I want us to read together James
chapter 4, verses 13, 14, 15, and 16. James chapter 4, 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 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, and all such rejoicing is evil. What is your life? That's my subject. What is your
life? Instead of saying that we're
going into this city or that today, or tomorrow and continue
there a year and buy and sell and get gain, we ought to say
concerning this and considering how frail and uncertain our lives
in this world are, if the Lord will, we shall live and do this
or that. I said to you last week, I hate
religious cliches. I don't mean to imply by that
you ought never use the words. I use these very words all the
time. I mean we ought to always, rather
than just using such words, and certainly we ought not speak
in such a way as to show a sense of religious spirituality, piety,
that stuff that, a religious show, God teaches to despise
it. despise it, especially in me. But in the light of the fact
that our lives are so uncertain, we ought to make every plan with
this in mind. If the Lord will, this is what
we'll do. I purchased tickets yesterday
to fly to Mexico, December the 7th. fly back on December the
11th. And I planned to do that, but
I recognized that lots can happen between now and then. If the
Lord wills, I'll be down there. If he doesn't, I won't. As I
prepared this message, I remembered a poem I had to memorize as a
young man. When I was 19 or 20 years old,
it really didn't mean a thing to me. But I looked it up and
read it again this week numerous times, and it has a lot of meaning. Let me read it to you. The royal feast was done. The
king sought some new sport to banish care, and to his jester
cried, Sir fool, kneel now and make for us a prayer. The jester
doffed his cap and bells, stood in the mocking court before,
they could not see the bitter smile behind the painted grin
he wore. He bowed his head and bent his
knee upon the monarch's silken stool. His pleading voice arose,
O Lord, be merciful to me, a fool. No pity, Lord, could change the
heart from red with wrong to white as wool. The rod must heal
the sin. But Lord, be merciful to me,
a fool. Tis not by guilt the onward sweep of truth and right,
O Lord, we stay. Tis by our follies that so long
we hold the earth from heaven away. These clumsy feet still
in the mire go crushing blossoms without end. These hard, well-meaning
hands we thrust among the heartstrings of a friend, the ill-timed truth
we might have kept, who knows how sharp it pierced and stung,
the word we had not sensed to say, who knows how grandly it
had rung. Our faults no tenderness should
ask, the chastening stripes must cleanse them all, before our
blunders, oh, the shame, before the eyes of heaven we fall. Earth
bears no blossom for mistakes. Men crowned the knave and scourged
the tool that did his will. But thou, O Lord, be merciful
to me, a fool. The room was hushed, and silence
rose the king and sought his gardens cool and walked apart
and murmured low. Be merciful to me. a fool. I wish I could get everyone who
hears my voice to give serious thought about life and death. We all joke about getting old.
Perhaps we joke and laugh about getting old and dying far too
much. Perhaps we do so because we're
trying not to think seriously about the fact that we are feeble
and dying. But this is no joking matter.
There's no subject so serious as death. And there's no appointment
more certain. The scripture declares it is
appointed unto man once to die. It is appointed unto men. wants to die. Before ever I drew
my first breath, God Almighty had ordained the second of my
death. And the same is true of you. Before I drew my first infant
breath, God Almighty had ordained the very second of my death. And the same is true of you.
You're not going to shorten it. You're not going to prolong it
by anything you do. I wish we could think seriously
about this subject for a little while. We're going to soon die
and meet God in judgment and spend eternity somewhere. Now, having said that, I don't
suggest at all that we are to miss the blessings and happiness
of life or ignore those things by constantly dwelling on death
and judgment and eternity. God's given us many joys and
much happiness, great benefit and countless blessings. Let
us never take them for granted. God give us grace to count our
many blessings day by day. This world is made by our God
for us. It is spectacular. It is beautiful. God made the world for you and
me, his people, to use and to enjoy and we ought to do so. We ought to do so. God made the
world for you and me to use and to enjoy and we ought to do so. Brother Mahan and I one day were
driving down through the mountains and Great Smoky Mountains in
North Carolina and we stopped and got out and stood for a long
time looking over the mountains in the fall of the year just,
oh, spectacular. He said, you know, Brother Fortner,
if it wasn't for sin this wouldn't be a bad place to live. If it
wasn't for sin this wouldn't be a bad place to live. And when
God makes all things new I am fairly well convinced that we
shall live much like we do right now in a new earth without sin. We are to enjoy and use this
world as we live here for God's glory. And yet we ought, like
the wise man Moses, to seek grace to number our days and apply
our hearts to wisdom. Listen to what he said. The days
of our years are threescore years and ten. And if by reason of
strength, they'll be fourscore years. If God gives you strength
to live as long as Claus Peterson, it's going to be strength of
labor and sorrow. That's what it says. And it's
not going to be different from anybody else. If you live to
be 80, you're going to live to be 80 and experience labor and
sorrow. Labor and sorrow. So teach us
to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom, that
we may apply our hearts to Christ. A wise man. will consider what
he is. We're dust. Just dust. This life is a vapor. It's swiftly
passing away. The scripture says the earth
mourneth and fadeth away. The world languisheth and fadeth
away. The word of God declares that
your life and mine is just grass. Withering grass, it dries up
and is blown away. He who is wise will consider
what he is and he'll consider where he's going. A wise man
will consider what his future holds and he'll consider what
sort of hope he has for the future and where he'll spend eternity.
Longfellow, I think it was, who wrote these words, life is real. Life is earnest. The grave is
not its goal. Dost thou art to dust returneth,
was not spoken to the soul. Now let me tell you the story
behind that poem I was required to memorize when I was taking
literature class in college. There was a king in a foreign
country who had a jester, a court clam. The business of the court
jester, the clown, was to entertain the king and his guest at the
king's command. This court clown was very, very
good at his work. He was very good at entertaining
the king and the king's guest at the king's command. He was
so foolish a jester, the king knighted him and he called him
Sir Fool. One day, the king called Sir
Fool to come and entertain him and his guest. And the fool played
his part very well, so greatly so that the king, before it was
over, gave him a walking stick, a cane. It was tipped with gold
and had a gold knob on the end of it. And he gave it to him.
He said, Sir Fool, I believe you're the biggest fool I've
ever met. If you ever find someone who's
a bigger fool than you are, give him this cane. And the fool thanked
him and left. Years passed. And the fool and
the king were friends. The king loved his jester and
the jester loved his king. But one day, someone came to
the jester and said to him, the king wants you to come to him.
The king's very sick and he's dying. And he wants to see you. And so the jester came to the
king and he walked into the king's bedroom Walked up to the king's
bed where he lay dying, and the king said to the jester, he said,
I'm going to take a long trip, and I wanted to say goodbye to
you. And the jester said, is my lord
taking a trip? And the king said, yes, a long,
long journey. The jester said, where are you
going? The king said, I'm not sure. The jester said, well,
when are you coming back? And the king said, I fear I'll
not be coming back. And the jester said, well, your
majesty, what preparation have you made for the trip? And there
was a long silence. And a tear came to the king's
eye. And the old king said, well,
I'm afraid I've made no preparation for this journey at all. The
jester looked at him and said, you mean you're going on a long
journey and you're not coming back? and you made no preparation
at all?" He said, that's right, no preparation at all. And the
jester took his cane and handed it to the king. He said, this
cane is yours, for you are a bigger fool than I. Oh, what a fool he is. What a
fool he is, who makes no preparation for death. What a fool you are. What a fool you are if you live
in this world without preparing to meet God. This is what I'm
talking about. I often wonder how will I die. Do you? This is how Balaam spoke. He spoke of Jacob, God's Israel. He said, let me die the death
of the righteous and let my last end be like his. Listen to how
Jacob died. When Jacob had made an end of
commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and
yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people. By
faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph,
and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff. All right,
let's go back to James 4, verse 14. What is your life? If you've got a pencil and a
piece of paper, I suggest that you get them out. I'm going to
give you a number of scriptures. The best way to find the answer
to something raised in scripture is to go to scripture. But the
scriptures we're going to look at tonight are so many, I'm not
going to have you turn to them. I want you to listen. I want
you to hear them, but do write down the references as I give
them and go back and read these things for yourself. What is
your life? This I know, life is something
we all have. And sadly, Jonathan, life is
something we all take for granted. We presume we're going to live
a little longer. Life is something we all take
for granted. And life is something we must
all soon give up. So let's look at it three ways.
First, I want to talk to you a little bit about the swiftness
with which this life is going. Our lives will soon be over,
how swiftly they'll go. I know that you who are young
think life is going to be a long experience. Lots of people, young and old,
try their best to secure a long, healthy, strong, prosperous life. And they'll diet, rigid diets,
rigid diets. He'd eat straw every day. So
I'd live another half a second and exercise. Partly out of pride
because I want to look so good and partly because I want to
preserve this strong life. But if you ask one of these granddaddies,
one of these grandmothers sitting here, how long life is, you'll
get a different opinion. You find somebody 60, 70 or 80
years old, who's been around as long as you're likely to live,
and he'll tell you, son, life is just a day. Maybe a day and a half or two,
that's all. The older you get, the quicker
the days fly. They roll by so quickly that
you think every year is just a day gone. To the young man,
life seems long. to folks looking back over life,
they realize it's not long at all. Listen to this, Job chapter
9, verse 25. Job says, My days are swifter
than a post. They flee away and see no good. What's he talking about? Swifter
than a post. In Job's days, when men had a message or a letter
to send someone, they would give it to a runner. or to someone
who was a horseman. And they'd take that letter and
run with it from one place to the next and pass it on to another
runner or to another rider on a horse. Something like our Pony
Express. Pony Express rider would pick
up the mail and he'd ride from this station to that and ride
just as hard as he could, just as fast as he could. And they'd
have a horse waiting for him at the next station. He'd jump
off that horse and get on the next horse and ride just as fast
as he could. And he did this until he got
to the end of his ride. Job said, that's what life is
like. Run it fast as you can from one end to the other and
it's gold. Each year, like those fast horses,
we get off one and on the other. We get off that one and on to
another. And we get off that one and on to another. And soon
it's over. Look at verse 26, or listen to
it rather, Job 9, 26. Job says, my days are passed away as the
swift ships. He's talking about ships in days
that were moved by the wind, sails hoisted, not ships in the
harbor, not ships anchored, but ships at sea making their way
to their home port, the sails lifted high and rushing with
wind, pushing it fast home so there's nothing to stop it. My
days are swifter than a ship under full sail. He says this
again, my days are as the eagle that hasteth to the prey. I have
on a few occasions seen eagles soaring in the sky. They just
fly so softly. It looks like their feathers
are just hardly moving, just floating around. But they're
looking down. They're watching for something. They're looking
for their prey. And when the eagle eye spots
the prey, it might be on a tree limb or it might be down on the
ground, but from a distance it spots the prey. And as soon as
it spots the prey, it drops like an airplane out of the sky and
catches its prey. That's how fast our days pass
on this earth. Like the eagle that hasteth to
the prey that go away so swiftly. Then Job said in Job 7 in verse
6, My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle and are spent without
hope. I have on occasion in Mexico
seen folks using those shuttles, those weaver's shuttles, and
I don't know really how they work, but man, they're fast.
Weaving a rug or weaving a covering of some kind. When I
worked as a boy, I worked at Arista Mills. I was 16 years
old. I thought I'd fixed myself pretty good. I'd gotten a job.
I was out of school. I'd been kicked out of school.
And I got a good job. And I worked in a cotton mill.
And I had a great job. I made 95 cents an hour if I
worked during the day, first to second shift. Third shift,
I got a dollar. So normally I worked second and
third shift, 16 hours a day, seven days a week, folding cotton. Now you talk about a life. Oh,
that was wonderful. I was standing over there folding
cotton, I looked over at a fella, looked at me like he must have
been 70 years old, and I thought, well, Fortner, you cooked your
gooses, where you gonna be when you're 70 years old? But I watched
those folks using those looms and weaving the cotton, making
the cloth, and man alive, those things moved faster than your
eye could see. Just done, just done like that. what Job is talking about. He
said, My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent
without hope. Then in verse 7 of Job 7 he says,
Oh, remember that my life is weaned. Do you ever stand out
in the field, a calm, clear day, everything just calm, perfectly
calm, and all of a sudden you hear a little rustling. and you
see the leaves start to blow and then suddenly a wind comes
up and the trees begin to bow and you feel like you're going
to be blown away and just a minute or two the wind's gone and everything's
calm again. Oh, remember my life is wind. Just a minute or two and it'll
be gone. How swiftly Life comes to an
end, how sweetly. With each section of our lives,
it's like writing a chapter of a book. I've raised my daughter, that
chapter's over. I went through my youth, that
chapter's over. We have our grandchildren, they're
about to go, that chapter's over. I've been preaching the gospel
of God's grace for 40, 45 years pastoring gospel church. That chapter's about over. I'm
writing the last chapter of the book. Oh, how fast the days are
gone. Second, this book speaks about life and
tells us something of its uncertainty. Our text says, what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth
for a little time and vanisheth away. Some of you fellows are fishermen.
I've been out a few times before daylight on a lake or on a river,
and you get out there before the sun comes up, and as the
sun starts to come up, there's just a mist all over the place,
just all over the place. And just a little bit of sun
pops up over the hill and shines down on the lake, and the mist
is gone. That's what your life is. Just a mist. You step out
on a frosty, cold morning, and you can see your breath, but
you can't see it very long. Doesn't matter how hard you blow.
When I was a boy, I used to try to see how far I could make it
blow and see it. Not that far. Just about that far. That's all.
It's gone. It's gone. You put the hot kettle
on and fix some coffee, and the steam comes up, take the kettle
off, the steam's gone. That's what your life is. That's
how uncertain it is. Just a vapor. Ecclesiastes 7.12
tells us that a man's vain life he spendeth as a shadow. I can't think of anything more
frail, uncertain, or insignificant than a shadow. That oak tree
out there, I remember when I planted it. It's strong and it's substantial. But the shadow, it's nothing. It's nothing. Mark and Regina
have got a nice rock wall around most of the property down there,
brick and mortar, well made, strong and substantial. But the
shadow, when the sun falls, is nothing. It's just nothing. So
it is with our lives, just a shadow. Our days on earth, the scripture
says, are as a shadow, and there's none abiding. We are but of yesterday. and know nothing, because our
days upon earth are a shadow. My days are a shadow that declineth. I am withered like grass. Man
is like to vanity. His days are a shadow that passeth
away. Neither shall he prolong his
days, which are as a shadow. For who knoweth what is good
for a man in this life? All the days of his vain life
which he spendeth are a shadow. For who can tell a man what shall
be after him under the sun? Then Isaiah, in Isaiah 38, he
says our life is like a shepherd's tent. shepherd's tent. Can you picture a shepherd on
the mountainside? He's got his sheep out and he
turns the sheep loose and he pitches a tent. He doesn't build
a house, he just pitches a tent. He doesn't put in fences up,
he just pitches a tent. Just to lean to, to protect him
from the elements, from the weather, the sun, the heat, or the cold.
He's just got a tent there because he's moving on in just a little
while. As soon as the clover and the grass is gone, he's going
to another pasture. He's, my life is like a tent.
Just a tent, that's all. Not a house, not a dwelling place,
a tent. A lean to, to protect me from
the elements. Then Isaiah 40. Tells us that
our life is withering grass. Listen to this. All flesh is
grass. All the goodliness thereof. That's the very best you can
make of it. That's the prettiest girl on
the street. That's the most handsome boy
walking around. That's the strongest, most handsome fellow there is.
That's the fellow who's got the most you can get. That's the
fellow who lives in the biggest house, on the biggest hill, in
the richest section of town. All the goodliness thereof, all
of it, all of it, is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth,
the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon
it. He's the wind that withers and
blows it away. The Spirit of God comes and He
says, let's go. All your life and all the goodness,
all the majesty, all the things that made you stand out from
everybody else. I wonder why we try to sink our
roots so deep in this earth. Life here is so frail, so fleeting,
so uncertain, and yet we try to sink our roots deep to hold
on to everything for as long as we can. We build our mansions
and put our fences around them as if we're going to stay here
forever. This is what God says. God knoweth our frame. He remembereth
that we are dust. As for man, his days are as the
grass. As the flower of the field, so
he flourisheth. Oh, he's strong and handsome,
full of health and strength, but the wind passeth over and
it's gone. And the place thereof shall know
it no more. The book of God tells us that
our life is as a tale that's told. We spend our years as a
tale that's told. Psalm 90 verse 9. It's soon cut
off and we fly away. Job 20 tells us our life is a
dream. The days of our lives fly away
as a dream. I'm one of those people who dreams
in vivid color. And the dreams are so real. I
mean real. Sometimes delightfully real. Sometimes horrifyingly real. Sometimes you just wake up in
a cold sweat it's so real. And it seems like they last forever.
It seems like they just last forever. But really the dreams
aren't real. They're just dreams. And I'm
told they only last a second or two. You think you've dreamed
all night long? Just a second or two. That's
all. That's all. That's what this life is. Swift to its close. Ebbs out life's little day. Earth's
joys grow dim, its glories fade away. Change and decay all around
me I see. O thou that changeth not, abide
with me. And then our life at its longest
is but a short pilgrimage through this world to eternity. And listen to what the book says
when the pilgrimage is over. You can find this in Job chapter
20, just listen. Though his excellency mount up
to the heathers, and his head reach unto the clouds, yet he
shall perish forever. Now listen to this. He shall perish forever as his
own dung. Boy, that doesn't put much value
on life, does it? just about as much as it's worth. He shall
perish forever as his own dung. They which have seen him shall
say, where is he? He shall fly away as a dream
and shall not be found. Yea, he shall be chased away
as a vision of the night. The eye also which saw him shall
see him no more, neither shall his place any more behold him.
Now, I do want you to turn to this text. 1 John chapter 5,
and we'll close with this thought. What is the hope of life? Eternal
life. I've been talking to you about
natural human life, the life of fallen man in this world. That life shall soon cease. But
if you believe God, oh God help you to hear me now, If you trust
Christ, if you're washed in His blood, if His righteousness is
your righteousness, if you live in union with the Son of God,
if you believe on the Son of God, there is absolutely no sense
in which death of the body should have any dread for you. No reason. No reason. Look here in 1 John
chapter 5 verse 11. I want every one of you to go
home rejoicing in hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie
promised before the world began, being justified by His grace
and made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. And this
is the record that God hath given to us, eternal life. And this life is in His Son.
This is the record. This is God's Word. This is God's
promise. This is God's testimony. He has
given to us eternal life. This is the Word of Him who is
faithful and true. He's given to us eternal life. This is a faithful saying worthy
of acceptation by everybody. God has given to us eternal life. God did it. We didn't earn it. We didn't merit it. We didn't
buy it. We didn't get it from somebody
else. God gave it to us. God the Father thought it. God
the Son bought it. God the Holy Spirit brought it.
We have this eternal life by the gift of God. And eternal
life is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Christ is our life. is our life. We have eternal
life only in Him. Only in Him. Not in His doctrine. Not in our creed. Not in our
church. Not in our experiences. Not in
our works. Not in our feelings. Not in religious
relics. Not in religious ordinances.
Not even in our faith. Oh, thank God my life isn't the
result of my faith. Thank God my life is not in my
faith. The faith world's in my life.
You understand the difference? Faith didn't bring life. Faith
is the expression of life. Faith, faith, faith. We want
to look at our faith. Well, I can't believe I'm saved
I don't trust the Lord like I should. Let me tell you something. If
you foolishly think you trust the Lord like you should, Bill
Rodler, you don't know, you don't trust Him. You're not His, you
don't know God from a billy goat. Oh no, no, no, no. Life is not
in our religion, our experiences, our faith, our love for Christ.
Our life is in Christ. Not just in Him, it is Christ. It is eternal life. rising from, flowing from union
with Christ, an eternal union, a marriage union, a vital living
union. This hand, you see it? You know why I can
do this? You know why I do this? Because
it's part of this body attached to this head, that's all. Cut
it off and try to wiggle your fingers. Cut it off and try to
get hold of something. Cut it off and try to hit something.
Well, preacher, that's foolish. Life, eternal life, is life in
union with the Son of God. Life wrought in us by God stepping
in, by God the Son making us partakers of the divine nature
by what's called regeneration. crucified with Christ nevertheless
I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now
live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved
me and gave himself for me turn to Colossians chapter 3 and I'll
finish Colossians 3 if ye then be risen with Christ
Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. Set your affection on things
above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life
is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear. Let me interject my own thoughts
here. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear to call me
home to glory, to snuff out life in this body, and take me up
to heaven. When he shall appear in the great
resurrection day at his glorious second advent, doesn't matter
which, make it both. Then shall ye also appear with
him in glory. Yes, I have a death to die. And I'm going to tell you something.
And I'm either lying or I'm telling you the truth. I'm either lying
or I'm telling you the truth. I look forward to it. And I'm going to meet God in
judgment. I'm going to meet God in judgment just like you. And I'm either lying or I'm telling
you the truth. I anxiously anticipate it. I anxiously anticipate it. I have this word from God. I
have this word from God. God says to me, my son is going to say to you,
his sheep on his right hand, come ye blessed in my father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
God tells me in this book, his son, the judge in that great
day, is going to say to me, well done, thou good and faithful
servant. Now how can you say that? Because
I believe the Son of God. And believing the Son of God,
I have life. What is your life? Oh, may God
give you life in his son. Amen.