Lesson this morning will be taken
from James chapter 4, verses 13 through the end of the chapter. James chapter 4, beginning with
verse 13. Go to now ye that say today or
tomorrow we'll go into such a city continue their year and buy and
sell and get gain. Whereas you know not what shall
be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is
even a vapor that 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. But now
you 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. This practice of this kind of
foolish thinking and so on is sin. You know better. You know not to do that. Now James has been talking about
the tongue, and it's a fountain whose source is the heart. Christ said a good man, now listen
to this, and this is what he's talking about, he's talking about
the mouth, what men say, how men speak. And he said a good
man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good
things, And an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth
evil things. So as a professor of faith, a
man whose confession is that he knows the Lord, our Lord says
this, For by thy words thou shalt be justified. He's not talking
about our justification before God. He's talking about the justification
of your profession. the justification of your faith
that you claim to have. For by thy words thou shalt be
justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. So what's he saying? He's saying
the mouth is a real good indication of what's in here. That's what
he's saying. And boy, if that don't bother
you, I don't know what would. Then he begins to show us various
ways in which the tongue can bless or curse. As the tongue
takes of the good treasure of Christ and delivers it into the
ears of God's people, there is a blessing. There's a blessing. The Lord has put something in
this man's heart and he rejoices in it and he sees it clearly
and he's able to teach it and to tell others of it, and it's
a blessing. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4-6,
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has
shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have
this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us. I can't put those blessings in
my own heart, nor can I make those blessings a blessing to
your heart. This is of God. And having such knowledge, our
words ought to bless and not curse. It ought to bring peace
and not division and comfort, instead of making folks uneasy.
It ought to console. not aggravate. And then James comes to our everyday
words, words to people around us, our children, our fellow
workers, shopkeepers, people we deal with every day. Wouldn't it be something if when
people heard us, when they heard us talk, just listened to us
for a little bit? Wouldn't it be something that
they might say what they said of the apostles? They listened
to these men talk and it says, and they took knowledge of them
that they had been with Jesus. That's exactly what will happen. But we need to think before we
talk. You know, we say things, and
then we spend the next 15 minutes trying to take them back or explain
them the way it was. Just think before you talk. We don't have to instantly reply
to anything. I've had people ask me questions,
and then before I could even get a word in edgewise, they
say, did you hear me? Yeah, I heard. These men knew that these apostles
were unlearned, ignorant men, yet spoke with such wisdom and
grace as could not be denied. And I have no doubt that the
things that James was dealing with here were actually being
practiced by some in those churches or he wouldn't have written these
things. And I'm confident that the same may be said of us. Where in the world to start with
a text like this? Where do you start? Well, let's
begin where life begins, in the heart of a sinner. Let's begin
there. My friends, salvation is not
just being spared from hell. That's a tiny part of it. It's
not just being spared from hell, it's being delivered from the
power, the influence and curse of sin. If there is no deliverance
from the power and influence of sin, you can forget about
heaven. Those things are as much a part
of salvation as anything else. In 2 Corinthians 1-9, Paul said,
but we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not
trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead, who delivered
us from so great a death, and doth deliver, in whom we trust
that he'll yet deliver. You see, this thing of salvation, it comes in such a way to expose
us for what we are. You're going to make an acknowledgement
of your sin before God. You're going to understand what
this sin is. I'm not talking about 100%, but
I'm saying to some degree you're going to understand what you
are by nature, by choice, and by practice. And then He's going
to reveal to you who Christ is. And He's going to reveal His
grace in him and His mercy in him and His love in him. And
you're going to look at yourself and have absolutely zero confidence
in yourself. And you're going to reach out
for Him. Hell is the sentence of death. Sin is the reason for it. And
when the leper came to Christ, he didn't ask for a continuance
of life, did he? He said, if you will, you can
make me clean. His life was pure misery. What
he asked for was that he might be cleansed from his disease. God's going to make, He's going
to make that life that you've been living all your life, He's
going to make that miserable to you. Here's what you're going to do.
You're going to get on God's side in this thing of salvation.
That's what's going to happen. You're going to take sides with
God against yourself. If God spared the sinner from
hell but left him in his sin, he'd soon pollute heaven. Isn't that right? Yes, he would. Same way he polluted the earth. God said, and they shall be my
people. And I'll be their God. And I'll give them one heart
and one way that they may fear me forever. And I'm going to
do it for the good of them and for the good of their children
after them. That's what's going to happen. Salvation is an inward
transformation. We're delivered from the power
of darkness, translated into the kingdom of His dear Son.
And the word translate here means to be carried away, carried away
into the kingdom of His dear Son. It can also mean established.
established in the kingdom of his dear son. But the sense is
that he's a new subject to a new king in a new kingdom. He's a
fellow citizen with the saints, a willing, submissive servant
in the kingdom of God. He's no longer looked upon as
a convict, but a son. The mysteries of God are no longer
kept secret from Him, but revealed to Him by the ordained means
of God. He's going to teach you. He's
going to teach you. He's an object of God's love
and grace, His kindness and long-suffering, and He knows it. He knows it. And He has in Him a new heart
and a new mind, the mind of Christ, and His speech is going to show
it. Now listen to me. As much as
we do know, and that's a lot more than we ever could possibly
have imagined as a senior, I yet have before me an unknown future. What's going to happen tomorrow?
I don't know. I don't know. I cannot foresee God's providence
except to say that I know it's for my good and His glory, and
He's working it all together. Bad with the good. I know I have trials, but I don't
know what they're going to be and when they're going to come,
when I least expect it. And I know my days are numbered,
but I don't know the day of my death, or I don't know how it's
going to be. They may be rolling the automobile
off the assembly line in Detroit that's going to take my life.
I don't know. I don't know how I'm going to die. And so James says, go to now. That's not something we say today,
is it? Have you ever said that to one
of your friends? Go to now. No, that's an ancient phrase.
It's just a figure of speech. It's similar to behold. We have a figure of speech we
use today when we want to question what somebody's saying. And we'll
say, come on now. That's what James would say.
Come on now. You that say today or tomorrow
we don't go into such a city We're going to stay there for
a year, and we're going to buy and sell and get gain, whereas
you know not what should be on tomorrow. You have no idea. Why
do we talk that way? Huh? James points out three things
of which we're all guilty, and these three things are dishonoring
to an inward work of grace. The first thing is a presumptuous
competence in an unknown providence. I use the word providence instead
of future because I know that God controls the future. I'm going to do this. I'm going
to do that. I'm going to go here. I'm going
to buy this. I'm going to keep it. I'm going to do this. I'm
going to sell it for gain. Boy, we just put it all out there. Ungodly philosophers call this
the power of positive thinking. Oh my. But we're told plainly
to beware of such men lest they spoil us through their philosophy
and vain deceit. Beware of being overly confident
in an unknown providence. Paul said he learned to be content
in whatever state he was in. He didn't tell what state he
was going to be in. He just learned to be confident
in it. How did he do that? He knew God
was in him. He turned those things over to
the Lord. That's where they're at anyway. Whatever state he was in, full
or hungry, having plenty or nothing, safe in the house, or sleeping
with the beast. We know not what shall be on
tomorrow. Our Lord said in Matthew 6.34,
He said, Take no thought for tomorrow. Why? For the morrow shall take
thought of the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the
evil thereof. You can't deal with the evil that we're dealing with today
and now you're talking about tomorrow and a day after that,
a year after that. You see the foolishness in it?
This is what James is saying, contrary. to your confession. It's contrary to your profession
of faith, contrary to what you say you believe. We have enemies in our souls
to deal with every day. And each day has enough evil
in it to tax the best servant. Secondly, James talks about a
presumptuous confidence in the continuance of our lives. When
I say I'm going to do this and next year I'm going to do that,
I'm exposing the confidence that I'm going to be here next year. Believers are left in this world
for a divine purpose. And we're all in some capacity
fellow laborers with God. We're here to minister to those
who shall be heirs of salvation. He's not going to leave us here
one minute longer than is necessary to that end. We're going to serve
him as many, that's why we're here. No other reason for us
to be here. You're not getting better and
better. Paul said for me to die of gain.
Boy, we dread it like polio. He said for me to die of gain.
To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
We come here and pray for His presence. Huh? To be absent from the body is
to be present. Forever. We groan earnestly, desiring
to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. All sin
gone. Pain gone. Sorrow gone. God himself shall wipe away all
tear. We groan for that, don't we?
And then thirdly, a presumptuous confidence in the joyous outcome
of our plans. We start rejoicing in what's
not even happened. I'm going to go here. I'm going
to do this. I'm going to buy that. I'm going to get gain.
And then I'm going to do this. And then I'm going to say, soul,
take my ease. Thou fool. That's how the Lord
put it. Thou fool. This day shall thy soul be required
in thee. How much of worldly happiness
lies in the promises men make with themselves that never come
to pass. Their heads are full of visions
as what they shall do or feel or enjoy at some future time.
But he says in verse 14, whereas you know not what shall be on
the morrow. What is your life? Huh? We judge everything by our little
life, don't we? Huh? What is your life compared
to eternity? Your life is just a vapor. It's
just something you see in a glance and it's gone. We don't want to judge things
that way or live that way. We want to live in the light
of eternity. We're just here for a minute. We don't know what's coming on
tomorrow. For what is your life? It's even a vapor. It appears
for a little time and then vanishes away. And everything this flesh
craves, works for, lives for has to do with this little short
span in which we live on the earth. Believers are encouraged
to live in the light of eternity. Most of what we hope for lies
ahead. Certainly we have a life to live
here, and it also has joy and comfort and purpose. But it's
no comparison to what lies ahead. Paul said, I reckon that the
sufferings of this present time are not to be compared to the
glory that's going to be revealed in them. Most of what we hope for yet
lies ahead. Lay not up for yourselves treasures
upon the earth. where moth and rust doth corrupt,
and where thieves break through and steal. Lay up where you sell
treasures, and heaven where your treasure is, there
will your heart be also. And then in verse 15 he says
this, you ought to say, that's how
you shouldn't talk, now here's how you should talk. You ought
to say, if the Lord will, if He will, my life's in His hands. If the Lord will, I'm going to
do this, I'm going to do that. Jesus Christ is God our Savior,
and when God raised Him from the dead, After a sufficient
time to make His resurrection known, He ascended back into
glory and sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. All power in heaven and earth
is in Him. And providence, providence is
arranged and ordered by His hand. Salvation is brought to pass
as He dispenses it. And there are no laws of nature,
they're just His laws. Just his. You know, you look at the laws
of nature, and I see so often where he defies it. Here's a
raging sea, about to sink, experienced a sailor fishing. He says, peace
be still, the lave. Want to talk about the power
of nature? Here's power. Lay down. Lay down. Sun comes up, shines so many
hours and goes down. Except when he says don't go
down. Then it stays light. Iron don't float. It does when
he says it will. Water don't cover the planet.
It did. He did. He's sovereign Lord,
sovereign in all things. In Him believers have obtained
an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of Him
who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. And oh, the ignorance of men
who profess to know Him and yet refuse to submit their plans
to His will. We're not even to pray without
saying, Thy will be done. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven. And then listen, believers don't
just say the Lord willing we're going to do this or that because
He sits on the throne. They say it because they love
Him. If you know anything about Him, you don't want your hand
in the matter. You want to see His hand in the
matter. Boy, if you were sitting on the throne and had control
of property, What a mess it'd be, huh? When we put our hand on just
those things that we have a little control over, look what a mess
we make out of it. I can't imagine if you were controlling
property. We love him, we respect him,
and we know his will is for our salvation. His will is redemptive will.
And when His will goes beyond that, it's still to accomplish
that redemption. And in this generation of free
radicals and free speech and say whatever comes into your
head, somehow the Lord teaches poor sinners to talk in a way
consistent with my hope, consistent with the God I say I worship,
and honoring to my Lord. James said in verse 16, but now
you rejoice in your boastings. We throw a party, won't we? Throw
a party over something that's going to happen six months from
now. You rejoice in your boastings. Now listen, all such rejoicing
is evil. Evil. Therefore to him that knoweth
to do good, and doeth it not, To him it is sin. Teach us how
to talk and to think and how to reason and plan in a godly
way. Teach us how to live in this
world in a way honoring to our God and consistent with his gospel. Amen.