This time, let's turn to our Bibles to James 4. James chapter 4. James 4, we're reading, starting at verse 13. To give honor to God and His holy word, let's stand. This is God's holy and infallible word, James 4.13, and follow him. Come now, you who say, today or tomorrow, we will go to such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit. Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you are to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that. But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore, to the one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for this, your word. Help us, we pray, to be humble. Help us to flee the sin of pride and arrogance. And help us, we pray, to submit to your holy will. And even in our conversation, in our plans, in all that we do, help us to acknowledge you, oh God, and your sovereign will, and your sovereign plan over all of our life. For we ask these things in the name of Jesus, our Lord. Amen. Please be seated. A couple of questions to ask. What will happen tomorrow? And how long will I live? We might guess what will happen tomorrow. We might plan for what will happen tomorrow. But we truly don't know exactly what's going to happen tomorrow. We might hope that we're in good health and we might live another 20, 30 years. But we don't know. Our lives might end tomorrow or next week. These two questions, what will happen tomorrow and how long will we live? How many days? How many years? How many months God will give us in this life? These are two questions that make it very evident that God is the one who sits upon his throne and we are not in control. None of us know again what tomorrow holds. The future is ultimately dependent upon God's holy will. And I believe tonight's text will make that evident. Before we move into that, I want to look a little bit more at some of the context. Chapter one of this epistle begins with James writing to the 12 tribes scattered abroad. Some commentators say that this epistle has a very Jewish flavor to it, a very Hebrew flavor. Definitely has a lot of wisdom literature to it. So in that sense, it has that Jewish flavor. But the 12 tribes, you don't have to say that these were only converts from Judaism. The 12 tribes scattered abroad were Christians who were scattered abroad because of persecution. The early persecution, not only from those in the synagogues, but also from the Romans as well, caused the church to get scattered. And James, earlier on in this epistle, gives some very encouraging help, useful help in dealing with trials, dealing with testings and temptations. He also dealt with some problems that were seen abroad in the church. There were people who had pride and arrogance. There were people who were having quarrels within the church. There were those who showed personal favoritism to the rich rather than to the poor. Another problem we find throughout the New Testament is different extremes regarding the gospel. If you look back in Galatians, one of the problems in Galatians was that they allowed Judaizers to come in and they wanted to add ceremonial law to the gospel. So Paul rebuked them. In this particular epistle, there were people who had a great comfort in their salvation through Jesus Christ to the point where they were living almost like antinomians. That's why James stresses the essential nature of having a living faith rather than a dead faith, and he did that very well. A major reoccurring theme throughout the epistle of James is that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. As we look at our text tonight, the main focus is that you are called to depend upon God and His sovereign will. You are called to depend upon God and His sovereign will. And we'll see this in two main points, the nature of presumption, and secondly, we'll look at some cures for presumption. Let's look first at the nature of presumption. By the way, presumption, to define presumption, is a belief or act based upon some uncertain grounds or uncertain facts. That's what it means to have presumption. Look at verse 13, the nature of presumption. Come now, you who say today or tomorrow, we will go to such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit. James here is likely citing this example of presumption because this is something of a conversation that he had heard before. Some people had said this sort of thing before. I'm going to go to a city, maybe I'm going to go to Galatia. And I'm going to get a job, I'm going to make some money. Or as people would say nowadays in this community, I'm going to buy a house, I'm going to flip that house. I'm going to renovate that house, I'm going to flip it, I'm going to make a profit. That's what I'm going to do. Verse 16 here gives an analysis of what James thinks of such plans. He says that making such plans is to make an estimate that you know the future. Verse 16, but as it is, you boast in your arrogance, all such boasting is evil. To make such plans in that such fashion, act as though you will do X, Y, and Z, whether God allows you or not, is presumption. It is boasting, boasting in your arrogance. The word arrogance there, the Greek word for arrogance there could also be translated pride. The word boast can also be translated as glory, rejoice, or even bragging. So we'll read it this way. You, glory, rejoice or even brag in your arrogance and your pride. That's what he's saying here. So to boast in your arrogance and pride in this particular situation, in this particular case, would be to have a self-sufficiency rather than a dependency upon God. Such an attitude includes a disregard for God and his hand of providence. We should always have God and his sovereign dealings upon our mind. He's in control, and we are not. He is God, and we are not. Today's text teaches us that we ought to be careful with our speech, especially regarding our future plans. Okay, so here's a question. Do you ever speak or act presumptuously? And if we are honest with ourselves, each of us have done this from time to time. Now, I'm gonna give a couple of, somebody might say, supposedly innocent statements. Maybe you've heard this one before. Rain or shine, I'll be there. You're telling somebody, I'm going to be there tomorrow, rain or shine. Well, what if you wake up in the morning and your battery's dead? What if you wake up in the morning and you trip and fall and hit your head and next thing you know you're on your way to the ER? I mean, there's so many things that can happen that you tell someone, rain or shine, I'm going to be there. Lord willing, it would be better to say, Lord willing, I'll be there. Or how about this one? Your boss is angry with you because you're kind of late on the job and you say, boss, Mr. Bill, whatever his name is, no matter what, I'm going to get it done tomorrow. No matter what. How do you know for sure? You might get the port and try to put it in that machine and try to change a port and you find out you got the wrong port and you got to order a new port. How are you going to get it fixed tomorrow like you promised? Right? You've probably heard me use this example, but when I was an unbeliever, my parents and I, we all lived in a house built in 1829 in Washington, Louisiana. There were parts of that house where you could look underneath the house. Some of the house was actually at least five and a half to six feet off the ground on pier and beam. And there was a part where you looked in the cracks of the floor and actually you could see daylight through some of the cracks of the floor because they didn't have any insulation underneath the house. And one day I set a glass of water with ice in it at my bedside. I went to bed and I woke up in the morning. Why did I like ice in my water during the winter? I don't know, but I like cold water to soothe my throat. I wake up in the morning and say, oh man, I still got ice water in my glass. I'll just leave it there. So I went to college in Eunice, and I came back after class, and I studied, and I was ready for bed the next night. And I go to my bedroom, and I look at my glass of water. I said, I don't have to fix another glass of ice water. I still have ice water. It still hadn't melted all day long. And one day I got so upset with my family, and I said, when I get older, I don't ever, I'm never going to live in a house this cold. When I get older, I'm never going to live in a house this cold. And I moved to New Jersey. And while in New Jersey, I was sharing an apartment with three guys. And these three guys didn't want to spend a lot of money to heat this house. And there was no insulation in the windows. A very old apartment or condo that we lived in. It was nice. I probably should have stayed there instead of moving out. It was so cold that I wore three layers, and I was breathing, and you'd see the mist freeze because we were all trying to save money. So I called my parents up, and by this time I was a Christian. I said, Mom, Dad, I want to apologize to you because I spoke arrogantly, and I said, when I move away, I'm never going to live in a house this cold. And here I am. living with three layers on right now, and breathing, and I could see my mist, the breath of my mouth freezing in my face. So, I was wrong, and I'm sorry. You don't know what tomorrow holds, and you can't talk as though you know you're gonna do X, Y, and Z. Well, maybe some strains of Christianity might say, oh, we need to name it and claim it. If you have faith, you name it and claim it, and that's what's gonna happen. You can make it happen. That's a bunch of garbage. Now some look at today's text and they might say, well, you know, if God's in control and we don't know what tomorrow holds, how do we know about even making plans whatsoever? Why even make plans if we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow? Well, Proverbs 20 verse 4 says, the sluggard does not plow after the autumn. In other words, he's not planning ahead. So he begs during the harvest and has nothing. He's not plowing and he's not sowing when he needs to sow. He's not planning ahead for harvest. And because he doesn't plan for harvest, instead of having a field full of produce, he has a field full of weeds. And he's going hungry because he didn't plan ahead. This is a clear example in Scripture that you need to make plans. Without planning ahead, a farm will be dysfunctional. And I think that there's more to this. How about in our very lives? When we're young, we plan ahead for the future. When you're young, you plan to have a skill or a trade that you could use for the future. You plan ahead to have a degree that you could use to make money for the future. Otherwise, you might end up working minimum wage the rest of your life and living in poverty. Plan ahead. Without the setting and without the executing of plans, no one would pass high school and no one would pass through college. You have to plan ahead. You have to plan ahead to study. You have to plan ahead to take a test. So the main issue here is not if we should make plans or not, it's how we go about making our plans. Do we make our plans as supposing ourselves to be self-sufficient? Or do we make our plans taking God into account as the sovereign one who's in control of all of our life, seeking his blessing for the labors of our hands? And I hope you would answer that we take God as being the sovereign ruler of our life and we make plans with that realization. And that leads us to our next main point. Cures for presumption. Look at verse 14. Regarding the one saying, I'm going here, going to that city, going to make money. Verse 14, he says, Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. To eliminate presumption, you need a correct understanding of life, which would result in your growth in humility. In this verse, verse 14, this is taught in two different ways. Maybe you didn't catch it. The first is that life is unpredictable. Life is very unpredictable. He says here, you do not know what will happen tomorrow. So when making your plans, you realize you have no idea what's going to happen. You might hope for the best, you might plan for the best, but you don't know exactly what's going to happen. The Proverbs 16.9 says this, Man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. So man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. very often what we plan and what God ordains, especially for those of us who are in Christ, what God ordains and how God carries out that plan for us is often better than we might endeavor in our own heart in the first place. The second thing verse 14 teaches is that life is brief. James said that your life is like a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. This is a theme that we find in the Old Testament. We find it especially in some of the writings of Isaiah, but here James uses this notion of life being short and brief and compares it not only to a vapor here, but he compares it with a flowering grass that withers away. Look at James chapter 1. Look at James 1, 10 and following. He says, the rich man is to glory in his humiliation because like flowering grass, he will pass away for the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed. So to the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away. Jesus himself says that all flesh is as grass, and the sooner that we realize that, that we realize that our life is like a plant, that it's beautiful, it grows for a time, but when the sun comes up, it withers and dies away, that helps humble us to number our days. Because this life is pretty transient, it's pretty short. Life is brief, like a vapor. Especially compared to eternity, right? Jesus told us in Matthew 6, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in or steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. I know our lives pass away. Our property passes away, but there are some things that persist. God and his word is eternal. The word of the Lord stands forever. Our faith in Christ, in a sense, leads us to something eternal, an eternity in heaven. And then after our resurrection, an eternity in a new heavens and new earth where righteousness dwells. That's something that persists and lasts forever. But even in this life, one thing I was thinking of that passes on and persists on, and we should pray that this would be the case, is that after we die, we should pray that God would leave us with a heritage that our covenant seed, those generations who pass after us, would follow after Christ like us, and that even after we're long gone, our children and grandchildren will continue on worshiping and serving the Lord Jesus Christ. So after realizing that our life is unpredictable, we don't know what tomorrow holds, and our life is short like a vapor, he goes on and says something that how we ought to say we want to make plans. Rather than stating that you have the power to make them happen, you should say this, verse 15. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that. Brothers and sisters here, you're commanded to depend upon God and his providence. Those who have a saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, If you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to save you, why not put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to take care of you for your tomorrow as well? But I know that's often easier said than done. Verse 15, if the Lord wills, we will even live. Again, if it's the Lord's will, we'll still be around tomorrow. But if it's not his will, we might not be around tomorrow. So even our very lives are taking any breath or still living on is dependent upon God's sovereign will. Now, if this text has encouraged you to change something about your life, there's something here as well that's a final encouragement in verse 17, a final encouragement to reform your ways. Verse 17, therefore, in light that all that James had said prior, to the one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin. I believe that James was instructed by the Holy Spirit to write this because one area of presumption that people have is regarding procrastination. Procrastination can be a sinful putting off of what needs to be done today and putting it off to tomorrow, and then you put it off tomorrow, then you put it off to next week, then you put it off to next year, and then you keep putting it off, and then eventually you just don't do it because you keep putting it off. You're putting off and procrastinating what should be done today, and you're putting it off for tomorrow. And the presumption in that is that you think to yourself, oh, there'll be a tomorrow. There'll always be more time. How do you know? How do you know that you will have more time? You don't know. To the one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin. There's procrastination among Christians. Maybe you have a relationship within this church, or maybe you have a relationship outside of this church that you need to mend. Stop putting it off. Seek to mend that relationship if you can. We are aware of friends and family that have not heard the gospel. Maybe you've been convicted that you want to talk to them about the gospel. Stop putting it off. You might not have tomorrow to be able to tell them what Jesus has done and how Jesus can save them and how he has saved you. Again, if you're convicted about doing that, yet you keep procrastinating, so the one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, it's sin. The worst procrastination of all is that of the unbelievers. I knew a girl in the college dorms. She said, I want to live free and enjoy life now, which included sexual immorality. I can repent and believe tomorrow. She plainly said that because she grew up in the Bible Belt in Monroe, Louisiana, West Monroe, something like that. So I can repent later. I'm going to live it up now because God's going to give me tomorrow to repent. Well, how do you know? How do you know? The scripture teaches that there are pressing needs for conversion. And two passages I want to mention are 2 Corinthians 6, 2 and Hebrews 3, 15. The first, 2 Corinthians 6, 2. Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Not tomorrow, Not next week, now is the day of salvation. Repent and believe now. Hebrews 3.15, today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Again, to the one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it to him, it is sin. Sinful procrastination has led many people to go on and perish in hell forever. I can repent tomorrow, but they never do. Brothers and sisters, God calls you to be dependent upon him and to flee self-independence, self-reliance, and depend upon God in his sovereign will. He talks about the nature of presumption. The nature of presumption is to act as though you know what tomorrow holds. or to say that you have a plan and that you're going to make that plan come to pass because you're the one in control. No. That's prideful arrogance. That's boasting in arrogance. God is the one in control. Some cures for presumption. Realize that God is in control and God is the sovereign one. He's the sovereign ruler. He's the one who knows tomorrow. Therefore, why don't you put your tomorrow in his hands? And in your speech, use speech that is honoring to Him and His sovereign control and His sovereign plan. Lord willing, if the Lord wills, I will go home after church later today. Even when I'm not talking to someone who's a Christian, I don't tell people, I will be there tomorrow. I'll say, I plan to be there tomorrow at three o'clock. And I'll let you know if I'm running late. In my mind, when I write that, I'm keeping in mind that I don't know exactly what God has in store for tomorrow, but my plan is. So even in writing that word, I plan, I'm considering God, that He's in control, and that I'm not giving anyone absolutes, that this is the way it's going to happen. Keep in mind, for what tomorrow holds, ultimately God knows what is best for your spiritual good. Again, if you're trusting Jesus Christ for your salvation, that Jesus has died for your sins, that Jesus rose for your sins, that Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father for your sins, trust your sovereign God with your tomorrow as well. If you have health concerns or health issues, trust God that His hand will be upon you and that He will care for you. He is infinitely more loving than you can imagine. He's infinitely more good than you can imagine. And His will is perfect and holy and just because He's the sovereign ruler of all. Let's pray together. Oh Father, we pray that you would help us to trust you in trials, to trust you in good times. Help us to express our trust for you in the way we speak, in the way we think, in the way we act. Help us to trust you for our tomorrow, but especially help us to trust that Jesus Christ has died for our sins, that even when you call us to leave and depart from this life, we know that we have a future with you through your Son, and we have life eternal through the blood and perfect redemption offered to us in Jesus our Lord. Help us, we pray, to honor you in our speech and all that we do, to give you the praise as the sovereign ruler of all. We ask these things in the name of Jesus, our Lord. Amen. For our closing hymn, let's turn to 474. If thou but suffer God to guide thee. We'll stand and sing 474.