What Is Your Life?

Our Bible passage, introduction to Sunday 22nd February service and hymns are below.

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Our principal verses are:

Jas 4:13  Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:

Jas 4:14  Whereas 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.

Jas 4:15  For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.

Jas 4:16  But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.

Jas 4:17  Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

What Is Your Life?

James has been calling for humility on the part of God’s people. He has shown us we can do nothing without the Lord and how we constantly require fresh supplies of divine grace. We are assured these will be forthcoming for the Apostle encourages the blessed meek with this promise, ‘Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up’. Now, in the closing verses of chapter four James warns against presumptuousness and gives us a very suitable application to remind us of our limitations and the all-encompassing power of God.

A common sin

It is a very common sin to neglect taking God into consideration when we make our plans. In employing his example in verse 13 James is not condemning travel or business but criticising that we make plans and take decisions without consulting God and without taking His will into consideration. The Apostle condemns those who promise themselves riches and profit as if success were in their own power. He urges us to acknowledge the uncertainty and frailty of human life and not to ignore the providence and rule of God.

Divine authority

It is a truth with scriptural authority that God’s will, not man’s will, prevails in all matters, at all times, in all places. ‘He doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand’ (Daniel 4:35). The sovereign purpose and providence of God extends to all things created and all things experienced whether in heaven or on earth. Our mindset and motives are sinful when we fail to take the Lord into consideration. It is evil-thinking if the Lord’s will is not sought first and if we do not acknowledge God’s dominion in every situation.

A vapour, a breath

The reality is none of us can boast another day of life in this world, or even an hour. Our existence on this earth is tenuous and short. James compares it to, ‘a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away’, like the steam that rises from a kettle or a man’s breath on a frosty day. It would be well, says James, if the Lord’s people were to reflect upon the fragility of life and the necessary providence of God in all we do and for the plans we make. Our plans must be founded in divine wisdom, while seeking divine strength to carry them out.

Humble or boastful?

The nature of our fragile lives and our lack of strength and power ought to provoke humility and James has some advice. He tells the church that instead of boastfully declaring we shall do this or that, ‘ye ought to say, if the Lord will, and we shall live, and do this and that’. This approach to decision making, if not these express words, ought to be in our minds and to regulate our aims, attitudes and ambitions. It is the custom of the natural man to boast of his supposed ability and self-sufficiency. It is unbecoming a child of God to follow this example.

Our heavenly home

But James has another strand of truth here for God’s elect and for the encouragement and comfort of the church. Whenever we think of travelling to another city, to another country, a brighter prospect opens above and beyond that which can be matched by any place on earth, ‘For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come’ (Hebrews 13:14). We are already citizens of this country. We are sons and heirs of its King and the prosperity it possesses. We are being called home and our Lord daily provides for all our needs in this world as we make our journey thence.

Our great Provider

Here the true nature of our great Provider should be acknowledged and the reality of His provision recalled. Christ has redeemed His church with His own blood. He has laid down His life for ours. Shall not the Father who, ‘spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all … with him also freely give us all things’? Our plans and proposals, our worries and concerns, our every need is in His care and keeping. We serve at His expense. Should we live a decade more, or only a day, we are safe in His hands and He will supply all our needs. How much simpler our lives would be had we more faith in Christ’s daily provision and clearer views of heaven.

Faithful and true

Has not the Lord proved Himself faithful hitherto? Shall His ways change now? It has been well said that we know not what tomorrow holds but we know who holds tomorrow. James asks, ‘What is your life? It is but a vapour.’ But it is precious to the Lord. Feeble as we are we are strong in the Lord and when our thoughts and desires, aims and aspirations, hopes and fears are laid down in subjection to His will we shall be happier by degrees as we make our way home.

Amen

Hymn 496

Day of Judgment. Matt. 12. 36; 25. 31-46

J. Newton    8.7.4.

1
Day of judgment, day of wonders!
Hark! the trumpet’s awful sound,
Louder than a thousand thunders,
Shakes the vast creation round!
How the summons
Will the sinner’s heart confound!

2
See the Judge our nature wearing,
Clothed in Majesty divine;
You who long for his appearing,
Then shall say, “This God is mine!”
Gracious Saviour,
Own me in that day for thine.

3
At his call the dead awaken,
Rise to life from earth and sea!
All the powers of nature, shaken,
By his looks, prepare to flee!
Careless sinner,
What will then become of thee?

4
Horrors, past imagination,
Will surprise your trembling heart,
When you hear your condemnation,
“Hence! accursèd wretch, depart!
Thou with Satan
And his angels have thy part.”

5
But to those who have confessèd,
Loved, and served the Lord below,
He will say, “Come near, ye blessed,
See the kingdom I bestow;
You for ever
Shall my love and glory know.”

6
Under sorrows and reproaches
May this thought our courage raise;
Swiftly God’s great day approaches;
Sighs shall then be changed to praise!
We shall triumph
When the world is in a blaze.

Hymn 498

Shortness of Life and Goodness of God. James 4. 14; Ps. 65. 11

I. Watts   C.M.

1
Time! what an empty vapour ’tis!
And days how swift they are!
Swift as an Indian arrow flies,
Or like a shooting star.

2
The present moments just appear,
Then slide away in haste,
That we can never say, “They’re here,”
But only say “They’re past.”

3
Our life is ever on the wing,
And death is ever nigh;
The moment when our lives begin,
We all begin to die.

4
Yet, mighty God! our fleeting days
Thy lasting favours share;
Yet with the bounties of thy grace,
Thou load’st the rolling year.

5
’Tis sovereign mercy finds us food,
And we are clothed with love;
While grace stands pointing out the road
That leads our souls above.

6
His goodness runs an endless round;
All glory to the Lord!
His mercy never knows a bound;
And be his name adored.

7
Thus we begin the lasting song,
And, when we close our eyes,
Let the next age thy praise prolong
Till time and nature dies.

James encourages the Lord’s people to reflect upon the fickleness of life and our own daily need of God’s help. He speaks of time and how fast our lives are spent. These matters should create humility in our soul which will draw forth God's grace for our daily needs.