Life Is Short
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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.
SELF-SUFFICIENCY IS FAILURE TO RECOGNIZE THE UNCERTAINTY OF LIFE
There are two reasons why tomorrow is uncertain.
1. Our minds and nature are limited.
We just cannot know the future.
No matter what we may plan or think, we do not know what will happen tomorrow; we are completely in the dark.
Think for a moment: What will happen tomorrow?
We do not know.
We do not know what will happen one hour from now.
The point is this: we forget and ignore our nature—who we are, how limited we really are, how uncertain life with all its happenings and events really is.
There is a tendency within man to ignore the fact of his frailty and weakness.
(Remember lucifer boast of what he was going to do, but what really happened).
In all the pride and arrogance of his soul, he wants to be in control of his own life and destiny, to be completely self-sufficient so do humanity which bares this same nature until we truly surrender to God our all and all.
He wants to have no need whatsoever for God.
But this is utter foolishness, for man cannot know what will happen tomorrow.
And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.
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?
So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
His very nature is limited, so limited that he cannot know much about what is happening now and very little about what happened in the past.
He does not and cannot know about tomorrow.
2. Our lives at most are only as a vapor that appears for a brief time and then vanishes away.
Once we are born into this world, the only thing we can know for sure is that we will die; sooner or later we will die.
Life is just like a vapor: it appears and can be seen, but it is not solid or substantial or permanent.
We seldom know when death comes and how it will come.
But come it will, and when it comes, we are snatched out into eternity never to return to this life.
Therefore, it is utter foolishness to refuse to face up to this fact—we simply cannot know the future (or know anything) other than what God reveals to us.
For he knoweth our frame;
He remembereth that we are dust.
As for man, his days are as grass:
As a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone;
And the place thereof shall know it no more.
Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.
TEMPTATIONS AND TRIALS: COMMON TO ALL BUT ESPECIALLY TO THE GIFTED
Maybe its go for us not to start off rich, learn to trust in God, and then allow God his wisdom and godly parenting less us grow in his grace and blessings.
This is a good time for us to reevaluate our living and our giving before the Lord.
Introduction:
The rich person faces a fierce temptation, a temptation so powerful that it will consume him unless he lives ever so close to the Lord.
What is the temptation that so forcefully attacks the rich?
The temptation to bank and hoard money instead of using it to meet the needs of the spiritual dying of this lost world.
The Bible never condemns all rich persons. It only condemns the rich who store up their wealth instead of using it to reach the lost.
How can anyone not live and give sacrificially in order to meet the needs of those who are disadvantaged and deprived?
Am not talking about the fish and loaves crowd.
How many of us was in need in a time in our life, and God divinely sent someone your way.
God’s Strong summons to the rich people
Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
There will be...
miseries of afflictions
miseries of emptiness
miseries of loneliness
miseries of insecurity
miseries of passion
miseries in judgment
miseries in hell
1. WEEP AND WAIL, FOR WEALTH IS NOT LASTING
Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
Note the three things mentioned.
=> There are riches that are "corrupted," which means rotted.
This would refer to such things as farm produce like wheat or building products like wood.
Many a person gains wealth or a lavish living through farming or construction or some other industry whose products eventually rot away.
=> There are garments that become moth-eaten.
This would include the textile and clothing industries. Many gain their riches or their extravagant lifestyles through these industries.
=> There is gold and silver that is cankered or rusted.
This refers to mineral, chemical, metal, and mining interests of the economy.
James notes that if the minerals lie unused they will no longer shine.
If wealth—money or anything else—is hoarded, it is useless.
It does nothing but sit there, and eventually it will be gone.
It will never be used for the good that it could do.
The rich person who has it will contribute nothing to his generation but...
produce and buildings that rot
clothing that is eaten away
gold and silver that waste away
What a terrible tragedy!
To have done nothing for the world but leave the material things that age, rot, decay, and pass away forever and ever.
Wealth—riches and material and physical things—does not last.
As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.
ILLUSTRATION:
A minister was visiting his childhood town and wanted to see the little church where he was saved many years before. Arriving at the location, he found that the church had been converted into a home. The owners were very helpful, however, and gave the minister directions to the new building. When he finally arrived at his boyhood church, the minister was shocked to find an enormous beautiful building. But he was saddened to discover from his conversation with the current pastor that the poor were not helped anymore, nor did they feel welcome. "Well, the church cannot say, 'Silver and gold have I none,' " the new pastor proudly announced to the older minister. "No," the minister replied, "neither can she say, 'In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!' "39
Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.
God does not give to us so that we can hoard for our own comfort.
We must generously help others, especially the needy.
The most terrible, tragic reality is that the selfish and rich of this world do not even realize their miserable status, nor the horrible judgment that awaits them because of their neglect of the needy.