Go to now, ye that say, Today or to-morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell and get gain. For as ye know not what shall be on the morrow, or what is your life, it is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, We shall live and do this or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings. All such rejoicing is evil." The title, the subject, the uncertainty of the future. These imagined, and I'm sure in their mind there was no doubt, that their plan was valid. We will go into such and such a city. we'll stay there one year and during that time we'll buy and sell and we will profit we will get gain and the apostle reminds him you don't know if you're going to such and such a city or not and you don't know that if you buy and sell whether or not there will be any gain in it you don't know what tomorrow holds and that's what the subject's about the same apostle james also wrote in verse 17 of chapter 1, listen to this, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of coming, of turning. In other words, in chapter 4, you may think you're going to do this or that, But if there's a good gift involved, it's the source of that good gift is God. So don't brag about what you're going to do. Be thankful for what God has been pleased to do. By way of introduction, a man, any man, any mortal man, in many respects, is a paradoxical meaning, meaning paradox meaning any person or thing exhibiting apparent contradictions. That is a paradox. And any man is a paradoxical meaning. He says one thing hoping that it means what he wants it to mean, but it may not. We will go into such and such a city, we will remain a year, we will buy and sell, and we will get gain. You have no idea what tomorrow holds. How can you paradoxically claim to do this or that when the Lord may not be in this or that? Man's powers, because of depravity, are capable of an almost infinite expansion. He can imagine that he can do many things that are far beyond his capability to do. even simple things. As long as the lungs heave, breath is present. As long as breath is present, life exists. But we learned last week that man's breath is in the hand of God. And he can withdraw that breath as easily as he gave it to begin with. But for man's from his standpoint there seems to be no limits as to the range of his knowledge or the imaginary and of the ideal within him how he thinks it ought to be man is famous for that how he thinks it ought to be we've had a lot of people in the world that you read God's Word to them and they say, well, God really meant. They want God's Word to say what they think that it ought to have said rather than what it said. But it's not just in the Scriptures. In every aspect of life, man imagines far beyond what he has reasonable knowledge of. Man can contemplate things material and immaterial. both past and present. Man can think about and contemplate Earth in its deepest strata, the numberless things that exist on its surface. The air we breathe and the heavens above us are all open to man's investigation. He can contemplate and think on any of these things, and he does. You just read any publication, listen to any broadcast. Man is always grasping for explanation as to how it all came about. No matter what you're talking about. And they think they know. And in their superior imagined wisdom, they sit back, pop their chest out, and brag about how much they know. When in reality, they know nothing at all. of how it all came about. Man in his vain imagination can chronicle, he can record in order the whole history of all past ages. But he uses his system of ethics or philosophy to detail the whys, the progress, the ruin of dynasties, the formation and fall of empires. He figures all Remember there's a fellow at one time who wrote a huge volume on the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. I don't advise you to spend a lot of time reading that. But I'm telling you that man can imagine that he can delve into the history of mankind and chronicle and just list everything. And we do that, we do that here. we do it based upon the best information available to us we hope and trust and pray but God's word is the only safe solution to any of that more than all this man can analyze the laws of life and can show in the aggregate the principle of longevity how great and marvelous are the powers of man. That's what they would have you to believe. Yet, as it respects one all-important subject, this subject, man knows nothing. Zero. Nothing at all. And that one object that man knows nothing about is the future. It is one of the secret things which God has never given except by direct, predictive inspiration to mortals. Deuteronomy 29, 29, God said, The secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the of the law. What God would have us to know, He makes known. He tells us. But there's a lot that God didn't tell us one word about. Acts 1, verses 6 and 7. Listen. When they, He's talking about the 11 right after the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection, the Lord appeared unto them. When they, therefore, were come together, They ask him, Say, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put or kept in his own power. That's one of the secret things that belong to God. The exact date of the coming of the Lord again. Let's take a little note here. Talking about the kingdom of Israel that these disciples wanted to be returned, the implication when he said restore, that indicates that at one time the kingdom was indeed in Israel's hands. God had vested that. He placed him there. He gave to Abraham a land. He brought a people into that land. He did all sorts of things to verify that they had, at his permission, ownership of that land. But their own wickedness and their own imagination led them into many evils and God scattered them from that land that he had given them in Abraham. And they only possess a little bit of it now. And that's only the two tribes of Judah that possess it now. Ten tribes are still scattered all over the world. Israel. The ten tribes. Let me give you a little background. Forty days the risen Lord had been instructing the apostles. After the death, birth, and resurrection, he came back and 40 days he spent with them. And this event in Acts 1, 6, and 7 took place immediately before, at the conclusion of the 40 days, immediately before he was caught up into heaven at his ascension. So for 40 days, the risen Lord had been instructing the apostles of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, doubtless according to his custom. Because Luke 24, 27, 32, 44, 42, he came to the tabernacle, to the temple rather, and David taught and practiced. He taught them. But one point in this 40 days of instruction, of teaching them of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, one point he left untouched. And that was the time when he would restore the kingdom to Israel. Hence the apostles' question. The one thing he did not talk about was when. And that's what they wanted to know. Will thou at this time restore unto us the kingdom of Israel? His answer to their question was according to his repeated teaching of them. The time was God's secret Matthew 24 verses 36, 42 and 44 Jesus said but of that day and hour knoweth no man no not the angels of heaven but my father only verse 42 watch therefore that was his instruction to them watch therefore for you know not what hour your Lord doth come. Verse 44, Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh. He had been teaching them about this, but he left out that one thing and never did tell them, because he said, No man knoweth but my Father only. So it is likely that all created beings are equally ignorant concerning the future along with ourselves even the angels both fallen and unfallen angels and Lucifer who became Satan they do not know none of these beings who are all created beings by the way know when the Lord is coming back as far as the time, the exact moment And so to this subject of the future, this text that we read in James is talking about. These that said, today or tomorrow, they made what we would describe as a reprehensible statement. reprehensible means deserving to be reprehended. That is, it is blameworthy, commonly adopted. For to say today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain, the solemn truth is too generally neglected, whereas you know not. That's what you ought to be thinking about. So then a godly principle which should direct our conduct is what now lays before us as Jesus placed before them. You don't know, therefore you be ready. Notice first the reprehensible course which is commonly adopted. To say today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gains. It can scarcely be necessary to say much to establish the truth of this charge. That men are of a mind and in the habit of doing so is also very evident in our lives. It is, unhappily so, the rule and not the exception. It goes on all the time. Not occasionally. Men are always telling us when the Lord is coming back. Some folks even predict the time. Most men do this. The buyer of a product, the seller of a product, the merchant, the politician, and the traveler. They all tell you that they know what the outcome is. In fact, all classes and distinctions of men do it all the time. It is commonplace. We see this in the domestic circles in reference to children, for example. Parents often speak as if the destiny of their children was in their own hands. Therefore we speak, they speak, of disposing of and of establishing them as if they could infallibly accomplish what they have so carefully or casually planned for their children. But I took them to church every Sunday. Surely the Lord's going to save them because I did everything necessary to make sure they were always there. Listen, folks. You may have ten children and the Lord may save ten children or one or none. It's not your decision. Parents do not control the destiny. He came unto His own and his own received him not. John 1.12. But as many as received him, verse 13, to them, that's a specific people, to them that received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God. And then he described them, even to them that believe, which were born. They were born in order that they might believe. And they believed or they were born not by bloodline, not by the will of the flesh. But Lord, I brought my children to church all the time. Surely, you must be obligated somehow to save them, not by the will of the flesh. It's a God. Long time ago, a discussion came up. An individual told me that I've got three children. Are you telling me, preacher, that the Lord might not save all those children? My answer was, I'm telling you that the Lord might not save any of those children. And if He does, it will be an act of His grace. Not because they're your children. It's not your bloodline. Not because you want it to be that way. In our families, all of us have members that are lost. And we want them to be saved, but we can't make that happen. Everywhere. With regard to plans and arrangements for the future, men act just like these acted in James chapter 4. We're going to say today, tomorrow, we're going to do this, this, and this. The chief cause of this state of mind is worldly absorption. One is so wrapped up in the world. It's also caused sometimes by lack of reflection, by inconsiderate levity, that is, giddiness or flatliness or attitude. Then as a result of these kinds of human frailties, established presumption. And their answer is, I assumed it would work out. I assumed all your plans may work out, but none of your plans might work out either. But the line of demarcation or separation by distinct boundaries is confessedly the very fine line between right and wrong. between success or failure. It is proper in a thousand things to act as if we expect it to live tomorrow and for many years in the future. In business, indeed, in everything, this must in one sense be recognized. We must plan. But this necessary prudence becomes an evil when at length it takes away the remembrance of the mutability of everything around us, including our time. All these temporal things change. They age. We often do so, forget, from the experiences of the past. We think because it's this way today, it'll always be this way, no matter what you're talking about. We think all things will continue as they were, and they don't. changed, God's purpose and plan moved steadily toward the fruition that he had in mind for it when he set everything in motion. We have acted like that for years, imagining that we're the master of our own destiny. Therefore, we conclude, as it has been seen, it will still continue like this because it always has. That's a fallacy to reason that things will continue as they are because they have in the past continued as they were but that's not any guarantee we forget that every year every year of life narrows the margin of life think about that every year narrows the margin of life. The Lord willing, come the 28th day of this month, I will have lived on this earth as a mortal living being for 82 years. I don't know how many years I've got, but I'll guarantee you one thing, except the Lord intervening, the remaining years are not as many as the preceding years have been. The margin narrows every year. In doing so, it renders the things that we calculate for the future less certain than they were. If the margin narrows, then the certainty of the outcome is less than it was before. I could have said, and I did say many times, foolishly, thinking back upon it, when I was younger, the scriptures talks about three score and ten, seventy years. And I remember saying several times in messages that I preached all over the country, I believe, I said, that if I live to be my three-score-and-ten, I'll see the Lord come again in my lifetime. Hey, I passed three-score-and-ten twelve years ago. I was wrong. I expected the Lord to come in my lifetime, and He may still. But I'm long past three-score-and-ten. So what I'm saying is that the margin of life narrows, and the every day that you live means that you're closer to the time of your mortality or the return of the Lord. In either case, it's the end of your present existence and being. Notice something else about this text. Notice the evils of this state of imagining that all things will continue. we're going to hit on just a few of these things this morning if we believe if we truly act upon the fact that everything's going to stay the same as it has always been or that tomorrow will be a repetition of today one of the first evils that come to my mind that is produced by that kind of thinking is our dependence on God is withdrawn. If we think that everything will be tomorrow like it was today, we are withdrawing our acknowledged dependence upon God. Our reason, reasoning, our intellectual powers, are abused if we think that all things will continue. For if consulted, even reason itself should teach us better than words can teach us the claims of the soul that has been neglected or a general spirit of procrastination that is cherished. Talk to a lost man. I'm going to get right some good day. How uncertain can you be? I'm going to straighten up and fly right sometime. They don't even say, I'm going to get better next week. It's always some distant nebulous sometime. Talk to a lost sinner. And you tell him about their sin and of the consequences of their sin. and of the Savior and the remedy that God has provided for sin. And they'll say, well, I know, I know I ought to, I ought to pay attention, but I've got lots of things going on right now and I just don't have time. I'll get around to, remember one time there was a ruler that the apostle talked to and that ruler said to him, why don't you come back at a more convenient time? Not convenient for you, convenient for me, when it's better suited to my particular disposition as of that day. But that may never less come, does it? Think about this. Did the Lord save you the day that you decided that He ought to? Did you know that the Lord was going to save you on whatever day that He did save you? Looking back on it, were you even sure then that you would live until that day that you had selected for the Lord to save you would ever arrive? No, all that was uncertain. You didn't know. In addition to these flaws and that kind of irrational thinking, In the minds of those that would say, we're going to go and do this, eternity is entirely forgotten. They don't even consider it. Therefore, folks, this evil is most fearfully fatal to the highest interest of our very own deathless, never-dying soul. Hear me. You don't know. Lost men don't know. And they don't want to know. They'd rather think about anything except sin, consequences, death, judgment, eternity. I'll get wise someday. I've got plenty of time. That's their attitude. What an ill effect this evil of procrastination and denial has placed in the life of every individual who would say and act upon such advice as is spoken of here in James. For as you ought to say, if the Lord will. They didn't bother then. They just said, we're going to do this. We're going to go either today or tomorrow Even the day that they're going to go into such and such a city is left uncertain, either today or tomorrow, as if they're sure tomorrow will arrive. We're going to go into such and such a city today or tomorrow, and we're going to remain a year. That's another timeline. We're going to buy as if they have control over what they can buy and at what price. And we're going to sell as if they had control over the price or whether or not anybody else wants whatever it is that they've got to sell. There's nothing certain about any of that transaction. Or as you ought to assume. This evil is reprehended. That is, God speaks against it strongly. A very solemn truth that more often than not is totally neglected. And the apostle says so. Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. Why would you make such foolish prediction about what you're going to do tomorrow when you're not even sure if there will be a tomorrow. That's what matter is, that's the fault with this kind of illogical thinking. Do you know what tomorrow is? Tomorrow is a period nearer than, yet it is beyond the kin, K-E-N meaning range of sight or vision, of knowledge, of cognizance, of mental perception, beyond your capacity to explain. Tomorrow, a period of time which is near at hand, and of that time and the certainty of it, the most shrewd and discerning among us as to how tomorrow will dawn if it does and progress and conclude when everything you think is going to happen tomorrow when tomorrow is fully passed everything that you imagine may or may not come to pass or anything that you imagine may not come to pass It seems like such a short period of time to wait just until tomorrow. Indeed, tomorrow is so near, yet it is really a concealed as the most distant period of time because you don't know. Tomorrow's output is just as concealed as a thousand years from now in your mind and mine because we don't know. Well, tomorrow surely it'll come about and I'll be able to say, well, will you? You don't know about tomorrow. Excuse me. You can explain what might happen a year from now as easily as you can tell me with certainty as to what's going to happen tomorrow. One can conceivably know as much of a day or a year in the future as he can know about tomorrow. Tomorrow's incidents with respect to ourselves are utterly, totally unknown. We cannot, even with any probability, guess what the incidents of our life will be tomorrow, whether we will enjoy health or sickness. safety or peril, joy or sorrow. You don't know what tomorrow holds. Tomorrow may be a day of unequaled happiness and bliss, or it may be a day of unexplained misery. It may be filled with all that can bless us, or it may be connected with all that can distress us. And we don't know and can't control either circumstance. Tomorrow's hours and moments may all bear witness to the liveliest enjoyment, or they might provide the most sharp, keenly biting, deepest grief that you've ever experienced. You don't know. Observe, if you will. Life itself is held on a tenuous Now a tenure is a period or terms of holding on to something. But it is a period of most uncertainty. Brother Terry talks about if he has one more year of teaching in the Alabama educational system, he will have tenure for his state retirement. But all that's pending. On what? Being there another year. Remaining healthy and active to be there are lots of factors involved in that that are beyond his control or yours or anybody else's. And everything about your future life is a tenure. It is uncertain until it produces. Is that not what the scripture says? Listen, for what is your life? It is even a vapor. that appeareth for a little time." How long is a little time? It's an uncertain period of time. "...that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." That's what God describes as your life in James 4. Folks, human life is not as oak, but rather it's as grass. Yea, rather as the flower of grass. 1 Peter 1.24 says, For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. That's your life. James 1.10 says, Because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. Human life then. It is not like a rock or iron. No, it's a vapor. That's the way God described it. A vapor is a thin, misty exhaling. A breath of wind will scatter that vapor. And if so, it's gone. Now this is the case with all mortal men. Not only is this true for the delicate and the frail, but it's also true for the robust and strong as well as the frail. Not only with the sickly, but also with the hale and hearty, the vigorous and the strong. Man, like the vapor, appeareth but for a little while, and then vanishes away. The longest life of mankind is but a very short drama, and in that drama man appears on the stage of life, acts a few parts for good or evil, and then retires from the stage and is seen no more. How this truth has been omitted and pondered and illustrated and expressed by philosophers, by moralists, by politicians of all ages. How is this presented to us in the proverbs and maxims of all nations and of every age of our world's history? Yet, alas, how feeble the impression on our hearts and lives these produce. Finally, a godly principle which should direct our conduct. For that he ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that. Our lives are contingent on God's will. That is a fact. Our lives are contingent on God's will. He can sustain the weak and the ailing, or He can cast down the strongest. as he will. His will alone decides the momentous question, but do not for a moment imagine that the design will is capricious, that it is subject to be changed or indicative of a whim or action on his part, much less is it ever autocratic or arbitrary or tyrannical. No, It is the will of your infinitely wise and holy and good God. But He still, as the governor of the universe, decides the condition and the tenure of our lives. He abridges or lengthens. He extends or concludes our probationary state. I'll give you an example. 2 Kings 20, verses 1-6. In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amos, came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die, and not live. Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the Lord, saying, I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth, with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight, And Hezekiah wept sore. And it came to pass, before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, Turn again, and tell Hezekiah, the captain of my people, Thus saith the Lord the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears. Behold, I will heal thee. On the third day thou shalt go up into the house of the Lord, and listen, and I will add unto thy days fifteen years. And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria. And I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake." God can shorten life. He can extend it. It's all according to his purpose. And then observe this. This truth we should constantly cherish and treasure. To forget this truth or to undervalue this truth is so absurd as to be irrational. For even nature teaches that same truth that God spoke through Isaiah to Hezekiah in 2 Kings. To forget that even nature teaches it? Listen, all the mutations of earth, the varying seasons, the falling leaves, the withering flowers, the ending of every day, the impressive death we see on everything, all, all should teach us this solid truth. And moreover, it ought to be Confessed in our thought and in our word, our phraseology, you ought to say, If the Lord will. Don't you see nature teaching you that truth? That everything out there is operating according to the schedule that fits God's will, for He is in absolute control of everything. How wise and proper, then, to use a phraseology which would constantly remind ourselves and others around us of our own transitory state, we're only here for a brief season. We need to be reminded of that. There can be no affectionate mannerisms or anything else in this. There's no pretense, for it is just matter-of-fact truth, and as such should be remembered or uttered. God controls everything, and this principle should we exert a most beneficial influence upon us. It should produce moderation in all our worldly affairs. I'd like to spend a lot of time on that, but time is gone, and I won't. Let me repeat. This principle that God is in control ought to exert a most beneficial influence upon us, and it should produce moderation in all of our worldly actions. See how this very principle is urged by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 7, beginning with verse 29. But this I say, brethren, the time is short. It remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none, and they who weep as though they wept not, and they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not, and they that that buy as though they possess not, and they that use this word, world rather, this cosmos, this world system, as though they were not to abuse it. Listen, for the fashion of this world passeth away. Does not that principle exist in every aspect of mortality? This world, folks, this cosmos, this world system, is also but transitory. It is ever-changing, as God wills. Temporal in its nature, but eternal. Thus this moderation would most assuredly lead to our seriousness of mind, and this would be favorable to the habitual preparation for our eventual death, and thus sanctity of life itself. For there can be no right and wise application of life where the probable approach and the final certainty of death are not realized. Pride, ambition, hate, worldliness, None of these would thrive in an atmosphere of positive awareness that God is in control. They only function because man does not know that God is in control and does not want to know. He thinks that he's the master of his own destiny and he takes pride in doing so. He's proud. Then let the text lead all sorts of classes of people to a solemn reflection, to think on this, to consider it. The unconverted should not delay immediate repentance and should trifle no longer with the soul and with eternity. The true Christian should beware of a presumptuous, self-confident spirit residing within himself. The Christians should feel and act as if they are strangers and pilgrims upon this earth. Is that not what the scripture teaches us? That we are just strangers and pilgrims upon this earth. We are journeying as Israel journeyed in their exodus from their bondage to their entrance into the promised land. Life is but a picture or rather the fulfillment of the picture that Israel's forty years painted for us. Let it be our daily desire and our unswerving purpose to make the most of life, therefore be a wise and pious enjoyer of what God has provided, in glorifying God, in cultivating our moral powers, and doing good to our fellow man. That's how we ought to spend our lives. Hear Moses as he spoke in Psalm 90 verses 8 and 9, Thou hast set our iniquities before Our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. For all our days are passed away in thy wrath. We spend our years as a tale that is told. That drama of life that I referred to earlier. In Psalm 90 and verse 12, listen. So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Listen to Job in 7.6, My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope. I'm talking about his mortality. In chapter 14, verses 1 and 2 continue, Man that is born of a woman is a few days and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down. He fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not. Hear Isaiah, the evangelical prophet of the Old Testament, in chapter 40, verses 6 through 8. The boy said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? Here's the answer. All flesh is grass, and all the goodness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, and the flower fadeth. because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely the people is grass, the grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of God shall stand forever." And this is the consolation for God's people. Amidst all the mutations of ever-changing daily allotments for portions on earth, The word of our God standeth forever. Everything you can think about or not think about in this world is only temporary. And it's under the direct control of God. So how certain is the future? Whatever God's will and purpose is, but no man knows about the future.