Do it now. Do it now. Now look if you will in James chapter 5 and 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, whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life, is it even a vapor that appeareth for a little while, a little time and then vanishes away. For that ye ought to say if the Lord will we shall live and do this or that. But now ye rejoice in your boasting, all such rejoicing is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”
Now what James gives us here is the story of a first-century wheeler-dealer. He was a boastful businessman. He had come perhaps to the end of one year and he was making plans for the next year. As a matter of fact he had the next year all planned out, but his plans didn't pan out. And it wasn't God's will for him to do what he thought he would do and he became a colossal failure. I believe he has plenty of brothers here in the 20th century.
And as we look in this passage of Scripture, first of all I want you to see an attitude that we should never, never take. It's found in verse 5, if you will, verse 13 rather. “Go to now you that say today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain.” What is the attitude that you should never take? It is this, that you're going to be alive a year from now? You may not be alive in ‘85. Doubtless there are those in this auditorium who will not be here a year from now. And I'm not just talking about those who are old. I'm talking about some of you young people that are sitting here. I'm talking about those of you who think that you're in bad health. I'm talking to many who think that they are in good health. You will not be here. You will not be upon this earth when we assemble again in 1985. I may not be here. Mike may not be here. Tom may not be here. We don't know. The Bible says our life is a vapor that appeareth for a little while and then vanishes away. Look again in verse 14, “Whereas ye know now what shall be on the morrow, but what is your life, it's even a vapor that appeareth for a little while and then vanishes away.”
Now I want you to see this man's attitude. Here was an attitude of thoughtless, self-sufficiency. He planned a period of time. He has his calendar out. He assumes he has another year. He says, I'm going to thus and such a city and continue there a year—no thought that he might die in that year. But not only did he plan the period, he planned the place. He says, I'm going into such a city—that is, he had a city in mind, he knew exactly where he was going. Not only did he have his calendar in front of him, he had his map in front of him. He had pinpointed just the place that he was going to.
Now, he's not prayed for direction. He doesn't mention God in any of this. He says, This is what I will do. But not only did he plan the period, a year, not only did he plan the place he also planned the procedure. He knew exactly what he was going to do.
He was going to buy and he was going to sell. He was going to be a merchandiser. I suppose he had gotten a degree in marketing from the University of Jerusalem. He knew exactly how to do it. He knew how to buy and he knew how to sell. I mean this man’s mind is really working. He says I know how long I'm going to do it. I know where I'm going to do it. I know what I'm going to do. And I know why I'm going to do it, because he also had planned the profits. He said he's going to buy and he's going to sell and he's going to get gain. This was his forecast for the coming year. His motive in everything that he was doing here is in earthly gain. Not heavenly treasure, but earthly gain.
Now I want to say that the Bible does not condemn planning. As a matter of fact, the Bible condones planning. The Bible does not condemn business. As a matter of fact, the Bible condones business. The Bible does not condemn hard work. The Bible condones hard work. The Bible does not condemn buying and selling. The Bible teaches us to buy and sell. What was wrong with this man is that he had an attitude that left God out of it. I've told you before and I want to tell you again that the biggest fool is not the man who says there is no God. The biggest fool is the man who says there is a God and then does not live like it.
Now I want to ask you, have you taken God into your plans? Now most of us, most of us don't fight God. Most of us ignore God, just omit God, just plan as if God did not exist, or if he does exist that his existence has no consequence on the way that we live.
Years and years ago I read these lines of verse that touched my heart. When Jesus came to Golgotha they hanged him on a tree. They drove great nails in his hands and feet and made a Calvary. They crowned him with a crown of thorns. Red were his wounds and deep. For those days were crude and cruel and human flesh was cheap. When Jesus came to Birmingham they simply passed him by. They never hurt a hair of him. They only let him die. For men had grown more tender and they would not cause him pain. They only just passed down the street and left him in the rain.
What was wrong with this boastful businessman, this first-century wheeler-dealer, is that he omitted God, he neglected God, he left Jesus out of his plans. Now that's the attitude we should never take, one of independence from God. The assumption that we should never make is that we have a right to another day. Now I know in my own heart and in my own life I'm planning what I'm going to be doing right on up till I'm 75 and 85 and 90 and I suppose you are too. But I have no right to assume that I'm going to be here next year. I have no right to assume that God is going to continue to give me life another year. I hope He would, I honestly expect Him to, but I have no right to assume that He will.
Look again. “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow,” verse 14, “for what is your life, It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanishes away.” On these frosty mornings go out and breathe and see that vapor that comes out of your mouth. You see that little vapor of breath. It's there for a moment and then it vanishes away. What is James telling you? James is telling us that life is so brief. Life is so fragile, and that death is only a heartbeat away. We have people often who have come away from accidents saying, Oh, I've never been closer to death than I was at that time. But, friend, you're closer to death now than you've ever been because you didn't die at that time. You are closer to your death tonight that you ever have been.
Five thousand Americans will die tomorrow. Five thousand Americans die every day. Some die of disease. Some die of disaster. Some die by design, they take their own life. Some die by I guess what he could call decay or old age, they just die of old age. I suppose that's the best way to die. But more people die, dear friend, with their street clothes on than die with their pajamas on. More people die suddenly and unexpectedly than die quietly and expectedly. We all think we know how we are going to die. But many of us are not going to die the way we think we're going to die.
I have a very good, dear friend, one of the finest soul-winning young businessmen that I have known. He turned to a friend sitting at a banquet, a Christian banquet, spoke the man’s name and died just like that. Fell over, a heart attack. He'd been to the doctor, had a good check up. The doctor had told him, your heart is fine. He turned to my friend, Leroy Edger, spoke to the man, and said, Leroy, and that was the last word he said. He died. I had a young lady who stood on the door of my church down in Florida, took me by the hand and said, Pastor, that was a good sermon. See you tonight, pastor. But Dottie went over the causeway, going over the Banana River to Cocoa Beach; another car came over the causeway on the wrong side of the road, hit her head on, and Dottie didn't come back to church that night. She was absolutely certain that she would. In an area where I pastored in Mississippi five people on their way home from church were killed in an instant in an automobile wreck.
We never know the time of death, and we who are preachers are guilty of standing up and telling other people that they are going to die. I've told you before of my friend Bob McName; he was a preacher boy, and he rode back and forth to seminary from the Gulf Coast of Mississippi to New Orleans. Every day we rode back and forth in Bob’s old Plymouth automobile and one day Bob said to me, Adrian, there's an old man in your church field whose name is Mr. Boucher. Mr. Boucher has had several serious heart attacks. He's a very old man. Mr. Boucher is going to die in a few days. Adrian, would you please go by and speak to Mr. Boucher about his soul? He was an old French Catholic that lived there on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. I said, Yes, I will, Bob, and I went by and knocked on the door. I said, Mr. Boucher, my name is Adrian
Rogers. I’ve come to talk to you about Jesus Christ. May I come in? Now, that's just kind of a head-on approach, but that's what I said. He said, yes, young man, come in. And I said, I want to tell you how you can know that your sins are forgiven, how you can know that Christ is in your heart, how you can know that you are going to heaven when you die. He said, Well, I'd like to hear that, and I took the Bible and I explained it to him. And I said, Mr. Boucher, if you’ll receive Christ by faith, He’ll save you. Would you like to be saved? He said, Yes, I would.
And it was like taking or picking a ripe apple from a tree. He just fell off in my hand as it were as he prayed and with tears asked Jesus to come into his heart, I had the joy of baptizing that old man in the Lord.
Well, you say, that's a wonderful story, but why did you tell it? Well, remember the young preacher boy who told me, Adrian, Mr. Boucher has a few days to live? A few days after he told me that he went and had lunch with his wife. And after lunch he stood up and started to walk across the living room floor, gave a gasp and fell dead. No warning a thought of sickness, nothing whatever. Tall, young, handsome. Sun crowned, soul-winning young preacher. Mr. Boucher lived for years. Now Bob had said to me, Adrian, that old man has a few days to live, but it was Bob that had a few days to live. Bob had a few days to live.
Roland Maddox, I don't know how long you are going to live. You don't know how long you are going to live. Bob McVay, you don't know how long you are going to live. I don't know how long I'm going to live. We are always thinking when a man is preaching a message like this, "that's right, preacher, tell them." Tell them. Tell them. The football coach here at Memphis State University was already planning the next year of football, already doing his enlistment and so forth, and he had no way of knowing that that airplane that he got in would be the last airplane ride that he would ever take.
Friend, there is an assumption that we should never make and that is that we are going to continue to live. I preached a funeral and I stood there at the funeral and the undertaker was standing there and another man who is a farmer that I know. And they were both standing there talking about the uncertainty of death because it was a funeral for a young man.
We talked about that and how none of us knew when we were going to die. And I can remember Joe Yates and Mr. Priest as they stood there and talked about the strangeness of death. And they philosophized. In a few months both of those men were dead. I remember them talking about how other people don't know when they are going to die.
I'm telling you, friend, the Bible teaches that death is right around the corner. First Chronicles chapter 29 and verse 15, “Our days on earth are like a shadow.” Job chapter 7 and verse 6, “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shutter. Psalm 29, verse 5, “Behold thou hast made my days a few handbreadths.” Psalm 102, verse 3, “My days pass away like smoke.” Psalm 102, verse 11, “My days are like an evening shadow, I wither away like grass.” Like grass. Now, dear friend, there's an attitude that we should never take and that is that we can live our lives without God. And there is an assumption that we should never make and that is that we have tomorrow.
Now, the reason that I entitled this little message Do It Now is this—that whatever
you intend to do for Christ and for the kingdom you'd better get at it. I mean you'd better make 1984 your year when you will say, Dear Lord, if you will, just let me live this year, Lord, I'm going to do things for you. For you, and in your name and by your power. And I believe number one ought to be soul winning. You ought to say, Dear Lord, I'm going to be a soul winner and I'm not going to put it off.
George W. Truett was the great pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas, before Dr. W. A. Criswell came to be the pastor. When George Truett was a young man he knew and loved the Lord Jesus. They were having a revival meeting in that town and George Truett was burdened for a young man that he played with and knew. The young man's name was George also. And George Truett went by to see this young man and asked him to come to the revival meeting, but he said, Well I can’t come tonight, I've got something else to do. And George Truett said, well, would you like to give your heart to Christ, would you like to be saved? He said, Well, yes, but not now. Later, George. Truett said that he left the young man and with a promise that he would come to the revival meeting tomorrow night. And when he went back to the revival meeting tomorrow, the young man was not at the door, didn't come to the door when George Truett knocked. His mother came to the door and said, I’m sorry; he can't go tonight, he's not feeling well. Perhaps he'll be better the next night and will go. George Truett came back the next night and his mother said, oh, he's worse; he won’t be going anywhere this week. George Truett came back the next night and the doctors were there and the friends were there and they said to George Truett, If you want to see this young man alive you'd better come in. George Truett said as he went into that room he saw his friend who had suddenly been taken ill and had gone down so rapidly and the disease had progressed at such a tremendous rate that everybody was startled and amazed at what had happened to this young man. George Truett asked if he could have a few moments alone with him and he got up close to him and spoke to his friend, his young friend. But his young friend didn't seem to be able to hear what George was saying. George Truett tried to carry on a conversation but his friend seemed to be in a state of delirium, and his lips were moving. He was saying something. He was whispering something. George Truett said, I got up right as close to my friend as I could, my young chum that I played with. I put my ear down to his lips to hear what he was saying, and this is what he was saying, Not now, George. Later. Not now, George. Later. Not now, George. Later. Later. Later. Friend, I want to tell you for some people there will be no later. That boy died, as far as George Truett knew, without Christ, without hope because he postponed and put away his chance to receive Christ as his personal Savior and Lord.
You say, Brother Rogers, I just don't believe in stories like that. Well, then, friend, you'd better go read again what James has said, “Boast not yourself of-tomorrow, for thou knows not what a day may bring forth.” “And he that being often reproved and hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed.” I don't know when Jesus is coming, but I know this much, souls are going and I know that that they are slipping out through the jaws of death into a Christless eternity. And one of these days they are going to drop the clods on the casket of your friend, of your brother, of your mother, of your father, on your neighbor, or your wife or your husband. People are dying. “Our life is like a vapor that passeth away.” And you're passing away.
I'm giving myself this coming year to soul winning. Will you? Say amen. I'm giving myself to soul winning, friend. I'll tell you one of these days the things that we think are so important are not going to be important. I don't care how circumspectly you walk, I don't care how eloquently you preach, I care not how faithfully you attend, I care not how liberally you give--if you are not winning souls, you're not right with God. Now that might hurt some feelings, but you're not, dear friend. I’m not saying you have to be successful, but friend, you ought to at least be witnessing. You ought to be trying. I mean, the burning question is not, when is the last time you won a soul to Jesus, the burning question is, when is the last time you tried. When is the last time you said, Dear Lord, give me a passion for souls? God make me a soul winner. I'll tell you they are passing away. Souls are dying. While I'm standing here they are dying and going to
hell and some of them are people that we should win.
But I'll tell you not only this matter of soul winning, but this matter of stewardship. I believe that every Christian ought to be a tither. Say amen. Every Christian ought to be a tither. At least a tenth. We haven’t arrived when we tithe. We've just gotten started. Tithing is not the ceiling it's the floor. Somebody says, Well, tithing, that's the Old Testament. Friend, tithing is Bible, Old Testament, and New Testament. Tithing was taught before the law, during the law, and after the law. You say, Well, it's Jewish.
Well, any Christian who'd let a Jew do more under law than you'd do under grace is a disgrace to grace. I want to tell you, dear friend that we need to get faithful in this matter of stewardship. If God's people, the members of this church, would tithe and had been tithing for the past five years we'd already have enough money in the bank to buy this property and pay for it and to build those buildings. You know it is true. You know it is true. What we're trying to do now is to make up for the fact that through the years we've not been faithful in this matter of stewardship. I want you to say by God's grace this coming year and starting this week that one tenth of your income as a bare minimum will be brought to God's house on God's day for God's work in God's way. And I believe you ought to bring your tithe to God’s house. I believe that it ought to be
given through the church where you are a member. That's my conviction and I believe it with my heart.
Now I want to tell you something else, dear friend. I believe that those of us who intend to pray ought to say, God, I'm going to pray. I'm going to have a quiet time. With God helping me, I'm going to be busy in this matter of prayer. I'm going to have some time alone with God everyday, so help me God. I'm going to give God that best time, that prime time, that special time.
I'm going to say something else that you need to do. You need to say, Lord, I'm going to become a student of your word. Did you know that there are some people who have been Christians for years who have never even read the Bible through? Many of them cannot even quote a few verses of the Scripture. Many of them do not even know the plan of salvation by heart. Many of them could not quote by memory a chapter from the Bible. Many of them do not know the great Bible history. You say, Well, Brother Rogers, it's not my fault, I just have a poor memory. I don’t buy that. If you got a thousand dollars for every verse you memorized, you'd turn into a memory machine— it’s just a matter of motivation, it's a matter of wanting to. It's a matter of really seeing the importance of knowing the word of God.
And I want to tell you, dear friend, that there are some things that you'd better do. If you are going to be a soul winner, you'd better get at it. If you are going to be a steward, you'd better get at it. If you're going to be an intercessor and one who supplicates, you'd better get at it. If you're going to be a student of God's word, you had better get at it.
There's one last thing I'm going to say and I'm going to finish. Not only is there an assumption, an attitude we should never take and an assumption we should never make, but, friend, there's an activity that we must not forsake. Look if you will in verse 17. “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” You were created to know God, to love God, to serve God. And no matter what else you do, if you do not love and serve God, if God is left out the sum total of your life, it is going to be sin. I want to tell you that God did not bathe this world with the blood of his dear son for you to live for sin and self and the devil. “To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”
Now, a man who is lost and misses heaven does not miss heaven because of what he does. He goes to hell for what he does. But he misses heaven for what he does not do—and that is that he does not receive Christ as his personal Savior. The Bible says, “He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already because he that not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God.” “To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” No matter what else you do this year, if you live without Jesus you're going to live a year filled with sin, I don’t care what you do. “To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”
I saw a tract one time. On one side of the track it said, What must I do to be lost. And when you turn the tract over in bold letters it said, Nothing. Nothing. What must I do to be lost? Nothing. “To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” What does a man have to do to die and go to hell? Nothing, he's already lost. He's already lost. “He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
