What Is Your Life?

Q: What does the Bible say about the uncertainty of life?

The Bible describes life as a vapor, emphasizing its frailty and uncertainty. In James 4:14, the Apostle James poignantly states that life is like a vapor that appears briefly and then vanishes. This metaphor illustrates the fleeting nature of existence and is echoed in various other scriptures. Job 7:6 compares life to a weaver's shuttle speeding back and forth, while David in Psalm 39:5 calls attention to the brevity of our days. The idea conveyed is clear: life is uncertain and fleeting, much like a shadow or vapor that lacks substance. Recognizing this truth encourages believers to seek what is eternal in a world that is constantly changing.

Q: How do we know eternal life is a gift from God?

Eternal life is affirmed in the Bible as a gift from God, not something earned or merited. The Scriptures make it abundantly clear that eternal life is a gift from God. Romans 6:23 states that while the wages of sin is death, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. This underscores that eternal life is not something we can earn or deserve, but rather a gracious gift bestowed upon us. Additionally, 1 John 5:11 reiterates this truth, declaring that God has given us eternal life. The nature of this gift is rooted in God's mercy and grace, making it available to all who believe in Jesus Christ, who is the embodiment of this eternal life.

Q: Why is it important for Christians to lay hold on eternal life?

Laying hold on eternal life is crucial as it directs our focus towards what is lasting amidst life's uncertainties. For Christians, laying hold on eternal life is vital because it directs our hearts and minds to eternal truths rather than temporal circumstances. As discussed in 1 Timothy 6:12, believers are exhorted to fight the good fight of faith and lay hold on eternal life. This emphasis on eternal life serves to provide hope and purpose in a world that is fleeting and often filled with uncertainty. By focusing on eternal life, Christians can endure hardships, navigate life changes, and find solace in the promises of God, knowing that what awaits them in eternity far eclipses the struggles of this earthly existence.

Q: What is the significance of viewing life as a pilgrimage?

Viewing life as a pilgrimage highlights the transitory nature of our earthly existence. Understanding life as a pilgrimage allows believers to recognize that our time on earth is a journey filled with various experiences and changes. As Jacob described in Genesis 47:9, life is akin to a pilgrimage, reflecting the idea of movement through different seasons and challenges. This perspective encourages Christians to remain focused on their ultimate destination: eternity with God. It also reminds them that while life's journey may include trials and tribulations, it is ultimately temporary, instilling a sense of hope and urgency to live righteously while awaiting their heavenly home.

Now, the title of my message
today is, What is Your Life? What is your life? I'm reading
from the book of James, chapter 4, verse 13. James writes, Go
to now you that say today or tomorrow we'll go into such a
city, and we'll continue there a year, and we'll buy and we'll
sell and we'll 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. You
ought to say, instead of saying, We're going into the city today
or tomorrow and continue there a year and buy and sell and get
gain. You ought to say, considering
how frail your life is and how uncertain it is, you ought to
say, if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or do that. Here's the question. What is
your life? Now, life is something everyone
has. You have life, I have life. All
who are hearing me today have life. And secondly, life is something,
unfortunately, that we all take for granted. I don't think there
are many people listening to me who expect to die today. We
take life for granted. We take this present time for
granted. We expect to be around a long
time. But thirdly, life is something
that we are all going to have to eventually give up. We're
going to have to turn loose of this natural existence. Now,
the Word of God has a lot to say on this subject. What is
your life? If you have a pencil and paper,
jot down these scriptures. I'm not going to give you time
to turn to them, but you write them down and go back and study
them again. But here's the first thing I
want to mention. The Bible talks about the swiftness
of life, how quickly, quickly it goes by. And Job says in Job
chapter 9, verse 25, Job 9, 25, My days are swifter than a post. They flee away. What is a post?
Well, this is mail delivery. We have the postal service, postage
paid, Well, that's what he's talking about here. My life,
my days are swifter than the post. How did they deliver mail
when Job wrote this? Well, mail was delivered, letters
and messages, by fast horses. Men would ride swift horses.
We had something like this in the West in the olden days, Pony
Express. The rider would take the letter
or the message or the mail, the post, and get on a fast horse
and ride it to the relay station and there the horse would be
worn out and he would get off that horse and saddle a fresh
horse and he'd ride it. And that's what Job was saying.
My life goes by so quickly, so swiftly, that it's fast as a
horse delivering mail. And then in verse 26, right there,
Job 9, 26, he says, My days pass away as a swift ship. Now, this is not a ship in harbor.
I've been on a ship in the Navy a long time, and sometimes we'd
sit in the harbor, and sometimes we'd anchor, and sometimes we'd
be in dry dock. But this is not a ship in the
harbor. This is not a ship anchored.
This is a ship under full sail, hurrying for the port, hurrying
for home. And in those days, driven by
the wind, and nothing to stop it. My days are swifter than
a ship under full sail." And then in verse 26 again, now listen
to this, Job 9, 26, Job still talking. My days, speaking of
the swiftness of life, how quickly it passes. My days are as the
eagle that hasteth to the prey. Did you ever watch an eagle as
it flies about the sky, gliding smoothly, sailing about, and
then suddenly the eagle spots its prey down on the ground or
in a tree or somewhere, and he dives the eagle eye. He spots
the prey way down there, and that eagle dives to catch that
animal or whatever it is, and he speeds like a falling airplane. And that's what Job says here,
go by so swiftly, not like the eagle sitting on his nest or
floating in the sky, but my days are just like, just like this,
swiftly they're passing by." And then in Job 7, verse 6, listen
to this, "'My days,' Job said, are swifter than a weaver's shuttle.'"
Not many of you have seen people weave blankets and rugs, but
I have. Down in Mexico, I go down there
every year. And we stopped this past year
beside, we stopped at a little gift shop where they made blankets
and rugs and different things out of the wool and out of the
thread. And I watched a young lady sit
there and work a weaver's shuttle, an old-fashioned weaver's shuttle,
and it's faster than the eye as it makes that blanket or that
rug or whatever. just back and forth it goes.
And that's what Job is saying here, my days are passing by
as swiftly and quickly as a weaver's shuttle. They're just gone, gone,
gone, gone, faster than the eye. And then in verse 7 of Job 7,
he says this, my days are swifter than the wind. I know all of
you are familiar with how the wind can suddenly come up. You're
outside and it's calm and clear and And no breeze is blowing. And then suddenly, it's like
our Lord said to Nicodemus, you can't tell from whence it cometh
or whither it goeth. And the wind suddenly comes up.
It's felt, it's heard, it stirs up the dust and everything around
it, a lot of commotion. And then as suddenly as it came,
it's calm again. Where did it go? Where did it
go? Where did life go? What is my
life? What is my life? This I know from the scripture.
It's swifter. My days go by more swiftly than
a fast horse, than a speeding ship, than a diving eagle, than
a weaver's shuttle. And like the wind, it passes
by so swiftly, so quickly. And then the Bible talks about
something else. It talks about the uncertainty
of life. Not only its swiftness, but its
uncertainty. You know, David said, Lord, make
me to know how frail I am. How frail. Someone said this,
it's marvelous, marvelous. You know, David said how wonderfully
I'm made. But someone else said it's marvelous
that a harp, you remember the old-fashioned harp that they
played the strings with their hands like this. It's marvelous
that a harp with so many strings stays in tune as long as it does.
This is a frail, frail body, wonderfully made by the hand
of God, but yet, yet so frail. Like in my text, James says,
what is your life? We talk about today I'm going
to town, tomorrow I'm going, next month I'm going on a trip,
and I'm going to buy and sell and stay there a certain length
of time, and I'll be back. What is your life? It's even
a vapor. A vapor. Talk about frail. Talk about uncertain. It's a
vapor that appears for a little while and then vanisheth away.
What is a vapor? Did you ever go outside on a
cold morning, blow your breath in the air? That's vapor. My life is that frail? Vapor. Did you ever watch a a kettle
on the stove, boiling water, and the vapor comes out, and
it goes somewhere quickly, and it's gone. Did you ever rise
early in the morning and go out beside the lake and look out
over the lake and see the vapor rise, and then in a few moments
the sun comes out and the vapor's gone? Life is like that, frail,
uncertain, here today and gone tomorrow. And then Solomon said
in Ecclesiastes 6, 12, listen to this, the uncertainty of life.
All the days of a man's life he spends as a shadow, a vapor,
a shadow. There's nothing with less substance
than a shadow. The tree has substance, the wall
has substance, but a shadow has no substance. And that's what
God says about this natural life, no substance. It's so frail and
uncertain, it's like a shadow. And not only that, but Isaiah
said in chapter 38, my life is departed and removed from me
like a shepherd's tent. We don't know a great deal about
shepherds in this country, but you can read about them in the
old countries. A shepherd taking care of his
flock would lead the flock out to hunt grass and to hunt pasture. And he'd find a place on the
side of a mountain where there was plenty of grass and green leaves and things like that,
whatever sheep eat. And what he would do is turn
his sheep loose, and then he'd put up a little tent to protect
himself from the sun and from the weather, a little shepherd's
tent. Maybe it's a lean-to. Maybe he'd just put it beside
a tree. But it was a shepherd's tent,
a lean-to or just a small tent to crawl in out of the sunshine,
out of the weather. He didn't expect to be there
long. He didn't build a fence around it, didn't plant a garden.
He just put his lean-to up and stayed there a little while and
grazed his sheep and then folded it up and went on. And that's
what Isaiah said, my life is like in its removal and departure
when this tent is folded up. It's like a shepherd's tent,
just briefly here. And then in Isaiah 40, listen
to this, the uncertainty of life, all flesh is as grass and as
the flower of the field. The grass withereth, the flower
faded. This is your life. What is my
life? And God tells us, this is your
life, a vapor, a shadow, a tent, a piece of grass, a blade of
grass or a flower. Well, the Bible not only talks
about the swiftness of life and the uncertainty of this earthly
existence, but it talks about life being a changing thing,
always changing. The hymn writer put it this way,
swift to its close, swift to its close. That's what I've been
talking about. Ebbs out life's little day, its joys grow dim,
its glories fade away. change and decay in all around
me I see. O thou that changes not." He
doesn't change. Our Lord never changes. He's
the same yesterday, today, and forever. Abide with me. I'm changing. Jacob said this about life being
a changing thing. He said in Genesis 49, 47 and
9, he said, My days are as a pilgrimage." What's a pilgrimage? A journey. A pilgrimage is a journey. And
when a person takes a journey, especially here on foot or on
horseback or camel or wagon or however they travel, there were
usually journeys that took a while, and sometimes they would go through
the valley and sometimes over the mountain. And sometimes they'd
walk in the day, and sometimes at night. And sometimes the journey
would take them through hot, dry, dusty desert, and sometimes
beside the still waters. And sometimes they'd walk a rough
road, and sometimes a smooth road. But the journey was always
changing. Sometimes in the shade, sometimes
in the sun. Sometimes in the light, sometimes
in the night. And life's journey is that way,
always changing. The people who walk with us,
they walk a while and then they're gone. Someone else walks along
with us and then we're gone. And someone walks along with
them and life's always changing, changing. Our whole conditions,
environment, everything, we're changing. We're, our hair's growing
gray and we're getting wrinkled and we're getting older weaker
and everything's changing. And then in Psalm 90, it says
this about how life changes. It says, we spend our years as
a tale that's told. A tale is a story. A story has
many chapters. My life is a story with many
chapters. My childhood, the chapter's finished. My teenage, that one's finished.
Navy service, that one's finished. Raising my children, that one's
over. My life's work, the ministry,
is almost over. I'm writing the last chapter.
It's a tale that's told. And many of you are. We're writing
the last chapter. The events have come and gone. They'll never be relived. The
chapter's closed. And now we're in the last chapter
of the book. And Job says this. Now listen
to this scripture, Job 20, verse 7 and 8. Man shall perish. Man shall perish forever as his
own dung. That's really worthless, isn't
it? His own dung. They which have seen him shall
say one day, where is he? Where is he? He was here. Where is he? He shall fly away
as a dream, forgotten. as a dream. What is your life? What is your life? Well, it's
a pilgrimage. It's a tale that's told, and
it is forgotten as a dream. You don't dream so real at the
time you have it. You can even wake up in a cold
sweat with a bad dream. You can, it'll even awaken you. A dream is so real at the time,
Doesn't last long, does it? Soon it's forgotten. Even so,
our lives are so real, everything's so real as they're lived, but
then it's asked, where is he? Where is he? What is your life? Well, life is as swift as a weaver's
shuttle, a streaking eagle, a speeding ship. Life is as uncertain as
a shadow or a vapor. Life is changing as a journey.
Life is soon forgotten as a dream. You know, these things being
so, and they are so, it would seem to me that men and women
would be more interested in laying hold on eternal life. Wouldn't
you think so? I'm appalled at the lack of interest
in matters of the soul. I'm amazed that more people aren't
interested in pursuing or seeking eternal life. This life is so
swiftly going by, it's so uncertain, it's so changeable, soon to be
forgotten. Paul the Apostle twice exhorted
people, lay hold on eternal life, he said. Lay hold on eternal
life. Lay hold on eternal life. The
fashion of this world fadeth away. Sometimes, many times the
question was asked our Lord, What must I do to inherit eternal
life? What must I do? Our Lord said
in Matthew 25, listen to the finality of this thing here.
Matthew 25, 46, He said, These shall go away into everlasting
punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Oh my, you know, Paul said, if
by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead,
if by any means I might attain unto eternal life." Let's take
the Scripture. You know, I did that a moment
ago. I asked, what is your life? And then I took the Scripture
and tried to show you what the Scripture says about that, what
is your life, what life is. Not very encouraging either,
is it? But let's take the Scripture and see what they have to say
about life. What is eternal life? Well, I'll tell you, it's not
swift, it's not uncertain, and it's not changing. Because eternal life is the gift
of God. That's the first thing I know
about eternal life. That's the first thing I would establish
in reply to this question, what is eternal life? It comes from
God. It's the life of God. It's not so much the length of
it, though it is eternal, but it's spiritual life. It's divine
life. It's the life that Adam lost
when he died. when he sinned. It's not earned. It's not merited. It's the gift
of God. The Bible's clear on that. Listen
to Romans 6, 23. The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The gift of God is eternal life. 1 John 5, 11 says this is the
record. Write it down. God hath given
us eternal life. It's the gift of God. I said
in John 10, 28, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me.
I know them and I give them eternal life. In John 17, in his priestly
prayer, I preached on it last Sunday, our Lord said this, thou
hast given me authority over all flesh that I should give
eternal life to as many as thou hast given me. For by grace are
you saved through faith, that not of yourself, it is the gift
of God. So that I know, what is eternal
life? The gift of God. My mother and father, of course,
by God's purpose, gave me physical life. But spiritual life, eternal
life, the gift of God. Secondly, eternal life is in
Christ Jesus our Lord. Listen to that scripture again.
The wages of sin is debt, but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who said, I am come that they
might have life, who said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. God has given us eternal life. Watch this now. And this life
is in His Son. He that hath the Son of God hath
life. He that hath not the Son of God
hath not life." John, writing in I John 1, 2, says this, Life
was manifested. What is manifested? Revealed.
Revealed, set forth. Life is manifested. I've seen
it, he said. I've touched Him. And I show
it to you. That eternal life which was with
the Father has been manifested to us. It's a person. Eternal
life's not in a church, not in law or creed, not in a standard. It's in a person. Listen to I
John 5, 20. We know that the Son of God has
come and given us an understanding that we may know Him that is
true, and in Him is this. This is the true God. This is
eternal life. Eternal life's not a profession.
It's a possession. of a person. Now, believe me,
what is eternal life? It's the gift of God. You want
it? Seek the Lord. Seek the Lord. Cry unto Him.
Don't come to me. I don't have it. Go to Him because
eternal life's in Christ, from Christ, through Christ, by Christ. Thirdly, eternal life was purchased
by Christ in a life of obedience and in a sacrificial death. Listen
to our Lord. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal
life." That's right. John 6, 54, he said, "'Whoso
eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life.'"
Hebrews 9, 11 says, "'But Christ being come, a high priest, of
good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle,
not made with hands, entered into the holy place, not made
with hands, but heaven itself, to obtain eternal life and redemption
for us." Eternal life's the gift of God. Eternal life's in a person. It's Christ, who is my life. When Christ, who is my life,
shall appear, I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live,
yet not I, but the life which I now live in the flesh, I live
by the Son of God." And he purchased that by his death. Now watch
this, an eternal life comes by hearing the Word of God and believing
on Christ. Listen, our Lord said to the
disciples after the people had walked away, He said, will you
go away? And they said, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words
of eternal life. That's right. Listen, he says
this, Verily I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and
believeth on him that sent me, hath eternal life. It comes through
the preaching of the gospel, the hearing of the gospel, the
receiving of the gospel, and the believing of the gospel.
That's what I've been reading to you. These words are written
that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that, believing, you might have eternal life through His
name. Paul preached this gospel to
a bunch of Gentiles, and the Scripture says, When they heard
it, when they heard it, they were glad, they glorified God,
and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
It's the power of God unto eternal life, unto salvation, to everyone
that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein
is the righteousness God revealed. All right, in closing, eternal
life is to know God. This is eternal life, that they
might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou
hast sent. Eternal life is to believe God.
These things have I written unto you that believe on the name
of the Son of God, that you may know you have eternal life."
Eternal life is to continue to walk with God in faith. Keep yourselves, listen to this
and I'll close, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for
the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Well, there's not much to this
life, but that eternal life is forever and ever. Seek it in
Christ. If you want this message, what
is your life, write to me. Send two dollars, we'll mail
it to you. And on the other side will be a message I'll preach
next week. Until next Lord's Day, may God bless you, everyone.

What Is Your Life?

What does the Bible say about the uncertainty of life?

How do we know eternal life is a gift from God?

Why is it important for Christians to lay hold on eternal life?

What is the significance of viewing life as a pilgrimage?

Sermon Transcript

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What Is Your Life?

What does the Bible say about the uncertainty of life?

How do we know eternal life is a gift from God?

Why is it important for Christians to lay hold on eternal life?

What is the significance of viewing life as a pilgrimage?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

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