You care to open your Bibles
to the book of James. James chapter 4 is where our
lesson will be from this morning. I'm very thankful to have Eric
Floyd's class in here with us this morning. Some of my very
favorite people I like when you're in my class. James chapter 4. Before we begin, let's bow in
prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we humbly
bow before your awesome throne of grace, thankful that we can
come before your throne of grace. How we thank you for your grace
and your mercy and your love and your goodness to your people.
How we thank you for the unspeakable gift of your son. That the only
way, Father, we know the only way we can come before you is
in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for his
righteousness. Such vile sinners, the only way
we could be made righteous is in him. How we thank you for
the blood of his sacrifice. Our sin is so filthy, so corrupting. The only way we could be cleansed
of all of our sin is in his precious blood. Father, we're thankful.
And it is our earnest plea this morning that by your spirit,
you would enable us to worship you in spirit and in truth. Speak
to us through your word, we pray. Get glory to your name. comfort
and instruct and edify your people through your word, we pray. We
pray for our class this morning. We pray for our children's classes
that are going on right now. Father, bless the teachers. Give
them a word from thee. Give them wisdom and understanding. We pray for our children, Father,
that you'd give them a mind that would receive, a heart that would
receive and believe your word. Father, We pray for the sick
and the afflicted, those who are in trial. We pray that you'd
heal, that you'd comfort, that you'd meet their need according
to the riches of your goodness and to your people and your wisdom,
your direction of the lives of your people. We thank you for
the good report we've had on our brother Dale and the surgery
was successful. And Father, we pray that you'd
heal him and strengthen him and bring him back home as soon as
possible. Thank you for the good report
we've had in our brother Cecil. Pray that you'd continue to undertake
in his behalf. We pray for Amy as she faces
surgery this week. Father, that you'd be with her
and that you'd use those doctors as an instrument of her healing,
we pray. Father, bless us again. Get much
glory, we pray, through the teaching and preaching of your word this
morning. For it is in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ
we pray and give thanks. All right, James chapter 4. The
title of the lesson this morning is Some Thoughts on Life. Some
Thoughts on Life. Our text begins with just three
verses beginning in 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 you know not what shall
be on the morrow. For what is your life? It's even a vapor
that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away. For
that you ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live and
do this or that. Now I have some thoughts on life
this morning I think would be good for us to consider. And
I hope that we who believe God would always think very seriously
about life. that we think seriously about
life and death. Because, you know, death is a
part of life. I hope that we don't make jokes
about it, think cavalierly, but that we think seriously about
this matter. Because this life, very soon,
will be over. And then we'll meet God in judgment.
That's what the scripture says. It's appointed unto men once
to die, and after this, the judgment. And since we believe God, I hope
that we live our lives preparing to meet God. I hope we live our
lives preparing to die and to meet God in judgment. You know,
we normally make preparations for other things in life, don't
we? You know, I'm not much of a traveler, but I do take two
trips every year. In October, Janet and I go on
vacation. We look forward to it all year,
don't we? And I go to Mexico every year, either in January
or February. And you know, all year long, I plan for those trips. We save money. I make preparations.
I look at ticket prices and all these things. I prepare all year
long for those two trips. And those trips just only last
a week. Then certainly, shouldn't we
be preparing to leave this world? It's coming soon. That's a trip
we've all got to take. And it's an eternal trip. Not
just a week, but it's an eternal trip. We ought to be preparing
for it, shouldn't we? And I tell you how we prepare
to die, how we prepare to meet God in judgment. It's by trusting
Christ alone for everything that God requires of us. Now, all
that being said, I hope we do think seriously about life and
death. Let me also say this. I do not
think it's right for a believer to live our lives like those
old Puritans, you know, like Eeyore, just always down to mouth.
Everything's bad. Everything's awful. Oh, woe is
me. I don't think we all live that way. I really don't. Now,
our life, the days are short and they're full of trouble.
No question about it. But a believer ought to live
in this world enjoying, being thankful for the blessings that
God gives us. Scripture often talks about believers
being full of joy. We know this life is short. We
know the days that we have are full of trouble. But when God
gives us some good days, God gives us some blessings, we ought
to enjoy them. There's nothing wrong with enjoying the blessings
that God gives you, and we ought to be thankful for them. This life is short, and we ought
to live it following our Savior, imitating our Savior. This life
is so short, we ought to live it being kind to others, being
forgiving to others. Life is just as short and just
as full of trouble for them as it is for us. Shouldn't we try
to live our life making the journey a little bit easier for somebody
else, but being kind and forgiving? This life is short. We know that. So we ought to live it seeking
eternal life, seeking Christ who's the believer's joy. And
James points this out. We should always live this life
in dependence upon God. We can't do anything without
God. I can't take my next breath. I can't walk. None of us can.
We can't do anything. We're totally dependent on God. I hope we don't use the phrase,
the Lord willing, just as a, you know, a trite religious thing,
you know, the catchphrase we repeat. I hope we really do mean
the Lord willing, we'll do this or that. I hope we mean that.
I hope we say that because we know we live completely dependent
upon God. We don't know if we're going
to be here this afternoon, much less a year from now. You know,
some Some time ago, I made reservations for our vacation in October.
Reservations are all made. They got a room ready for us,
so they say. Well, the Lord willing, we'll go. The Lord willing. You
know, the Lord willing, we'll go to Mexico in February. John
Chapman had a trip plane to Mexico one morning. He got up that morning.
The flight was supposed to leave so sick he couldn't get out of
bed. The Lord wasn't willing. If the Lord willing, we'll go.
If he's not willing, we won't. So I want to give us four thoughts
this morning, four thoughts on life. And I want to give us these
four thoughts for this purpose so that we'll apply our hearts
to wisdom. David said, Lord, teach us to
number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. And the
first thought is this, this life passes so quickly, so quickly. You young people, I know you
think the days pass so slow. I remember, Sam, I remember being
your age, sitting in class at school, thinking, is this day
never going to end? Is this math class, is this math
class lasting 15 hours? Oh, it's never going to end.
Life passes so slow, it seems like. But to old people, the
years pass so quickly. You think days pass slowly. To
older people, the years pass so quickly. My dear friend, Jim Meadows, I miss Jim every
day. He told me, he said, when I got to be about 50, I thought
the Lord did something with time. Just it sped up so fast. Old people, you talk to an old
person, they'll never tell you their life passed slowly. Never.
I saw a woman on, I don't even know what it was, some TV show,
turned 105, 105 years old. And she said, believe how fast my life has
gone. She said, there are still so
many things I want to do, and there's just no time. I can't
believe it. 105. And you look at Job chapter
seven, you know, scripture backs that up, that life passes so
quickly. Job chapter seven, verse six,
look what Job says. My days are swifter than a weaver's
shuttle, and they're spent without hope. When I was a boy, one thing
I just utterly dreaded. It was the, ugh, my parents would
want to go to Shaker Town. Y'all make us go to Shaker Town.
That was the most boring thing in this world to me. But I tell
you one thing I remember. They had a weaver's loom there,
you know, showing how they did things then. And that weaver's
shuttle just, it's so quick. I mean, it's just a blur. You
can't even see it. That's our days. They just pass in a blur. And they're gone. Look over a
page at Job 9 verse 25. Job says, Now my days are swifter
than a post. They flee away. They see no good. Now Job talks about post here.
What he's talking about is how they delivered important mail
at that time. Like our pony express. You know,
they'd ride a horse from this station to the next station.
And they'd get to the next station. They'd trade out their tired
horse for a fresh horse so that the horse they were riding could
always be galloping. And they'd just keep that gallop
up from one station to the next until they got where they were
going. That's our life. We just sprint from one day to
the next. And at the end of that day, we
switch days. We switch horses for another fresh one And the
next day just gallops as fast as the last one did. Our days
just keep passing like a horse galloping until we get where
we're going, until we get to our final destination. And I
also thought about this as post. It's like driving down a road.
We were doing this recently. We passed by huge, I mean huge
horse farms. And they were all surrounded
by black wooden fences. And we were commenting. How long
did it take them to put up that fence, to sink all those posts,
you know, put all those up? I mean, you just, and we were
just going by so fast you couldn't count those posts. They were
going by in a blur. That's our days. They passed
so quickly, you can't even count them. And those horse farms were
huge. I mean, humongous. But you know
what happened to every one of them? The fence stopped. Farm as big as it was, it finally
ended. Suddenly, you ran out of posts.
That's the way our life is. No matter how long it may be,
suddenly we're going to run out of posts. We'll suddenly run
out of day. They pass so quickly. Look at verse 26 of Job 9. Job
says they're passed away as the swift ships, as the eagle that
hastens to the prey. Our days pass away like a ship
under full sail. It's got all of its sails up
and the wind is blowing. Blowing that ship just as fast
as it'll go. And there's no slowing that ship
down. Because you can't slow the wind down, you can't stop
it. And that's our days. You can't stop how swiftly they
pass because they're under full wind. And that ship under full
sail, you picture one of those big old wooden ships under full
sail, that thing's just going down to sea, you know, making
a big wake behind it. That ship would be a disaster
waiting to happen. if it didn't have a captain,
a wise captain at the rudder. Well, this is our life, like
this ship under full sail. It's a disaster waiting to happen
unless God gives us some wisdom to control it with the rudder
of faith, to steer ourselves looking for Christ. And Job said,
my days pass faster than an eagle that's hastening after its prey.
I see these movies and I watched a show recently, just this week,
about Yellowstone and the bald eagle flying through there, you
know? That poor little old prairie dog doesn't stand a chance against
that eagle. I mean, he just doesn't stand
a chance. That thing just floating around up there and it sees it
and just BAM! I mean, it's there in no time.
And that little prairie dog, he might be able to escape that
eagle once or twice. But sooner or later, that eagle
is going to get him. He's faster than the prairie dog. That's
us. Death is after us. And it's swifter
than us. We can't outrun it. It's coming
soon. Sooner rather than later. Soon,
this life will be over because it passes so quickly. Scripture
says that. The songwriter said it's swift
to its close. Ebbs out, life's a little day.
It's not even a long day. It's a little day. This life
ends so quickly. Second, this life is so fragile. Isn't that something our congregation
has seen close up recently? How fragile this life is. We
get sick so easily. I mean, it's just nothing. It
seems like it makes us so sick and it's so hard to recover and
we never will recover unless the Lord enables us to. It's
just so difficult. This life is so fragile and it
could end so suddenly. Didn't the rich man in the parable
our Lord told find that out? He said, oh boy, I've got everything.
I don't even have room to store everything I got. I'm going to
tear down my small barns. I'm going to build me some bigger
ones. And all my soul deities. You know what he found out that
night? How fragile this life is. No
warning. That's how fragile it is. Look
back here at James chapter 4. Look how James describes this
life. In verse 14, he says, whereas
you know not what shall be on the morrow, for what is your
life? It's even a vapor that appeareth
for a little time and then vanisheth away. Your life is nothing more
than a vapor. That's how fragile it is. There's
no substance to steam. There's no substance to a vapor
at all. And you know all it takes for
a vapor to make it disappear? Just the slightest change in
temperature makes a vapor disappear. Y'all come in our kitchen sometimes
and she's got Everything cooking. She's got everything going over
here and over here and over here. Watch the pots and pans she's
got. She's cooking something, you
know, steam. It's just right off the pan, you know, steam
is so thick and it's rising up. But you know, after 8 or 10 inches,
that steam's gone. It just took the slightest change
in temperature for that vapor. You can't even see it anymore.
That's our life. That's how fragile and how easy
it can end. But you know, eternal life is
not fragile. Eternal life in Christ can never
be lost, but this life, oh, it's fragile. Look at Psalm 103. David describes our life here,
Psalm 103. Solomon, he called our life a
shadow. It's just a shadow. I mean, there's
nothing to it at all. What's more insignificant than
a shadow? That's our life. And look what
his father David said here in Psalm 103 verse 14. For he knoweth
our frame, he remembereth that we're dust. He remembers we're
dust. Far too often we forget that.
What is more fragile than a pile of dust? That's our life. Look at verse
15. As for man, his days are as grass,
as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind
passeth over it, and it's gone. And the place thereof shall know
it no more. Flowers are so fragile. And David compares the flower
of the field to our life. They're so fragile. Now, they
do bloom beautiful for a while. Boy, you see wildflowers, and
oh, they're so beautiful. We have flowers, and our chance
got these little pots and things hanging up all over the place,
flowers in them. We leave town for three or four days, and nobody
waters them, what happens? They're kind of ugly when you
get back. They're all brown and wilted. A cold snap comes. If we wouldn't leave town, you
know, we keep them water and stuff good, the first cold snap
that comes, they're gone. They're gone. That's our physical
life. It blooms beautiful for a while,
strength and beauty and got a little bit of intelligence and energy.
And God causes just a gentle north breeze to blow over us.
We're gone. This life has ended because it's
so fragile. Well, here's the third thought
on life. This life changes constantly. Nothing changes more than life. I began high school in 1979. Brady and Lucy just started high
school. To you, 1979 seems ancient. I mean, it's as far away as the
17th century. I mean, it seems so long. To
me, it doesn't seem like very long. It's so swift. But you know, from when I started
high school to when you two started high school, I can't even begin
to tell you the different world you live in. When you went to
your first day of high school, the world bore very little resemblance
to the world I went to high school in. Very little. It changes so
much in a short time. This world will be a different
place again. It really will. When you get to be my age, you'll
be saying, you won't believe the world, how much different
it is from my life. And that applies to every walk
of life. Everything just constantly changes. You can't count on anything to
stay the same in this life. Look at Genesis chapter 47. This
is a lesson that Jacob taught us very well. Genesis 47. This is at the very end of Jacob's
life, in verse 7 of Genesis 47. And Joseph brought in Jacob,
his father, and set him before Pharaoh. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh. This makes my point of living
our life seeking Christ. Now, enjoy the things of this
life, but don't make getting the things of this world the
primary goal of your life. Here's Jacob and Pharaoh. sitting
in a room. Who's the greater? Who's the
greatest one in this room? The greatest one in that room
is Jacob, the pilgrim, who doesn't have nothing. There's Pharaoh
who's got everything. He's the richest, most powerful
man in the world. But Jacob's the greater because
Jacob blessed Pharaoh. And the lesser is always blessed
of the greater. All right, read on verse eight. And Pharaoh said unto Jacob,
How old art thou? A lot of people think Pharaoh
never seen anybody this old. And Jacob said unto Pharaoh,
the days of the years of my pilgrimage are 130. Few and evil have the
days of the years of my life been. And I've not even attained
under the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the
days of their pilgrimage. Now here Jacob makes our first
point again. Jacob said, my days, had been
130 years. He described 130 years as just
days. They were just days. And Jacob
said, in those days, I've been a pilgrim. My days have been
a pilgrimage. I've just been traveling through
this world, and as I travel through, the scenery's constantly changing.
Jacob had lived on a farm. Jacob had lived in the desert.
Jacob had been poor for a while, and he'd been rich for a while.
He'd been well-fed for a while, and he lived in a time of severe
famine for a while. He'd married wives, and he buried
them. He'd had children born, and he'd
seen them go away. His life changed constantly. How many times did Jacob's life
turn on a dime? Just turn on a dime. Ours is
gonna be the exact same way. That will be our life. Look at
Isaiah chapter 38. Our life is going to constantly
change. And knowing that there there's
a certain way that we live our lives. Understanding our lives
will constantly be changing. Isaiah 38 verse 12. Mine age
is departed and is removed from me as a shepherd's tent. I have
cut off like a weaver my life. He will cut me off with pining
sickness from day even tonight. Will thou make an end of me?
Now that primarily is a picture of Christ, who is our Savior,
our Substitute, who was cut off in the prime of life. He died
in the prime of His physical life for the sins of His people.
But this also applies to our life. Our life, Isaiah says,
is just a shepherd's tent. Now what's a shepherd's tent?
Well, on that day, the shepherd will get his sheep, And he'd
take them out, he'd have to get them out of the way from town,
out of the way from the people and things. He'd get them out
into the hills and the mountains and places out there where there's
grass, there's pastures for them. And he'd bring his sheep to a
pasture to graze. And while they're there, he'd
set him up a tent to keep himself out of the elements. And that
shepherd set up his tent, just a little tent, it wasn't much,
very insignificant, just enough to keep him out of the elements.
When he put that tent up, he didn't hang pictures up. He didn't
put a fence around it. He didn't have cable installed.
You know why? He's not going to be there for
long. As soon as the grass is gone, he's moving to the next
passenger. As soon as the grass is gone, his scenery is going
to change. That's our life. As soon as the
grass is gone, as soon as something changes, our life is going to
change. And we need to remember that,
that this life is not our permanent home. We're just pilgrims, just
like Jacob. We're pilgrims passing through.
So just don't put roots down too awful deep in this earth.
Our life here is just a tent, and it can be folded up and put
away very, very quickly. Now, that being true, let me
remind you this. Take care of your responsibilities
in this life. Now, this life's gonna end quickly, but take care
of your home. Take care of your family. Take
care of these things, you know. But just remember, your life
is constantly changing. I remember I was talking to my
uncle one day. At this time, he'd worked for
General Motors for over 30 years. And he told me, we're talking
about careers and jobs and things, you know. And he said, tell you
what. He said, over my 30 years, he
said, I've had a lot of bosses. I've had some bad bosses. And
I've had some good bosses. He said, you know what was common
about both the good ones and the bad ones? They didn't last
for very long. It's constantly changing. So
his advice was enjoy the good boss as long as you got him and
just grit your teeth and put the bad one away. He'll be gone
for too long because this life constantly changes. So let's
be sure we put some energy and some time and some consideration
into preparing for our permanent home. I look back at Psalm 90. Here David describes our life
again, Psalm 90. Verse 9. For all of our days are passed
away in thy wrath. We spend our years as a tale
that's told. The days of our years are threescore
years and ten, seventy years. If by reason of strength they
be fourscore, if you live to be eighty, Those days are going
to be spent as their strength, labor, and sorrow, for it's soon
cut off, and we fly away. Our days are a tale that's been
told. Our lives are, it's a tale. It's just a short story, and
then we fly away. But no matter how short the story,
every story's got a beginning, a middle, and an end. A lot of
stories have chapters, different chapters. And that's the way
our lives are. You know, in my life, I've been
a boy. lived in my parents' home, and now that chapter's over.
For a while, I went away to college. I lived there for a little while,
and thankfully, now that chapter's over. After I got a college,
Jan and I got married. We had children, raised a family.
Now the chapter of her and me being married, that chapter's
still going on. I hope that's a long chapter. But the chapter
of us raising a family, that chapter's over. I've had many
different jobs. I had a job in a newspaper delivery
boy. I worked in a library. I worked
in a chemical plant. I worked in a warehouse and different
places. But those chapters are all over.
Now I spend my days working as your pastor, working, studying
and preparing to preach the gospel. All those chapters are over.
Who knows how many more chapters that there'll be? But this is
what we know. There's an ending. The ending's
coming soon. The ending of all of our stories,
that tale's already been told. The ending's already been written
by God. Before He created anything, He wrote the ending. There was
a show I used to watch. I was fascinated with this show,
How I Met My Mother. I was just dying to know, who
is the mother? How did you ever meet the mother
of these children? And you know the thing about that show? You
know when they first met, how many ever seasons that end, when
they first gathered the crew together and cast together, you
know the very first thing they did? They recorded the ending. First thing. Then they filled
in the rest of the story. Then they began to record and
fill in until they got, but the first thing they did was record
the ending and then they saved it until the show was ready to
end and then they pulled out the ending. That's how our life
has been. The ending's already written.
We don't know what it is yet. God does. We'll find out soon.
The ending's coming soon. Well, that's three thoughts on
this life. It's not much, is it? This life
is just not much. It leaves a lot to be desired. Well, here's my fourth thought
on life. This life is not much, but there's
hope for another one. There's hope for eternal life
that can never be lost and that will never change. This life
of the flesh, it ends very quickly, doesn't it? It's fragile, it
changes constantly. But you know, there's real life,
eternal life to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. And not only
does Christ give his people life, he does do that, he gives his
people life. But more than that, Christ is our life. Paul wrote
in Colossians 3 verse 4, when Christ who is our life shall
then we'll appear with Him in glory. Christ is our life. And
we lay hold on that life. We lay hold on eternal life in
Christ by believing Him, by believing Christ. Look at John chapter
3. If you would have eternal life,
I'll tell you how it's had. It's had through faith in Christ.
John 3 verse 36. He that believeth, has faith, he that believes on
the Son has everlasting life. And he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
We have this life, eternal life by faith in Christ. And this
life, it's so short and fleeting. Well, doesn't that tell you we
need eternal life in Christ? That's the life he gives his
people. It's eternal, it's not short, it's eternal. This life
is so fragile, it's uncertain, it just constantly changes from
one moment to the next. Well, doesn't that prove to us
we need life in Christ? Life that never changes because
He never changes. That's the life that Christ gives
His people, a life that never changes. Again, that's what the
songwriter said. Change and decay, and all around
I see, O thou who changest not. We need life in Him that never
changes, because He never changes. This life is so fragile, it's
just like the flowers in the fall, just... and they're gone.
Well, I'll tell you what we need. We need Christ the Rose of Sharon.
He never loses His bloom. The fragrance of His grace and
love never diminishes. Well, where does this spiritual
life come from? Well, I'll tell you, it doesn't
come from the will of man. It comes from the will of God.
Look back in our text, James 4 verse 15. It comes from the
will of God. James says, for that you ought
to say, if the Lord will, we should live and do this or that.
The Lord willing, I'll have eternal life in Christ. The Lord willing,
my sin is put away by the sacrifice of Christ. The Lord willing,
I'll be born again and receive this spiritual life. Look back
a page here, James 1 verse 17. The Lord willing, I'll be born
again. James says every good and every
good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down
from the father of lights with whom is no variableness, neither
shadow of turning. He doesn't even have a shadow
of changing and of his own will begat he us with the word of
truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
Where does the new birth begin? with the will of God, of His
own will begat he us with the word of truth. I'll be born again
if the Lord wills, because that's where it begins, with the Lord's
will. The Lord willing. I'm going to come to the end
of this life still believing on Christ. The Lord willing.
And if I come to the end of this life still believing, still trusting
Christ, it's because of the power and will of God, not because
of any power of mine. The Lord willing. One day my
story's gonna end. Y'all gonna have a funeral for
me and put me in the ground. But the Lord willing, I'll rise
again. The Lord willing, this corruption will put on end corruption,
and I'll be with the Lord forever. But I tell you, the only way
that's gonna happen is by the will of God. Our Lord said that
in His great high priestly prayer. He said, Father, I will. Now
this is His will. Father, I will. That those whom
thou hast given me be with me where I am. that they may behold
my glory which thou hast given me. If any of us put on incorruption
and we're with Christ in glory, beholding his glory that the
Father gave him, it's because he willed it in. That's the will
of our Savior. Well, that story had some dark
chapters, didn't it? But the ending's awful good.
The ending's awful good. Well, I pray God will give us
some grace and some wisdom to live our lives that way. Enjoy
what God's given you. Now enjoy it, but live looking
to the end and live looking preparing for that day when it'll get a
constantly change You'll never find any permanent joy in this
life So live it looking to the end to the end of the story looking
live. Let's live our lives Looking
to Christ. I'll tell you a pilgrim. You
know, you know, I won't get lost He's always looking at the end
point. Don't get off on a tangent now Just keep looking to Christ
and the pilgrimage will wind up at twice It's all right. I
hope the Lord bless them.