Let us turn in our Bibles again
to James chapter 4 James chapter 4 and beginning
with verse 11 speak not evil one of another
brethren He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his
brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law. But
if thou judgest the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but
a judge. There is one lawgiver who is
able to save and to destroy. Who art thou that judgest another? Go to now, you 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 appears for a little time and then vanishes
away. For that you ought to say, if
the Lord will. We shall live and do this or
that. But now you rejoice in your boasting. All such rejoicing
is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth
to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. In these verses James warns believers,
he's still writing to brethren, about two evils that we are all
too often guilty of. The first evil is that of speaking
evil of another brother. And James tells us that the law
forbids this. I believe he has reference to
Leviticus 19 and verse 16, where we read, thou shalt not go up
and down as a tailbearer, among thy people. And James tells us
that if we judge or speak evil of another person, then we become
judges and not obedient to the law. We judge another. We judge
that even though the law commands us not to speak evil of a brother,
we judge that we have that right. And maybe what we speak about
we judge as worse than breaking the law of speaking evil of him
but in either case or other case we become guilty and we become
judges of the law there's one lawgiver and that's God and we
should remember this as the Apostle Paul writes in Romans chapter
14 when he said let us not therefore judge one another But judge this
rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall
in his brother's way. And in that passage there in
Romans 14, he also tells us this, that every child of God is a
servant of God. That's what all of us are. If
we know Christ is our Lord and Savior today, we are servants
of God. And Paul tells us that God is
able to make his servants stand. He is our master. Now the second
evil that James speaks about in this passage is that of making
plans without God. Making plans without God. He's
certainly not speaking about working and having commerce or
anything like that. But he is speaking against doing
these things without considering God. It is leaving God out of
our lives as though we were the masters of our lives. When we must be aware that in
Him we live, we move, and we have our being. Now having mentioned
what the The passage speaks to us about these two evils. I don't
want to lose the opportunity to speak to us on the question
that James asked all of us in verse 14. For what is your life? For what is your life? We all
joke, I know, about growing old and many people even joke about
death. And I'm afraid that the reason
that we joke sometimes about death is that we are afraid to
face reality. Men are more prone than women
to believe that if they just ignore something it will go away.
But there are truths about our life that are not going to go
away. And it should be a mark of wisdom
on the part of all of God's children and all people in general that
we consider what stares us in the face, and that is the sharpness
of life. I remember in the 1950s, that's
way back in the old days, there used to be a television program
called This is Your Life. This is your life. And they would
take a well-known person, and in 30 minutes, I believe it was,
they would highlight several events in this person's life,
and then at the end of the program, they usually would bring out
someone that this man had known years before, or woman had known
years before, and it would be very emotional. But think about
that. I believe the program was 30
minutes. It may have been an hour long. But all of the life
of that person was condensed down into a program of just a
few minutes at the most. Now James, he doesn't say here
to a well-known person, this is your life, but he asks all
men to consider this question, or he commands all men, I should
say, to consider this question. All men, young and old, rich
and poor, famous and unknown, educated and uneducated, he asked
all of us to consider this one question, for what is your life? What is your life? I want to answer that. Where
would we go to find the answer to that question? Should we check
Wikipedia? I'm afraid if you went there,
you would not find the answer. If you go to the philosophers,
you will not find the answer. There's only one place we should
turn to answer this question. For what is your life? We should
turn to the Word of He who is the Creator and the Giver and
the Sustainer of all life. That is God. Of mineral life,
of plant life, of human life, God. He is the Creator of all
life. And if we would answer this question
today, we must go, we must turn to the Word of God. And I trust
every person here, every one of us will hear this question
and consider what the Word of God teaches us and tells us for
what is your life. Four things I would bring to
us. Four truths from the Word of God. What is your life? God's
Word tells us that our life passes quickly. Now that's the emphasis
that James places here when he asks this question, and then
he answers it. For what is your life? In verse 14. And then he says,
It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth
away. I come over here early, and at
7 a.m. this morning when I left my house,
there was a fog. I drove through a fog. It wasn't
a dense fog, a heavy fog, but yet there was a fog. And I'm
sure when I go home this afternoon, after this service, the fog will
be gone. And that's what James compares
your life to. It's like a vapor. You go out
on the lake early in the morning and you see there's a mist on
the lake. But by noon, it's gone. That's your life. That's your
life. That's my life. That's the life
of every person in this world. Now God, in the Word of God,
He uses a number of examples to show us how quickly our life
passes. In the book of Job, there are
several of these. I won't ask you to turn, but
in Job chapter 9, we find that Our life is swifter than the
post. Now what does that mean, swifter
than a post? Well the post was a messenger,
and we like to think of the Pony Express. It was something like
that, not quite the same, but a message was delivered by post,
that is by a fast horse or however they moved and they would change
horses and ride on and change horses and ride on. That was
the fastest way of communication in that day. Now today, I suppose
we would say it is like an email. No, let's go faster. It's like
a text. That's what our life is. It's
like a text. It quickly passes away. And then also Job tells us it's
like a ship. Now, in his day, of course, the
ships, they were moved by the winds. And the wind would catch
the sails and away it would go. I don't know if you've ever seen
a ship on the horizon, but a ship doesn't move all that fast when
you are on the ship. But I tell you, if you watch
it cross over the horizon, it goes very fast, quickly. And then a few chapters before
that, we find that our life is like a weaver's shuttle. Have
you ever seen a weaver? how he's weaving on the shuttle.
And it's a mechanical thing. The ones I've seen are made out
of wood. But the man who weaves, he's very fast. It's fast how
he moves that shuttle. You very seldom even see it. It's so fast. And then he tells
us that it's like an eagle. Our life. This is your life.
Now hear me now. Don't go to sleep. I'm speaking
to all of us here today. What is your life? It's like
an eagle, we are told. Not an eagle that's riding the
air currents. No, no. It's like an eagle that
has a prey, sees its prey on the ground, and how quickly it
dives and catches that prey. That's your life. That's what
the scripture says. And even more than that, it is
like the wind. The wind. It just comes up, and
it's gone. Look with me in Psalm, if you
want to turn to Psalm 103. Because two times in the scripture,
our life is compared as here in this place. Psalm 103, verses
15 and 16. As for man, Psalm 103 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 is gone,
and the place thereof shall know it no more. That's your life. It's like the grass. It grows
up, I don't know about you men, but I have to cut my grass once
a week, normally. Once every week it has to be
cut. It grows up. And it's cut, and it's gone. That's our life, the psalmist
tells us. And notice he says, and the place
thereof shall know it no more. You live your life today and
however long God allows you to live. When you die, your children,
if you have children, they will remember you. Your grandchildren,
if God blesses you, if you have grandchildren, they will remember
you. And maybe some even your great-grandchildren. But it won't
take long before you're forgotten. The place where you have lived,
your house, your job, you think they can't do without me. Yes
they can and yes they will. The place thereof knoweth it
no more. Now here in the psalm our life
is compared to the grass and I pointed this out to us because
also in 1st Peter First Peter chapter 1. The apostle tells
us the same thing, but he contrasts our life with the Word of God. First Peter chapter 1 in verse
24. He said, For all flesh is as
grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass
withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. But, now here's
the contrast, but, The Word of God, the Word of the Lord endureth
forever. Long after I'm gone and long
after you're gone, this Word, this Word is going to continue.
This is God's Word and God is eternal. And God's Word, the
scripture says, is settled forever in heaven. it's not going to
be replaced. Voltaire, one of the famous,
if you could call a man famous, who was an atheist, infamous
man, you know, he predicted that in a certain year, certain time
frame, that the Bible would be a forgotten book. And it wasn't
many years after his death that his house was actually being
used to store Bibles in. The Word of God. Your life, my
life, is like the grass and like the flower thereof, it flourisheth,
it cometh up in the morning, it's cut down. But the Word of
God abideth forever. The second thing, what is our
life? It passes quickly. Secondly,
what is our life? God's Word tells us that our
life is uncertain. Now I realize it's not uncertain
with God. The days, the hours, the time
is settled. On God's calendar, the time that
you're going to leave this world is already marked. But you don't
know it. And I don't know it. And so that's
what I'm saying. What is our life? Our life in
this world is very uncertain. The scripture says, boast not
thyself of tomorrow. You make your plans, some of
you. You've got your life planned out before you, and you don't
consider God. You don't think, and you don't
say, God willing. You know, the Latin form of that
is Dio Violente, DV. Sometimes you'll see that written,
DV. What does that mean? God willing. God willing. boast not thyself
of tomorrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth
a young lady in the school where Andrea works I believe she was
17 or 18 years of age just two weeks ago on her prom night left
this world she was killed in a car accident Maybe you heard
last Friday evening a young boy, 18 years old, with his mother
and father. His life was snuffed out along
with theirs. Very close to this building.
Life is uncertain for all of us. boast not thyself of tomorrow. Solomon, the wise man in the
book of Ecclesiastes, he speaks of our life or his life like
a shadow, a shadow. Now a shadow, you know, has no
substance, no reality, uncertain. We imagine, all of us are guilty
of this, we imagine that our lives are like a building, strong,
Unmovable, stable, but not so. In Isaiah 38, in verse 11, we
read, Mine age is departed and is removed from me as a shepherd's
tent. A tent that a shepherd would
camp out in overnight as he watched his flock. A tent may be easily
taken down. The wind, a strong wind may blow
it over. Now God's children, it's true,
we have a building not made with hands eternal in the heavens,
but in this world, our life is like a tent, like a shepherd's
tent. Now the Lord Jesus gave an example,
if you look to Luke chapter 12, of a man who was guilty of not
considering that his life was uncertain. In Luke chapter 12
and verse 15, the Lord Jesus said, Take heed and
beware of covetousness, for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance
of the things which he possesseth. Your life doesn't consist in
houses and lands and bank accounts and fame and all of the things
that men usually pursue. Our Lord said, A man's life consisteth
not in the abundance of the things which he possesses. And he spake
this parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich
man brought forth plentifully. And he thought within himself.
That's his mistake right there. He did not consider God. He thought within himself as
though he were God. As though he were in control.
And as though he would determine the length of his days, he thought
within himself, saying, What shall I do? Because I have no
room where to bestow my fruits. And he said, This will I do.
I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there will
I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul,
Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thine
ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool,
thou fool, what is your life? Here's a man he did not consider. This night thy soul shall be
required of thee. Then who shall those things be
which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure
for himself, and is not rich toward God. What is your life? It passes quickly. What is your
life? It is uncertain. Those of you
here today who are teenagers and young adults, you think it
will take you forever to reach 50 years of age. Ask someone here who is 50, how
quickly the years have passed by. Our perception of time is
such that it depends upon which way we are looking. If time seems
long or short, if we are looking to the future today, if we are
looking to the future, say 10 years, that seems like a long
time. But let me tell you something,
if you're looking in the past 10 years, it doesn't seem that
long. And it just seems, my friends,
and take it from me, that the older we get, the faster the
years pass by. Now I know time's the same, 60
seconds in a minute, so forth. But mine just seems like the
years. I can remember when I was in
school, about this time of year, it was so hot we didn't have
air conditioning back in the old days. It wouldn't have mattered. I just couldn't wait. I think
we got out of school June the first or something like that.
I just couldn't. It seemed like those last two
weeks, it took forever, forever for school to be out. But now,
Years go by so quickly and that's true of all of us. Here's the
third thing. What is your life? God's Word tells us that our
life will have an end. It will have an end. It is appointed
unto men once to die. Read years ago about a particular
king of France. And as he was a king, he had
the right to tell people what to do and what not to do. And
one thing he commanded was the word death never, never to be
pronounced in my hearing. He never wanted to hear the word
death. And I assume he got his way,
but that did not stop death from coming. I heard a man one time
say, well, you know, I've always heard when you get everything
done, you know, he said, that's when you're going to die. He
said, I'm making sure I've got a lot of projects that are not
finished. But you know what? He died. Recently, I heard someone
say, people I know, soon as they retire, they die. I'm not going
to retire. Well, that may be good advice,
but you will die. The time is appointed unto all
of us. There's no man, the scripture
says, there's no man that hath the power over the spirit to
retain the spirit. Neither hath he power in the
day of death. And there is no discharge in
that war. There is no discharge in that
war. I watched a person die. I've
watched two people die. And both, it seemed to me, you
could almost see the life going out of them. Their chest was
heaving, and then their breathing was almost in their throat. And
before long, he was gone. And there was one last breath. Death. There's no discharge in
that war. Now, here's the fourth thing
I wanted to bring to us. What does God's Word tell us
about eternal life? Eternal life. Well, look with
me, if you will, to 1 John, chapter 5. And I'm so thankful today that I
have this last part of the message, aren't you? I mean, what an awful
place it would be to be somewhere where we don't have, where we
didn't have God's Word. And we live and we know that
death is coming, but we don't have any hope. We don't have
any reason to have a hope, I should say, because all men have some
hope. It may be like the spider's web. That's how light and weak it
is. The hypocrite has a hope. But
thank God for a good hope. 1 John chapter 5, in verses 11
and 12. Now I said, where will we find
the answer to this question, for what is your life? We look
in the Word of God, and where will we find the answer to the
question, what is eternal life? What is eternal life? Well, this
is the record. And this is the record. This
is God's Word. You don't have to look anywhere
else. You don't have to go anywhere else. This is the record. And this is God's record. God hath given to us eternal
life. And this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. Now let me bring three things
out to us from that passage. Number one, eternal life is God's
gift to give. Learn that. Learn that. Eternal life is God's gift to
give. Eternal life is not yours to
earn, and it's not yours to deserve, and it's not yours to merit.
Eternal life is God's gift to give. The sooner a person realizes
that he cannot merit, he cannot deserve eternal life, then that
person will be ready to hear that God is a God of grace. In Romans chapter 5, Paul pictures
death and grace as though they were two monarchs, two rulers. And he tells us, sin hath reigned
unto death. Sin reigns. No one can doubt
that, that sin reigns unto death because everyone that we've known
and everyone that we know, we recognize and ourself included,
will die. Sin reigns unto death, but grace,
even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ. Grace also reigns, but it reigns
through Jesus Christ. Never think of grace, God's grace,
God's saving grace, apart from Jesus Christ. Never think of
being right with God, saved, accepted, a child of God apart
from Jesus Christ. Because yes, grace reigns, but
it reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. John chapter 10. Let me read
this to you. John chapter 10. Our Lord told some people one
day, you believe not, because you are not of my sheep. I said unto you, my sheep hear
my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto
them eternal life. And they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which
gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck
them out of my Father's hand. So, in this passage here in 1
John, number one, eternal life is God's gift to give. Number
two, eternal life is in God's Son. He that hath the Son hath
life. We should not think of eternal
life as unending life. I would venture to say that's
what most people have in their mind when they hear of eternal
life. They just think, well, that means
life shall never end. Well, that's true. But listen,
eternal life is so much more than unending life. Eternal life
is to know God. Can you imagine that? To know
God and to enjoy God. Our Lord said that in His prayer.
This is life eternal that they might know Thee, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. The blessedness. And that's the
reason right now, today, our fellowship is with the Father
and with His Son, Jesus Christ. We have eternal life. If we have
the Son, You say, well, I thought eternal life would come when
we die. No, we'll just stay. We'll just change positions.
We'll change locations. But my friends, we will have
eternal life when we leave this world or we will never have eternal
life. He that hath the Son hath life.
And number three, eternal life is received in Jesus Christ. He that hath the Son hath life.
Remember the scripture says, but as many as received him,
to them gave he the power to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on his name, which were born not of blood,
not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God. What is your life? Well, I know
I speak for every child of God here today. What is my life? I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in
me. And the life that I now live,
I live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son
of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Maybe you're here today and you
will be caused by God the Holy Spirit to consider what is your
life. And you'll get along. Get along
with God. And ask God to have mercy on
you. To save you for Christ's sake.
Look to Christ. He that hath the Son hath life.
But I encourage all of us Not to think of life lightly. We all live in uncertainty every
day that God gives us. Some of you here this morning
are young and you think you have your whole life before you. And
I trust that you do. But you may not. Some of you are young parents
here today. And you think you'll see your
children in college and graduate? You may, you may not. But let
me assure you of this. The most important thing to you
is to know Christ. I know there are other things
important. Other things call for your attention, no doubt
about it. But this is the most important of all, to know Christ
and be found in Him, not having your own righteousness, that
which is of the law, but that which is of the faith of Jesus
Christ. I pray the Lord would bless this
word to all of us here today. Now if you will, let's turn to
hymn number four