James chapter 4 and we're going to turn to the latter part of the chapter here to the verse 13. So we're breaking in the chapter reading from verse 13. I trust that as we read God's Word that the Lord will speak to our hearts once again through his precious truth. Reading from verse 13. 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 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. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him. it is sin. Amen. We'll end our reading at the verse 17. We trust and pray that God will take his precious word and write it on all of our hearts. There are many questions that I'm sure that we have all thought about, at least at some stage in our lives. the great questions of life. I remember as a young person, and that wasn't yesterday, but as a young person thinking about the great issues and the great questions of life. Questions like, why am I here? Is there life after death? Is there really a God? When will the world end? And how will it end? What is life about? Great questions of life. I'm sure that each one of us have at some stage thought upon those questions. I wonder, what sort of answers you have come up with. Personally, I used to think as a young person that life was all about what you could make it, and it was all about the fun, the enjoyment, the pleasure. And therefore, I equated with life, and to enjoy life, you needed to get involved in the things of the world, and that's the way I viewed life. I thought that as a young person, I had all the right answers and that I was all right, but in reality, I was all wrong and I was deceived. Like many people, I have no understanding of what God's Word teaches upon the great questions of life. You see, these are questions that you and I, we just can't work out for ourselves. We don't have the answers to these questions. Now, of course, man, in his philosophy, in his seeming wisdom, he seeks to come up with the answers to life and the meaning of life and what life is all about and the purpose to life. But these, in reality, are questions that only God Himself can answer. The God who created man, who breathed into man the breath of life, man became a living soul. In order to have the great questions of life answered, the only place we will find those answers is, of course, in the Word of God. Remember, some years ago, I was taking a service in a nursing home, and after the meeting, we were going round and speaking to the residents there in the home. I thought it was a very good meeting. It was a group of young people. And one elderly man, he took me by the hand, and as I spoke to him, the tears were flowing down his face, and he was very visibly upset and troubled. And I said, sir, what's the problem? Why are you so upset? And he said, son, I used to remember large portions of the Word of God. I could recite chapters and verse after verse. All I know is John 3.16. And then he began to quote the verse, for God so loved the world. And there he went on to quote that verse of Scripture. I remember just squeezing his hand and just saying, sir, you can base and stake your whole eternity on that one verse of Scripture. Because God's Word is sure. God's Word is certain. God's Word is truth. It is all truth. And therefore, when it comes to the great questions of life, what's the purpose? Why are we here? What is our chief end? We can believe all the Bible says about the questions of life. We can rest and place our whole eternity upon what the Bible teaches, and I'm sure Each of us would seek to do that. You see, we're not left to second guess. We're not left to try and work out why man is here upon the earth. The Bible, God's Word, tells us the answer. In fact, the Lord Jesus Christ speaking said, "'Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.'" And there is a truth of God's Word that makes us free from so many things. It makes us free, doesn't it, from our own reasoning? It brings us into truth and out of error from our own human wisdom and understanding. It brings us into the truth rather than folly. It brings us to consider the truth rather than the traditions of men. Here we have a verse in James chapter 4 that reaffirms the great truth of the purpose to life. What is life all about? Let me read the verse here in James 4 again. The verse 14, part that we want to consider, for what is your life? One of the great questions, one of those questions that demands an answer. tonight we're going to seek to answer this question from the Word of God. Some would say, well, what is life all about? For me, life is all about pleasure. After all, life's what you make it. It's for the here and now. It's about the enjoyment. And so many times you will hear people using that statement, life is what you make it. Well, let me say, man has made a mess of life. Man has transgressed, broken God's laws, fallen short of God's glory. Man has put himself at a distance with God. But for so many people, they're living for the moment. They're living for the pleasure. They're living for the thrill, the buzz, for that experience. That's what they're living for. They're living for the Danar in his great quest, seeking for the answers to the questions of life and the purpose to life, we find that Solomon sought out many things. In the book of Ecclesiastes, he writes in speaking about his quest and search for life, Solomon turned to many things, and one of the things that he turned to was the world and all its pleasures and all of its allurement and all that he would seek to satisfy his soul in. Of course, only to find that at the end of the day, He would come to the conclusion that vanity, vanity, all is vanity. All that the world has to offer, its pleasures, its allurements, it doesn't fulfill, doesn't satisfy. That's why the alcoholic goes back for another drink, doesn't satisfy. That's why the addict is bound in addiction, whether that's to drink, to drugs, to gambling, whatever the addiction may be, no satisfaction. Solomon came to realize that the purpose to life, of course, was to know God and to fear God. How many there are today, and they're seeking pleasure in the things of the world. In the Gospel of Luke, in the chapter 12, we're not going to go into this in detail, by the way, but just here in Luke chapter 12, we read the parable of the rich farmer, the rich fool. A man who was seeking to amass great wealth and riches, but a man who was indulging himself in the pleasures of the world. He was given over to them. And basically his philosophy is like the philosophy of so many. Eat, drink, be merry. As long as you have a good time. As long as you enjoy yourself, that's what life is about. It's about pleasure. However, he was to discover that life is not what man makes it. Man makes a mess, but rather life is what Christ can make it. So for many, they will say, well, life for me is about pleasure. For others, If you asked them, what is your life about? What are you seeking for? What's your quest in life? What are you looking for? Many people would say prosperity. They're not just living for the moment, but they're equating life and success by a bank balance, by an accumulation of wealth, how much they have in their account, how much money they have to spend on worldly goods, how much of this world they can gather together. It's a great tragedy to think that for many people, they equate success with wealth. And yet, some of this world's richest individuals are the most miserable, empty people. Prosperity. In the Gospel of Matthew and the chapter 19, we read about a young man who came running before the Lord Jesus Christ. He came and he bowed down before him. We read about him in Matthew chapter 19, and here in the verse 16 we read, and behold, one came and said unto him, good master, what good things shall I do that I may have eternal life? It's the story of the rich young ruler. That young man who had amassed great wealth, The Bible tells us very clearly in the passages about this young man that he was extremely wealthy. He was very rich. He had amassed together much of this world's goods, and yet here's the reality, he was still lacking. He was still wanting. There was still something that wasn't fulfilled. There was an emptiness there. He came at the right time, didn't he? He came when he was young. And can I say to those who are young in our meeting tonight, the best time to seek the Lord is when you're young, when you're in your youth, because the Lord blesses above all measure, and the best life is a life given over into the hands of God, into the hands of Christ. I used to think, I suppose, like many a young person, well, if you became a Christian, that would really, you know, rob you of your joy and happiness in the world. What a mistake. The Lord Jesus hasn't come to destroy man's lives, but rather to save them, to give life. And so many people, they equate life with prosperity. young man who came at the right time, who came to the right person, for he came to Christ himself. He came to the right teacher. He came with the right question, the right theme. He wanted to know what had he to do to have eternal life. You see, he had it all. He had everything, but he had nothing. He was so rich, yet he was so poor. Isn't it a great tragedy to think that for many people, their wealth, their money has become a great snare? In fact, the Lord Jesus Christ speaking about the love of wealth and the love of riches, just like that rich young man, it becomes a hindrance, it becomes a stumbling stone. You know, oftentimes people will look down and they'll think, well, you see that person there, that drug addict, they need to be saved, they need to be rescued, they need to be redeemed, they need to be lifted out of the pit from whence they're in. But not me. I'm a good person. I haven't done anybody any wrong. I have a good bank balance. I've got all that this world has to offer. I've made it in life. I'm someone successful. Yet the Lord will have us to know that there's more chance of the person who's down and out, calling for a physician, seeking someone to aid them in their help, to help them. The rich young ruler was like so many. For them, life is about prosperity. By the way, that young man who came to the Lord left sorrowful. He left in need. He left empty. The Bible tells us that he went away sorrowful, for he had great riches. Don't leave the meeting without the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ is everything. For some, life for them is about pleasure. For others, they will say, well, life to me, it's what you make it. It's about prosperity. I'm getting somewhere on the social scale. It's about being popular. For others, they would have to say, well, life is about problems. And for them, they would have to declare, well, life is just a struggle. It's so hard. You go in the doors and you speak to people and you talk to them, you'll soon find that you meet people very much like that. And they're down, they're depressed, and they're struggling, and they're just struggling to get through life. And life for them, it's just such a vexation. It's just full of so many sorrows and so many trials and so many problems. And it comes to the place where they find that it's so hard just to get through. Man going from one problem to another. Whether that's pressure, problems that are brought about through financial stress, whether it's through family problems, whether it's You know, through friends and hurt that's caused and all these various factors brought in. You'll find people who would say, well, life for me, it's just so hard. It's full of problems. It's so difficult. Others would say, well, for life, you ask about what is life all about to me? It's not about pleasure. It's not about prosperity or the problems. It's more to do with being pointless. There's nothing to live for. There's no future. Life has no direction or meaning. Isn't it a great tragedy that for many people, many people, They come to that place where they are deceived into thinking, well, death has to be better than this. The statistics with regards to the intentional taking of one's life, in other words, suicide, are absolutely shocking. Do you know that around one million people every year take their own life? One person Every 40 seconds ends their life. Every three seconds, every three seconds, a person attempts to end their life. And so for many people, they've come to the place where there's a void and there's an emptiness and life has just become so hard and so empty. They believe the devil's lie that death has to be better. What a lie and deception that is. When I was just 19 years of age, I took a massive overdose and attempted to take my own life. Some years later, once I was saved, and it must have been, I'm just trying to work it out, maybe about eight years later, that event, I was sitting in the bedroom of a young man. He was 19 years of age, just as I was 19. He was sitting in his brother's bedroom, just as I was. He was downing the same sorts of pills as I was, along with alcohol, and he was saying exactly the same things. My life is so empty. I'll never change. There's no hope. There's no future. Death has to be better. That's the devil's lie, because death is not the end. And so for some people, life is pointless. When we think about these great issues and the great quest for life, the most important thing is, what does the Bible say about life? What does the God who created us, what does he say life is all about? Well, we would have to say that the word of God reminds us that life is In other words, it is temporal. We are not here forever. You know, as we think about our lives, our lives are described and pictured in the Word of God in so many ways, but our life in many respects is like a vessel on a voyage. And the day that you and I were born into this world, we were born making that trip, that voyage. And our life can be likened to a vessel, can be likened to a ship, and it's out there and it's on the sea of life. And of course, as it travels through those tempestuous waters and it cuts through those seas, our life, like that vessel, is headed toward eternity. The Word of God reminds us that there are but two places in eternity, heaven for those who are saved by the grace of God and hell, tragically, for those who are unprepared and unsaved. The Bible warns us about the brevity of life, that as we are on that sea and as we're headed and traveling toward eternity, sooner rather than later, we will be in eternity. What is your life and mine? A few years, compared to eternity, which goes on and on and never ends. It is, as the Word of God would remind us, just like a drop in the bucket. It's so insignificant. It's so brief. It is so short. And so time and time, the Holy Spirit, God himself warns us, man or woman, young person, learn these great truths. Think about your life. Understand this, that your life is short. Your life is passing. Your life is temporal. And time after time, have very clear illustrations, vivid picture lessons to warn us about the brevity of life. You know, teaching the children, oftentimes you use an object lesson. And if you have a clock, for instance, you could use the various lessons on the clock. I remember very fondly very godly W.P. Moore, one of the, he'd have been the clerk of session at the time in the martyrs church, and W.P. Moore was a very godly man, but I remember him coming to Lisbon, I was just a young convert, just saved, and he came and he'd done a story, and he told it at the children's, took children's day, and it was all about the shoe. And I remember him saying, the shoe, we can draw many lessons from it. It has eyes, it has a tongue, it has a soul, and all the great lessons from the shoe. Do you know the Lord himself uses the object lesson? He uses very clear pictures that you and I can understand, that you and I can grasp, so that we will really, in a sense, in a childlike fashion, just grasp how short life is. Life in the book of Job, I think it's chapter 7, verse 6, is described as being as a shuttle. The shuttle that leaves one side of the loom, the old weaver's loom, goes to the other side, and God says, man or woman, young person, that passes so quickly. That's just like your life. It's like the smoke caught from the chimney. In Psalm 90, it's like a story, a tale that is told. Life is depicted. through object lessons very, very clearly to us, that you and I might take it to heart that we are not here forever. We're passing through. And so life is passing. But as we turn to the Word of God, we find that only is life fleeting and passing, but life is precious. It's valuable. All the devil would say, life is meaningless, it's of no value, it's empty, it's worthless, it's a void. And God says, no, life is precious. Your soul, man or woman or young person, is so valuable, so precious, that God sent forth His Son to shed His blood on the cross at Calvary. For what shall a prophet of man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? If we were to take a set of weighing scales, that's not possible, but if it was, We will put the soul of man on one side of the scales and then try to tip the scales with all the various things that the world has to offer, with its wealth, its acclaim, with its popularity, with its jewels, with its riches, with all of that esteem and everything. It wouldn't even begin to move the scale because your soul is so valuable and so precious. It's so valuable and of so great worth that the only thing and the only one able to save your soul is the Lord Jesus. You think of the price, paid and the price that it cost for God to redeem and save the soul of man, the blood of His Son, and the sacrifice of the darling of His bosom. Your life is precious. You're listening to the message. You say, well, at times life doesn't seem that precious or that valuable, but I want you to understand that's what God values your life. That's the estimation that God places on your life and on your soul. The devil, he'd say it's worthless. He's a liar. He's a liar from the beginning. God said it's so, so valuable. Wonder, is your soul saved? Do you know the Lord? The Bible says life is passing. Life is precious. But let me say in closing, the Bible reminds us, God says, life has a purpose. It has a meaning. There is a reason why you and I are here upon this earth. You see, God created man that man might know Him and that man might glorify Him. Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. We are here placed upon this earth, not that we might self-indulge, not that we might seek to fulfill our own lusts and desires and our own needs and wants and wishes, but we are placed here that we might know God, that we might have fellowship with God, the purpose to life. The Lord Jesus Christ speaking about life in the Gospel of John, in the chapter 10, and the verse 10, he reminds us about there, the work of Satan, the liar, the thief. And he says, the thief cometh not, but for to steal, to kill, and to destroy. We look out in society today, tonight, and we see that, don't we? We see his handiwork. The Lord Jesus says, in contrast, I am come that they might have life, that they might have it more abundantly. You see, man is dead in trespasses and in sins. Man is separated from holy God because of his sin, and therefore he can't fulfill the purpose for which he was created. God made you that you might know Him, that you might have fellowship with Him, but your sin separates you from God. The only way, the only way that you can know God is by coming to Christ and by coming God's way through His provision, through His Son. Jesus came that we might have life. Not just life with purpose, meaning, direction, fulfillment, satisfaction, but eternal life. To know God's forgiveness, to know his pardon, to know that we are right with God, we're at peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That's why the one who is the Prince of Life shed his blood and died in our place at Calvary. He died that we might be forgiven. He died. that we might be reconciled to God. Do you know Him? Are you trusting Him? What is life all about for you? Let's be honest. What do you live for? What is your desire? What is your goal in life? The apostle Paul said, To live is Christ, and to die is gain. Salvation brings us assurance. Assurance that we're right with God. What are you living for? Well, for me to live, it's my family. For me to live, it's my business. For me to live, it's my desires. If it's not Christ, then friend, you're missing out. You need the Lord. You need to come and trust Him. I'm glad that when we think about the purpose to life, we realize that life is passing, it's fleeting. Praise God we can be prepared, prepared to meet the Lord. You see, the reality is that every single one of us will meet God. He will either be your Savior, or you'll meet Him as judge. You'll either meet Him saved and prepared or lost and unready and forever banished from His presence, cast into hell, come to Christ. For this purpose was the Son of God manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil, that He might set you free. that He might bring and give you life, that you might come to know Him, that you might enjoy Him, glorify Him, fulfilling the purpose for which you were made. You were made to know God and to glorify Him. May God bless these thoughts and His Word to our hearts this evening. If you're not saved, I trust and pray that you will come and seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near.