The Danger of Playing God

Solomon wrote, Go to the ant thou sluggard, observe her ways, observe her industry, and be wise.

Watch her prepare in summer and then bring in the harvest. James is not rebuking these merchants for their plans. In fact, he's not even condemning their desire to make a profit. He is rebuking them not for their occupation, not for their anticipation. He's rebuking them for their secularization of mind and heart.

They're living just like a worldly. God doesn't mind if we engage in business and make plans for the future. But God is deeply concerned about the way we pursue our business. And He's concerned that we involve Him in our plans and the way we conduct our lives. Life is fleeting. In James chapter four, we're reminded that since life is short, we need to be careful regarding how we live it. Welcome to Wisdom for the Heart. Today, Stephen Davy continues through his series entitled Satisfied. He's called the message you're about to hear the vanishing life.

This past week, I picked up a copy of the news and observer because the front page article arrested my attention. And it introduced a new campaign by an atheist organization called Freedom From Religion Foundation. The term they use, many of them within the atheistic world is the term free thinking. That's grown to be a popular phrase, a little more sophisticated, a little more positive thinking or sounding than atheism or agnosticism. Free thinking basically means freedom from the belief of a creator, God, to whom or before whom we all one day will stand. And it gives the false impression, of course, we know from Scripture of freedom. The word atheist, by the way, is actually a Greek compound word theos, God, and the alpha prefix, which means no.

An atheist, atheos, is one who believes in no God, whatever they call themselves. That's the core of their disbelief, we could say it. Well, this rally news article announced a billboard campaign that began last month.

It's going to continue through April, during the same time the church acknowledges the crucifixion and resurrection of God the Son. But I went online and I found all the billboards and read them all. And as the article in the news and observer said, this is unique because not only is there a billboard with a quote from each of these individuals, their picture is on the billboard along with their name and where they live. So they're obviously desiring to be known for their unbelief. The campaign includes 12 billboards in all.

Let me quote a few of them to give you the idea. Even brought a picture or two along. One man from Cary says on his billboard, that will be out if it's not already up, science is my co-pilot. Obviously that's a pun on the popular bumper sticker. God is my co-pilot, which is equally horrible theology.

I would hope that God is not your co-pilot, I hope he's the pilot and you're glad to be on the plane, period. Another billboard has a couple of teenage girls who claim to be atheists who say we put all our faith in science, which is a contradiction in terms but you get the idea of what they're saying. A woman identifies herself as a stay-at-home mom, a non-theist, not sure what the difference is between a non-theist and atheist, but she says I don't need a higher power to have a higher purpose. Here's an author with a quote next to his smiling face, I write fiction, I don't believe it. Obviously a reference to the word of God. Another billboard with a truck driver who says I'm saved from religion.

Wouldn't you love to have an opportunity to deliver the gospel to him and tell him you cannot be saved by religion either? This one was ironic, this billboard reads reason over dogma, all caps, always, reason over dogma, always, exclamation point, which is rather dogmatic. It's like saying we take a stand against people who take a stand.

One more, this retiree writes, we've got the whole world in our hands. That really sums it up, doesn't it? I looked at these faces and stared at them for some time with sadness and hope while they believe or while they live that they'll believe. But it sums it up, it's my world not God's, it's my life not God's, it's my will not God's, it's my planet not the creator's. Free thinking is nothing really any more than what Paul described in Romans chapter 1 which reveals the underpinnings of mankind's aversion to the thought of God.

They suppress the truth, they know intuitively by looking at creation that there is a creator and instead of thanking him and submitting to him they refuse or resist the truth of him and then they resort to speculation and they proclaim themselves to be wise or as in this campaign to be free in their thinking. In reality, Paul writes, their foolish hearts are only darkened in their unbelief. Romans 1 21.

Like the famous lines of William Henley's poem Invictus which reads, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul. Now I could go on and on and just about everybody in this audience would say, yeah, you're right Stephen, go get them, go after those atheists, tell them. Frankly, I don't have nearly as much trouble with a practicing atheist outside the church as I do with a practical atheist inside the church. And evidently it troubled James enough to give us what he's about to give us.

We could all pitch a fit by the way, we could all have a rally, we could pick it, maybe we could throw some dollars together and come up with our own billboard. You quote a verse, all the while ignoring an epidemic of thought growing inside the church among those who say they believe in the existence of God but have practically nothing whatsoever to do with him. Practical atheists. Atheists in practical terms. They attend a church, they get married to someone they choose to love, they choose a vocation that seems interesting, they grow a family, they buy and sell homes and cars, they expand their portfolios and their investments and they ride the current of culture without ever including God.

Now you might not spot it right away. Practical atheism will come out though a little more clearly and the advice that you might hear them giving their children, you know what you need to do honey is you need to get a profession that pays well. We don't want you to struggle like we did which is absolutely carnal advice. Maybe God wants them to struggle. In fact shouldn't God be the one you go to about that profession or career? What we want you to do is we want you to meet a nice boy or a nice girl, we want you to get a good college education, we want you to land a good job so that you can live a nice life. Surely God would want all of that for you.

You don't even need to really bother asking him because mom and dad don't ask him either. See practical atheism is living and thinking and deciding without ever giving any serious thought to the word of God much less the wisdom of God. Practical atheists fill our churches and they watch their p's and q's.

They try to stay out of serious trouble but they will never agonize with the Lord over questions relative to their own lives. Lord am I really pleasing you? Is this decision that I'm about to make acceptable to you? Would you please direct my steps today? Lord would you give me wisdom at school today?

I want to live out my relationship with the word, the living word and the written word. Lord help me at this very moment as I encounter a new week at the job. I know temptation is waiting there for me.

Would you help me? I surrender to you to enable me to overcome the temptation to lie or to gossip or to flirt or to steal or to cheat or to procrastinate or to goof off or whatever. Lord I want to represent you well today.

My life is yours. Augustine's classic statement, love God and do as you please. What he meant was pursue God's glory, follow him with abandon, passionately desire his pleasure, meaning give him the right to change what pleases you. But love God and do as you please is turned around by practical atheists so that it simply reads do as you please and God will probably trod along.

It's practiced by millions of people who say they believe in God but have very little to do with him. Many are no doubt self-deceived and unconverted, unregenerate, having never come to genuine faith and repentance. To them the Apostle Paul would issue the challenge, examine yourselves to see if you are indeed in the faith. Second Corinthians 13 5.

But I don't think that's who James is writing as we're going to see. He's going to challenge practical atheism among believers so that we are challenged who live like them in practical terms. In fact it'd be easy to say well he's just talking to unbelievers so we're off the hook. No it's possible for a genuine believer to live a self-absorbed, self-centered, disobedient life. Think of it, is it possible for a Christian to be self-centered? Is it possible for a Christian to think more of his own pleasure and desires than God's pleasure? Is it possible for a Christian to make a decision without ever asking God's counsel?

Is that possible? Three of us believe it is. When is the last time we looked in the mirror with any measure of honesty? The particular mirror that I want to hold up is the one delivered as you know by the half-brother of our Lord to Jewish believers scattered throughout the empire, the mirror of God's Word. I'm looking at James chapter 4 where James describes the lifestyle of a practical atheist. He doesn't call into question their conversion, he calls into question their character and their lifestyle. Now what I want to do is read verse 13 we'll just go to the end of the chapter and then we'll go back and take it apart okay? Come now verse 13 says 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're a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away instead here's what 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 the one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it to him it is sinning.

It's a lifestyle of sin in its arrogance and its boasting. Now in the text that we just read the practical atheist is making at least five choices all on his own. Let's go back and take a look. First he is choosing his own timetable. Look at verse 13. Come now you who say today or tomorrow the word translated by the way you who say is referring to someone who is carefully reasoning out his thoughts. He's mapped it out.

This is not a haphazard. This isn't a spontaneous say we listen to something today or tomorrow. This is someone who's thought it through reasoned it out and he's come to the conclusion that this enterprise that he's about to begin the planning of it this is the best day no later than tomorrow. Tomorrow at the latest now is the perfect time according to the way I'm looking at it. Have you prayed about it. Why none of this is wrong.

God wants me to be happy of course and I'm not violating anything that I don't. I'm sure he wouldn't want me to wait until next week today. Tomorrow at the latest. That's the perfect time. You've been a Christian for very long. You've discovered the critical issue of timing haven't you. There are a lot of good things you can do.

In fact James will not condemn anything that they have decided to do. But the timing of them is surrendered to God because timing matters doesn't it. And so you're learning to pray I trust not only about saying the right thing but saying the right thing at the right time.

Not just doing something but doing that something at the right time. When do I move. When do I change jobs. When do I have that conversation. When do I implement that decision. When do I buy that.

When do I sell that and on and on and on. When I was in seminary I convinced my sweetheart that the timing was perfect for us to replace our old automobile. Now if you'd pulled me aside and said to Stephen what's really the thought behind it. I would have told you that well you know now seems to be a good time besides it's embarrassing it was a bucket of bolts and it's time to replace it for maybe a newer version of a bucket of bolts and so I thought now we could do a Marsha had a good job with an attorney downtown Dallas we didn't have any kids I had a job currying with a little extra money and so I thought the timing.

It's perfect for it for this beside I had a friend who wanted to sell me his little hatchback had low mileage something under about two hundred thousand miles from what I remember so I thought this is that this is perfect timing. So did I pray about it. Didn't you hear what I said I was in seminary. I'm praying all the time. I mean I'm being graded on how I pray in seminary but not about that car. So my wife went along with me we bought that little hatchback wrestled the payments into our budget and then it was about two weeks to the day that I found out about a job that was opening up currying for one company which in the currying world that's just kind of the ultimate you're not currying for everybody you got one one company to make matters even better. This company was led by a president who was a believer and several of his associates were believers. In fact I would end up leading them in Bible study was a delight of my seminary experience there in Dallas and they had decided years earlier that they would only hire Dallas seminary students and they could keep the job until they graduated which was wonderful that you had that kind of set up and they did that because they could trust the DTS students and second of all because they wanted to bless them they wanted to be an encouragement to that seminary student and here's how they decided to bless that seminary student they offered and since I got the job they offered me seven days a week 24 hours a day all expenses paid including gas oil and even regular detail detailing a beautiful new Buick LeSabre. Now I've got this hatchback with plastic seats sitting in the parking lot of our apartment complex and I hadn't even looked at that car carefully enough to notice it didn't have air conditioning and this is Texas of all places I know just go ahead and say you dummy what were you thinking I wasn't serious John now now you got this I got payments and we paid on that thing for nearly a year until I finally talked the original owner back into taking it back and I sold it back to him at a loss I've often thought about that decision which was practical atheism and did I ever pay for it cost me you ever jump ahead of God see if I had only prayed about that for two weeks wow James is holding the mirror of the word up to the believer with this startling revelation that a practical atheist doesn't do bad things he just chooses to do the things he chooses to do on his own timetable secondly he chooses his own destination James writes today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city this is where we're going to live is where we're going to move you ever prayed about where you're going to live you ever prayed about where you're going to move but why bother it's a great place to live fits our budget it's a nice neighborhood well why would God do anything other than just stamp you know approved approved approved approved approved it's perfect third he chooses his own tenure James describes them saying in verse 13 we're going to spend a year there literally the language says we're going to do a year it implies by the way more than some casual life they are literally planning to use that year actively they are presuming they've got the whole year it's at their disposal they can use it as they have decided in fact the construction that James uses here implies that after that one year they've already set in motion plans for the following year see these these men women perhaps along with them couples families we don't know that they're they've got it all mapped out and as far as they're concerned it is all up to them don't overlook fourthly they're choosing their own occupation do you notice that he has near the end of verse 13 they were going to engage in in business the word business is the word emporu samatha which gives us our transliterated word emporium and emporium is a center of trade it's a place that provides opportunities for buying and selling and conducting a business we we consider new york city to be one of the world's great emporiums it's a city of business these jewish believers are savvy they've chosen a trade center they figured out all of the details on building their business they've analyzed the right time to launch the marketing plan when to show up where to live how to engage in that business james never says any of that is wrong however what is leading us to understand is that they are presuming that it's all their own thinking choosing deciding they're also presuming one more thing did you notice they're choosing their own outcome verse 13 says we will engage in business and make a what make a profit that is their ultimate goal the final outcome of their enterprise we're going to succeed and by the way there's nothing wrong with that either why would god be against any of that see these are the five assumptions of practical atheists someone who has placed his trust in christ but at some point in life maybe for a month a year a moment has chosen not to care to include him in any of his plans and so these individuals are saying i know when i'm going to start my business i know where i'm going to live i know how long i'm going to live there i know what i'm going to do while i'm living there and i know what's going to happen because of what i'm doing while i'm living there you see the practicing atheist out there that's how they live that's how they move that's how they think that's how they decide we would expect them to because they deny the existence of god why would they ever include god they don't believe he exists we say we do believe and james isn't describing them he's describing those in the assembly who can live and plan and act in practical terms as if there is no god now again don't misunderstand god is not against planning in fact he is against not planning paul wrote to the effusions be careful how you walk making the most of your time effusions 5 15 he wrote to the thessalonians that work is honorable if a person can work and they refuse to work that is dishonorable second thessalonians three solomon wrote go to the ant thou sluggard observe her ways observe her industry and be wise watch her prepare in summer and then bring in the harvest proverbs chapter six james is not rebuking these merchants for their plans in fact he's not even condemning their desire to make a profit which is a good thing to do when you're in business he is rebuking them not for their occupation not for their anticipation he's rebuking them for their secularization of mind and heart they're living just like a worldling without any acknowledgement of god just like the world they're all they're all about buying they're all about selling they're all about marketing they're all about commerce they're all about moving they're all about setting things up they're all about everything that god would certainly say those are things you ought to be thinking about it's just they've left him out that's practical atheism are you a practical atheist today now having described how a practical atheist thinks james is going to describe for us what the practical atheist overlooks he's going to give us two realities overlooked by these individuals the first reality is this so simple that of course we would say we understand that believe it but we overlook it number one that life is entirely unpredictable life is entirely unpredictable look at verse 14 you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow have you overlooked that have you forgotten that you don't know what will happen to you tomorrow of the way eugene peterson paraphrase it to read you don't know the first thing about tomorrow and that's true we we plan but we must not presume that march 11th earth earthquake that we've been reading about creating those tsunami waves that hit the northeast coast literally wiping out towns and villages four trains including one passenger train just disappeared japan has one of the world's most sophisticated warning systems because of their location and it worked perfectly the residents of sendai the town hit hardest received the warning and had get this 15 minutes to run i don't know about you but i went online and i watched the footage taken from an airplane that watched that that captured it was utterly terrifying moving as you watch that wall of water sweeping in over farmland gobbling up villages moving ships and carrying houses and and boats as if they were toys but what was really really eerie from that vantage point was to look ahead at the camera angle and see a little village as the water of wall move toward them to see little cars slowly moving down the street to see a man on a motorcycle with no idea of how unpredictable life was you don't know what your life will be like tomorrow all it takes is an accident an earthquake a tornado a reversal downturn a pink slip and we're left with the recognition that in spite of all of our planning we overlooked bringing god into it to develop our character to prepare us for the inevitability that life is unpredictable no wonder solomon wrote it this way don't boast about tomorrow for you do not know what a day may bring forth life is fleeting and we have no idea how much time we have and so this reminder today is important we need to use whatever time we do have for god's glory we'll bring you the conclusion to this message when we return next time this is wisdom for the heart part of our commitment is to provide resources that equip you to live wisely one of those resources is a book that steven's written that takes you through the entire book of james this is a beautiful hardback book almost 400 pages in length during this series we're featuring this book and making it available at a very special price you'll find information on this resource at our website wisdomonline.org navigate to our online store you can also call us at 866-48-bible and we can give you information over the phone for steven davie and all of us here i thank you for listening and invite you to join us again next time on wisdom for the heart you