We are in the book of James tonight, the book of James chapter 4, as we continue our study of this book. Again, as we have sort of worked our way through this, this is very similar to the wisdom literature of the Old Testament, very similar to the book of Proverbs in lots of ways, and we will see some of that tonight. This evening, we are in James chapter 4, starting in verse 13. If you're reading out of the King James, it begins with the words, go to now. And if I were to translate that into redneck Mississippian, it would be something like, hey there. It's an attention-getting thing. Hi, or whatever. Anybody have a modern translation? Yeah, Al, what does it say? Now listen. Yeah, something like that. It's to call your attention. So let's start reading right there. Verse 13. Go to now. Listen up. 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 ye 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 vanishes away. For ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings. All such rejoicing is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." Alright, let's just quickly think back towards what we've been studying. Notice, back into the last part of chapter 3, we have been looking at our problem, which is the fact that we have this nature that craves evil things. Remember, that sort of was the topic of the last part of chapter 3, first part of chapter 4. And therefore, because we're all sort of craving, we always want what somebody else has, never satisfied in what we got. Therefore, it is the source of all the conflict and the fightings, the squabbles that take place. Then we have a solution. We have a God who gives grace. And grace in this context, we sometimes call grace unmerited favor. In this context, it is unmerited ability. It's the ability to live by the Spirit rather than by the flesh. The same contrast we see in Paul's letters of spirit and flesh. the two warring against each other. That's what we've got going on here. And then we have another problem is that we have a proud heart. Well, you say, well, why is that a problem? Because we're told here that God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. So then our solution, and we talked about this at length, is to look at the steps necessary for us to develop humility. And there's a number of very practical things James lays out here for us to do. And then there is another symptom of pride. This was our discussion, well, one last week. It was two weeks ago, the last time I was with you. There, starting in verse 11, speaking evil of your brother, judging him. And the context, again, seems to require us to see us judging our brother in respect to things indifferent. This particularly would be the case of a Jew in Jerusalem who judges Gentiles because they're not circumcised, or because they eat funny stuff like catfish and shrimp, or they don't dress like we do. They don't do what we do. And so it is a prohibition of judging your brother. And the danger is that to do this is to put yourself in the place of the lawgiver. It is to say that there's something wrong with the law because This should have been the law that you were observing, and therefore, the lawgiver himself is at fault because he didn't lay that law upon you that I think you need to be observing. In other words, it's me placing my personal convictions on you, not regarding moral matters, but regarding those areas of things we sometimes call them things indifferent. So that's just a quick look back at where we've been. And now tonight, much like the book of Proverbs, we suddenly shift gears, and it seems we bring in a completely new topic. But it's not really new because it's tied very closely to the subject of pride that has been the problem all the way through chapter 4. The problem that we have to deal with is our pride in the face of God. Now, I call it here our sinful presumption. Now what is presumption? How would you define it? When you presume upon God. Yeah? Think you know the outcome ahead of time? Their intention? Okay. Yeah? Okay. We would say that if I sin, assuming that God's going to forgive me. You ever thought in those terms? Well, I'll just go ahead and sin, because after all, Love, what am I doing? I'm presuming on His grace. I'm anticipating that He must give me grace, so therefore I can sin with impunity, knowing that God will forgive me anyway. I must be the only one that has such devious thoughts, but I'm sure that sometime or another that has crossed your mind, right? Kitty thought that way once. You never, but your wife. Yeah, yeah. Okay, and she's not here to defend herself, She was assuming she could marry you anyway and get away with it. That was the presumption in that case. But it is to anticipate an outcome. And this is what we see here in the lesson tonight, is that, again, there are some similarities here in verse 13 to what we've already had. Remember, we had a long chapter on the tongue, on what you say. And so notice, here we're talking about what you say again in verse 13. You're saying, today or tomorrow, we're going to go to such and such a city. We're going to stay there about a year, and we're going to buy and sell, and we're going to make some profit. Okay? That's what you say. And notice that you are presuming that you then can control your life. It's quality, whether it's good or bad. It's continuance. It's duration. You're saying we're going to go for a year. We're going to be there. Secondly, we think we can just control our destiny. We're going to get to a certain spot. We're going to go to this city. We're going to make it there. We're anticipating that. We're presuming that that's going to be the case. And then we think we can control our success when we get there. We're going to go there for a year, and when we get there, we're going to buy and sell, and we're going to make gain. We're going to make a profit. Do you see the presumption that we can make that happen? I think I've told you the old story they told back in the Puritan days of the guy that was out plowing his field. And he's out there and he sees coming down the road his neighbor leading a cow into town. And he yells at him and says, where are you going? He said, I'm going to go to town and sell my cow and make some money. And he says, well, you mean if the Lord wills you're going to do that? He said, oh no, I'm going to do it. It's going to happen. Well, he disappears out of sight. And about 30 minutes later, he looks up and hears his neighbors coming back the other way. He's all bloody. His clothes are all torn. The friend yells at him, what happened? He said, well, I went around the bend up here and a bunch of robbers jumped out, beat me up and took my cow. And he said, where are you going now? He said, I'm going home, if the Lord wills. Well, that's what James is saying here, is that, do you really think that you can control your life? That you can say, without question, I'm going to go to such and such city. Without question, I'm going to stay there for a year. Without question, I'm going to buy and sell some stuff and I'm going to make a lot of money. Can you make that happen? Can you assure yourself of that? And I think most of us would have to admit, no, that is not a done deal. There are all kinds of contingencies, unforeseen circumstances that can completely derail all my plans. And that is what James is wanting to point out to us, to notice the presumption we think we control it. I'm hitting the wrong button here. We need a wake-up call, and that wake-up call is found here in verse 14, where he says, not only can you not control what's going to happen a year down the road, you can't even control what's going to happen to you tomorrow. Or we could add to that even the next five minutes. I was sitting there around the table tonight as we were sort of discussing things at dinner, and thinking a good exercise for us would be How many ways can you think of that you might not be here tomorrow? Just name some. Well, just give me an example. And the reason I'm saying that, I remember one time we were out backpacking in Wyoming. The family, we were way up high in the Continental Divide. And Jessica was just a little girl. She's about eight years old. And she was with Linda in a tent and just pouring down rain. I was over there by myself. They made me hold this tent up. the tent that leaked, I got that tent. So they were in the dry tent and lightning flashing everywhere. And I mean, when you're in the tops of the mountains and the lightning flashing and the sound, the crazy sounds that just rolls off the rocks and stuff. Well, anyway, Jessica is panicking. You know, she's just sure she's going to get struck by lightning. Linda's trying to calm her down. She says, you know, Don't worry about the lightning. There's a lot of ways you could die up here in the mountains. And Jessica suddenly stopped crying and said, like what? In other words, name them. Name them. Okay, so let's name a few. What could happen to you that you would not be here tomorrow? Car accident. That's a biggie. Yeah? A twister. We're going to have a severe storm tonight, perhaps. What's that? Heart attack. That's the one I've got to watch out for. What did you say? Stroke? Yep, we don't like that one, but in other words, there's just an infinite number of ways that we can check out for tomorrow. I'm thinking of accidents, tripping and falling. Do you realize how many people die from falling in the home? Falling and hitting your head on something. Robbers? Murderers? Getting shot? Yeah, don't go to MapCo. Have you seen how many people have gotten robbed at MapCo in the last few days? You start listing all the possible ways that you might not be around tomorrow. And can you control any of them? Can you say that I, beyond any certainty of a doubt, will be here tomorrow when the sun rises? And the fact is, no, that's not the case. Our plans, our lives, our future is hanging, as it were, by a thread. At any moment, we can be derailed. The wheels can come off. Our life is insubstantial. It's temporal. It's like in the illustration that James uses here is that it's like a fog, a vapor. It was like sometimes you wake up in the morning and it's foggy. and then the sun comes up, burns it off, it's gone. Now, we like to think that we are much more substantial than that. I remember John Riesinger years ago, a friend of his came up, had a bucket of water, and he was going to illustrate to John. He said, I want to show you how long you will be missed once you check out of this world. He said, put your hand down in that bucket of water. He said, now pull it out. He said, did you see how fast the water closed around where you've been? He said, that's how fast you will be forgotten when you're gone. That's a rather humbling thought. But what that's pointing out is the same thing James is saying. Can you imagine an airplane taking off from the airport and the pilot up there said, oh no, we're fixing to hit a cloud? Nobody worries about a cloud. It's not really there. It's not substantial. And that's what James is saying about our lives, as important as we think that we are. And I don't mean that our lives aren't important, but we think that the world cannot go on without us. In 15 minutes after we're buried and gone, the world will be back to going just like it was. That's the humbling thought, that that's about how long we'll be missed. Now I realize you've got family, people and so forth that'll miss you a little longer than that, but as far as the world as a whole, that's about it. 15 minutes. and then it's business as usual. Everybody goes back to the business of living. So the world's not going to stop when you check out. And that's what James is pointing out here, is that our lives are that insubstantial and that temporal. So, he gives us the remedy in verse 15, is to acknowledge the sovereignty of God. In other words, Events of this life, this world, are not in our hands, but they are in somebody's hands. We are not in the hand of fate. We are not fatalists in that sense. We believe that God has all things under His control. And if not, then tell me who does, and I'll worship Him. If there is someone, something greater than God who controls destinies, then let's worship Him. Let's sing Amazing Fate, how sweet the sound. If it's not God, if it's not His grace and mercy that is in control. It is to recognize that God is sovereign and our speech is to reflect that fact. That's why He's saying we ought to say, if the Lord will, we will live and do this. or that. Do you understand the humility that has to come into the picture? That I must recognize that I am not in charge, and He is. I am submitting, I am bowing to His rule, His authority in my life. Then secondly, and this is an interesting thing, and it's seen here in verse 16, He says, Now ye rejoice in your boasting, your glorying. Now we encounter that in places like Ephesians 2.8, by grace are you saved through faith, and not of works, lest any man should boast. And generally, when we think of boasting, we think of boasting as it respects the past. In other words, I'm boasting in my achievements, my accomplishments, what I've been able to perform. But notice here, the boasting is directed towards the future. that I am boasting that I can go to a certain town, a certain city. I'm boasting that I can stay there a year. I'm boasting that I can make money. I was headed to the St. Louis Bible Conference when everything happened last week, and years ago when I was there, one of the men came up. I don't think any of y'all would know him, but he said, you know, talking about his job, and he said, you know, I can make money anywhere. He said, you can put me out on a deserted island. Well, that guy, within a year, lost his job, and he learned very quickly, no, he can't make money. In other words, all of a sudden, he was out of work, and he couldn't get work. You know, you didn't want to say, well, I guess you learned that lesson, but you understand, that's the idea we have. We're successful. we've been able to achieve certain things in life, and we chalk that up to the fact that somehow we know the secret. We've got a handle on this thing, and we made it happen once, so we can make it happen again, right? And what we don't realize is how much the sovereignty of God governs and rules the circumstances of our life. Now, we look back, and the lost man would say, well, maybe he would recognize the fact of what he calls luck. I was lucky. Things worked out, you know. But we understand that no, there really is no such thing as luck. There's the blessing of God. There's the grace of God that has given, gave me the success that I've had in the past, and I cannot force or make happen that success again. One of the things about being self-employed, if you are self-employed. Look at Jim back here, you know. The last sale you made just might be the last sale you ever make. Is that right? You have to go to bed every night with that thought. That may have been the last one that I'll ever make. Some of you say, well, I don't have to worry about that because I work for an employer. I've got a company. I've got a boss. Is that any safer? How do you know they're not going belly up in the morning? I had a situation, a cabinet company up in Minnesota, they were buying cabinets from a company that made them down in San Antonio. And they got a phone call. This guy went, showed up for work in San Antonio on Monday morning, showed up and there was a chain around the front door. The bank had repossessed the whole company, the whole building. He's going to work just like he's always going to work. He gets there and there is no more company anymore. It's gone. It's belly up. So in other words, the fact that you think, well, at least I have some security because I work for somebody, I'm not self-employed, don't have to generate new income, but that's no guarantee as well. Do you understand the contingencies of life that you and I simply cannot control? In Kimmerer, Wyoming, little bitty town, about 4,000 people, they weren't big enough to have a square, they had a triangle. And on one corner of that triangle was a dry goods store. And the thing that struck me the first time I saw this store was that almost every town in America back around 1900 or the 1930s had a dry goods store. Even the little old town of Nevada I came from in Texas, we had a dry goods store there on the square in Nevada. Every town in the country had one. But this one had one that you've heard about. J.C. Penney. You see, Kemmerer, Wyoming, of all places, was where the mother store was for J.C. Penney. He was a businessman living there in that little town in Wyoming. And from that little dry goods store, the J.C. Penney chain spread all over the country. Now, why did that one spread all over the country. The one in Nevada went defunct many years ago. What's different? Now, J.C. Penney was a Christian man, by the way. Had a wonderful Christian testimony. But do you understand that things had to happen just right? That that's the one you've heard of, and there's a thousand others that you've never heard their name because what happened in his case didn't happen in theirs. that we recognize that there is someone in control of things, and that we like to think that we're the ones generating our own success, when in fact, what success we receive is given to us from the hand of God. We can say that's not just true in the world of business. That happens to be the illustration James uses here. But what about military? We think of the great generals that were so successful and then came into a situation where the tactics that worked so well in the previous battles don't work anymore. All of a sudden, things don't do. Elimelech, he's the son of a concubine. His father was Gideon. Gideon had 70 sons. And then he had this one son by a concubine, and that one son decides he's going to be king. So he puts all the other sons to death. And he has this city that is against him, and he and his men attack it, and everybody runs to this tall tower in town, in the middle of the town. Well, this guy, Bimelech, says, watch me, do what I do. And he runs out to the forest, gets him a limb, puts it on his shoulder, and throws it at the base of this tower. So all these men do the same thing. They all go to the forest, they get them a limb, they throw it at the base of the tower, and they set that thing on fire, and they burn that baby down. Everybody perishes in this fire when they burn the tower down. Well, they go to the next town. Everybody there goes to the tower. Well, we know what to do with towers, don't we? Abimelech says, watch me, do what I do. He goes and gets him some wood. He runs up to the base of the tower, and a woman on top of the tower throws a millstone off the top, hits him in the head, and crushes his skull. The same thing, the same tactic that worked so well when it was God's purpose that this town be defeated didn't work at all when it's Abimelech's turn to be defeated. How many times has such a thing happened in history? Okay, so you get the general picture of what I'm talking about. You cannot control your own destiny. That is the blasphemy of the Word of Faith movement, is that you can speak, if you just believe strong enough, hard enough, that you can create your own success. You see the problem with what James is teaching us? that instead we are to acknowledge that it is God who is the one who grants us success. Alright, let's go on a little further. And then notice that last verse which seems to be so out of place here, that the one who knows to do right but doesn't do it, to him it's sin. It doesn't mean that ignorance is an excuse. We have examples in Scripture where that's not the case. But what this is saying is, of all things that we ought to know better, even the lost man, by his own experience and his own observations, ought to know that you can't generate your own success, that you're dependent on someone, something higher than yourself. But especially the Christians should know that. We're the ones who confess that Christ is Lord, that all power in heaven and earth is in His hands. Barry, you're the scholar here. What's that proverb that says promotion doesn't come from the East or the West? I picked the wrong scholar. The proverb basically says that promotion doesn't come from the East or the West. It comes from the hand of God. That's where it comes from. All right. Well, I should just give a few conclusions here. evil to make plans. Are you supposed to make plans? Well, isn't this guy here making plans? He's saying, I'm going to go to a certain town. I'm going to be there for a year. I'm going to buy and sell. I'm going to make some money. There's nothing evil about making plans. It's not the plan that's evil. It's the attitude that I can control and guarantee my own success. That I am independent. I am not dependent on another. Then secondly, must we say, if the Lord wills, I'm going to do this, I'm going to come to your house tomorrow, if the Lord wills, is it necessary to say that at all times? I don't think so, and we're going to give you, let's just look through these texts. I want you to look at 2 Corinthians, where Paul is talking to the Corinthians who are disappointed that he has not come to see them. He told them he was going to make a visit back to Corinth, and he hasn't shown up. And so he says these words, 2 Corinthians 1, starting in verse 15. He says, "...and in this confidence I was minded to come unto you before, that you might have a second benefit, and to pass by you into Macedonia, and to come again out of Macedonia unto you, and of you to be brought on my way toward Judea." Now, notice carefully here that Paul obviously has a plan. He's got a tribal plan. Then he says in verse 17, "...when I therefore was thus minded, did I use likeness? Did I not intend to do what I said I would do? Or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be yea, yea, and nay, nay?" In other words, that's a funny way of saying, When I say I'm going to do something, am I really not intending to do what I say? It's my word wishy-washy. But what he's really pointing at is that this is not the case. I do not use likeness. When I propose these things, I don't propose them according to the flesh. I'm not saying that it is my flesh that's going to make it happen. I am proposing these things, even though I don't use the words, if God wills. Go to 1 Corinthians 16, 7. 1 Corinthians 16, 7, Paul says, for I will not see you now, by the way, but I trust to tarry a while with you, if the Lord permit. Notice here he brings that phrase in. This is my plans, if the Lord permits. Look at Romans 15, 24. I'm trying to talk loud so you all can hear me. Notice here again is Paul's plan. Romans 15-24, he says, Whenever I take my journey into Spain, I will come to you, for I trust to see you in my journey, and to be brought on my way there by you, if first I may somewhat be filled with your company. Now notice, this is his plans. Does he say, if the Lord wills? Well, not exactly. But did you see that little phrase there in verse 24? I will come to you, For I trust to see you in my journey. I trust. That is a shorthand way of saying what we're going to see in Philippians 2.19. Philippians 2.19. Here's the longer way of saying it. But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort when I know your state. Notice, sometimes we use this expression, I trust to do this, I trust to do that. It's shorthand for what Paul is saying here. I trust in the Lord Jesus. In other words, depending on Christ. If He okays it, if He gives permission, then this is what I'm going to do. But it's all dependent on Him. You see the same thing in verse 24. I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly." In other words, if Christ allows it, then I will come to see you. So, I don't think that this is some formula that we must parrot like a parrot every time we say we're going to do something, but it is to be the attitude of our heart at all times. Here's the lessons. Life is short, uncertain. an unpredictable boy. And how? Our supposed control over our lives is but an illusion. Our lives are entirely in the hands of our God. Therefore, trusting Him, His promises, His Word, is the only certainty we can have in this life. He is the only unchangeable, immutable person, being, in the universe. Therefore, our trust, our faith in Him allows us to have some steadfastness in this life. Not that we are, but that He is. And by faith, we cleave to His will. Okay. Any comments tonight? Anything? Now that we can hear a little bit. Yes? That's right. Yeah. It's a good habit. Yeah. You're exactly right. Are you all hearing him? Oscar's just pointing out that it's sort of like praying, and we say, in Jesus' name. Is that necessary to say at every prayer? Well, probably not, but it's a good idea. But in the same sense, we can say the words, but not mean it. We just do it because that sounds good. That's how you're supposed to pray. In the same way, we can say, well, I'm going to do this if the Lord wills, and it's just words. We don't really mean it in our heart. We're not truly convinced of it. Do you understand the case I tried to make at the beginning of the study tonight? The connection between pride and assuming that you can control your destiny. That this is an overblown opinion of yourself. And that we need to humble ourselves before the hand of our God. That we're dependent on His grace. The old song says, I need thee every hour. And that's the truth. Other things?