“OBEDIENCE MATTERS!”

James 4:17

INTRODUCTION One of the early church fathers. Jerome, born in 340, tells the following story about the apostle John who lived longer than any of Jesus’ disciples. When he was nearly 100 yrs old, he came to his beloved church in Ephesus to preach. Now being a very old man who could hardly walk, the believers carried John and sat him before the congregation to share. Everyone was eagerly anticipating the profound message that John would have to preach. When John stood up to preach he repeatedly said: “Love one another!” “Love one another!” “Love one another!” “Love one another!” Then he sat down. That was it. The next time he preached he stood up and again said “Love one another!” “Love one another!” “Love one another!” “Love one another!”  Then he sat down again. Now over the next few weeks John kept doing the exact same thing and preaching this exact same sermon. The "parishioners" in Ephesus grew tired of his one sermon. They were impatient with the repetition and simplicity of that message so they complained to the elders of the city who reluctantly confronted the old apostle of love. “John, with all due respect, why do you keep preaching this same message?” He replied, “Because it’s the Lord’s commandment and if you do this, it is everything.”  “Well, that’s true John”, said the elders, “but we want something new. Could you preach on something else?” “John was quiet for a moment but then gently responded, “My dear brothers, when you start obeying the commandment to love one another we will go on to the next subject.”

This week is the 29^th message that I have preached on the epistle of James. Most of you have heard most of the teachings? I would like to humbly in the most gentle and loving way possibly to ask you a question? Are you doing and practicing what I’ve been preaching? Are you obeying what James has been teaching? This morning we are going to look at one verse, James 4:17. To the casual reader, this verse may seem to be no more than an appendix to the chapter. Yet it is one of the most penetrating verses in the whole of the epistle. The basic lesson hardly needs any comment. It is not enough to know what you’ve heard or read in the word of God about what God wills for you. What matters is that if you know what to do, that you do it!

I. THE CONTEXT OF JAMES TEACHING (verse 17a) The word `so' is the Greek oun, which is often translated `therefore'. Whenever you see “therefore” it refers to what was just previously spoken or in the light of what you have just heard. What has James been teaching? In the preceding verses, James has teaching that it really matters whether a true view of life and of God informs and shapes the way you think and how you speak about your decisions and plans. God means for the truth about Himself and about life to be known and felt and spoken and lived out as part of our reason for being. In this knowing, feeling, and speaking about God and life our primary purpose each moment of our day and in every circumstance is on the forefront of all that we do: This affects the outcome of my life (This is to my Father's glory that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples." John 15:8). This affects how I use my body ("You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body" 1 Corinthians 6:18, 20). This affects my eating and drinking ("So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God," 1 Corinthians 10:31). This affects my prayers ("Whatever you ask the Father in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son," John 14:13). This is affects my daily living in relationships with others ("Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven," Matthew 5:16). So here in verse 17, James re-emphasizes the importance of living out what we know about life and God in verses 13-16, and by implication, all that he has been teaching throughout this epistle.

II. TO KNOW GOD’S WILL WE MUST KNOW THE WORD OF GOD -“Whoever knows the right thing…” The particular word `knows' (eidoti) is a perfect participle which comes from the Greek root oida which means you have known and are presently aware of, you know perfectly well'. Notice James addresses what they know not what they don’t know. What is it that they know? James calls it the right thing. The word kalos means what is qualitatively good, right, noble, excellent, and beautiful. What is the right thing? The word of God that James has been teaching in his epistle. Why is it the right thing? Because it is the will of the most holy, perfect, loving, righteous, noble, excellent, good, and beautiful being in all the universe: the King of Kings the Lord of Lords, the Sovereign ruler of the Universe and of your life, the living God! If we want to know God deeply and personally, we have to take Him on His own terms. We can't dictate to God how he should be known or how he should reveal himself. We can't say, "Give me a dream!" Or, "Give me a sign!" Or, "Speak to me in a burning bush!" God will say, "I have given you the Bible. Go there and get to know me. Don't tell me how to make myself known. I will tell you how you can know me. Go to your Bible and get to know me."

But even when we go to the Bible to know God and his will, we have to take His revelation on its own terms and what He reveals to us about His will. I frequently meet people who foolishly do not read the word nor sit under sound teaching yet who tell me they want to know God’s will. I’ll ask them, have you searched the scriptures to find out what God desires you to be and to do? No but I’ve prayed for God to reveal His will to me. So how is God going to do that? I say, it is good that you pray and ask God to reveal His will, but you must pray with an open Bible!

Brothers and sisters, the truth of God’s Word is the revealed will of God. How we live our lives and make decisions and plans before anything else ought to be decided by following the revealed will of God in scripture. The will of God that James has been teaching us is not vague or unclear. God does not leave us to our own subjective interpretation concerning His will. It is not a mystery that God dangles before us like a carrot on a string. Trying to find it is not like finding a needle in a haystack. Deuteronomy 29:29 talks about the secret things that belong to the Lord, but that the things He has revealed belong to us and our children and our children’s children. The fact of God’s revealed will is clear. As James understands it here in verse 17, the will of God is obedience to the commands of God. Let’s look at what James has commanded us concerning God’s will for you so far:

James 1:2, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds” James 1:5,6, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God…but let him ask in faith” James 1:9-10, Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation” James 1:12, “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial” James 1:19-21, “Every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger…put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” James 1:22, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” James 1:26-27, “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” James 2:1, “show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.” James 2:9, “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing well.” James 2:18, “Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” James 3:13, “Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.” James 4:7-10, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” James 4:11, “Do not speak evil against one another, brothers” James 4:16, “You ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." Finally, James teaches us here in verse 17 that the will of God is obedience to the commands of God as taught here in James and throughout scripture. Is that enough for you to start learning, thinking about, and praying concerning God’s will for you? Jesus Christ said in Matthew 28:18-20, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go (in obedience) therefore and make disciples of all nations…teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.” Jesus has all authority and lays claim upon every nation and on you. And He does it by saying that they should be taught to obey all that He commanded His followers. Between all of His explicit and implicit commands there are over 500 found in the Gospels. So knowing what Jesus commands, making followers of Christ and teaching others to live in God glorifying obedience to Jesus Christ’s 500 commands is essence of the great commission.

III. KNOWING THE WILL OF GOD IS MEANT TO LEAD TO OBEYING THE WILL OF GOD- “Whoever knows the right thing to Do” James assumes that they know what to do concerning God’s will . But here is the key, when you know what God’s will is, you must do it! This isn’t the first time that James has spoken in these terms in other parts of the epistle. Here are some examples: `Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says' (1:22); `faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead' (2:17); `As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead' (2:26). For James it is not good enough to just know what to do. There is no virtue in knowing what to do if you don’t do it. James is speaking to us that we are accountable before God for what we have done with what we know. We are accountable before God not for what we don’t know, but for what we do know! We cannot just obey God on our terms or whenever it is convenient. James confronts us with an either /or decision. Either we obey His will or we disobey His will. When it comes to the will of God, the real difficulty lies not in our inability to know what God commands and wills for us, but in our willingness to obey what He commands us to do! When it comes to God’s will, we need not be concerned about what we don’t know. God will take care of that, and He will reveal anything else supernaturally and providentially on a need to know basis. What we need to be concerned about is what we do know and doing it. The issue isn’t my future, it is my present. God wants you to do His revealed will in your present circumstances, relationships, work, church, and ministry. If you don’t do what you know God says to do James loving but bluntly says it is sin!

Perhaps some would hear this today and say, “Hey Jesus and James lighten up! Don’t be such legalists!” (As if teaching obedience and practicing obedience is legalism!). Where 1^st century legalists wanted to add obedience to non-biblical laws and ritual law to faith in Christ, people today want to subtract moral biblical commands from faith in Christ. What is sad today is that in many churches if people were to say that they that they had decided to do what God’s word says; some would be skeptical and alarmed. Some would take them aside for counseling and possibly alert others to keep an eye on them and watch them. The view is that we are saved to get to heaven, not for obedience. This is a very erroneous and unbiblical view of salvation (read Romans 1:8;15;18-19; 16:26; Acts 6:7; 2 Cor. 10:4-6; Hebrews 5:9). We are saved for obedience! In Matthew 7:26-27 Jesus warned those who don’t do what He teaches, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it." Another time He said in Matthew 5:19, “Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Then another time He said in John 14:15, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” The effect or outward sign of our inward love for God is radical obedience. So, James affirms along with Jesus the link between knowing the will of God and the necessity of obeying the word of God. Jesus and James seem to think that we can obey what we’ve learned and that we must obey what we’ve learned and that we are to teach others to obey as well. Do you love the Lord by obeying the Lord? Are you doing what is good and right? Do you teach others to obey the Lord by your visible obedience and exhortation? The bottom line for James is we are living for ourselves or we are taking up the cross and following Jesus.

CLOSING THOUGHTS Perhaps some of you are saying, Bill, I feel utterly defeated and discouraged by what you are teaching from James. I hear that I must do the will of God and if I don’t it is sin. Well Bill, I can’t obey the commandments. I want to obey, but it is not in my ability, power, or will to obey. I say to you with love, mercy, and total agreement. You are right! This is the mystery. We must obey God and we cannot, because of our willful and sinful corruption. But be encouraged right now. Remember what James taught us in verse 6? “But he gives more grace…God gives grace to the humble." For obedience to happen and be possible in my life is a gift. The knowing and the doing are caused by divine enabling. We must obey God and only God can change our hearts and empower our hearts to obey him. We are utterly dependent upon God’s grace for obedience and God will give us all the grace that we need in order to obey. 1John 5:3 says, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.” John tells us that love is not just obeying but a kind of obeying from a certain kind of heart that makes the doing of obeying not burdensome. God’s New Covenant promises were for a changed heart by grace that would give changed desires by grace that would be full of desire and supernatural power to know, desire, and be enabled to do God’s word! Ezekiel 11:19-20, “will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, so that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them.”(Read Deuteronomy 30:6; Jeremiah 31:33) All of these promises were promises of ENABLEMENT. Do you see? He gives us command this morning to obey his word and promises us the grace to give us the desire and the ability to obey. No wonder why the obedience of the believer who obeys God in faith through the power of His grace, brings God such great glory. "Now the God of peace . . . equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen." (Hebrews 13:20-21; read also 2 Thess. 1:11-12; 2 Cor. 9:8) Believing that obedience is a gift from God is essential to our calling to live in obedience to the glory of God. It makes us humble. It turns what we do into acts of faith. In everything that we do we pray and trust in the grace of God for a gift. When we obey in walking in His grace God is glorified and we are happy. Jesus said, “If you know these things, you will be happy if you do them”. (John 13:17). Jesus spells out the formula for happiness: First, knowing the right things to do. Secondly, doing them! No wonder, for when we obey, we let God be as He really is, Lord and King and Giver of grace, and we start doing the things for which He made us and redeemed us. As a result, He is gloried and we are happy! Would you be resolved in your heart like Joshua and before God declare that with His help starting today “But as for me and my house, we will obey the Lord!” So I end like John with this simple exhortation: Do God’s will… Do God’s will…Do God’s will…Do God’s will…! AMEN!