You may be seated. This morning our scripture reading is from James 4 verse 13 to verse 17. It's found on page 1488 in the Pew Bibles, the fourth chapter of James, verse 13 to verse 17. You may have received an outline for the message. It was in some of the bulletins. If not, the title of the message is Biblical Wisdom for the New Year. And we read from James chapter four, verse 13 to 17. Now listen, you who say, today or tomorrow, we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business, and make money. why you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, if it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that. As it is, you boast and break. All such boasting is evil. anyone then who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins. And may the Lord bless the reading of his word to your life and to mine as we look at it together this morning. Brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ, You have heard all the predictions for this new year. Predictions are made concerning every aspect of our lives. Financial gurus are eager to tell us how we should invest for the coming year and for the future. Likewise, in the world of sports, predictions are made concerning every aspect, every team. All sorts of predictions for the new year have been made. But as we enter into this new year of 2025, this passage from James reminds us first that no one, absolutely no one knows what the future holds. Verse 14 is as clear as any verse can possibly be. As James writes, while you do not even know what will happen tomorrow, you can make all sorts of predictions, but in the long run, All the predictions are mere speculation. Ecclesiastes 8 verse 7 says, since no man knows the future, who can tell him what is to come? And Proverbs 27 verse 1 adds, do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring. Although we cannot predict the future, We do know that our lives here on earth are very brief. In verse 14, James asks a question. He asks, what is your life? And then he gives the answer. You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. The older we get, the more this truth sinks in. It sinks deeper into our thoughts because the older we get, the faster time flies. Time is like a snowball. You children make a snowball, maybe you make a snowman and then as you have a larger ball and if you're by a hill you roll that ball down the hill and as it goes downward it gains more and more snow and it reaches the bottom and then hits something and crashes and is gone. Time is like that snowball. It seems to go faster and faster as the years go by. I believe that I'm probably not the only one here this morning who is quite amazed that this is already the first Sunday of a new year, the year 2025. And as time goes faster, we realize more acutely how quickly our lives fly by. As James says, our life, even if we live to a relatively old age, is just like a mist that appears for a little while and then it is gone. The Bible likens our life to a flower. You have a beautiful blooming flower and it's here today, but it's gone tomorrow, withered away. The Bible likens our lives to grass. which withers in the changing seasons and dies. Our lives are like a plume of smoke that goes up and you see it visibly until the wind, even a breeze, comes along and it's dissipated into the atmosphere and gone. Our life is like a vapor. It's briefly seen before it disappears. David summarized the brevity of our lives in many of the Psalms, including the 39th Psalm, verse 4 and verse 5, where he writes, Show me, O Lord, my life's end and the number of my days. Let me know how fleeting my life is. You have made my days a mere hand breath. The span of my years are as nothing before you. Each man's life is but a breath. At the close of every year, perhaps you've noticed how the media will bring up notable people who have passed away during that preceding year. They describe the lives of those whose life ended like a wisp of smoke, dissipated like the morning dew, vanished like vapor. And while the names change each year, the reality of their life's end remains the same. Many years ago, Muhammad Ali, who as Cassius Clay bragged that he was the strongest man in the world, died. As a heavyweight boxing champion of the world, he had that slogan, dance like a butterfly, sting like a bee. But Muhammad Ali, who bragged about his strength, became frail and weak, and passed away. He, too, proved the truth of Scripture, found in Hebrews 9, verse 27, that man is destined to die once and then to face the judgment. And in the past year, our church family has experienced the pain and sorrow, the reality of death, as some of our members have gone on to their eternal home in the glory of heaven. Every calendar year should be marked with Psalm 139, verse 16. All the days you ordained for me were written in your book of life before one of them came into being. All the predictions for the new year have been made, yet there are two certainties that no one can avoid. Those two certainties are that no one knows what the future holds and that our lives are so very brief. Therefore, All of our plans must be made subject to the Lord's will. Verses 13 to 15. Now listen, you who say, today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you want to say, if it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that. James is addressing merchants here, business people who are making plans for their business without including the Lord. It is not wrong, incidentally. It is not wrong to make plans for the future. Rather, planning for the future is absolutely necessary. Jesus said, suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying this person began to build and wasn't able to finish. Proverbs 24 verse 27 adds, put your outdoor work in order and get your fields ready. After that, build your house. Making plans for the future is wise and necessary. Ecclesiastes 11 verse 6 teaches, sow your seed in the morning, and at the evening let not your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well. Making plans for the future is necessary, but what is wrong is to make those plans without any regard to what the Lord's will is for your life. Years ago, Christians frequently used the initials DV, which stands for the Latin phrase Deo Valente, that is God willing. And although saying the initials DV could become a thoughtless habit on the lips of some, the thoughtful Christian will make it a reality in their heart and in their life to make their plans Deo Valente, God willing. The reason why that is is that if we make plans without considering what the Lord's will for our lives is, we are making plans in presumption. As Jesus said, he is the vine. We are the branches. Apart from him, we can do nothing. We need the will of our triune God as we make our plans. Christians in every era of time have understood that. Consider the Apostle Paul, when he left Ephesus, he said to the people there in Acts 18.21, I will come back if it is the Lord's will. Likewise, he told the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 4, 19, I will come to you very soon if the Lord is willing. And he wrote to the Corinthians again in 1 Corinthians 16, verse 7, that he would spend time with them if the Lord permits. DV, Deo Valente, God willing, I will spend time with you again. Looking ahead to this new year, we should have plans and we should have goals, but our plans and our goals, like those of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the Garden of Gethsemane, must always be made subject to the will of our Heavenly Father. in the new year, our prayers, our plans, our lives are to be lived in accordance with God's will and not our will. And as a reminder, as a reminder, God's ultimate will for your life is that you are sanctified. First Thessalonians 4 verse 3 explains, it is God's will that you should be sanctified. People sometimes ask, what is God's will for my life in a new year? Or as I look to the future, just what does God want from my life? And the scripture tells us God wants your life to be sanctified, to be holy, to be lived according to the truths of his word. If you live a sanctified and holy life, then all the other aspects of God's will for your life will fall into place. For instance, young people, if your goal in life is to have a sanctified, holy life that pleases the Lord, will you date or marry an unbeliever? Or if you are seeking a new job in the new year, will you pursue a job where you have to compromise your biblical values or a job that precludes you from worship on the Lord's day? When we realize that God's will for our lives is that we live in accordance with his will, that we live holy and sanctified lives, and we earnestly strive to do so, then all the other aspects of your life and mine begin to fall into place. when we strive to fulfill God's will for us by living as his word commands, then those other decisions that come into our lives become so much more clear. A second point, a second point that James points out or brings up is that since life is both short and uncertain, we are not to boast about future plans. Verse 16, as it is, you boast and brag, all such boasting is evil. The Bible has many examples of those who boasted about what they would do in the future. In the Old Testament, we have someone like Haman who boasted that he was going to hang Mordecai on these gallows that he built 75 feet high, but instead, in God's gracious providence, the tables were turned and Haman was hanged on the very gallows that he had made for Mordecai. We have the example of King Nebuchadnezzar on the palace roof in Babylon bragging about the kingdom that he had built, the magnificent kingdom that lay before him, the work of his plan and design, the work of his hands. And then we see him being reduced to like one of the cattle in the field, eating the grass. We hear the boastful words of King Sennacherib as his troops surrounded Jerusalem. Just before the Lord struck down 185,000 of those troops, Sennacherib retreated. He returned to his palace in Nineveh only to be assassinated by his own sons. He proved the truth of James 3, verse 16, long before it was written, you boast and you brag, all such boasting is evil. In the New Testament, the rich fool is the ultimate example of one who boasted about their future plans. We read in Luke chapter 12, how he boasted about his riches. He boasted that his barns were full, that he had no need to work anymore. He could live a life of ease, be merry, enjoy all the work that he had accomplished. But God said to him, you fool, this very night your life is required of you. Then it will get all that you have prepared for yourself. all boasting is wrong, unless it is boasting about the Lord our God and His goodness and mercy and grace to us. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30 and 31, are verses where the Apostle Paul writes, it is because of him, God the Father, that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God. That is our righteousness, our holiness, and our redemption. Therefore, let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. When our focus, you see, is upward on our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and not inward on ourselves, our own plans, our own goals, our own perceived accomplishments, then our boasting will be in the Lord and not in ourselves. A third truth that we see in these verses is that in the brief span of our lives we are to actively do good. Otherwise we commit sins of omission. As verse 17 points out, anyone then who knows the good he or she ought to do and doesn't do it sins. Verse 17 is one of the most convicting verses in the entire Bible. It is so convicting because it reminds us that sin is a double-edged sword. One edge that cuts so deeply is the knowledge of all those sins of commission that we have made in our lives. But the other edge of that sword of sin is the sword that cuts deeply when we realize we have all these sins of omission in addition to all the sins of commission. Sins of omission are frequently mentioned in the Bible, emphasized in Scripture, even though we tend to focus on sins of commission. It is easy for us to look with condemnation at what someone else has done. When we see a public sin by someone else, the self-righteousness that lurks within the heart of even redeemed sinners causes us to flatter ourselves. And we're tempted to say, look, look at what they did. I mean, I've sinned, but not publicly like that. But our sins of omission are just as serious in God's sight as those sins of commission. Consider the seriousness of sins of omission as Jesus explained them in several of his parables. In the parable, the talents recorded in Matthew 25, what was the sin of the man who was given one talent? It was obviously serious sin because the parable ends with the master saying, and throw, throw that worthless servant outside into the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. What did that servant do to put himself in such great jeopardy? What did he do to incur eternal sorrow and the reality of hell? Did he commit a great sin of commission? Did he kill someone? Did he sleep with someone's spouse? Did he rob a large amount of money from a business or a bank? You know that it was none of those sins of commission that led him to eternal judgment Instead, it was a sin of omission. He took the one talent that was given to him by his master and he went and buried it in a field and never used it for the good of his master's kingdom. The Lord chastised him by telling him that he should have at least deposited that talent in the bank and earned interest on it. But in laziness, he went out and buried the talent given to him. He was condemned and sentenced to eternal damnation for his sin of omission. Or what about the parable of the Good Samaritan found in Luke chapter 10? In that parable, you recall the priest and the Levite were not condemned for sins of commission. After all, they were busy doing the work of the kingdom. They were religious leaders. But in their busyness with religious duties, they neglected the need of a poor man who had been robbed and beaten and left on the side of the road. He was bleeding and bruised and in need of help. But the priest and the Levite walked on the far side of the road. They could tell themselves that they had too much work to do in the kingdom to take time to go and minister to that man. But how many people, how many people go to church on Sunday as just a weekly routine, a Sunday observance, a religious duty, thinking they have a list of commendable deeds but instead are collecting a long list of sins of omission? It is possible to go through all sorts of outward religious exercises and rituals without ever truly serving the Lord our God, without using your talents and your time for his glory and the building up of his kingdom. Consider the parable of the sheep and the goats found in Matthew chapter 25. The goats representing the reprobates, the unbelievers who are consigned to hell, not because of sins of commission, but because of sins of omission. Jesus makes that clear in Matthew 25 verse 41 to verse 46. Jesus describes the great day of judgment and he describes how he will say to those on his left, to those who have not believed in his name, depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger, and you did not invite me in. I needed clothes, and you did not clothe me. I was sick and in prison, and you did not look after me. They also will answer, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison and did not help you? He will reply, truly, I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me. Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. Some churches use those verses to teach a social gospel. The verses are often linked to Micah 6, verse 8, which says, He has showed you, O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. and we are, to seek justice, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God, but we can only do so by God's grace working within us. When the people came to Jesus, as recorded in John 6, 28, they asked, what must we do to do the work that God requires? Perhaps they expected a long list of do's and a long list of don'ts along the lines of the Pharisees who had so many rules and so many regulations. Perhaps they expected a long list of requirements obtained by human effort, a series of religious hoops to jump through. But Jesus answered them by saying, this is the work of God, to believe, to believe in the one whom he has sent. And when you and I believe in the one whom the Father has sent, when we have saving faith in Christ alone for our salvation, then we will strive to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God. But our motivation will be gratitude for what God has done in graciously redeeming us. from our sin by the shed blood of his only begotten son. And it will not be motivated by a works-based social gospel, but out of gratitude for the redeeming love of Christ. Life is so very short. Even those among us who are in their 80s or their 90s will admit to that. In the brief time that we have left on this planet Earth, we are to look for ways to do the good works that God has prepared in advance for us to do. After all, we are saved for a purpose. Ephesians 2, verse 8 and 9, verses that are familiar to most of us, I'm sure, it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. But then, after giving that description, the apostle goes on in verse 10 to say, for we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. The work that God prepared in advance for you to do beforehand and for me to do before even the creation of the world, these works were ordained. And they may be something that are very small in the eyes of the world, yet great in the eyes of our Lord. The lonely person invited over, the sick visited and cared for, The downcast encouraged, the lost witnessed to. A phone call, a card, a meal brought over with a prayer for healing and for comfort. Little things in our sight are often big things in the sight of our God. As Jesus said, if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward. Sins of omission also include neglected prayer. 1 Samuel 12, verse 23 records these words of Samuel. Far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you, he said. Yet is it possible in your life, as I know it is in mine, that you commit sins of omission, as I have, by not spending more time in prayer? In the year ahead, may you and I do those good deeds that God has before ordained for us to do. May you and I be active in doing good, remembering the truth of verse 17. who knows the good that he or she should do, and doesn't do it, sins. But even as we acknowledge that all of us have a lengthy list of sins of omission, a list that might be even longer than our list of commission, we are also to look with confidence and true saving faith to Jesus Christ. We repent of our sins, both of commission and of omission, knowing that Jesus came to redeem sinners like ourselves. Not only did he cover our sins of commission with his precious blood shed on the cross of Calvary, But he also covered our sins of omission in their place. He credits to us his perfect record of righteous obedience. He has no sins of commission, and he has no sins of omission, and he credits, he imputes his righteousness to the life of everyone who has saving faith in him alone. The Heidelberg Catechism puts it beautifully in Lord's Day 23 as question 60 asks, how are you right with God? You have all these sins of commission on the one hand and all these sins of omission on the other. How are you right with God? And the answer, only by true faith in Jesus Christ. Even though my conscience accuses me of having grievously sinned against all God's commandments, and of having never kept any of them, and even though I am still inclined toward all evil, But nevertheless, without my deserving it at all, out of sheer grace, God grants and credits to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, as if I had never been a sinner or sinned, as if I had been as perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for me. All I need to do is to accept this gift with a believing heart. Have you accepted that gift? Do you have a believing heart? Have you asked for forgiveness of your sins, both of commission and omission? And do you know the Lord Jesus Christ through true saving faith in him alone? If so, then, out of gratitude, do the good works prepared beforehand for you to do. In the new year ahead, as we strive to make the best use of the time before us, as we strive to avoid sins of omission as well as sins of commission, plan to do good deeds. And plan those good deeds with the pure motive of gratitude to Jesus Christ for redeeming us from our sins and imputing to us his righteous record of perfect obedience through saving faith. In him alone, amen. Our Father and our God, we do ask forgiveness for all of our sins. Our sins of commission are so long and so lengthy, but Lord, how often have they been outnumbered by our sins of omission. In the new year, ahead and always, enable us to make the best use of our time, knowing that the days are evil. doing those good deeds that you have before ordained for us, for we ask it in your Son's name. Amen. As I came to the end of the sermon, I realized that I committed a sin of omission by not reading the law and The law and the gospel go hand in hand. I'd plan to read all the Ten Commandments, but instead I'll read from Psalm 32 before we sing our final song, where David speaks about the great comfort of forgiveness. And there is great comfort that when we confess our sin before the Lord, when we acknowledge that we are law breakers, both in regard to sins of commission and omission, there is great comfort in confessing those sins to the Lord. Psalm 32, verse 1 to 5, David writes, blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me, my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. When we confess our sins, we have the same assurance that David had, that our sins are covered, forgiven. But we have even more assurance than David had, for we have the words of Jesus, who said in Luke 5, verse 31 and 32, it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners. repentance. John 6 37, all that the Father gives me will come to me and I will know wise cast them out whoever comes to me. I will never cast out says the Lord. And John 10 verse 11, I am the Good Shepherd. the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. There's great blessing in acknowledging that we are lawbreakers and then confessing our sin to the Lord and finding forgiveness, complete forgiveness through that sacrifice and shed blood of Jesus Christ. Our concluding hymn is No. 484 in the Blue Psalter. Lead on, O King Eternal. And after the benediction, our doxology is Praise God, from whom all blessings flow.