God has a will for you. God has wants, and desires, and a plan for you and for your life. We break up God's Will into two different categories. We talk about God's "revealed Will," and we talk about God's "hidden Will," for you in your life. There are parts of God's Will that He has revealed to you. You can know what they are. They are written down in black and white. You can look at them. You can read them. You can study them. You can commit them to memory. You can learn them. The parts of God's Will for you that God has revealed to you are found in the Bible. The Bible is God's "revealed Will," where He tells you what He wants for you, what He desires for you, and what He wishes for you.

We also know that God has for you what we call a "hidden Will." There are things that God wants for you, that are hidden from you. You don't know what they are. For example, the Bible tells us, "All of our days were ordained before one of them came to be." They are all written in God's Book. That means God, in His Will, already knows when your last day will be. But, that is hidden from you. You don't know when it is, but that is part of God's plan for you. If you are a high schooler, you don't know yet, if it is God's plan, His Will for you that you go to college. That is part of His "hidden Will." If you are a high schooler, you don't know yet if God intends you to have a husband or a wife and have a family. That is part of God's "hidden Will." And, you don't know yet, if that is His Will for your life and that is how your life will unfold.

In today's scripture reading, in the book of James, it addresses those two wills of God – God's "revealed Will" and God's "hidden Will," and our relationship to those wills of God. It simply says,

"Submit yourselves, then,

to God."

Submit yourselves, then, to God, is a way of saying, "Whatever God wants for you, that is what you should want for yourself. Whatever God wills for you, that is what you should will for yourself."

Submit yourselves to God's Will.

What does God want for me? James takes us to two examples in scripture. He takes us to an example of God's "revealed Will" for you, and then he takes us to an example of God's "hidden Will" for you.

First of all, let's look at the example James gives us of God's "revealed Will" for you, which is laid out in scripture. God has made it very evident, very clear to you that this is what He wants for you. The example James uses is this: He says, "Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him, speaks against the law and judges it. But you – who are you to judge your neighbor?"

That is God's absolute Will. God intends to protect the people around you and their reputations. It is His absolute Will that you protect their reputation. That is why He gave us the Eighth Commandment, which says,

"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not lie about, betray or slander our neighbor, but excuse him, speak well of him, and put the best construction on everything."

That is God's absolute Will for you. Now, when you and I, in our heart of hearts, judge our neighbor, (now, it is not talking here about judging sin, because scripture clearly tells us if someone sins, we need to point that out to him), it is talking, as Jesus did, when He said,

"Judge not.

Judge not,

lest ye be judged."

He was talking about trying to read the motives of what is going on in people's hearts, when we really don't know. For example, let's say that someone in the Lakeside Lutheran A Cappella Choir wore a beautiful dress. In your heart, you think to yourself, you judge her, and you think, "Oh, she thinks she is so special. She thinks she is God's gift to this earth."

That is judging in our hearts and that is not a part of God's Will for you in your life.

And then, if you go on and those expressions that are in your heart come out of your mouth and you slander, telling somebody, "Oh she thinks she is so great. She is so arrogant. She always tries to put on the best dress she can," that is a sin against God. It is a sin against our neighbor. It is a sin against the revealed Will of God. Everyone in this room, without exception, knows that he or she has done that. You know that you have judged your neighbor, in your heart. You have thought bad things about your neighbor, and you have said bad things about your neighbor.

Now, here is the thing that we all have to be very clear on and very aware of. When you do that, you are not submitting to the Will of God. You are not wanting what God wants for you. If that is the case, what do we pray in the Lord's Prayer? We pray,

"Thy Will be done,

on earth,

as it is in Heaven."

How is God's Will done in Heaven? God's Will is done perfectly. God's Will is done joyfully, happily, and with great desire. Whenever we do not do God's Will, God's revealed Will, that means that we have no place in Heaven.

"Thy Will be done

on earth,

as it is in Heaven."

God's Will is done perfectly in Heaven. And so, because we have not followed God's revealed Will in our lives, we have no place in Heaven.

Now, if that troubles you, and causes you to say, "What can I do?" Where does God want you to go? God wants you to run right to His "revealed Will." Is there any way that I, a sinner who has gone against God's Will, have not submitted to the almighty God of the universe, and deserves no place in Heaven, is there any way that I can be saved? What has God revealed to you? God has made it so clear, 'black and white,' in scripture. What does He say? He says,

"God wants

all men to be saved

and come to a knowledge of the truth."

God's Will for me, is that He wants me, (it says, "all men," that means me), He wants me to be saved. He wants me to come to a knowledge of the truth. How comforting that is!

What else does God's Word say, in scripture? What does He reveal? He reveals to me that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. How comforting that is! God, there in His Word, tells me His Will is that Christ came to save sinners. I am a sinner. He came to save me. I know God's Will for me, a sinner. I know in God's Word, which He has revealed so plainly, so clearly, in such black and white letters, that God's Will for me is that everything that belongs to me, really has been given to Jesus Christ.

➢ My sin is now Christ's sin.

➢ My unrighteousness is Christ's unrighteousness.

➢ My punishment for sin is Christ's punishment for sin.

➢ My death is Christ's death.

That is what the message, the revealed message of the Word, which talks about the cross, says. In the revealed Word of God, God tells you His Will. He says our sins were nailed to the cross with Christ. Everything, all of my sin, now belongs to Christ. He has paid for all of my sins. And, it is God's Will that you know that. It is God's Will that you know everything that belongs to Christ, now is yours. Scripture says that in His revealed Word, which God wants you to know. It is His Will that you know this. He says, Christ has become our righteousness.

➢ His holy life is mine!

➢ His payment for sin is mine!

➢ His home in Heaven is mine!

➢ By God's grace, and God's goodness and mercy, all that Christ has is mine

God has revealed to us in scripture how we benefit from what Jesus did for sinners. What does He say? He wants you to know,

"God so loved the world

that He gave His one and only Son

that whosoever believeth in Him,

shall not perish,

shall not perish,

but have everlasting life."

That is God's "revealed Will." He wants you to know that

➢ when you cling to Jesus as your Savior,

➢ when you believe in Him,

➢ when you trust in Him,

➢ when you hold to the forgiveness of sins that He has earned for you,

you will not be condemned. You will be saved for all eternity! And so, scripture in its "revealed Will" points out to us, "Yes you are a sinner, but you have a Savior." And we see the heart of God. God is a God whose Will toward you is loving, kind, gracious, and merciful. We want to submit to God's Will, not because we have to, not because we are forced to, not because we must, but we want to submit to God's Will, because we know that without Him we are lost and condemned creatures, and with Him we are everything. We owe Him everything and we want to follow His "revealed Will" in our lives.

We also want to follow His "hidden Will" in our lives. James gives an example of that in today's scripture reading. It says, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." James says, "Why, you don’t even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes."

You don’t know if that is God's Will for you. You don't know if you are going to start a business in that city.

And then James says, "Instead you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's Will, (if it is God's Will, if that is what He wants for us), then we will live and do this or that."

I was talking to an elderly lady, who is a member of Holy Cross. We were sitting in her home, talking about a lot of things. I asked her, "Where did you go to high school?" She said to me, "Oh pastor, I didn't go to high school."

So, I asked, "You didn't?"

She then told me, "No. When I went to grade school, actually I was the best student in grade school, in the county! I even got a reward, for how well I did in grade school! I was so looking forward to going to high school. That was my plan. And, even going on to college. But then, my mom got really sick, so my dad had to pull me out of school. He said, ' You are going to have to stay home, make the meals, wash the clothes, and you are going to have to be the mom.'

"And so, I never got to go to high school. And I never got to go to college."

I looked at her and said, "Oh, that’s too bad."

She then replied, "Pastor, don't say that. That was God's Will."

That was God's Will.

She took absolute comfort in knowing that God's "hidden Will" for us is always best for us. How could she know that? She knew God's "revealed Will." She knows what a loving, gracious, kind God she has. She knows Jesus in the revealed Word. She knows that He is Lord and Master over all things. She knows how dearly her Savior loves her. And, she knows that when God unfolds things in our lives, He will never, ever let anything happen to His people that would hurt or harm them. It will only be to our benefit.

And so, we should make plans. You may have plans to go to college. You may have plans to get married, some day. But, we should always end that by saying, "If it is God's Will. If it is God's Will!"

As God's people, we want to submit, place ourselves under His Will. In our lives, let us say, "I want for myself what God wants for me." Therefore brothers, let us submit ourselves to the Lord!

Amen.