The Epistle of James - Godly Values
Part 33 - God is in Control
James 4v13-15
1st February 2019
James 4v13-15
Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there,
carry on business and make money."
Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that
appears for a little while and then vanishes.
Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."
Sometimes the Bible gives us a reality check. This is one of those times, and here's is the reality check: We make plans, and we expect to prosper, but we don't even know if we'll be alive tomorrow.
You've heard the expression, "You could be run over by a bus tomorrow". Well, you could. Or a terrorist might decide to bomb your town. Who knows what's going to happen? We should remember that we stay alive through God's grace alone. I don't think James is instructing us to use the form of words "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that" every time we speak about our plans. It would be tedious. But God does expect us to remember all the time that He's in control and we're not.
God knows if we'll be alive tomorrow, and we don't. God has decreed the date and time of your death, and there's nothing you can do to change it. As Job prayed:
Job 14:5
Man's days are determined; you [God] have decreed the number of his months and have set limits
he cannot exceed.
And Jesus said:
Luke 12:25-26
Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
God has even determined the cause of your death. He even decreed the cause of Jesus's death. We know this because Jesus told His disciples:
Luke 22:22
"The son of man will go as it has been decreed".
And after the death of Jesus, the apostles prayed:
Acts 4:27-28
"for truly in this city there were gathers together against your holy servant Jesus, whom
you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,
to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place"
God has not only predestined the time, date and nature of your death. He's also decreed the content of every day of your life.
Psalm 139v16b
All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
God is in complete control of the whole universe, and so He is in complete control of your life. Job says of God:
Job 23:13-14
"But he is unchangeable, and who can turn him back? What he desires, that he does.
For he will complete what he appoints for me, and many such things are in his mind."
God says,
Isaiah 46:9b-10
...I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the
end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will
stand, and I will do all that I please.
and
Isaiah 46:11b
What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do.
Of course, the fact that God is in complete control doesn't excuse us when we sin. Our sin is part of his plan, but we are responsible for it, and we will answer for it. Every choice we make and every word we say will be subject to judgement.
How do you feel about God being in control?
Perhaps you struggle to believe that He truly is in control, because bad things happen, and you imagine that God's plan can't include bad things. Well, the worst thing that ever happened in the history of the world was the crucifixion of Jesus and, as we've seen, that was decreed by God. And, as we know, God had a good purpose in that terrible event. Humanity committed the sin of deicide; we murdered God. But because we committed that terrible crime, Jesus paid the price for your sin and mine, and we can be forgiven, redeemed, adopted and God's children, and filled with the Holy Spirit. God has a purpose in everything that happens, and in every death that occurs.
Perhaps you don't believe God's in control because you think it would be inconsistent with the doctrine of free will. But God is Lord of our free will, too. I'm convinced that both the doctrine of God's absolute sovereignty and the doctrine of free will are true. I accept that you have to think quite hard before you accept both, but I know that Bible teaches both, so they must both be true. Actually, the Bible teaches the doctrine of the sovereignty of God much more than it teaches the doctrine of the free will of man.
Psalm 33:11
the plans of the Lord stand firm for ever, the purposes of his heart through all
generations.
Proverbs 16:33
The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.
This verse teaches us that there is no such thing as chance. Even the outcome of a game of dice, or cards, or bingo, has been decided in the councils of God before the creation of the world. At university, I studied a mathematical discipline called probability theory, but God doesn't see anything in terms of probability. He's already decided everything. God doesn't lie awake at night, wondering what's going to happen tomorrow. As Albert Einstein said, "God doesn't play dice".
And what sort of a life would we have if God wasn't in control? Such an idea is horrific. I am profoundly glad that God is in control of my future, and the world's future.