2006 Facing the Year with the Mind of a Christian

Introduction: Facing the New Year with a Christian Mindset and Tongue

0:00 Now may I urge you to turn with me in your own Bibles to the book of James, the book of James, and follow as I read the last paragraph of chapter 4. It begins at verse 13, James 4 and verse 13. Or listen up, you that say, today or tomorrow we will go into this particular city and spend a year there and trade and get gain, whereas you do not know what shall be on the morrow. What is your life? For you are a vapor, a puff of smoke that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

0:59 It vanishes away. For that you ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall both live and do this or that. But now, you glory in your vauntings, all such glorying is evil. To him, therefore, that knows to do good, and does it not, to him it is sin.

1:29 Let us again. Let us pray and ask the help of the Spirit of God in the study of the Word.

1:40 Our Father, we would acknowledge again that our minds are shrouded in darkness unless you pierce the darkness with the ministry of your Holy Spirit, giving us understanding. For you have said the opening of your words gives light and gives understanding. Open them, we pray, to us by the power of the Spirit. And give us the power of the Spirit.

2:06 And give us the power of the Spirit. And give us the power of the Spirit. And give us hearts inclined to receive in faith and obedience all that you will say to us, we ask through our Lord Jesus. Amen.

2:20 Now, those of you who have been a part of this assembly for any length of time will know that generally I try to seize upon those periods of the year when minds are drawn to such matters as the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, Easter, Christmas, the Incarnation, and the New Year, to bring some portion of the Word of God or some perspectives from the Word of God that will help us to think and by the grace of God to act more biblically with reference to those matters. And since I was not with you last Lord's Day, the first Lord's Day of the New Year, I have chosen to speak to you this morning on the second Lord's Day on this theme, Facing the New Year with the Mind and with the Tongue of a Christian. Facing the New Year with the Mind and with the Tongue of a Christian. And my text is the portion read in your hearing. Now, many of you will know that the overall burden of James in his letter is clear.

3:37 One man of God has stated it very succinctly and accurately. With these words. The faults against which James writes are faith without works, without deeds, censoriousness, ambition, inordinate love of teaching, flattering wealth and position, contemptuous treatment of the poor, covetousness under the cloak of religion, and these are sins that were typically Pharisees. Or Jewish and the peculiarly Gentile faults like idolatry and impurity so prominent in an epistle such as first Corinthians are conspicuous by their absence. And most commentators constantly remind us that James in many ways writes like an Old Testament prophet taking up one after another of the sins of the professing people of God. And at times, you wonder, is he speaking to Christians or to non-Christians? And so it's not necessary for us to spend a great amount of time considering the context and the flow of thought,

4:54 but to plunge right into James 4 verses 13 to 17 under this theme, facing the New Year with the Mind and the Tongue of a Christian. For if you are a true child of God, this is already your desire. You desire to face this New Year with a mindset that is thoroughly Christian, that reflects the transforming work of Christ in the way you think, and you desire that that transformation be evident in the way you speak. For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, and Jesus said, by your words you will be justified, and by your words, you will be condemned. Our words are such an accurate reflection of the state of the heart that they will form the basis of vindication and condemnation in the last day. And so this passage is very appropriate as we stand on the threshold and have entered the shoreline of a new year. And we'll take it up under four headings, the first of which is this.

The Worldly Speech Reproved

6:12 The worldly speech reproved. The worldly speech reproved. Verse 13. Come now, listen up, you that say, today or tomorrow we will go into this city, and spend a year there, and trade, and get gain.

6:35 Note with me the strong call to face this fact of worldly speech, that James is about to say, that James is about to condemn. These words come now could be rendered as I rendered them in reading the passage. Listen up. Pay attention.

6:54 Don't treat lightly what I'm about to say to you. James is urging upon his hearers. He addresses people in terms of their words that have fallen into a pattern. Listen up now, you that say, a present participle.

7:13 This is not an occasional expression of something contrary to their mindset. It was a pattern of mindset expressed in the repetition of words similar to these that James puts, as it were, in their mouths. And he does this because our words are the echo chamber of our hearts. We'd like to think otherwise.

7:40 Well, I said that, but I really didn't mean it. And therefore pass off many of our words as though they were not an echo chamber of the heart. But Jesus said in Matthew chapter 12 out of the abundance of the heart, out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. What's in your heart comes out your mouth.

8:05 Hence my terminology. The mouth is the echo chamber of the heart. I can't hear the language. The language of the heart, but I can hear it echoes in the words that come out of my mouth and the words that come out of your mouth.

8:23 And James is constantly reminding his readers and his hearers of this. He started way back in chapter one and he says, if anyone seems to be religious and bridles, not his own tongue, this man's religion is vain and self deceptive. He deceives himself. And his religion, his vein.

8:42 And then of course that scathing passage in chapter three, one of the watershed passages on the whole matter of our speech. And so he gives this strong call to the fact of the worldly speech that was being heard among these professing Christians to whom he writes. And what was the specific content of their worldly speech? Look at it.

9:08 First of all, it was confident, disclosing of their plan, as he said, for the coming year, now, listen up, you that are saying today or tomorrow, we will go into, and you have a demonstrative pronoun into this particular city. You can picture someone pointing to a map today or tomorrow. Or we're going over here to and naming the city. And furthermore, once we get there, we're going to spend a year there.

9:39 And while spending a year there, we're not going to be in a hospital. a hospital. We're not going to be imprisoned. We're going to trade, and our trading is going to be profitable. We are going to get gain. The specific content of their worldly speech is identified by James as a confident disclosing of their plans for the coming year. Today or tomorrow, this particular city, I will make it there, I will get there, I will stay there a year, I will trade, and as a result, I will make money in my business enterprise. Now, you know what James calls this? Look at verse 16. The NIV says, but now you boast and you brag. I think it's the

10:34 New English version says, arrogant boasting. Arrogant boasting, you boast and brag. This language is not an innocent projection of tentative plans and responsible foresight. It is an expression of a disposition of the heart of people who talk as though they were really in control of their lives. Today, before the sun goes down, which assumes the sun will go down and that I will be alive to see it go down. Whereas, God may allow a fly to get stuck in my throat and I'll be dead before three o'clock. Or a piece of gristle from my evening meal steak may get caught in my throat and no one knows the Heimlich maneuver and I'll lie there and choke to death on my piece of gristle. No, no. I'm going to live out this day

11:32 and furthermore, I'm going to be preserved through the night and come to tomorrow. So, if I haven't left today, I will certainly leave tomorrow. And that city that is on the map will be sustained. There will be no tsunami. There will be no earthquake. There will be no invasion. You see, the presumption that just oozes through all of this language that James calls, in verse 16, glorying in their vauntings, arrogant boasting, boasting and bragging, that is evil in its very essence. All such boasting is evil. It is not innocent, careless expression of one's plans for the future.

12:20 It is an evil, godless, fundamentally atheistic way of thinking and planning and speaking about the future. And why is it evil? Because it's utterly worldly. It is thinking and speaking and planning.

12:41 It is thinking and speaking about the future. And it is thinking about the future. And it is thinking about the future. And it is thinking about the future. And it is thinking about the future.

12:45 And if we give some oblique reference to the fact that it is God's world, that he really is not in control of all of its details, including all of the details of my life. It's viewing life as a secularist. It is speaking of the future as a practical atheist and not as a Christian. And it is this position of the worldly.

The Facts of Life Affirmed

13:29 acts of life the way we normally do, when it's time to sit down with your kids and tell them about the birds and the bees. Acts of life more generically affirmed by James, and he affirms them with an indisputable assertion, and then a simple question with its humbling answer. Verse 14, Whereas you do not know what shall be on the morrow. Here's an indisputable assertion.

14:01 You talk as though you knew not only what shall be in the remainder of today, and what tomorrow will be, and that it will come for you, but you talk presumptuously about a whole year, and the issue and the fruition of your labors that you assume will mark that year, and you will come away with gain when you return from that city. Whereas, James says, here is an indisputable fact of life. You do not know what shall be on the morrow. Here's an indisputable assertion.

14:31 You do not know what shall be on the morrow. You don't know whether you'll be alive through today and come to tomorrow. You don't know whether you'll be healthy and well. You do not know whether you'll be safely brought to that specific city where you hope to trade and get gain. You don't know if you're going to be able to trade in a favorable market. The bottom of that particular market, which is your focal point of trade, may bottom out, and you may be impoverished. You don't know what shall be on the morrow. You don't know whether you'll be alive through today and come to tomorrow. You don't know anything of the things whereof you have confidently affirmed. You do not know what shall be on the morrow. Now, it is not wrong for us to conjecture with respect to what most reasonably we may expect on tomorrow. I reasonably expect that this cold will continue to recede in its effects upon me, that come Friday, I can let the surgeons, put me under and fix my shoulder. That's reasonable to expect that. Reasonable because

15:37 the doctor whom I saw on Friday said that's reasonable and cleared me for surgery. Now, there's nothing wrong with having a reasonable expectation and planning accordingly. That's not what James is dealing with. He's dealing with people whose disposition is that the fact that they frame their plans is an assurance that they will float their plans. And he says, wait a minute, you do not know what shall be on the morrow. That's a fact of life affirmed by James with this indisputable assertion. Then, this simple question and its humbling answer. Look at it, verse 14.

16:18 What is your life? Stop, he says, and think. What is your life? What is it? And then he answers, you are a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. This word vapor is used only one other time in the New Testament. It can refer to smoke. It rises, absorbed into the atmosphere and is gone. Or it could refer to the kind of thing we see in the wintertime.

16:46 You start your car up before the engine is warm and the exhaust system is warm. And you see that vapor come out the tailpipe. You kids, did you ever try to catch it and put it in a bag? Oh, look at that vapor coming out of the tailpipe. I'm going to go catch it.

17:01 It appears for a little time, vanishes away. He says, that's your life. That's your life. It's a puff of smoke that appears and then it's gone.

17:13 It's vapor that appears and is gone. And this is the universal emphasis of Scripture. Our days are likened to the swiftness of a weaver's shuttle. Our lives are likened to grass that in the morning grows up and in the evening is cut down or withers.

17:33 That's a simple fact. A moment of life. Listen to one commentator who captures this very well. You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes, that's the NIV rendering.

17:47 Mist translates to a relatively rare word within the biblical Greek, Atmos, which can be rendered smoke. But whichever word we choose, the point is clear enough. Human life is insubstantial and transitory. Here, here, and here is the point.

18:05 Here, and here is the point. Here, and here is the point. One minute, gone the next. Illness, accidental death, or the return of Christ could cut short our lives just as quickly as the morning sun dissipates the mist, or as a shift in wind direction blows away the smoke.

18:29 That's a fact. When I go to the cemetery, and I walk around the cemetery, and I compare the dates, I say, oh, that boy was cut off in his twelfth year. I wonder why. That little one only lived three years.

18:51 That one only lived seventeen years. Walk through the cemetery, teenagers! Walk through a cemetery and look at the dates! For Mrs. M, 31 to 204, 73 years.

19:14 But there are many who did not make their three scores. Four and ten. They didn't make five score, four score, three score. And there's not a one of you of any age who can hear me with any degree of intelligence that has any proof that your puff of smoke will not disappear.

19:35 Here, one minute, gone the next. What is your life? This is a fact of life. It's a vapor!

19:45 It's a puff of smoke! It's appeared! Here, you're sitting!

19:51 But a shift of wind in the sovereign will of God may blow you away.

19:58 Are you ready to debate with me? That it can't be so? That it will not be so? That under no circumstances will that be true?

20:08 You know you can't. This is a fact of life, not a scare tactic of preachers. But James says, listen up! Get out!

20:21 Dream world!

20:25 It's a vapor! A puff of smoke! It's appeared! It's here!

20:31 But eventually it will vanish. And it may vanish today. It's a fact! And after James exposes the worldly speech and rebukes it, he lays out these facts of life with an indisputable assertion, you know not.

The Godly Speech Commended

20:52 What shall be on the morrow? A simple question with its humbling answer. But now come. Thirdly, as we look at the text, to what I'm calling the godly speech commended.

21:05 Verse 15, the godly speech commended. For that you ought to say, or in direct contrast and against this other form of speech, and he, if the Lord will, we shall both live and do this or that. Now let me say at the outset what James is not saying. James is not saying learn a little pious formula and repeat it whenever you talk about the future.

21:38 If that's all he were saying, that'd be an easy job, to learn little formulas and repeat them. That's why Islam is so attractive, among other things. You learn your prayers, how to say them, when to say them, in what place, in what direction. Very easy, because it doesn't do anything to the heart.

22:00 James is not saying learn a little pious formula and repeat it whenever you talk about the future. Where are you going, Pastor? God willing, I'm going home, I'm going to have my lunch, and go to bed, and drink lots of orange juice. God willing, God willing, God willing.

22:15 If the Lord wills. No, no, James is not telling that. Rather, what James is saying, acquire and so live by a Christian mindset with regard to the future, that out of the heart. Out of what Jesus calls the good treasure of a heart, that thinks like a Christian, will come the words very naturally.

22:41 Not in every situation, as we shall see subsequently at the end of the sermon, but because out of the abundance of the heart the mouse speaks. You will find periodically that what is the settled perspective of a thoroughly Christian heart, regarding the future, will just, leak out of your mouth. And when you speak of the future, you will not be speaking with vain boastings that are evil, but with a disposition that is thoroughly Christian, and recognizes what James wants all of his readers to recognize. Now, what's involved in the godly speech commended by James? Look at the text. For that you ought to say, not as a little formula you've learned, and you say it by rote, but as the effusion, as the overflow of a heart that thinks as a Christian, if the Lord will, we shall both live, and do this or that. The first thing involved in the godly speech commended by James is this.

23:49 A heart awareness that the duration of our lives is in the hands of God, determined by the sovereign will of God. Look at the text. You ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall both live. If the Lord wills, we'll live.

24:14 This arrogant speech assumes one will live to the end of today, live into tomorrow, live into the following year, return from the city. He said, no, no, the Christian thinks in this reality. The duration of my life, is in the sovereign hands of the living God. And if I live five more minutes, if I live five more days, five more months, five more years, five more decades, I'm aware that the will of God determines the number of my days.

24:56 You remember Psalm 139? David celebrates the fact that when he was in his mother's womb, all the days that were appointed for him, were written out by God. It is appointed unto men once to die, a sovereign appointment of the sovereign God, in which there is no bilateral agreement. My son, would you like to die in the year 2007 on August the 4th?

25:25 No, God doesn't come and set up an appointment. He makes it sovereignly, and he administers it sovereignly. You read in the book of the Revelation, and I was struck with this driving back from Michigan, as I listened to large chunks of the book of the Revelation, that picture of the plagues being poured out, and it says, they shall seek death. People determined to kill themselves, and God takes away from the ability to take their own lives.

25:54 He's utterly, absolutely, pervasively sovereign, with respect to the matter of our death. And James is saying, we must internalize that until it so percolates through the subsoil of our hearts, that whenever we think of the future, we think in terms of this fact, that Almighty God has determined the length of my days. Secondly, what's involved in this godly speech is a heart awareness that the events of our lives within the sovereignly, appointed timeframe of our lives are equally determined by the will of God. Look at the text. But now you ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall both live, duration, and do this or that, specific activities. The will of God determines not only duration, but within that appointed duration, the specific activities that I will engage.

27:06 Do you really believe what the scripture says, that God gives to all life and breath and all things? And that whatever activity goes on in your body that keeps you alive and well, God sovereignly disposes all of those things? James says, if you're thinking as a Christian, this is what will come out when you think and speak about the future. The heart awareness, that duration of your life is determined by God.

27:45 A heart awareness that the events of your life within that timeframe are in the hands of God. And thirdly, a heart awareness of and delight in the will of God as the framework of your life. I repeat it. A heart awareness and delight in the will of God as the framework of your life.

28:11 You ought to say, not grudgingly, I can't fight a God who's on his throne. I'll only live as long as he wants me to live. And I can only do what he permits me to do. The child of God says with joy, I don't want to live a second beyond the divine purposes.

28:30 And I don't want to do anything that falls outside of the divine will. And so James is assuming when he says that you ought to say that we have an internal heart awareness of and delight in the will of God as the framework of our lives. That's why I say he's enjoining a Christian mindset about the future because this is not your mindset or mine by nature. By nature, our mindset is described by Romans 8, 7.

29:07 The carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the will of God, neither indeed can it be. Yes, every man is subject to the sovereign control of God, saved or unsaved. But what Paul is saying is that no one by nature has an internal delight in doing the revealed will of God as revealed in the law of God.

29:33 The carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God, the revealed will of God, neither indeed can it be. You can't say these words, James says, you ought to say if you're still in a state of nature, you're still in Adam, you are unconverted, you are not united to Christ, you have not come to repentance in faith. You could learn a little formula, but you cannot say it out of the abundance of your heart.

30:06 For again, Paul says, Christ died that they who live should no longer henceforth live unto themselves. You natively and naturally and spontaneously live to please yourself, not God. And it's only when God has conquered you by His grace through the work that Christ has done upon the cross for sinners that the will of God from the heart is your delight. And that's why Paul can say in Romans 12, 1 and 2, I beseech you therefore by the mercies of God, mercies I've just unfolded, in terms of the gospel, with its message of Christ coming as our substitute and bearing the wrath of God for our sins.

30:49 Christ is the living Lord in union with whom we can be free from the dominion of sin. Christ who imparts the Holy Spirit to us by whose presence indwelling us we are kept and we are enabled to press on in likeness to Jesus by these mercies to present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable to God which is your reasonable service and be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind to what end? That you may prove, that you may work out in your own life and experience what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. You see, it's only when the cross has conquered me, when I have seen in Christ crucified the revelation, the revelation of God's love, when I have seen in Christ crucified the disclosure of the heart of this God against whom I have wickedly and irrationally been opposed and I have been his enemy and I've not been subject to his law, I don't want to be, I think my freedom is in my rebellion. And when God by the Spirit through the Gospel opens my eyes to see my folly and I repent of my sin and embrace the Lord Jesus as my only hope of life and salvation, bow to him as my welcomed sovereign to set up his throne

32:18 in the chambers of my heart, then I realize the will of God is the good. Anything outside that is not good. Good, acceptable, it is that which I long to embrace. Well, we have the worldly speech reproved, the facts of life affirmed, the godly speech commended.

The Moral Issue Involved: Boasting is Evil and Knowing Good is Sin if Not Done

32:40 Now look at verse 16 and 17, the moral issue involved. What's involved in whether or not I take seriously what James says when he says, listen up, pay attention. I want you so to experience these realities that your speech will be framed spontaneously when you think and speak of the future. What's the big deal?

33:07 I'll tell you the big deal. Look at verses 16 and 17. But now you glory, you boast in your vauntings. That's language we don't use.

33:16 And that's why some of the modern translations are helpful when they use different terminology, when they speak of you boast and brag. It is arrogant boasting. Those words are familiar to us. Boasting is promoting ourselves.

33:34 It's taking a place that doesn't belong to us. And it doesn't belong to us to talk as though we're running the universe and running our lives and other lives with whom we interact. And listen to what he says. But now you boast in your vauntings.

33:51 All such boasting is evil. It's evil to think like an atheist. It's evil to talk like an atheist. It's evil.

34:05 It's sin. Furthermore, once you know that you ought to have a mindset that spontaneously expresses itself in words that reflect the disposition of the heart and you don't do it. Look at verse 17. To him therefore that knows to do good and does it not, to him it is sin.

34:25 And in the context, what is the good that we know we should do? It's the good of having our speech reflect the true disposition of a Christian heart. While this has applications far beyond the immediate context, this is the context. Dear brethren, the context is whether or not we have a thoroughly Christian mindset about the future and whether it expresses itself spontaneously in the way we talk.

34:57 That's the issue. That's the issue. So just to blow this off and say, oh well, you know, God knows and other people know that I know unless...

35:08 No, James says, no, you're not going to get off that easy. He condemns a certain kind of speech. And if you're speaking and your speech never reflects, whether to fellow Christians or to non-Christians, that you are one who has embraced from the heart God's absolute sovereignty over all things, generically, God's gracious, redemptive sovereignty over you in Christ, and you've embraced that joyfully, if your speech does not reflect that, you're sinning, as what this text says. If you talk like your plans are what regulate reality, James says, this is boasting, vain boasting, and it is evil. And once you know and are enlightened and instructed that you ought to say, if the Lord will, and you never say it, either because you're not thinking it or you're ashamed to declare it, ask yourself, am I a Christian? For whoever confesses me before men, him will I confess before my Father who is in heaven. I have found many opportunities to let people know who I am by simply saying,

36:35 when speaking of the future, God willing, we'll see you next week, Mr. Martin, when you come to pick up the wedding rings. God willing, we will see. So to see.

36:48 Because I know I may be dead before there's another wedding. There may be a funeral instead of a wedding. I believe then that I'm going to die before March 4th. But I may, for I do not know what shall be on the morrow, nor do you.

Concluding Questions: Does This Condemn All Future Plans?

37:09 And when you think that way, and when that is the percolated state of your soul, not something you just pick up and put down occasionally, you live that way, then out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth will speak. And that brings us to concluding questions that you're already thinking about, some of you, and I want to respond to them. Does this condemn all plans for the future? And the answer of the text is no.

37:39 Look at the text again. What does James say? For that you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we'll do whatever comes to mind at the moment. That isn't what the text says.

37:51 He says you ought to say. If the Lord wills, we shall both live, and do this or that. He says there's nothing wrong with making responsible plans for the future. But they're to be Christianized responsible plans, not atheistic and paganized plans.

38:14 So, when someone says, oh, you shouldn't be concerned about life insurance, that's nonsense. We are to take responsible steps in planning for the future. However, in doing so, we are to constantly remember the facts of life. We don't know what shall be on the morrow.

38:35 We are but a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. And of course, the analogy of Scripture tells us, the Apostle Paul made plans to go to Rome. He says, if when I've been at Jerusalem and everything goes well there, I hope to come to you, to Rome, and from you, to be sent on my way to Spain. The Apostle Paul did not fulfill his commission by impulses of the Holy Spirit that hit him every single morning.

39:07 He had large plans and he schemed and planned how he might fulfill his mission to be God's instrument of bringing the Gospel to the Gentile world in his generation. The Lord Jesus himself, he made plans for the Passover Mass. He didn't just say, well, let's go into town and my father will provide for us. He said, no, you go, you meet a certain man, you go, and you make all things ready.

Concluding Questions: Should We Always Say 'If the Lord Wills'?

39:37 The Bible everywhere commends responsible foresight and planning, but it condemns that foresight and planning that is unchristian. Second question, does this mean we should always say, when speaking of our future plans to others, if the Lord wills? Well, there are examples in the Bible where God's servants did this. Look at Acts 18 and verse 21.

40:08 I love, I love the balance of my Bible. Here in Acts chapter 18 and verse 21, what do we read? Well, let's pick up at verse 18, 18. And Paul, having tarried many days, took his leave of the brethren, sailed for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila, having shorn his head in salvation, for he had a vow.

40:32 And they came to Ephesus, and he left them there. But he entered the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. And when they asked him to abide a longer time, he consented not, but taking his leave of them, and saying, I will return unto you if God will. He set sail from Ephesus.

40:52 People say, ah, he must have read James' letter. He's doing it. If the Lord will. But now he must have backslidden, backslidden when we come to chapter 19 in verse 21, because what do we read here?

41:07 19, 21. Now after these things were ended, Paul purposed in the Spirit when he passed through Macedonia and Achaia to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome, the Lord willing. No, no Lord willing. He didn't say it.

41:29 Didn't it know to do good and did it not? But he's sinning. No, no, no. And you find this.

41:34 1 Corinthians 4, 19. If the Lord will. 1 Corinthians 16, 7. If the Lord will.

41:41 Philippians 2, 24. If the Lord will. But Acts 19, 21. Romans 15, 28.

41:47 And 1 Corinthians 16, 5. In the same chapter. He doesn't say the terminology. But it is obvious that this is the atmosphere of his life.

41:58 That's the issue, my dear brothers and sisters. That if this is the mindset that we have, the mindset with which we plan and prayerfully assess what we ought to do in the future, then surely it will leak out. Inevitably, it will come out. And no one has a right to say, Well, every other time you speak of the future, you ought to say if the Lord will.

42:23 No, there's no rules about it. The rule is you better think this way. And if you think this way, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. But then I'd like to give this little word of pastoral counsel.

Pastoral Counsel: Cultivating Godly Speech

42:37 Unless we're doing it thinking we earn some brownie points with God and we impress others with our super spirituality, would there be anything wrong as a general rule with including it in all of our talk about the future? Here are my qualifications. Now, there's some people seize on this. I'm going to prove I'm spiritually minded.

43:02 Where are you going? I'm going down to the bathroom, if the Lord will. What do you do after that? I'm going out to my car, if the Lord will.

43:14 I mean, if it's spiritual mindedness to say it, I mean, they're going to be spiritual, spiritual, spiritual. No. We have no sympathy for that. None whatsoever.

43:25 Others might think, Well, this will somehow earn me some favor with God. No, dear people, you don't earn your favor with God. One has already earned it, and you can add nothing to what he's done. His name is Jesus.

43:38 But eschewing that abuse, what would be wrong if to begin to cultivate speech that reflects where we're really at? We should take James a little more literally. For that you ought to say, speech with the mouth, reflecting the state of the heart, for that you ought to say, if the Lord will. Who knows how many opportunities we'll have to be light, to be salt, to be an encouragement, to other believers who may have begun to think in an unchristian way about the future.

44:20 Who knows, with people that we have regular contact, and they say, Well, I'll see you next week for your appointment for this or that. And we say, Yes, if the Lord will. Who knows how after a while it's going to get to them. They're going to say, Well, what do you mean by this if the Lord will business?

44:37 Well, that's like saying sicken to a bulldog. The door is wide open. Not because you barged in, but you just talked like a Christian. You just talked like a Christian.

Application: A Check on Planning Sin

44:49 But then my final word of application is not answering a question. Try to answer the pastoral questions that would arise in your mind. But this perspective and this language is a great check on whether or not we plan sin in our future. Can you imagine planning to sin and saying, I will do that if the Lord will?

45:18 You men, listen to me. You're going to CVS to pick up some medicine because you got a cold or some of the kids got a cold. And you know where the magazine rack is and you've stumbled in front of that magazine rack before. I'm going to CVS to get some medicine if the Lord wills.

45:37 I'm going to pass by the magazine rack if you can't say it. It gets stuck in your throat. Because the Lord never wills. That you put yourself in the way of temptation to mental adultery and to defiling lustful thoughts and images.

46:01 Well, I'm going to speak to Mary on the phone. And I have ticked off at what Joyce did to me yesterday. And therefore, when I'm on the phone with Mary, I'm going to get if the Lord wills. No, the Lord doesn't will for you to gossip, to speak evil, because he says speak evil of no man.

46:25 See what happens when that begins to be our mindset? If the Lord wills, hedges us up to what we know to be the will of God, which is be ye holy as I am holy, becomes a wonderful check upon what we purpose to do. Now some temptations come to us out of the blue. I know that.

46:52 But some come to us in our thinking of the future. And these days, when I've made these long trips out to Michigan, I'm trying to find a way to split up the trip. And I found a good way to do it. I found a nice, cheap, clean motel for 33 bucks a night.

47:10 Very reasonable. Super 8. Rob. A man alone in a motel is a vulnerable creature.

47:16 If the enemy were to tempt me, well, you're there alone, you got HBO, you could... If I'm thinking in terms, I'm planning to get to such and such a place where I can get to a place where I can get to a place where I can get to a place where I can get to such and such a place in Ohio and put up in the Super 8 motel and turn on the TV and watch HBO.

47:46 If the Lord will. No, I can't. It goes to all that I am as a new man in Christ. You start thinking this way.

47:59 Start speaking. It will be a tremendous incentive to universal holiness to universal holiness in every facet of our lives. Well, I said at the outset I wanted to speak to you on the theme Facing the New Year and the New Year with the mind and the tongue of a Christian. This is what it means.

Closing Prayer and Exhortation

48:22 May God help us to internalize this portion of His Word. May the Lord have mercy upon those of you. You don't want the will of God. You want to do your own thing because you still believe the devil's lie that therein is your truest peace and fulfillment.

48:39 May God grant you to see it's the way of self-destruction and may you throw yourself at the feet of the Savior. Let's pray together. Amen. Our Father, we thank You for Your Word for its perennial freshness and relevance and we pray that the portion upon which we've meditated this morning we can meet and drink to our souls.

49:08 We pray that You'd forgive us when we have thought like practical atheists, when we have spoken like practical atheists. Forgive us for opportunities lost simply for want of thinking in such a way that it would be natural for us to say, if the Lord will, we shall both live and do this or do that. And then, our Father, for those who do not want Your will yet are encased in it, we pray that You would have mercy upon them and bring them to the place where they see the folly of their own rebellion and seek mercy and forgiveness and the change of heart that come in the grace that is in the Lord Jesus. May Your word not return to You void but according to Your promise may it prosper in that where unto You have sent it. We ask through Christ our Lord. Amen.