Over the last several weeks, we've been airing
a series of sermons from the book of
James.
Dr. J.
Vernon McGee calls it GU, God's University.
Today's sermon is another in his series, James
Prepares Us in the College of Life.
The subject to be studied today is life.
No, this is not a class in biology
or psychology or physiology or even sociology.
All those courses talk about life, but they're
just dealing with the superficial aspects of life.
Our modern universities seldom have any answers to
the real questions of life.
Psychology can't really solve the problems of life.
Biology, physiology, and the health sciences aren't able
to solve man's problem of the brevity of
life.
Secular courses in religion and ethics don't solve
the mystery of life.
And sociology doesn't give us answers to the
inadequacy of life.
But the Bible talks about the problems of
life, and the psalmist said that our life
is like grass.
As the flower of field, it perishes.
But God's Word also has answers too.
It tells us about the source of life,
the meaning of our present life, and the
glorious future of life for the believer.
We'll hear about those today in Dr. McGee's
message from James 4, verse 14, which he
called What Is Your Life?
Dr. McGee first gave this sermon while pastor
of the Church of the Open Door in
downtown Los Angeles, where he served for 21
years.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, may your word refresh the hearts
and lives of all who hear it.
May your spirit open the eyes of your
children, that they may know you more.
We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.
We're turning tonight to the fourth chapter of
the epistle to James, and begin our reading
at the 13th verse.
I want tonight to use another translation than
our authorized version.
We're using tonight the Amplified New Testament.
I believe that it brings out a very
special meaning here in this particular section, and
you watch your Bible as we read.
Come now you who say, today or tomorrow
we will go into such and such a
city and spend a year there and carry
on our business and make money.
Yet you do not know the least thing
about what may happen tomorrow.
What is the nature of your life?
You are really but a wisp of vapor,
a puff of smoke, a mist, that is
visible for a little while and then disappears
into thin air.
You ought instead to say, if the Lord
is willing, we shall live and we shall
do this or that thing.
But as it is, you boast falsely in
your presumption and your self-conceit.
All such boasting is wrong.
So any person who knows what is right
to do but does not do it, to
him it is sin.
I want to invite your attention this evening
especially to this 14th verse of the 4th
chapter of James, and it reads, yet you
do not know the least thing about what
may happen tomorrow.
What is the nature of your life?
You are really but a wisp of vapor,
a puff of smoke, a mist, that is
visible for a little while and then disappears
into thin air.
Our subject this evening is, what is your
life?
The Bible contains the answers to all the
big questions of this life.
It asks some of the most puzzling and
pertinent questions also, and it raises some of
the most important and informative problems, and it
also gives to us some of the naughtiest
questions and problems that you possibly can imagine.
But the Bible asks these questions in order
to answer them, and you will find that
this is but one of the questions that
we have tonight.
If you go back to the very beginning,
before man got out of the Garden of
Eden, God was asking him a question, and
God came down and said to man, Where
art thou, Adam?
And when God asked that question, my friend,
the very question is the answer to those
who say today that religion is man's quest
for God.
The Bible presents no such pursuit as that.
The Word of God does not say that
man is searching after God, rather it presents
man running away from God, and it's God
after man.
And here at the very beginning we find
God asking the question, Adam, where art thou?
And man didn't get very far out of
the Garden of Eden until he asked a
very impertinent and a very supercilious question as
far as he was concerned when Cain asked
the question, Am I my brother's keeper?
May I say that that's still a good
question in this day in which we live.
And then when God's people broke the first
commandment, the first commandment that God gave, in
fact the first two commandments, had to do
with making an image or having any other
gods before them.
And finally when God's people went into idolatry,
he asked them the question, to whom then
will you liken me?
They were not able to make an idol
that looked like God.
And then you will find that when Abraham
went yonder to the top of Mount Moriah
with his son Isaac, Isaac asked him a
question, but where is the lamb for a
burnt offering?
And that question was asked in order that
God could answer it, and it took God
a long time to answer that question.
Nineteen hundred years went by, and one day
John the Baptist pointed the finger and said,
behold the Lamb of God that taketh away
the sin of the world.
When you come to the book of Job,
which may be the oldest book in the
Bible for that matter, you find many thought
-provoking questions, and questions that are still as
good in the twentieth century as they were
at the very beginning of man's history.
One of the questions that you find in
the book of Job is, how can a
man be just with God?
Is it possible for any man to do
anything that will make him right with God?
And of course the answer is, man cannot
make himself right with God, only God can
make a man right with himself.
And then God asked this question, a question
that should be on the front page of
every geology book, where was thou when I
laid the foundation of the earth?
That's a good question, and no one can
answer that question.
And then here is a question that is
a very pressing one for multitudes of people
today, if a man dies, shall he live
again?
It's a good question.
It's a question that multitudes today are seeking
the answer to.
And the Bible, my friend, has the answer
in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ
and our hope in him.
Then when you move on to the book
of Proverbs, you find a good question there,
who can say I've made my heart clean,
I'm pure from my sin?
No man can say that unless he's come
to Jesus Christ and had his sins washed
away and forgiven by coming to the Lamb
of God who does take away the sin
of the world.
And the Old Testament closes with a good
question, will a man rob God?
And the answer is a bold affirmative because
man had been robbing God of the glory
and the honor and the worship that belongs
to him from the very beginning of time.
And then the New Testament opens with a
question, and that question comes from wise men
who come out of the mysterious east, and
they say, where is he that is born
King of the Jews?
They were looking for him.
Then my beloved, a lawyer came to this
one one day and said to our Lord,
who is my neighbor?
It's a good question.
A judge, a Roman pilot who had brought
before him a prisoner one day asked the
question, what is truth?
And the one who is the way, the
truth, and the life stood right before him.
And then we find that as you move
through that the most brilliant Pharisee of them
all was ignorant of the greatest thing that
any man can be ignorant of, and that
is he asked the question, who art thou,
Lord?
He did not know the Lord Jesus Christ.
And a man can be educated, my beloved,
and if he knows not this wonderful Savior,
may I say to you, he is ignorant
indeed.
And then as you go through, you will
find our Lord raising many questions.
He asked his disciples, whom do men say
that I the Son of Man am?
That's still the question, my beloved, that he's
asking men today in Los Angeles.
Who is Jesus Christ?
What do you think of him tonight?
Then one night at midnight a Philippian jailer
came breaking into a jail where all the
doors were open, and he said, what must
I do to be saved?
And he received God's answer, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
And then there is a question that the
Bible asks that even God cannot answer it.
And that question is this, how shall we
escape if we neglect so great a salvation?
And my friend, tonight you and I do
not have the answer to that question.
Even God can't answer that question tonight, because
if we neglect so great a salvation, we
cannot escape.
And then here is the question that James
asks, what is your life?
And the answer is here.
As the answer to all these questions are
found somewhere in the Word of God.
No exception except the one that we gave
tonight.
And as Mr. Steadman showed us this summer,
that you will find in the Bible an
answer to all of the questions right close
by.
It may be an inch this way, or
an inch this way, or it may be
an inch straight down, or an inch straight
up, but you will find it somewhere, if
you please, in the Word of God.
And so the question that James asks is
a question that can be answered.
What is your life?
Now James is not raising a biological question.
He's not, my beloved, trying to say that
he wants to find out about the origin
of life.
God asked that question and answered it at
the very beginning when he said that God
created man in his own image.
And actually that has not been improved on
from that day to this.
Biology and science are no nearer the answer
today than they were hundreds of years ago.
They have no answer to the origin of
life.
Darwinian evolution is becoming passé.
Amoeba to man, of course, has not gone
out.
It's become a very refined sort of a
statement today, but it has been refuted and
not all scientists are in agreement.
They are not as sure of the elements
of water as they are of some other
things, but they are pretty sure that there's
two atoms of hydrogen goes with one atom
of oxygen and it makes water.
Of course, there are other things in Los
Angeles water, but scientists say that's what is
the answer there.
But they are not in any agreement about
the origin of man and the assured findings
of science are not so assured, rather hazy
today.
Oh, they have pictures.
I was looking not long ago at a
chart and it showed how it began at
the beginning and I noticed a great big
frog in the list in our family tree
and I never see that, but what I
think of the little dog girl that goes
along, I think with that, what a wonderful
bird the frog are.
When he stands, he sits almost.
When he sits, he stands almost.
When he hops, he flies almost.
What a wonderful bird the frog are.
May I say to you that's rather hazy,
is it not?
And may I say to you the origin
of man is rather hazy, unless you accept
God's statement that God created man in his
own image.
But that's not the question that is raised
here by James when he says, what is
your life?
He's not discussing what we are physically.
We are told today that we have 16
chemical elements that go into our makeup.
They tell us, for instance, that there is
enough lime in each one of us to
make whitewash that would whitewash a small chicken
coop.
There's enough iron in each one of us
that would make about two shingle nails.
There is enough phosphorous in each one of
us that would make about a dozen matches.
And you wonder why some people are so
touchy, but nevertheless, that's all the phosphorous that
there is in them.
And they say if you bring all of
these elements together that you could sell them
before the war for 98 cents.
And there's good news for us tonight.
Due to inflation, man now is worth $1
.17 physically on the market today.
That's what man is physically.
But that's not the question that James is
asking in order to answer.
He's not talking about the origin of life,
but the question is, what is the nature
of your life?
And he's not, therefore, talking either about some
philosophical or psychological question.
He's not raising now the question that man
philosophically is a body and he's a soul
and he is a mind.
He's not talking now psychologically about man, that
he has emotions and imaginations, feelings and senses.
Our philosophy has no final word and no
solution.
Man tonight just hasn't come up with the
answer philosophically to the origin of man.
I heard the story about a couple.
They were moving along in life and neither
one of them had gotten married.
And they started going with each other, Rappaport
and Sophronia was their names.
And they had moved along pretty far.
The courtship was brief because they were moving
along in life.
And finally they got married.
And Rappaport, as every good husband does, he
each night would wash the dishes after the
dinner and then he would go into the
living room and he would get down one
of these instruments that you play.
What do you call those instruments that you
play like that?
A cello.
That's what Mr. Hewlin says that it is.
Well, Rappaport played the cello.
And every night he went through this.
After he washed the dishes, he'd get the
cello and he would play back and forth.
Back and forth.
And finally one night, Sophronia said to him,
she said, Rappaport, why is it that Cassell
and all these other great cellists, why is
it they play on all the strings and
you only play on one of them?
And he said, well, they are looking for
the right tune and I've found it.
May I say to you tonight, my beloved,
philosophy cannot say I have found it.
They have not found it and they are
still playing on one string, if you please.
They have no answer to it at all.
Now James is practical.
He wrote the proverb of the New Testament.
Actually this is a simple question.
What is the nature of your life?
And the answer, I think, is very obvious
here.
He's speaking of two factors which enter into
our lives, which characterize our lives.
The first one that enters into our lives
we find expressed here in this verse, verse
14.
Yet you do not know the least thing
about what may happen tomorrow.
He says you do not know the least
thing about what may happen tomorrow.
And what is your life?
Well, my beloved, our lives are filled with
uncertainty.
That's the thing that characterizes our lives, uncertainty.
There are multitudes of people tonight that are
walking around uncertain about the future, uncertain about
themselves, no assurance at all.
The thing that characterized their lives is uncertainty.
And that's the thing that James says will
characterize our lives, uncertainty.
May I, do you want another poem that
reveals just that very thing?
Because there are many that have been given
to us today.
Gillette Burgess gave us this little bit of
doggerel that expresses this very thought.
He says, I wish that my room had
a flower.
I don't care so much for a doer,
but this walking around without touching the ground
is getting to be quite a bore.
My beloved, may I say to you tonight,
that little bit of doggerel expresses the lives
of a great many people tonight.
They're not touching the ground.
They're not on a foundation.
Everything is uncertain as far as they are
concerned.
The writer to the Proverbs confirms this.
In Proverbs 27, 1, he says, boast not
thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what
a day will bring forth.
And that's the thing that has characterized human
life down here, and it actually characterizes your
life and my life.
It's uncertainty.
We do not know what a day will
bring forth.
They were, our Lord said, in Noah's day.
They were eating and drinking and giving in
marriage, and there was nothing wrong with that,
but they did not know until the flood
came and took them away what was in
the future.
They did not believe Noah, and everything for
them was uncertain.
They had no foundation to rest on.
They had no hope when the judgment came.
Goliath, the giant, it got pretty monotonous for
him every morning.
He went out and walked up and down
the lines of Israel, and he said that
if you're not a bunch of cowards, send
me out a man to fight me.
It got to be a very monotonous sort
of an experience for him.
And one day he went out and he
said to them as he left, boys, I'll
be back in a few moments.
And he went out and boasted again of
his prowess and his ability, and that's the
day he did not come back, because a
little shepherd boy buried a rock between his
eyes.
That little shepherd boy was David.
We know not what a day will bring
forward.
Ahab was going to battle and Micaiah came
in and gave a prophecy against him.
And he said as he left, take that
man and lock him up, and when I
return from the battle tomorrow, I'll take care
of him.
And Micaiah gave him one parting word.
He said, you won't be coming back tomorrow.
We do not know what a day will
come, will bring forth, and that very day
Ahab went down in death in his own
chariot.
And then my beloved Rabshakeh, the great captain
of the hosts of Assyria, stood before Jerusalem
and he said, yonder to Hezekiah and Isaiah
on the wall, I'm leaving now, boys, but
I'll be back in a few days.
My masters called me the king of Assyria
because the Egyptians are coming against us.
I'll be back.
You can count on that.
I'll be back.
He never came back, for the angel of
the Lord went through the hosts of the
Assyrians.
We know not what a day will bring
forth.
Belshazzar made a banquet, and even the handwriting
on the wall didn't mean anything to him.
He said to Daniel, he said, fine, we
appreciate you reading this.
I'm going to make you the third ruler
of the kingdom, and tomorrow we'll give you
all the honors.
Daniel says, keep all your honors to yourself,
because tomorrow you won't be around to give
anything.
And that night we are told that Darius
the Median came in and Belshazzar was slain
that night.
We know not what a day will bring
forth.
And the writer to the Proverbs says, boast
not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not
what a day will bring forth.
It was William Henley who wrote Invictus, which
to me is blasphemous, because it presumes to
put man in the place of God, as
if man was sure of himself.
Well, and he says this in this poem,
out of the night that covers me, black
as a pit from pole to pole, I
thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable
soul.
In the foul clutch of circumstance, I have
not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeoning of chance, my head is
bloody but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears looms
but the horror of the shade, and yet
the menace of the years finds and shall
find me unafraid.
It matters not how straight the gate, how
charged with punishment the scroll.
I'm the master of my fate, I'm the
captain of my soul.
Those are brave words, but they're blasphemous.
No man is the master of his fate,
no man is the captain of his soul.
And it was Dorothea Day who answered him
in her little poem, My Captain.
Listen to her, out of the light that
dazzles me, bright as the sun from pole
to pole, I thank the God I know
to be for Christ, the conqueror of my
soul.
Since his the sway of circumstance, I would
not wince nor cry aloud under that rule
which men call chance.
My head with joy is umbly bowed.
Beyond this place of sin and tears, that
life with him and his the aid, that
spite the menace of the years, keeps and
shall keep me unafraid.
I have no fear though straight the gate.
He cleared from punishment the scroll, Christ is
the master of my fate, Christ is the
captain of my soul.
Oh, tonight life is uncertain, my friend.
No man can boast himself of tomorrow, for
he knows not what a day will bring
forth.
Then there is something else that characterizes life
that is mentioned here, and that is brevity.
Do you notice how this lovely translation gives
it to us?
He says, what is your life, and then
he answers it.
It's a wisp of vapor, it's a puff
of smoke, it's a mist, that's all.
I know there's somebody here tonight or listening
in that is saying, well, I've been warned
before.
I've heard evangelists talk about how uncertain life
is, and they said that I might go
out and not have another day to accept
Christ.
And look, here I am tonight, and I've
come to this hour, luck's on my side.
I pick a four-leaf clover, I carry
a rabbit's foot, it's a left-hand rabbit's
foot, caught by a red-headed man in
a cemetery on the dark of the moon.
And I've got luck on my side.
Don't talk to me about this thing.
May I say that I have news for
you that may be true, and you may
go to a ripe old age.
But even if you go to a ripe
old age, your life is nothing in the
world but a mist on a mountainside, that's
all.
That's how fragile it is.
That's how tenuous it is, just a mist
on a mountainside, just a wisp of vapor.
I always enjoy looking yonder at these high
Sierras, and then I love to look out
my backyard to these Sierra Madras.
I love to watch the mountains, and many
times you'll see in the morning mist settling
on the sides, and then you look up
in an hour and you wonder where it's
gone.
That's our life.
Oh, the brevity of human life.
The psalmist says in Psalm 90, 10, the
days of our years are threescore years and
ten, and if by reason of strength they
be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor
and sorrow, for it's soon cut off, and
we fly away.
Our lives are just a bit of ledger
domain.
Now you see it, now you don't.
I think tonight that when I came to
the Church of the Open Door eleven years
ago, may I say to you that that
great company of people that sat down front
here, they're not here tonight.
They've all passed out of this world into
the presence of the King.
Their life, like your life and my life,
is like the mist on a mountainside, and
anywhere you look today, that will be brought
to your attention.
You want to look at the mountains or
out yonder into the heavens?
The psalmist says, when I consider thy heavens,
the work of thy fingers, the moon and
the stars which thou hast ordained, what is
man that thou art mindful of him, and
the Son of Man that thou visitest him?
What's man when you look out at the
heavens?
Those heavens that we believe now are almost
eternal.
Those heavens that we know have been there
billions of years.
What is man when you look at the
heavens?
When you look about you, my beloved, at
the tracks of the dinosaurs that walked here,
they're gone now, but we are told that
each one of them lived a thousand years.
The redwoods, when you stand in their presence,
they tell you they've been here a long
time, and they tell us how short-lived
we are.
Names that we love to hear, Holmes says,
have been carved for many a year on
the tomb.
Why?
Because man is like the mist in the
morning, that the oncoming sun drives away.
Our life is so brief, our life is
that brief, that uncertain.
I remember a very fine young couple in
Nashville, Tennessee.
He was a son of one of the
executives of the large insurance company there, and
he had met a lovely girl and was
engaged to her.
They began to build their home and fill
it with antiques.
They traveled everywhere.
They spent a young fortune in getting antiques
for this lovely colonial home that they built.
They built it out in Belle Meade, one
of the loveliest homes there.
Then the day came and they were married.
They'd made every preparation.
It was a lovely wedding, and they went
on their honeymoon.
They were turning a curve in North Carolina,
up in the great Smoky Mountains, and a
car ran them off.
Both of them were killed.
The father of the boy went to the
home, locked it up and left it, and
for two years that lovely home stood there.
I've driven by it many times and I've
stopped.
I've looked at that home and said, they
made all the plans in the world for
down here.
They thought somehow or another everything was sure
and certain down here, but life is uncertain,
life is brief, and they never even occupied
that home.
Oh, my friend and I, these factors remind
us that this life that we're living down
here is a place of decision.
All that this life is, it's a launching
pad for eternity, and we ought to spend
as much time in preparation for the launching
as these eight young men, that one of
them will be flung out into space before
too long, all of them being prepared.
My friend, tonight may I say to you
that you are on a launching pad.
It's marked uncertainty, it's marked brevity, and one
of these days you'll be flung out into
eternity.
May I say to you this evening that
this life is the place for decision.
This life is the place that you and
I make our preparation for eternity.
The Lord Jesus told about a man, a
rich man, a man that was a keen
businessman and a success down here.
But here's what he said about him, he
spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground
of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully.
And he thought within himself, saying, What shall
I do?
Because I have no room where to bestow
my fruits.
And he said, This will I do.
I'll pull down my barns and build greater,
and there will I bestow all my fruits
and my goods, and I will say to
my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid
up for many years.
Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
But God said unto him, Thou fool, this
night thy soul shall be required of thee.
Then whose shall those things be which thou
hast provided?
Now our Lord didn't say that that man
was a fool because he built bigger barns.
And he didn't say that that man was
a fool because he was a success in
business.
But he did say that man was a
fool for putting all of his eggs in
one basket.
And that was down here in this world.
He said that man was a fool for
making preparation for this life in view of
the fact that life was brief and life
was uncertain.
And because of that, he made no preparation
for eternity.
May I say to you tonight that the
brevity of life and the uncertainty of life
is speaking loudly to you and me and
saying to us tonight, get ready for eternity.
You're on a launching pad.
One of these days you'll be pushed out.
And now God is saying to you and
to me, behold now is the accepted time.
Behold now is the day of salvation.
Again he says today if you will hear
his voice, harden not your heart.
May I say to you that down here
in this world of uncertainty and brevity, you
can have an assurance.
You can have a hope.
You can have a certainty.
And there's only one thing you can be
sure of, and that's to be sure of
your salvation.
That's the only thing in the world.
Someone said that the only thing that's sure
is death and taxes.
But tonight, friends, there's something else that's sure,
and that's your salvation.
You can be sure of that.
Paul could say this, in the world of
uncertainty, in a world of brevity, he could
say, I know whom I have believed, and
I'm persuaded that he's able to keep that
which I've committed unto him against that day.
The Lord Jesus Christ said concerning his sheep,
I give unto them eternal life, and they
shall never perish.
And tonight he offers eternal life.
That's the only kind of life God's offering
is eternal life.
That's the only thing that's sure tonight is
the eternal life that's offered in Jesus Christ.
He says that he that hath the Son
hath life, and he that hath not the
Son of God hath not life.
And these things, he says, I have written
unto you, that ye might know that ye
have eternal life.
God says, come now, and let us reason
together, saith the Lord.
Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall
be as white as snow.
Come now, now.
Life's uncertain, life's brief, you're on the launching
pad.
Come now, and let us reason together, saith
the Lord.
Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall
be as white as snow.
Though they be red like crimson, they shall
be as wood.
Up yonder in Death Valley, that is a
place in which you stand and you can
see Mount Whitney, and you can see Badwater,
the lowest and the highest place in the
United States from one place.
And my friend, God has put you and
me in the place tonight where we can
choose heaven or we can choose hell.
You're on the launching pad.
He says, come now, let us reason together,
saith the Lord.
I'm wondering if you were here this evening,
you have never come to that place of
decision for Jesus Christ.
God has brought you to it again.
You may have been there before, but God's
brought you there again tonight.
And he's given you the opportunity tonight to
make a decision.
I've got too much respect for your intelligence
to say that you won't have another opportunity.
You may, but I can also say you
may not.
I do say that there will come a
time when it will be the last opportunity.
God gives you a chance, and he's reminding
you because of the brevity and because of
the uncertainty of life.
Come now, right now, let us reason together,
saith the Lord.
Though your sins be as scarred, they shall
be white as snow.
Do you have a need today?
Christ has all the answers to your needs.
As Dr. McGee has said, he has answers
to the problems of life, the questions of
life, the brevity of life, the mystery of
life, and the inadequacy of life.
We know that the Holy Spirit is speaking
to some of you, inviting you to accept
Christ as your Savior.
To help you better understand God's plan of
salvation for your life, we'd like to send
you our Salvation Packet.
To receive yours, call us at 1-800
-65-BIBLE anytime and leave a voicemail message
with your name, address, and the call letters
of this station.
Today's sermon was titled, What is Your Life?
It's available in four different formats.
You can get a copy on a single
cassette or as part of a 12-sermon
tape album called James Prepares Us in the
College of Life.
The sermon also comes in a written format
as a single booklet by the same title
or as a chapter in Dr. McGee's hardback
book, Living by Faith.
For ordering information on all these products, you
may contact one of our service operators at
1-800-652-4253 Monday through Thursday from
6am to 4pm Pacific Time.
As you know, Through the Bible is a
worldwide ministry reaching into over 100 languages and
dialects.
If you'd like to keep up with the
ongoing work of the ministry, then you'll want
to be added to our mailing list for
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To do so, just call us at 1
-800-65-BIBLE or you can use our
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to Sunday Sermon for those in the U
.S. Box 7100, Pasadena, CA 91109.
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We pray that God will fill you with
His grace, mercy and peace.
Faithful friends and supporters of Through the Bible
Radio Network.