Are you saying this as God tells you to?; or are you saying that you are the master of your fate, and the captain of your soul?

Am I Saying that God Determines all Things?

James 4:13-17

Pastor Kerry Kinchen, Bridgeway Bible Church

Please turn to James 4:13-17. As you are turning there I want to read a poem by a man that I have quoted before. The quote is a famous one. Maybe you have heard it. Maybe you have quoted it. It is the last two lines of the poem by the humanist anti-Christ, William Ernest Henley who lived in the 1800's. The poem is called Invictus. Invictus is a Latin word. It means unconquered. The last two lines are;

I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.

Not many of us would typically quote a line from a poem by a militant atheist like Henley if we knew who the author was, and if we knew what the author meant by the line. But, aside from the actual poem itself, a lot of Christians believe this statement; I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul. A lot of Christians go about each and every day acting like this statement is the gospel truth. I'm not talking about the belief, for example, that something like America is the land of opportunity for free enterprise, or, at least it used to be. And so, the philosophy is that you should be able to apply yourself to make a living that is high on the financial scale of the world, or, in the same kind of so-called freedom, you can decide not to apply yourself where you can choose to relegate yourself to a life of want. I'm also not talking about the fact that when you sin, you are the one sinning, and so in that respect, you have decided, as the master of what you do and the captain of your soul, that you will either sin, or you will not sin. What I am talking about is the belief that God has created everything, and that He determined to do it a long time ago, and now afterward, (once He got the ball to start rolling, so to speak) we are the ones who create the future. It is the belief that we are the ones who roll the ball aside from God's determination. Henley, (being an unsaved man immersed in the futility of the Gentile mind) took this kind of thinking down another notch to its basest level. It is a level that denies that God exists at all. Listen to his whole poem, and you will see what I mean,

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance,
I have not winced nor cried aloud,
Under the bludgeonings of chance,
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears,
Looms but the horror of the shade.
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how straight the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
(Invictus; ie. Unconquered, W.E. Henley)

A lot of fancy words. I could've stated all of that rubbish in just a few words--prideful sin. Henley hated God, and of course, Henley hated Christianity. When Henley named his poem, Unconquered, what he meant was that God could not conquer Mr. Henley--translated, Henley was attempting to proclaim that God could not conquer Henley’s prideful selfishness. In a sarcastic form of ironic verse, Henley thanked whatever little "g" gods may be for his so-called, unconquerable soul. Like father, like son, Henley reflected the family attributes of Satan. The ancient worn out, but believed in, lie of Satan is that God is not really in control. Historians tell us that according to this hatred, Henley penned his poem in blatant defiance of God's sovereign determination and rule. The reason why I want us to think about this is because we children of God may not be guilty of wanting to eliminate the whole recognition of God, and His sovereignty, but we, can run into a very real danger that is not too far from the same kind of selfishness, pride, arrogance and boasting in living life without fully recognizing God's sovereignty in all things--no matter how small, or how big they may be. It is not exactly the same manifestation of selfishness, pride, arrogance and boasting of the unsaved, but it is selfishness, pride, arrogance and boasting--which means it is what?--it is sin. What I am talking about is the arrogance and boastful sin that acts as if God has created everything a long time ago in the beginning, as Genesis tells us, but afterward, we are the ones that create the future aside from God's determination. I am also talking about people who think they recognize God's determination, providence, and sovereignty, theologically. They recognize, according to the Bible that this is true, but the problem is that they don't act like it, and often they don't talk like it. Instead, they show another way of thinking in their daily thoughts, words, and actions. This particular type of manifestation of human selfishness and pride is just as wrong as any attempt to diminish God's sovereignty. With this in mind, we read our passage, starting in James 4:13, where James says,

"13 Come now, 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.' 14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. 15 Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord determines, we will live and also do this or that.' 16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. 17 Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin."

Please prepare your hearts with me to consider God's word applied in exhortation this morning in this verse by verse expository sermon titled,

Am I Saying that God Determines all Things?
[prayer]

Whenever we approach God's word, we must recognize that the New Testament writers wrote under similar, yet separate, and somewhat different circumstances from one another. Some set out to lay down the account of events that took place within that first generation. Luke did this with the gospel of Luke, and Acts. Then there are the various epistles. Many address a specific audience. Most of the letters that Paul wrote, were to regional churches. Some were written to a person, like to Timothy, Titus, or to Philemon. John wrote to seven churches with one epistle that was sent to each one. We later gave that epistle the name, Revelation, or Apocalypse. James wrote this epistle to the 12 dispersed Israelite tribes comprising those who were saved in the Messiah--the churches. He wrote it to them in respect to where they met as churches. Where did they meet? The met in synagogues which were man made, man conceived, buildings started under the Babylonian captivity, as we read, in 2:2, where James references the broad category of a man, coming inside,

"2 For if a man comes into your synagogue ..."

I say all of this, because often times in these various epistles, we find certain people and situations being addressed or referenced. John wrote of those who have gone out from among us. Paul wrote of those who captivate weak women. Sometimes Paul addressed those who had been bewitched by the circumcision party. Peter and Jude spoke of evil men who creep in among the true Christians. When these writers do this, we know that there is a contextual reason for what was originally written, but we also know that there is a principled reason for the writing. It is a reason that actually transcends the events themselves. It is something much bigger and grander because God had meant it as instruction for all Christians in all generations. Our passage out of James 4 reflects this trend. What I mean is that when we look at it, we recognize that James is addressing businessmen. James says,

"13 Come now, 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.' 14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow." James 4:13-14

So we see that James is addressing businessmen. Something else I think we need to know about, (and I will touch upon it very quickly), is that there are some folks who think that James has suddenly changed from His Christian audience and is now addressing non-Christians who do business. I don't think so. For James to do such a thing would be strangely inconsistent with who he has been addressing in the flow. Further, for James to suddenly turn his attention to non-Christians to learn spiritual principles for daily living would mean that James would be instructing unsaved people to act like saved people while they are still in an unregenerate mental state. What I mean is that James would be telling spiritually dead people to act as if they have the spiritual ability and discernment to think like children of God, and recognize God's sovereignty in His determination concerning what they do in business. Further, James would be doing this without urging them to follow the one true Messiah in evangelization. Whenever the apostles addressed unsaved Jews, they either urged them to receive Messiah, or they condemned them for rejecting Messiah. Once saved, they would be discipled in things like God's sovereignty, not to boast, and not to be arrogant. To say otherwise would make about as much sense as me calling together a group of non-Christians like Henley in a building like a synagogue, and then calling it a church fellowship, and when I preach, preach expository sermons to them like they are going to understand me, and additionally, as if they are going to be thrilled to listen to me like I am worthy of their attention, and even further, as if they are going to actually embrace what I preach. Finally, it would be like me preaching all of those things but never actually sharing the gospel. Aside from all of that, we must recognize that James wraps up this point with saying therefore. James is saying therefore, and then goes on and says, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin, and yet, the unsaved do not, and can not, know the right thing to do in the manner that James is teaching without Holy Spirit enablement. Everything they do is sin in God's recognition, because they are lost in sin. Even if they are someone who claims to be an Israelite, but yet they have not embraced the Messiah as their Lord and Savior, then they are are blinded, lost, and perishing in their sin. They do not worship the One true Jehovah of true Israel, much less recognize His actual sovereignty from the Christian perspective of the true children of God. So, such teachings are meaningless to unsaved people, but for us who are saved, they are pertinent points of discipleship for all the family of God.

In this instruction, James is addressing all kinds of issues that arise among the dispersed saints that are issues that the Holy Spirit inspired James to recognize. James is addressing Christian business men, but--and this is important--God is also addressing an underlying mindset, and sinful attitude that is a mindset and attitude of a great number of Christians in our age. That mindset and attitude is the big point, and that big point is what we want to glean, so that we make sure that we don't make the mistake too. The big point can be introduced as the fact that Christians sometimes act like life is just there, without much thought concerning the great hand of God, where God holds life, history, and the future, in His palm. What I mean is that Christians act like they are the Masters of their fate, and the captains of their soul, and so they plan to do something with every intention that it is going to happen in a kind of boastful pride of life that puts God's glory on the back shelf. Notice how easy it is to slip into this way of thinking. Think about how James is describing how complex our plans can be: We might be thinking we will do something today or tomorrow, as James points out. We say it like we have so many options. Now think about the place James mentions. The plan is to visit it. James refers to it as such and such a city, which means it doesn't matter where the place is. It could be right down the road. The point is that we think that we've got it all worked out. Then there is the amount of time. In the example, it is spending a long time away from home. It is a whole year (and you think your business trip was a long one). It is a long time, as if we know that we will live that long. We expect to engage in business, as if we know that we will still have a business. And of course, we fully expect to make a profit. Okay, while we think about James' introduction to his point, we need to be thinking that what James is pointing out is a type of faith. It is a type of faith that is based upon self, which is based upon pride. And so we need to recognize that this is a type of faith, but it is not a faith in God. It is faith in the arm of the flesh in respect to being way too sure of the future, your existence, your ability, and the ultimate outcome in the so-called gambling ventures of everyday life. By the way, this passage is a constant rebuke to the so-called Positive Confession Movement. For those of you who do not know, the positive confession movement emerged from the false faith of PMA. PMA is the acrostic for the so called Positive Mental Attitude, where your PMA is supposed to be like a power that can make things happen just because you want them to happen. It is godless faith in humanistic desires and plans, and it is based upon selfishness and its twin sister, pride. Unfortunately, this godless philosophy crept into the church and it was repackaged as the PCM. The PCM is the Positive Confession Movement. Basically what this false doctrine teaches is that you can speak things into existence with your words. It is faith in your faith, where you believe you can change the future, your existence, your ability, and the ultimate outcome and ventures of everyday life by speaking your own future into existence. No matter how the folks who believe and practice this junk religion couch the terms, it is you as the captain--it is you as the master where you determine your fate--not God. According to this trash theology, your words are supposedly faith messengers that go out and do your bidding. The biggest problem with this false doctrine is that it is a false doctrine. Another problem with it is that James rebukes this kind of foolishness by pointing out God's view of reality, which is that no matter how prideful, or how sure of yourself, or how boastful, or how arrogant you are in your sincerity, you absolutely do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. We are not the masters of tomorrow. We are not the captains of our fates. Only the great Master of the universe and Captain of the church knows what he determines for tomorrow. With plans concerning the everyday affairs of life, there are no guarantees, yet notice how we operate in life when we are distracted by the pursuits of this temporal world. Much, if not most of the time, we average Christian folks can be found acting out our lives like we know what life will be like tomorrow. But, the reality is that there are only a few real guarantees, which leads to the next point that James wants to shake us up with. The point is a wake up call to the reality of how short our current existence is, which is the first guarantee that nobody can positively confess out of existence. The first guarantee for everyone is that,

"You are just a vapor [or puff of smoke according to the Greek] that appears for a little while and then vanishes away." James 4:14

This does not mean that we do not have eternal spiritual life in Christ. When we die, we will be resurrected in perfect spiritual bodies that will go on forever. In the meantime, our current sub-perfect physical bodies are here on this planet for a micro moment in time. In comparison to all the lofty plans that we come up with, where we are acting like we are going to live forever in our endeavors, the reality is that we all have one foot in the grave. Some of God's children around the globe are going to die today, as I speak. Some will die tomorrow. Many will die this week--this year. What this means is that our days are numbered. So the reality of our situation is that life is so short that it is gone in a blink. But most people do not awaken every morning, and then lay down their head at the end of day, thinking about their soon approaching death. Typically, we get all wrapped up in the pattern of the world and we start to plan and endeavor to do things, and we can think on trivial things as being so important that we act as if they are going to be around forever.

Years ago, I used to go down to the coast for Spring Break ministry to college students who were on their short vapor of a vacation just before summer hit. Spring break down on the beach, for those of us who don't know, is an extremely sensual environment that epitomizes care free excitement, energy, and all the trappings of futile youthful endeavor. I did this ministry for about 7 or 8 years or so, and typically preached the same things all day long each day. When we set out to do the first evangelism outreach of that first year, I noticed that the beach was packed with loud young people in a frenzy of mass mayhem. Huge multitudes of young people were in a constant party spirit. Girls were 99% naked, and most males were 99% drunk, or about to get there. The music was a riotous mixture of thousands of sound systems screaming and thumping as loudly as possible in seeming competition for ears that are just as distracted as everyone's eyes. Set up right in the middle of a crowd of thousands of young souls that were breaking from the, so called, academic world that is supposedly preparing them for tomorrow--existing like their plans for life each day happened to be events, goals, ambitions, and pursuits that were going to go on forever, I wondered what I could say to my fleeting audience that changed bout every 15 to 20 seconds to a new audience right before my very eyes. The mass of people was a constant movement parading back and forth along the crowded beach. As I began preaching, I realized that I only had a few moments to get out an impacting statement before a new set of ears replaced the ones that were just there. I wanted to say something impacting, but I also wanted to get people's attention that was being forced into a kind of environmental attention deficit disorder. I don't know if you realize it or not but when you yell into a large high quality megaphone, and you bark, listen up!, like a football coach calling his team to attention, what you have just implemented is the greatest eliminator of attention deficit known to man. I came up with a handful of short little statements that I would repeat with robotic regularity. One particular thing that I preached was something that the natural mind opposed to God does not like to hear, but is something that the elect who are effectually called will contemplate in respect to their spiritual condition by conviction of the Holy Spirit. After I yelled my official and urgent sounding call to listen up!, I would proceed to say;

Your life is just a vapor. You are born to die. You are here for a moment and then you are gone. You are born in rebellion against God and in your rebellion you will perish in your sin. Lost forever, but very aware of your existence, you will be separated from the Creator in everlasting destruction in your sins. But, the Creator so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that those believing in Him will not perish but have eternal life. Turn to Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son who willingly paid the penalty for sins as the ultimate sacrifice according to God's plan. Turn, and submit to Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and you will be saved and have eternal life.

Then I would say,

Come talk to us,

and then I would preach some more, starting with,

Listen up!

Many people received Christ and corresponded with us by mail, and phone, and of course many did not. But, I remember preaching like it was yesterday. I started by pointing out this guarantee that James points out. I went on to the ultimate guarantees: A)  without Christ, all will perish in their sins and experience evelastin destruction as Paul describes it in 2 Thessalonians 1:9; B) in Christ, the saved will experience wonderful eternal life in an amazing place of happiness forever.

But, for us who are children of God, James is doing more than simply reminding us of our quickly approaching death. James is wanting us to be mindful of our amazing Father in respect to the short amount of time that we have to live for Christ. It has to do with the other guarantee, which is the guarantee of blessing of James 1:25, where James also says,

"25 But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does." James 1:25

So, in contrast to living for ourselves in prideful, futile ambition, there is the correct mindset, and attitude, where God is at the forefront of our lives, permeating our thoughts and assertions, where, as James says,

"15 Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord determines, we will live and also do this or that.'"

I don't know if we all realize this or not, but this is one of the strongest declarations of God's sovereignty in hard determination found anywhere in the Scriptures. The Greek word that James uses here for the Lord determining, is thelo. Sometimes it is translated as wills, whereby we would also say, if the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that. Whenever we make this pronouncement, we are recognizing one of the most profound truths concerning God and His creation that we have had revealed to us from Him. Essentially, this declaration is in line with what is called in Theological circles, Divine Determinism. It is not fatalism, which is a philosophical notion of humanism and false religion. Rather, it is as the great reformed theologian Vincent Cheung states so well, where Cheung explains the difference between Divine Determinism from Fatalism,

"... theological or divine determinism, ... [is] the teaching that the personal God of the Bible has intelligently and immutably predetermined all events, including all human thoughts, decisions, and actions, and that by predetermining both the ends and the means to those ends. ... The fact is that things are more determined in divine determinism than in any other scheme. Under "fatalism" ... an event is predetermined in such a way that the same outcome will result "no matter what you do," that is, regardless of means. But under divine determinism, although it "matters" what you do, "what you do" is also immutably predetermined in the first place. And it "matters" because there is a definite relationship between "what you do" and the outcome, but even this relationship is determined and controlled by God."
Determinism vs. Fatalism Vincent Cheung, May 14, 2005
http://www.vincentcheung.com/2005/05/14/determinism-vs-fatalism/

Such is the beauty and grandeur of God and His immensity in all things--especially in His decrees and control of His creation. Now I know that this is heavy stuff and it is very difficult for us to wrap our minds around. But God does not want us to wrap our minds around what can not be put in a box. In fact, philosophy wants to argue that Divine Determinism can not exist. But it does exist, and the way our minds know that it does, is simply because God reveals it in His word, like here in James and in other places. For example, In Isaiah's prophecy, where God speaks to Israel which He created, and of which had become transgressors against God,

"9 Remember the former things long past. For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, 'My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure'; 11 Calling a bird of prey from the east, The man of My purpose from a far country. Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it." Isaiah 46:9-11

God declares the end from the beginning, which means He declares everything. He has planned it, surely He will do it. Further, He does not change His mind, like for example, a human changes His mind. God tells us this about His mind in Numbers and 1 Samuel,

"God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?" Numbers 23:19

"29 Also the Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man that He should change His mind." 1 Samuel 15:29

James, Peter, John, and Paul, and all the apostles were very aware of these facts. Paul declared this when he went to that great icon of philosophical thought in Athens Greece. He was met by some philosophers. They took Paul to the Areopagus. Paul fully recognized that in doing so, God was the one who controlled the destiny of all that was taking place. While there, Paul declared God's sovereign hand. Paul tells those pagans,

"24 The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; 25 nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; 26 and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation," Acts 17:24

It is God's sovereign hand. God has already determined everyone's appointed time, and everyone's appointed boundary. Paul knows that God is the time controller. God is the boundary maker. Paul goes on explaining more of God's sovereignty,

"28 for in Him we live and move and exist, ..."

Paul goes on with more, which is the big ministry point that we all need to be focusing upon. He says,

"30 Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should turn, 31 because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead." Acts 17

God has fixed a day. God is sovereign over the past. God is sovereign over the present. God is sovereign over the future. God holds the days of our lives in His hand. David knew it, and he sang it,

"14... I trust in You, O Yahweh, I say, 'You are my God.' 15 My times are in Your hand;" Psalm 31:15

The sovereign Master of everyone's fate, Who is the Captain of everyone's soul is declared as such in Proverbs 16:9;

"9 The mind of man plans his way, But Yahweh directs his steps." Proverbs 16:9

The sovereign determination of God is declared all throughout the Bible in multitudes of other passages. Essentially, what God is telling us is that we can plan things, but the outcome of all things, ultimately depends upon the Lord's sovereign determination. But, remember, James is teaching this because this is not always being recognized like it should be. Primarily the reason for this is the influence of humanism upon Christian thought. We must relentlessly take our thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ in this area because the world wants to distract us into thinking that we are the masters of our fate--we are each the captains of our souls. Henley was a blinded sinner, lost and perishing, but we are not. Our problem, though, is that we can easily think carnally, and though we shouldn't, we do. Because it is so easy to do this, James is teaching us (the saints of God) to get back into a spiritual mindset instead of a secular mindset. Paul had it. He did more than just proclaim it to the philosophers of the Areopagus like it was some neat little piece of information. This was the way Paul lived. Paul said to the Corinthian church,

"I will come to you soon, ..."

But Paul knows who the real Master and Captain is, and so instead of just knowing it, Paul acts like He knows it, and says,

"I will come to you soon, if the Lord determines it," I Corinthians 4:19

Paul was consistent in this. We all need to be consistent in this. When Paul set sail from Ephesus he demonstrated his consistency when he said,

"I will return to you again if God determines" Acts 18:21

In Romans, Paul wrote,

"10 always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the determination of God I may succeed in coming to you." Romans 1:10

This is what James is teaching us, but James does not care if it sounds harsh to tell us what we are doing when we fail to recognize God's sovereignty and act accordingly. For a believer to leave God out of recognition concerning all of his plans is an arrogant assumption of self-sufficiency. God does not want any of His children to act like we are independent from Him. This is how the unsaved, in arrogance and boasting in futile pursuits, talk about world events. This is how the typical movie script is written. This is the theme of practically every pop song in the world culture. When you go to the internet to read the news, this is the mindset of those who gather, record, and report news stories. It is the way the world defines the family, and runs the family. It is the way the world does business in the world. But, God wants us to live according to His word. And so James recognizes the unholy influence; he says bluntly,

"16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil."

It almost seems harsh to say that this is boasting and evil. This is why it is necessary for us to look at this with our spiritual eyes. I think Dr. J Alec Motyer, the great reformed Biblical scholar, and expositor, explains it well concerning the illustration that James used coming into this verse. He wrote,

One of the functions that Scripture fulfills towards us is that it teaches us the real nature of sin, verse 13, "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"--that is very far from being the commonly accepted picture of an arrogant person. For one thing, it is all so ordinary. That is exactly the point. When James exposes the blemish of presumptuousness, he exposes something which is the unrecognized claim of our hearts from time to time. We speak as if life were our right. We speak as if our choice were the deciding factor. We speak as though we had the ability to make ourselves succeed: the presumption that my life belongs to me. That is what James is against"
(The Message of James: The Tests of Faith, The Bible Speaks Today, The New Testament Series Edition, John R.W. Stott.

What happens is that we become content with our plans. We become content with our own expected outcomes. So what happens is that what we are doing is boasting in our own endeavors. In other words, anytime we do not say, as a matter of reflecting the proper attitude of the proper mindset; If the Lord determines, we will live and also do this or that, as the reality of everything, then according to God's view of what we are doing, we really are bragging in our own achievement--meaning we are taking away God's glory--and God is telling us that what this really means is that we are being arrogant. God is urging us to drop our view and look at everything from His view. But the subtle thing about this is that this shape of boasting and arrogance may not be like we typically think boasting and arrogance is. It is not that we are needing to be dramatic. It is not as if we go around bragging. It is simply stating things from your heart that show that you don't recognize that God is completely sovereign over everything, and that whatever happens is in His determination. It is boasting, and part of the sinful influence of this world is that we immediately may want to find a way to argue with James and say,

I'm not boasting when I share my plans for what I intend on accomplishing over the next year.

I'm not arrogant when I talk about what I am wanting to set out to do.

Having goals is not boasting.

But, unless we are truly in tune with the great spiritual truth that, instead, you ought to say, "if the Lord determines, we will live and also do this or that," and are giving God the glory like James is saying for us to do, then we are, in fact, boasting, and being arrogant creatures of the Creator. Think about Proverb 16:9 once again,

"9 The mind of man plans his way, But Yahweh directs his steps." Proverbs 16:9

It is boasting when we are seduced by the world into the world's futile mind by practically acting out our daily lives like we are thinking,

The mind of me plans my way, and I direct my steps. 1st Me 1:me

So, we may look all pious and spiritual to everyone around us because we go to church, and we have some Scripture verses memorized, or we are elders or deacons, or we homeschool, or we are on the foreign mission field, but is all of our boast really in God and His sovereign control? Actually, here is the key to understanding this: This has nothing to do with how people perceive you. This has everything to do with how God understands you. When God sees the philosophy of self sufficiency taking root in your life, what God sees, is not reliance upon Him that equates to daily worship. He does not see praise for His grace, sovereign control, and immensity. What God sees is pride and selfishness and going through the motions as if He is in the back seat somewhere that is paramount to boasting and arrogance before Him. Why?--because He is really in the front seat--It is us who are in the back seat. And, though it may seem like it is no big deal to the carnal mind, God says through James that it is evil. To make plans without considering God's plan is the same thing as arrogantly claiming to be in full command of the future, and this is more than being a fallacy of presumptuousness--it is sin. These are the strong and sobering statements. They bring us to where James sums it all up with,

"17 Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin."

It is tempting to take this verse out of context and make it into a pithy statement to confront numerous areas of our lives in respect to sin, which as a principle, can be a legitimate thing to do. A lot of really good topical sermons are preached around this verse. But we can not miss that this is part of this whole point that James is making in this section of scripture. When James says therefor, what he is doing is summing his point that we have been examining, and magnifying on it a bit. The magnification is the exhortation. It is the urging. We call it the preach part of the preaching. So when James finally gets to verse 17 here, it is like saying,

Now that I have pointed the matter out to you, you have no excuse. You are obligated to do it.

Brothers and sisters, the unsaved have a reason for acting like they are the masters of their fate and the captains of their souls, but we don't have an excuse. God wants all the glory all the time, so I ask you the question that is the theme of this sermon: Are you saying that God determines all things?; or, are you saying that chance does?; or fate?; or your own human powers? If you are not giving God all the glory in His sovereign determination, then God is telling you what you ought to say, and say in belief backed by believer's behavior.

As we finish up this morning I want to tell the story of a young lady by the name of Dorothea Day. Over a century ago, Dorothea had grown up being influenced by William Ernest Henley and his godless humanism. Then one day God effectually called Dorothea into His family according to His Divine Determination. Christ saved her from her sin. In her new life in Christ, she wrote a responsive rebuke to Henley’s blasphemous Invictus. It is a beautiful expression of worship that gives God the rightful glory He deserves in His determination. In the poem, Dorothea lays out in parallel form what is the right attitude of a child of God toward the huge sovereignty of God. Listen as I read the words that should be our words that echo from our hearts in each and every thing we do. In corrective opposition to invictus which means unconquered, the name of Dorothea's poem is My Captain--

Out of the light that dazzles me,
Bright as the sun from pole to pole,
I thank the God I know to be,
For Christ--the Conqueror of my soul.
Since His the sway of circumstance,
I would not wince nor cry aloud.
Under the rule which men call chance,
My head, with joy, is humbly bowed.
Beyond this place of sin and tears,
That Life with Him and His the Aid,
That, spite the menace of the years,
Keeps, and will keep me unafraid.
I have no fear though straight the gate:
He cleared from punishment the scroll.
Christ is the Master of my fate!
Christ is the Captain of my soul!--Dorothea Day

I urge all of us here this morning to be saying that God determines all things, knowing that God is sovereign over our lives. Let us turn our backs on faith in the arm of the flesh in respect to being way too sure of the future, or our abilities, and the ultimate outcome in the gambling ventures of everyday life. Let us continuously, consciously, give God all the glory for all that He has done, and all He is doing as the Master of the universe that He made, as the Master of our fate, and as the Captain of His creation, and as the captain of our souls, and not only say it, but act like we believe

"If the Lord determines, we will live and also do this or that."