never attained to the wage-earnings station that you had hoped and to the position that you had aspired to and there's a secret resentment to that.

34:43 - 35:08 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin clarifies that embracing God's will does not mean becoming a stoic, citing Christ's agony in Gethsemane and Paul's emotional farewell in Acts 21 as examples of deep inner…

Martin defines a stoic as someone who could 'stand on poles and never flinch' or accept a wife's death without emotion, to clarify that godly submission is not stoicism.

And I'd be very surprised if these questions have not already arisen in your mind. So let me give you several things which I hope will clarify some of the questions which have arisen. First of all, this text does not mean that we should become stoics in our embracing of the will of God. You know what a stoic was?

36:33 - 36:54 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin clarifies that embracing God's will does not mean becoming a stoic, citing Christ's agony in Gethsemane and Paul's emotional farewell in Acts 21 as examples of deep inner…

Martin uses Christ's agony in Gethsemane, staggering and being crushed to the ground, to powerfully illustrate that embracing God's will does not mean stoically accepting suffering without deep emotional wrenching.

We read about it at the communion service tonight. Gethsemane. Gethsemane. Gethsemane.

37:57 - 38:03 Read in full sermon

Driving home: My friend, you experience some inner wrenching and bleeding and tearing and God have mercy on anybody that tells you that's sinful.

Martin shares a story of a dear child of God witnessing a loved one's intense agony, illustrating that saying 'Your way is perfect' in such situations involves inner wrenching and bleeding, not stoicism.

And so if there were no other example but that of our Lord in the light of the fact that we're called to follow his steps and that he is a high priest touched with the feeling of our infirmities, I would not load your conscience with an unscriptural concept that if you embrace these principles, that means you just slide through stoically facing anything saying, oh well, it's the will of the Lord. No, no. There are times when the will of God marked out in his precepts and unfolding in his providence causes such deep inner wrenchings of the heart that all we can do is groan in the presence of Al...

39:52 - 40:36 Read in full sermon

Driving home: My friend, you experience some inner wrenching and bleeding and tearing and God have mercy on anybody that tells you that's sinful.

Martin recounts the story of Paul and Agabus in Acts 21, where the disciples wept and pleaded with Paul not to go to Jerusalem, but ultimately said 'The will of the Lord be done' out of broken hearts, not stoicism.

If it's sin to experience that, then our Lord sinned for he experienced it. And then we have the example of the apostle and this is beautiful in the 21st chapter of Acts and it's amazing how often spiritual principles of such weighty pastoral implication are tucked away in these historical narratives. In the 21st chapter of the book of Acts, the apostle Paul has indicated that he's going on to Jerusalem and a prophet named Agabus has come down from Judea and told him by this symbolic act, by this what we would call object lesson, binds himself and he says, the man who owns this girdle shall be...

40:59 - 41:42 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not misinterpret this text to justify irresponsible living or making no plans; instead, engage in judicious planning and sanctified foresight within the framework of God's revealed will and submission to His control.

Martin contrasts 'living by faith' (as some misinterpret the text) with 'living by foolishness' for those who make no plans, arguing for judicious planning.

Secondly, this text does not condemn judicious planning and sanctified foresight. Some people see a text like this and they say, all right, see what it says? James condemns saying we're going to do this and do that and do that therefore they say make no plans just to see what every day will bring forth. I don't know what tomorrow will hold so I'll just live by faith.

43:16 - 43:40 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not misinterpret this text to justify irresponsible living or making no plans; instead, engage in judicious planning and sanctified foresight within the framework of God's revealed will and submission to His control.

Martin uses Paul's planning of his missionary itineraries in Acts to demonstrate that judicious planning is not condemned, even for those with the Holy Spirit.

You read through the epistles and you find Paul saying I plan to come on my way by you at Rome to go on to Spain. He's planning his future. You read through the book of the Acts and you see how he planned his itinerary. He just didn't wake up every morning and say let's see which way is the spirit leading me.

44:45 - 45:02 Read in full sermon

The point: Young men and women, avoid extremes and cultivate legitimate ambition and foresight within the context of recognizing God's absolute control and heartily embracing His providence.

Martin illustrates Paul's planning with submission by describing how Paul purposed to go to Rome, perhaps even booking tickets, but was hindered, accepting it as not the Lord's will.

He said to the people at Rome I purposed many times to come to you. He contacted the local travel agent found out what boat was on its way to Rome maybe even took out his tickets had his visa all ready his Roman citizenship papers so he could go from place to place and what happened? Well maybe they got word the boat got hung up on the rocks somewhere halfway around the Mediterranean so he says alright it's not the Lord's will now. But he said I purposed many times to come to you but was hindered.

45:42 - 46:08 Read in full sermon

The point: Young men and women, avoid extremes and cultivate legitimate ambition and foresight within the context of recognizing God's absolute control and heartily embracing His providence.

Martin quotes Puritan commentator Manson, who uses examples like the ant, Joseph, and the apostles collecting for famine to argue that providing for the future is lawful and wise, not condemned.

Manson in commenting on this verse says and I now quote it is simply but you will say is it simply unlawful to provide for the morrow or for the time to come? I answer no. Solomon bids us to learn from the ant consider her ways and be wise. She provided her meat in summer and gathered her food in harvest.

46:44 - 47:07 Read in full sermon

The point: Young men and women, avoid extremes and cultivate legitimate ambition and foresight within the context of recognizing God's absolute control and heartily embracing His providence.

Manson's quote includes the analogy of catching a beast but never roasting it, illustrating that God can disappoint plans, emphasizing submission.

Such provision must not arise from distrust of God or a thought prejudicial to the care of divine providence. Matthew 6-30 God provides for the birds close the field close the grass of the field you are of much more value than they and it must not hinder us from the great care of our lives provision for heaven. Matthew 6-35 It must be this foresight with submission to God God may soon disappoint all and after we've caught a beast in hunting we may never get the opportunity of roasting it.

47:45 - 48:20 Read in full sermon

The point: Young men and women, avoid extremes and cultivate legitimate ambition and foresight within the context of recognizing God's absolute control and heartily embracing His providence.

Martin uses the metaphor 'as rare as a six-winged eagle' to describe the rarity of balance in young people, warning against extreme interpretations of the text.

And so this is not a condemnation of judicious planning and sanctified foresight and I say that particularly for you young men and women because balance is a rare virtue even in an old hoary headed saint but I tell you it's as rare as a six winged eagle amongst anyone under thirty and in these younger formative years we're victims we're victims of extremes and so we get hold of a verse like this why look what it says God controls everything I'm not to make plans so I'm just going to live each day as it comes no don't you ever get that out of this verse and you won't find it in other parts of t...

48:22 - 49:07 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin clarifies that James is not commanding a legalistic use of the phrase 'the Lord willing' every time the future is mentioned. He uses Paul's varied examples to show that the…

Martin humorously illustrates the absurdity of a legalistic application of 'the Lord willing' by imagining someone chasing down a coworker to add the phrase to a 'see you tomorrow' goodbye.

that providence in a legalistic way that we should use this phrase the Lord willing every time we mention the future and I'm sure some of you have been sitting there well does that mean every time I say to the fellow that picks me up that we're going to work when I say goodnight to him at night see you tomorrow Henry and he's halfway down the street and you whistle at him and flap your hands and he screeches to a halt and you run up to him and he rolls the window down and you say and then you go back home feeling everything is alright well I wouldn't say that unless I'd lived long enough

49:37 - 50:22 Read in full sermon

The point: Consider intentionally using the phrase 'the Lord willing' as a witness to others and to strengthen your own conviction, especially when it provides an opportunity to explain God's governance over your life.

Martin uses the analogy of different emotional expressions (crying vs. jumping) when happy to illustrate the diversity in how Christians express spiritual realities, warning against cookie-cutter Christianity.

a couple of those suggestions which may be helpful to you to keep one hand from being bound to say too timid to say and God won't bring us out all in the same diversity of the work and ministry of the spirit some people when they get happy they cry one of the most upsetting things for many a young husband the first time his wife cries because she's happy

56:51 - 57:26 Read in full sermon

The point: Consider intentionally using the phrase 'the Lord willing' as a witness to others and to strengthen your own conviction, especially when it provides an opportunity to explain God's governance over your life.

Martin tells a story about his wife making 'hand cookies' with children, where each cookie reflected the unique hand of the child, to illustrate God's delight in the diversity of His people's expressions of faith.

and it's hard for you to understand because when you get happy you don't want to cry you want to jump this is true in spiritual things when some people get blessed they want to cry other people want to jump want to shout well who's right the jumper or the crier well neither you see and we must never never never never get into this mold of sort of cookie cutter Christians where we've got a stamp that can be predicted this was time my wife saw a little thing in the one of the ladies magazines about

57:26 - 58:10 Read in full sermon