James

Law and Time

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Law and Time

Genre: Sermon

Lesson: 13 of 16

Track: #31

Year:

Dictation Name: RR328Q31

[Rushdoony] One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in His temple. Wait on the Lord, be of good courage and He shall strengthen Thine heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.

Let us pray. Oh Lord our God we wait on Thee, Thou art our hope. In this sin drenched world we look unto Thee and to Thy Son, that by Thy grace and mercy we may become more than conquerors, that in Christ we may become kings and priests and prophets of Thy kingdom and of Thy glory. We thank Thee that ours is the victory in Jesus Christ, and so we come into thy presence, waiting to be fed, waiting to be strengthened and blessed, waiting to know Thy victory and the assurance of Thy presence. In Christ’s name, amen.

Our scripture is from James the fourth chapter verses eleven through seventeen. James 4:11-17, and our subject: Law and Time. “11 Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. 12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another? 13 Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: 14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. 15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. 16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. 17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”

There are two sections to our text, first verses eleven and twelve call for humility by recognizing that the law comes from God, not from us; therefore He, not we, is the judge. Second we cannot command the length of our days, nor the future, therefore we must humbly trust in God and we must leave the judging to Him; this section is verses 13-17.

In verse eleven James returns once again to speech. He has dealt with the lawless tongue at some length previously and now he carries his argument a step further, his argument is a very, very important one. To speak evil of ones brother, a fellow believer, is to break God’s law. A commandment in Leviticus 19 verse 16 forbidding tale bearing does not allow us the freedom to bear tales, even if they are true. Any kind of tale bearing is forbidden because we must be a community, not a panel of judges. Both church and state have their jurisdiction here, and we have none. We are usurping God’s prerogative of judgment, His appointed judges are the ones who do the judging, we have no right to play the judge.

A very, very important verse in Jude verses 9&10 tells us that Michael the Archangel dared not rebuke Satan, he simply said “the Lord rebuke Thee.” Our ready, but ungodly judgments presume upon God’s prerogative, for use to make our private judgments on others is to assume that God and His law cannot function without us. We then speak out, and we speak evil of the law and we judge the law; and implicitly we judge the lawgiver, God. He can both save and destroy. Man and the state can only destroy, they cannot save, they cannot make anything alive. “Who art Thou that judgest another?” James asks. The prerogative of judgment is not ours, although God permits judgments within the limits of His law to His appointed judges. Such judgments by men are only valid when within the limits of God’s law. We have a right to judge at times, but our right of judgment is severely limited. If God’s ordained judges are limited, we are more limited then they.

We are not God’s although it is our sin to try and be God’s. Can we truly ordain and govern the future? We are creatures of time and we cannot ordain the length of our days, nor of our years. So to plan without God, to assume that our future is ours to ordain is foolishness. We do not know what tomorrow will bring. A backward will often tell us how unforeseen our days often are. To reckon our future, its buying and selling, without God, is foolishness. Life is transitory, like a vapor James tells us, men are here today and gone tomorrow. We ought therefore to plan always with the proviso “if God wills” James tells us “if God wills”.

Now in my childhood, and even into my youth, this was commonly done by most people. People knew that we cannot guarantee ourselves a futures by our willing, God alone determines our days. Law and time like all things else are alike given by God. In the first section of this text we are reminded that the law is given by God. In the second section we are bluntly told that time is also God’s gift to us. Luther said of he former, the law, “God gives us His law, not that we should censure it, but keep it.”

How can man claim to be the maker of law when he cannot create time, nor the world? The law was given by God for an order He created. Man apart from God makes laws for a world he plans to remake. This is insanity and absurdity. Our perspective should rather be this, as James tells us, if the Lord wills we shall do this or that. This was long embodied in Christian speech. When I was a child almost everybody said “if the Lord wills” in one language or another; and since I grew up in an area that had only a few people whose native language was English, I heard it in any number of languages. I know that my Father would use the Latin, “Deo Volente”, my grandmother the Armenian {?}, the Swedes in the their tongue, the Portuguese in theirs, and so on. Everybody assumed that their future could only be governed by God, but now that practice has disappeared; who says “God willing, I shall do this or that”? This humility is now gone.

Once a part of a devout Jew’s vocabulary, James tells us it was not replaced with a boastful confidence in one’s ability to be his own determiner and God. And James says in verse seventeen “therefore to Him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to Him it is sin.” This verse seems out of place if it is read only in terms of verse 16, but rather it sums up all that James has said up to this point. By His teaching he has taught them God’s way, he has stressed the law of God and human speech and its necessity that it be controlled by God, he has left all his readers without excuse. So too every pastor who declares the law of God leaves his listeners without excuse, they have been charged with the law word of God and cannot neglect it without sin. To hear and to pay no heed means the guilt is ours and the blood is upon our own hands. James leaves people without excuse, their own sin leads them into trouble, and their arrogant independence from God is their undoing. To profess faith is meaningless if it means no more than believing that God is, for as James tells us in chapter 2 verse 19, the devils also believe, and tremble. But simple belief means nothing, we must act on our belief. As James says “faith without works is dead.” Faith requires a total trust, a total dependence upon God as Lord, and it means living by every law word that comes from the mouth of God.

What Satan tried to do in the temptation of our Lord was to offer another governing premise for mankind and to persuade our Lord of its validity. He had successfully tempted the first Adam, and now the second Adam being man also, as well as God, he hoped to tempt into adopting the same premise, another word from the creature God, the one who was trying to be his own God. James sees this temptation at work in the minds of all men, and his concern is to uproot it. James continues his letter, and it builds up to a remarkable climax in the concluding section.

James letter is a blockbuster, he leaves man without excuse as he cuts the ground out from under his every pretension and his every attempt to play God, to act as judge over others, and to govern his life apart from the living God. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God we give thanks unto Thee for Thy word. We thank Thee that through James Thou didst confront us with our sins and our shortcomings and Thou didst appoint for us the way that we should take. Give us grace to hear and to obey, to do Thy will oh God, to say with Thy Son “lo I come in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do Thy will oh Lord.” Give us such a spirit, we beseech Thee. In Christ’s name, amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson?

Yes?

[Audience member] What was the reference you mentioned that Michael wouldn’t curse Satan?

[Rushdoony] That’s in the book of Jude, I think it’s the 21st verse, and it is interesting that Jude is written like James by a brother of our Lord.

[Audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] What verse?

[Audience member] Verse nine.

[Rushdoony] Verse nine, no, I think it’s further along.

[Audience member] Verse nine Rush.

[Rushdoony] It is verse nine?

[Audience member] Yes sir.

[Rushdoony] Somehow the pages are sticking together here so, I can’t get them apart. You are right, it’s in that verse, Jude 9. Jude is a very short letter, 25 verses, but a very important one and again a very plain speaking one because like James and like our Lord the three brothers are marked by very plain speaking, and they’re very, very severe in their condemnation of those who want to sit in judgment on everybody.

Any other questions or comments?

The fifth chapter of James, which we shall begin next week is an especially devastating one and it builds up to quite a climax, one very important in the history of the church and its impact.

Any other questions or comments? Well if not let us conclude with prayer.

Our Father, we thank Thee for Thy word, we thank Thee that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. When we as a human race were in total war against Thee, Thou didst plan for our salvation, we thank Thee for Thy mercy. Give us grace to use the freedom Thou hast given us in Thy service. And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, amen.