Amen. Let's turn to James chapter 4. Once again James chapter 4. We'll not complete it. We'll fall short by a verse but we want to bring another short word and then we'll get down to prayer. Thank you for coming and may the Lord bless you for doing so. James chapter 4 and we'll begin reading at the verse 13. Go to now 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. For as ye know not what shall be on the morrow, for what is your life? It is even a vapour 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, Now ye rejoice in your boastings. All such rejoicing is evil. We'll end our reading up the penultimate verse of James chapter four, amen. It is to Christian maturity that James is attempting to bring his readership to by the counsel that he imparts to them in this particular epistle or this particular letter. Now many issues have been dealt with, I'm sure you can recall, some if not all of them within this letter. And James now comes to another issue in these closing verses of James chapter 4. It is an issue that every child of God grapples and struggles with within their lives. Namely, the will of God. Do I live my life to do my own will? Or do I live my life to do God's will. James really deals here about a duel of wills, a battle between two wills, the will of God and my own selfish will. Now the immature Christian along with the worldling lives and makes themselves and their enterprises the end purpose to their existence in this world. They make themselves, their enterprises, their industry, the end purpose to their existence in this world. However, the mature Christian sees beyond this uncertain life and understands that the will of God is what they ought to seek and then do in their lives. And so James comes to deal with incorrect thinking that had taken possession of these saints that he was writing to that caused some of them to live for themselves and for their own prosperity in the world whilst the will of God was neglected and relegated to the sidelines and deemed to be something that was non-important, something that was optional but not obligational. Tonight we want to think then about these two wells that are always competing for precedence in all of our lives, our own will and God's will, and see what God has to say about them. Now as practical as James always is, instead of preaching about abstract concepts, that the people of God would have no understanding of. James now employs an illustration to get his message across. He takes the illustration, the example of an entrepreneur An individual who is breaking out or desiring to go into a new market and in order to gain profit and in order to prosper his own business. And so he speaks here about a businessman in the verse number 13. A man who thinks that his life is under his control. The decisions that he makes or the decisions that will be eventually outworked in his life. And really this individual has no regard, no thought, no consideration for God's will and for God's purpose and for God's plan in his life. Verse 13, go to now 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. Here's a man consumed with doing his own will to the exclusion of God's will. There's no mention of the man. ever seeking God as to what he should do regarding this business venture, this entrepreneur makes life-changing decisions based on his own logic, his own human reasoning, without ever consulting God. No place for God in his schedule, no place for God in his business plan, a business plan that is human-based, with really no inference or no direct contact with God. Now he makes two false presumptions, two false presumptions that this businessman makes. Firstly, he pursues on the continuation of life. Go to you now ye that say today or tomorrow, we will go into such a city and continue there a year. This was his first presumption. He thought that he would see tomorrow. Some even thought that they would see to the end of a trading year, for they said that they would stay a year in this particular city. And yet the scriptures clearly state that none of us are to boast ourselves of tomorrow. Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. And so he pursues on the continuation of his life. Secondly, he pursues on the expectation of worldly success. When he comes to this city of choice, he believes that through the buying and selling that he was going to get gain. Now any businessman knows that while they always aim for profit in any of their enterprises, all businesses have their losses too. But there's no mention of loss, simply that it's always going to be profit. It's always going to be gain. And here we find him being presumptuous on this particular matter as well. Presumptuous on the continuation of life, that his life would go at least for another 365 days, and then that he would always be successful in this new venture and this new market that was opening up to him in a new locality. Now I need to say at this point that James is not condemning businessmen for making plans for the future. We all need to make plans for the future. We are to be like the little ant we said in Proverbs chapter 6. We're to look ahead, we're to lay up for a times of Want and times of need so there's not this case or a surah Thinking in the mind of the businessman He's not saying that the businessman shouldn't have made plans for the future and neither is he denouncing the right of those? Who are in business and those who are in industry and making profits? He's not denouncing these things what James is condemning here is that he was not to make plans without consulting God He was never to make plans without bringing God into his decision making. He's critical of those who would live lives apart These people did not say, well, today, tomorrow, we'll do such and such a thing to the glory of God and for the extension of his kingdom, not at all. Rather, this man was simply consumed in building his own business empire with no thought of God, no input from God. As for God's kingdom, well, that was placed on a back burner. Really, it was his business empire that all that he was concerned about. Now I freely confess that it's easy for us all to get caught up in the rat race of life, fall into the trap of doing our own thing without giving thought about God and about his good and acceptable and perfect will for our lives. We run into this business venture, we get involved in this investment opportunity and God's direction is never sought for. We become so engrossed in the making of money and in profit making that we feel to see that such is detrimental to our spiritual lives. And I say that if you cannot bring God into your future plans, then you need to bend those particular plans. You need to bend them, not shelve them, but bend them entirely. We must become guarded that we do not become absorbed in worldly business. So that it takes up all of our attention and our energy away from that which is of eternal worth and of eternal value. James brings a little bit of reality into the mix in the verse 14. And he reminds now these saints of a few realities within these words, whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow. What is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, then vanisheth away. I'm sure you've heard this text often preached in the gospel, reminding the ungodly of the brevity of life and how quickly life can change for us all, how quickly life can come to an end and come to a quick conclusion and find ourselves out into God's great eternity. But contextually, these words are not written to the unsaved. James is writing to the brethren here. These words are then to be viewed as written to God's people, because too often we believe ourselves to be invincible. But our lives are very much healthy, and as to the conclusion of life, well, that is most certainly a long way off from this night, and this moment, and this particular date in history. And yet, James reminds these believers that your life is just as uncertain and is as brief as the ungodly's lives are. And so, James, he comes to speak first of all about the uncertainty of life, whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow. You would think that none of us would need to be reminded of The fact that life is uncertain with all the unplanned happenings that come into our lives, but it seems to be that we do. We do need to be reminded that life is so uncertain that none of us know what will be on tomorrow. What will happen tomorrow, none of us can be certain. So complex is life. That's beyond any human individual to ascertain the future, for them to design the future, to control the future for themselves. Does it not folly them for us to plan our futures when we don't even know what tomorrow holds for us, a better course of action? would be to seek God's will for our lives and then to resolve to do that will. And then whenever things, uncertain things do happen in our lives, as we are doing the will of God, then we rest on the knowledge that those happenings are occurring because God has purposed them to happen in our lives. I trust you understand and follow the thinking. To be doing the will of God, then for life's uncertainties to happen, we can rest assured that then, as I've been doing God's will, that this is God's purpose. This is part of his plan. This is part of his will. This is seeing the fulfillment of his will in my life, though this event be something that I did not see on the radar, yet I believe that this is God's purpose because I am doing the will of God. Mr. Spurgeon said, there are two great certainties about things that shall come to pass. One is that God knows, and the other is that we do not know. All ventures that we embark upon must take place against the backdrop that life in this world is uncertain, and that God in his providence may disappoint those ventures that are not according to the will of God. God in his providence may disappoint those ventures that are not according to the will of God. Maybe you're an individual here tonight or listening in and you've become frustrated by plans that have gone awry in your life. It may be that God was slowing your pace. you are running a little before him. And so he was slowing your pace. Or maybe he was redirecting you because you had misread the will of God for your life. But if you have placed all things in God's hand, And if you're an individual that is seeking to do the will of God, you rise each day and say, Lord, help me to do thy will in my life today. Then if these things occur, then you can be assured, you can be assured that all things are being directed by God. The problem arises when we haven't given all things over to the Lord. and we're simply determined in our lives to do our own thing. To do our own thing. Such will lead to this conflict, this duel that I'm speaking of tonight, the duel between God's will and my will. There will be a clash of wills. The second reality that James brings and draws the attention to these believers to is the brevity of life, the uncertainty of life, the brevity of life, for what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanisheth away. Life is uncertain, but life is also short. The brevity of life is pictured here by the illustration of the morning mist, a vapor. It appears on the landscape in the morning, only for it to soon disappear when the sun arises and the heat burns it away. And such is our lives on earth. We appear on the stage of human history for a brief moment of time, and then we are gone. And many are the illustrations. You know them well. You're well-versed in scripture. Those illustrations that speak of the brevity of life, like the weaver's shuttle, like the swift ships, like the shadows, like the weaver's shuttle, like the mown grass that rises in the morning and is cut down in the evening. Our life on earth compared with the vast expanse of eternity is short, brief, and quickly passing from us all. I was speaking to someone this week and they were saying, you're over, you're over the hill now. So you are. with being 42 and the individual was right. I wasn't going to be offended by what they said because it's true. If our years are three score years and 10, then I'm over the hill. I'm over the hill now. Life is going quickly, passing for us all. The brevity of life, how quick it is. And with life being so short, then we must moderate and we must control the time that we give over to earthly pursuits and invest the greater bulk of our time and energy into those spiritual pursuits that have enduring treasure attached with them and to them. But the journey from the cradle to the grave being so brief, we don't want to waste or fritter our time away in vanity projects and pointless pursuits. We must invest in those things that are eternal. We are to live our lives with eternity in view. Are you doing that? Are you living your life with eternity in view? To live life to the full, we must seek then to do the will of God and not our own will. I've given the illustration before, but it is worth repeating. It comes from a book that is entitled, Don't Waste Your Life. On the back cover of the book, the author wrote the following, I will tell you what a tragedy is. I will show you how to waste your life. Consider the story from the February 1988 edition of the Reader's Digest, which tells the story of a couple who took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast of America five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. They now live in Florida, where they cruise on their 30-foot trawler, play softball, and collect shales. The author continued, imagine coming at the end of your life, your one and only precious God-given life. And the last great work in your life before you give an account to your creator is this, playing softball and collecting shells. Picture them before Christ in the great day of judgment. Look, Lord, see my shells. That is a tragedy. Will you come to the end of your precious God-given life and say, Lord, look at my shells? What have you done with life? What activity are you expending that life that God has given you? Has it any eternal value to it? Are you wasting your life? Only you can answer those questions. God has given us all time. We're stewards of it, but how are we using it? How are we employing it? Richard Baxter said, spend your time as you would hear of it in the judgment. Spend your time as you would hear of it in the judgment, and another occasionally said, place a high value upon your time. Be more careful of not losing it than you would of losing your money. Do not let worthless recreations, idle talk, unprofitable company, or sleep rob you of your precious time. Be more careful to escape that person, action, or course of life that would rob you of your time than you would be to escape thieves and robbers. having exposed the wrong thinking of these saints. James now sets about in verse 15 to correct that thinking when he writes the words for that you ought to say, you shouldn't say that we will go into such and such a city and continue there year and by and sell and get gain for that you ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that. With life being so uncertain and brief, the Christian, yes, is to plan for the future. Failure to do so would be unwise, would be unbiblical, but with those plans made, the child of God then must commit the plans on to the Lord, allowing the Lord either to prosper the plans, or either for the Lord to frustrate the plans, depending on the will of God. We find the committing of future plans into God's hands by a number of Bible personalities who came to understand that their plans were subject to the will of God. Whether they would be fulfilled or frustrated, these individuals, they understood that God's will would either frustrate or see to their fulfillment. The first individual is Jacob. Genesis 28, verse 20, there he is, Bethel, and Jacob, he says, he vowed a vow saying, if God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God. Here was Jacob committing his future into the hands of God. If God wills it, If it is in the will of God, in the purposes of God, God's going to bring me back to this land. And if it's not in God's will, then I'll continue to live outside the land of promise. But here he is, before God, committing his future plans into God's hands. Lord, you do your will. Whatever that will is, I'm not here to dictate and say that this is going to happen. No, I'm going to leave this in God's hand because I know, I know that God's will is what I want. I want God's will in my life. The other individual is the Apostle Paul and Paul was an individual that was fully aware of the will of God and either the fulfillment or the frustration of that will in his own personal life. I'll give you a number of references. Romans 1 verse 10, making request that by any means now at length, I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come on to you. Paul wants to go to Rome and to see these individuals But he realizes that that'll only happen in accordance to the will of God. If it is God's will, I will have a prosperous journey on to you. If it is not, he will frustrate my plans. He will redirect me. But whatever his will is, I am surrendered to that will. Not doing my own will, but I'm surrendered to doing God's will. 1 Corinthians 4 verse 19, another occasion, but I will come to you shortly if the Lord will. Here he wants to go to Corinth, and he says, I will come to you shortly if the Lord will, and will know not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power. And then 1 Corinthians 16, verse seven, he repeats it again, for I will not see you now, by the way, but I trust to tarry a while with you, if the Lord permit, if the Lord will permit. Both Jacob and Paul understood that life's events could only occur if God willed it, and thus they use phrases like, if God will, by the will of God, if the Lord permit. And by making such utterances, these men were leaving life's events to the superintending of the Lord. They were desiring that all of life's events would be in alignment with God's will. that God's will would triumph or trump their will. That's all they wanted in their life, to be doing the will of God. And so, yes, they had their plans. I'm sure they had their thoughts and their desires and their wants, what they wanted to do. But whenever they came to committing those plans to God, they did not impose their will on those particular plans, but rather they said, Lord, if you will, Get me to Rome, bring me to Corinth, bring me back into the land of promise. But if it is not your will, frustrate the plans, block up the way. You know, folks, there are times in our lives when we don't know what to do. We've sought God's will. We've sought God's will for our lives. We've left it before the Lord and God has said nothing. In such occasions, we need to then just commit it into God's hands. Lord, if I'm going to go astray, if this is the wrong direction for me to take, then guide me into the right way. Frustrate my plans, block up the road, but I just want to do your will. Guide me and lead me. You know, today we say DV or God willing. It is an abbreviation of the Latin term Deo Volente, which simply means God willing. And whenever we say that, we're really doing what James is encouraging the believers to do here in verse 15. We're saying to God that he and he alone has the final say as to whether or not something will come to pass. Holy Spirit is teaching here that we are then to commit our lives entirely to the will of God. Again, if we cannot commit our works to God, if we cannot commit our ways to God, then we should never think of even embarking upon them. Our actions are always to be in harmony with God's revealed will. And then when they are, then thank God that will will be. performed in our lives. We are not to prescribe what is to happen in our lives. Notice the term that is used here, verse 15, for that you ought to say, if the Lord. He's the Lord. He's the master. If the Lord will. You see, it's giving God his rightful place. giving God his rightful place within our lives. He is Lord, and therefore we are to content ourselves that the means and the timing of his will are left for him to decide. If the Lord will, we must come to the place that Proverbs 16 verse nine speaks of, a man's heart devises his ways, but the Lord directeth his steps. We come to acknowledge God in our lives, and we leave the choice to him. Then we can look at every event, whether good or bad, as that which God has willed and ordained should come to pass. And then, very quickly, the Holy Spirit, through the penmanship of James, comes to call us, be it a spear, in verse 16. For he says that the boastings of those people who say that they're going to do this, And to do that without even a nod to God or to his will. He says that such boasting is vain. Verse 16, but now you rejoice in your boastings. These individuals who were saying that they were going to do this and that without even a nod to God, he said, those boastings are evil. They're evil. Why are they evil? Because they arise from pride. They arise from self-dependence. They arise from the thought that we think that we are in ultimate control of our lives when it is actually God who purposes all things in our lives. When Napoleon Bonaparte was about to invade Russia, someone tried to discourage him from doing so. When he realized that he was getting nowhere with Napoleon, the person quoted this saying to Bonaparte, man purposes and God disposes. Napoleon indignantly replied, I dispose as well as purpose. A Christian hearing the Emperor's boast remarked, I marked that down as a turning point of Napoleon's fortunes. The Christian was right because Russia was the beginning of Napoleon's downfall. He thought that he purposed and disposed all things and all events in his life. But Napoleon was soon to find out that it is God and his overarching will that overrides the will of man. We must avoid then the Napoleon Bonaparte mindset in our lives that deceives us into thinking that we are greater than God. All such boasting is evil. Let us then instead have no will of our own, but become captives to his will, and prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God in each and all of our lives. Don't live life like this entrepreneur who really set about all of life's plans without bringing God into the equation. But let us leave our lives in his hands and let us seek to do the will of God and leave all of life's events to his control and to his disposing. May God help us to do that in each of our lives. For Christ's sake, amen. Let's pray. Loving Father, bless thy word. How foolishly we make our plans without even consulting God. They sought not counsel at the mouth of God. What foolishness it was. Oh God, may we always leave our lives in my care, and may your will be always done in and through our lives. We cry to thee that we may understand that only if God wills will such happen and such will take place in our lives. So we leave all things with thee, believing that the good and bad of life has been willed by God, he has purposed it, he has planned it, and he is doing all things well. We offer prayer in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. Quickly.