chapter 4 from verse 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 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 banisheth away. For that ye ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live, and do this or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings, all such rejoicing is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

I wonder when the last time was that you read the Epistle of James James is a very instructive I'm gonna say book. It is a book really and it's an epistle And yet many people seem to pass over it but it's good to Recognize that God in his love and mercy to his church has given us such good and gracious and wonderful instruction as we have here in this epistle of James. And he starts off this epistle by saying who he is, he's a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. He's writing to the Jewish people at that time and of course, to the whole Church of God as it is now today. And we should be very thankful therefore that we have such an account to instruct us. One thing with the Apostle James is his words are very straightforward and they're very simple.

We don't have to wonder what he's actually driving at. And this passage that we read here this morning is one that directs us very clearly and the underlying truth is that he's asking us to realize how short our life is. How short our life is. I suppose when we're young we don't want to think very much about it and we think perhaps such a consideration is rather morbid. But the reality is it's not really morbid. It's only morbid to unbelievers. It's not morbid to believers because believers have a wonderful prospect at the end of their life of going to be with Christ, which is far better.

And we should therefore desire that we might have our hearts set upon things above and not upon things on the earth. And therefore the Apostle gives us a clear illustration in these verses of our position and our situation. And he tells us to go to now We're to consider these things now. We often read, don't we? And we put things off. And we think, well, I needn't worry about that, and I'm young, and I can just think about it later in life. Well, the apostle tells us here, 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, We see how very clearly then the Apostle tells us to beware because as the Lord tells us in this verse go to now those who say today or tomorrow we were going to such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get going.

See naturally speaking we have our plans Naturally speaking, we plan out our life, perhaps not always intentionally as such, but we just do these things. And yet the reality is, none of us know what will occur tomorrow. Indeed, none of us know what will occur within the next minutes of our life. The Lord knows, God knows, and it's good that you and I are made aware of the brevity of our life. You know, we think perhaps, well, I'm young, or I might be middle-aged, and I've got a long time to live. Well, of course, none of us know how long we have to live. That's why in these verses the Apostle tells us, Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. What is your life?

Then he gives us this wonderful illustration. I think it's an amazing picture we have here. This is how it's described. It's just like a vapor. Now what's a vapour? Well, an easy vapour is one that you and I can see is steam. Steam's a vapour. You and I can see steam perhaps coming from a kettle perhaps coming from a saucepan and It comes when water is heated up and it gives off steam You and I see the steam rise from whatever it emanates from and then very quickly disappears into the atmosphere We can't follow it, we can't grasp it, we can't hold it.

It goes. And that's the picture. You young people, just remember the picture that God gives us here. A picture of a vapor, like steam, which you just see for an exceedingly short time. Next time you perhaps brought a kettle or put a saucepan on and boil you, watch the steam come and see how quickly it disappears into the atmosphere. And that's the picture that God gives us to realize it's like our life.

Our life's just like that. It so quickly comes and it so quickly goes. And we can't make it stay, you can't make steam stay, can you? It just evaporates. And it's like our life. And that's why The Apostle, under the blessed influence of the Holy Spirit, gives us such a clear picture. It is, our life is, like a vapour that appeareth for a little time. And it's very small. It'd be good to time it, wouldn't it? Get your watch and see how many seconds. You'd see the steam. There it is, and it very soon goes.

And it's just like our life. so here we have this statement it is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away and that's like our life and that's like our life we won't live forever in our natural state here on this earth There is an appointed time. There is an allotted time. And, you know, Moses, he lived for a long age and he gives us, in the 90th Psalm, he gives us a picture of the position of life. And it's good sometimes to just realize that God enabled his servants of old to write down these great truths and he tells us in verse 12, so teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts under wisdom. What does that mean? That means we don't want to waste our time. We don't want to waste the days that God has given us. We want to use them wisely. We need to use them for his honour and glory.

And as you and I look into our lives, and we're all guilty, aren't we, of wasting our time, And yet time is short. Our life is short. And the Lord very clearly sets before us in his word that you and I just live on this world, in this world, for a very short time and then we pass out of time and we pass into eternity. just again you young people to realize and I hope you do realize that you and I are on this earth and we live in what we call time time and you and I understand time because we know we look at the days and we look at the hours and we look at the minutes and we look at the seconds and we understand time don't we but you know what we don't understand And that is when you and I pass out of time, and all of us will pass out of time, we will pass into what the Word of God describes to us as eternity. And that's something which you and I cannot understand. Eternity is just beyond our natural comprehension our natural understanding and that's why the Lord gives us such clear instruction with regard to our life he tells us today or tomorrow we were going to such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get going whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow you and I may be Not in time. You and I may be in eternity. Eternity.

And then the great question that you and I will need to answer is that if that is so, will it be well with our souls? Because we have a soul, an innermost being, which never dies. Our natural life perishes. Our natural body rots in the grave, and it just perishes. But our soul lives forever. And you and I cannot destroy our soul. God has given us a soul. When we were born, he gave us a soul, and that soul lives forever. And when we pass out of time, that soul will go into eternity.

And it will either go into eternal bliss, in glory with the Savior, or in eternal misery in that place of hell. And there is no coming back. There's no coming back. There's no change. That's why the Word of God here is very clear and warns us in this way that our life is just like a vapor which vanishes away and then eternity.

And so really the question faces us, doesn't it? That great question, is it well with our soul? Is it well with our soul? And what that means is, are you and I ready to meet God? Are you and I ready to face our maker? Well, my friends, no one knows that apart from yourself. You and I know before God whether it is well with our soul.

But we should never pass these things off as something which is irrelevant. We should really be concerned about it. We read that psalm, Psalm 39, which is a very instructive psalm and it's a psalm of David. And David was given wonderful insight and understanding with regard to these things. And he tells us in the fourth verse, this was his prayer, his prayer. Just remember what he prayed.

He said, Lord, make me. Didn't look all around at everyone else. He said, Lord, make me to know mine end. the end of his life, and the measure of my days, what it is that I may know how frail I am. He wanted to be reminded of his state, his natural state. He wanted God to work with him, make me to know my end. You may say, well, why did David write a statement like that? Why was he concerned?

Why did he pray to God? Very simply, the devil doesn't want you and me to think about the end of our life. He wants you and me to be so taken up with our lives, and the things that we want to do, and the things that we've set our minds upon, that we forget about the end of our life.

And that's why God very graciously gives us such statements to consider. So that's a very clear statement isn't it there? We have a clear statement in the Proverbs. Again, the Proverbs is a wonderful number of, well it's one book, a number of chapters which instruct us. And the 27th chapter begins, boast, very similar to what the verse tells us in James, boast not thyself. And here it is, the first verse, boast not thyself of tomorrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth now that's a tremendous statement isn't it because so often we say oh well tomorrow I'm going to do this Or perhaps next week I'm going to do this. Or perhaps in a month's time I'm going to do this. Or I'm going on a holiday in the summer and I'm going to do this. We don't know. None of us know.

That's why the Bible tells us and the Bible gives us wonderful instruction, warnings, boast not thyself of tomorrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. So surely the great concern should be that you and I are aware of these warnings and be concerned to know that it is well with our soul. Now if we are concerned about that, and it's wonderful if God gives you and me a concern about the state of our soul.

And gives us a concern to know that his Holy Spirit has entered into our hearts so that we are, as the scripture tells us, born again. we have spiritual life that's what the Lord Jesus when he was on this earth spoke to Nicodemus you may remember we won't go through it now but it's in the third chapter of John you go home and you can read the account of God and Nicodemus and he told Nicodemus very very clearly he must be born again and each one of us today must be born again and that means that you and I must have the evidence that God, Almighty God is looking upon us and is speaking to us and is speaking to us I wonder if you are concerned about whether God has spoken to you and whether you have something that you can remember that God has said to you perhaps God has spoken and stopped you doing things perhaps God has spoken and encouraged you to do things perhaps God has blessed you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to believe that he is the saviour of sinners that he did come into this sinful world to die in your place and my place to pay the price for our sin what a blessing it is if God has made you and I aware that we have sinned and that we have offended a holy God and that we are guilty because every one of us is guilty before God and every one of us needs our sins to be taken away and they can only be removed through that wonderful death of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ, wonder of wonders, almighty God, came into this world to save sinners. to save our souls. And my friends, how important it is that you and I have the wonderful evidence that God has come, the Lord Jesus has come to save your soul and save my soul.

Real religion, as I often say, is personal. It's between our soul and God. between your soul and God. And we each need to have that personal religion to know that it is well with our soul. What a blessing then to have a God, a God in heaven. And it's a great blessing therefore to remember he's encouraged us to come to him in prayer. To tell Him, to let our requests be known. To come to Him, perhaps. And we always need to be honest in the things of God. Never pretend. Never pretend that God has spoken to you when He never has. Never think, well, I think I'm all right. I think things are going on OK. It's not a question of thinking.

It's a question of knowing. by the grace of God that He's come. He's come and He's given you that new life, that spiritual life, so that it is well with your soul. Well, we can understand, perhaps, in just a little, the importance, therefore, of the great truths contained in these verses. For what is your life? Your life and my life, what is it? It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanishes away. And so James tells us that she ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that.

I'm sure most of you will remember there was an apostle called Paul. And Paul was a man that was very evil in the way he lived. He was really against Christians. He hated Christians. And he did everything he could to destroy Christians until a most momentous day in his life.

He was walking along the road. You see, God can come wherever we are. We can be in our bed at night, we can be walking in the road, we can be doing cooking, we can be working, and God can come. And he came to Paul, he was walking along the road, and he shone a great light into his heart, into his soul.

And you know what the response was from Paul? He said this, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? What was that? It was submitting himself to God. Previous to that, he was doing his own will. He was organizing his life. He was choosing what he was going to do. But on that glorious occasion, he fell down and he said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? What a great blessing in your life and my life.

If we come to that position so that we stand before God and we say, Lord, what would I have me to do? And if you and I say that honestly, we'd have an open mind to do what God would direct us in. We won't start putting conditions. We won't say, well, I'll do that if this happens. No, we'll be open-minded. and we would desire God to appear for us and God to lead us and God to direct us.

What a wonderful blessing that is. And it's good, therefore, to be warned about these things. And when Jesus was on the earth, he gave a very outstanding example which we can read of in the Gospel of Luke. It was about a rich man, and he tells us these words, which are good to just ponder. This rich man said, then he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a rich man brought forth plentifully.

And he thought within himself, saying, what should I do? Because I have no room where to bestow my fruits. And he said, this will I do. I will pull down my barns and build greater. And there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, soul, thou hast much goods laid up For many years, take thy knees, eat, drink, and be merry. God uses the same thoughts today. You and I may think, well, I'm doing all right in life. I'm building up a nice balance, and everything's going smoothly. And I'm relying on that, and I intend to have a very happy life and spend my money as I want to.

And what did God say? But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then who shall those things be which thou hast provided? If God takes our life, everything that we have we leave behind. Won't be any good, will it? And so what does God say? is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. You and I, my friends, need treasure in heaven. We don't need treasure on this earth because the things of this poor old earth will pass away.

What a mercy then if God deals with us in love. And further on in this same chapter, the Lord speaking, to Peter. And the Lord says, And if that servant say in his heart, My Lord, the Laity is coming, and shall begin to beat the men's servant and the maidens, and to eat and drink and to be drunken, the Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him. That means sometimes in our lives God will come. in a day when we're not looking for God to come, we're not expecting God to come, we're occupied with our lives, we're taken up with our lives. We'll come in a day when he looketh not for him, and an hour when he is not aware, and we'll cut him in sunder, and we'll appoint him his portion, with the unbelievers. Of course, that, my friends, is in and of itself that place where the unbelievers are.

Oh, how important it is, is it not, that you and I are blessed with that Spirit of God, that God-given gift to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, to come and cast all our care upon Him, all our concerns Remember then this is just our life is just like a vapour can just suddenly vanish away, suddenly vanish away. And so says the blessed word of God, for you ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that.

But now you rejoice in your boastings. All such rejoicing is evil. The devil will very quickly come and tempt us to perhaps boast in what we've done or what we're doing or what we intend to do. And what does it do? Does it bring honour and glory to God? No, it just brings us honour and glory to ourselves. And yet, you see, the great purpose of your life and my life is to bring honour and glory to God. And the great way that the Lord does that is to show us what He, Almighty God, has condescended to do in saving our souls in redeeming ourselves you and I cannot save ourselves ourselves we might think well I'm going to change my life I'm going to turn over I'm going to do things in a different way that may be good and right but you and I cannot give ourselves the gift of eternal life that's the prerogative of Almighty God And that gift of eternal life can only come to us because of what God himself has done. Think of that. The great God. What he's done for you and me. We need to know it, my friends.

We need to know that the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world As the Apostle says, to save sinners of whom I am chief. It's very humbling if God comes and makes us aware of our true state before a holy God. That we're sinners indeed. We're guilty. We need saving and we can't save ourselves. But there's one who can. and one who does.

And that's the glorious Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. So what a wonderful blessing if He leads you and me to meditate and consider on what He's done and earnestly pray that He will show to us that He has done that great work of dying in our place upon that cross at Calvary in order to save our souls, redeem our souls, clean our souls, and in so doing prepare us for our eternal home.

Our eternal home. There is no unprepared person in heaven. There is no unwashed person in heaven. There is no unbeliever in heaven. So what a great mercy if the Holy Spirit has made us aware of the briefness of our life, like a vapor, which vanishes away, and made us concerned about the state of our soul, our eternal soul, which lives forever, and then given us that wonderful assurance that he has died in our place. It's an absolutely amazing thought, isn't it? That almighty God, the creator of all things, the eternal God, was willing and did come into this sinful world with that one object, of saving our soul, redeeming our soul, fitting us for eternal glory.

Well, here we have this statement, but now you rejoice in your boastings, all such rejoicing is evil, talking about natural things. Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. And so the word of God directs us to what you and I should do. Turn away from things which are evil. Pray to God for mercy. Pray for him for forgiveness. Pray to him that he will give us the evidence that we are born again of his spirit.

Oh, my friends, if God gives us these wonderful evidences, what a wonderful confirmation it is. that it is well with our soul. So in answer to that great and important question, is it well with our soul? You and I will be able to humbly say, not boasting in what we've done, but boasting in what Jesus has done on our behalf. To be able to say very humbly, it is well. and that's well for eternity well my friends these are very important issues aren't they and we're thankful that God in his great providence granted that James should write things very clearly for you and me and so these words tell us go to now ponder these things go to now He that say today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year, and buy and sell and gain, whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life?

It is even a vapour, and appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live, and do this or that. That's the evidence of God's favour and his grace toward us. If you and I can come and stand and say that, if the Lord will. But now, ye rejoice in your boastings, all such rejoicing is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him that is sin. Well, may we each Consider our latter end and be concerned to know that it is well with our soul. Amen.