7 Questions - What is Your Life?

7. What is your life?

People have different ideas about what we need to make sense of life. Some say we need happiness. Some say self expression. Some say personal relationships. Whatever people say, the common thread is that God is irrelevant. Is this deflationary secular answer enough? Even if people live according to these desires, many people have the sense that more is required to make life anything other than a brief cosmic bleep on the radar.

James 4:13-17

13 Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." 16 As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. 17 Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.

This is a significant question that demands our attention. What is being condemned here is not business, but boasting. Not the industrious nature of the quest, but that the quest is being engaged in entirely independent of God. People operate on the basis they will 'for sure' be here tomorrow. They also believe that they will be successful on the basis of what they do. People view time as a wheel that continually turns. The bible says don't bother putting a mark on the wheel, as there is no wheel. Time is not ultimately cyclical, but it is linear. The line goes from eternity to eternity. Any attempt to view life in a cyclical manner is an attempt to escape from the truth that life for us will one day end. The moment we are born marks the inevitability of our death.

When we think in terms of the passage of time, we receive another day, not as a matter of necessity, nor by mechanical law, nor by right, nor by the courtesy of nature. We receive another day by the covenented mercies of God. It it because of his mercy that we are not consumed and wake to another day. Each day is a gift from a merciful God.

What is absent in the minds of secular man is any notion of the providence of God. The Scottish Catechism tells us the the works of God's providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and govorning all his creatures and their actions. This means that nothing in the Universe would continue to exist for the slightest fraction of a second without God. The creation does not exist without the continuous activity of the Creator.

James answers the question. Your life is very brief. It is a mist. Most people avoid this idea, but the bible continually confronts us with it. In Psalm 90 the psalmist tells us

1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place
throughout all generations.

2 Before the mountains were born
or you brought forth the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

3 You turn men back to dust,
saying, "Return to dust, O sons of men."

4 For a thousand years in your sight
are like a day that has just gone by,
or like a watch in the night.

5 You sweep men away in the sleep of death;
they are like the new grass of the morning-

6 though in the morning it springs up new,
by evening it is dry and withered.

7 We are consumed by your anger
and terrified by your indignation.

8 You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your presence.

9 All our days pass away under your wrath;
we finish our years with a moan.

10 The length of our days is seventy years—
or eighty, if we have the strength;

Not a lot has changed since this was written. Most men today would consider living to eighty a long life. "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die." "He who dies with the most toys wins." We might as well grab what we can while we are going along.

James stands against the presumption that we even have one more day. Your life is a mist. It appears for a little while, then it vanishes away. You need to face up to your frailty. You need to face up to the fact that you are entirely dependent on God. Contemporary society resists this question. The current fascination with health is in response to the fact that they have no answer to death.

There are four things we can't avoid.

1. Life's brevity
2. Death's reality
3. Judgment's certainty
4. Faith's opportunity

You may be reading this and this question has a very personal and private touch on your life. You've been asking this question, what is your life, and getting pretty rotten answers. You might think you are pretty worthless. Well, the bible is full of good news for people who feel themselves worthless. It says we are made in God's image and we are precious in his sight. We possess a dignity unknown even by the angels. That image in marred by our sin. That is why we feel the way we do, and we treat others as we do, and we are treated as we are. But, the same God who made you has done something for you, in Jesus, so as to put the pieces of your picture back together again. This is not something we can fix on the horizontal, fixing relationships with others. The bible makes it clear that we need to deal with this problem on the vertical, with the Creator first, meeting Him. The good news is that we don't have to go and find Him. He has come and found us. He has reached down to us in Jesus. He offers to us forgiveness. He has died to bear our punishment. Died to wipe clean our stain. Offers us a whole family. Offers us a whole new future, so that we can then answer the question, What is my life?

My life is passing. My life is purchased. And my life is powerful. Impact of a solitary life lived for good and lived for God. This life soon will pass, and only what is done for Jesus will last.


These are my notes from a seven part podcast from Alistair Begg www.truthforlife.org

7 Questions - What Will It Profit a Man?

Matthew: Chapter 16

26What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?

For anyone who understands balance sheets, or who knows the difference between a profit and a loss, this is a great question. It is a very straight forward a question. We need to apply ourselves to what God is asking.

Jesus frequently describes the Kingdom of Heaven in terms of treasure, essentially saying that it is a good buy, no matter what you paid for it. This is a stock that you ought to own. It would be worth it to sell all the other assets in your portfolio to own this one stock.

What is the point of gaining all the money in the world if you are not around to spend it?

This question forces us to think about eternity and the end of our short life. Does it count for anything? Jesus is addressing His disciples espousing a general principle with universal applications.

25For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.

He is talking about the psyche here, and not just the physical body. Losing one's life is not about just dying physically, but losing the type of life that is completely involved with just the 'self'. If we determine to give ourselves to getting the most out of life for ourselves, we exist, but we lose our life. This is not a threat against the selfish person describing a punishment, but merely pointing out what happens when someone lives their life selfishly. Pleasure is like drinking saltwater, the more you drink, the more thirsty you get. What possible advantage could their be to gaining the whole world, and losing your soul.

Pascal, the french philosopher and mathemetician, identified the fact that the reason for our existance was for a living relationship with the Living God. He came up with the idea of a "God shaped hole" in our heart. There is nothing in this world that can fill up that gap. By changing our perspective to an eternal one, we can identify the real problem. Our hearts are cold toward God, and we prefer to save our own souls by pursuing the world than to forsake what we desire most and pursue Christ.

There is an answer to the question of the value of your soul. The value of your soul is seen in a scene on a hill outside of Jerusalem. It is seen in a man hanging on a cross between two other men. He cries out as He gives himself for the souls of men and women. He was pierced, despised and scorned so that what we deserve we do not receive. Just as He gave all to pay for us, in order for us to be His disciples, it will cost us everything. We have to follow Him, and deny ourselves. We need to get off the throne of our own lives. He rightfully has that position. When we put Him in his rightful place, only then will we discover life.


These are my notes from a seven part podcast from Alistair Begg www.truthforlife.org

7 Questions - Do You Think I Came To Bring Peace?

Luke Chapter 12

49 "I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! 51 Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. 52 From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law."

Across the board, the response to this question, "Do you think Jesus came to bring peace?", is almost exclusively 'Yes'. They would say Jesus is about peace, love, forgiveness. Actually, this is the wrong answer. The answer to whether or not Jesus came to bring peace is 'No'.

The statement Jesus makes in reply to His own question is, "No, I tell you, not peace, but division." Not simply in context of the immediate verses only, but in context of the entire Bible.

• The arrival of Jesus - The angels sang Glory to God, and peace among men.
  
• Isaiah - For unto us a child will be born, and he will be called the Prince of Peace.

These two instances seem to contradict what Jesus is saying. The best way to approach these types of dilemmas is to admit that it seems difficult and seems to run counter to what we assume is His work on Earth, and look further to find out what He means.

It gets worse. When Paul looks back upon Jesus and writes it down, he describes what Jesus has done in terms of peace. He says that what was happening with the death of Jesus was that God was reconciling, making peace, the world to himself, in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. In looking at the words and works of Jesus, it is difficult to avoid the fact that Jesus is irrevocably linked to peace.

Let me try to resolve this. The words from Paul help us to understand what Jesus says before He asks this question. His preface has to do with a fire on the earth and a baptism which He is about to face. He is referring to the fact that fire does two things. It burns up what is combustible, and it purifies what is not combustible. This notion of fire to which Jesus refers is a fire which will both burn up and purify at the same time. He is referring to the fire of God's holiness, which will ultimately be unleashed on a world that continually turns its back on Him.

Jesus looks forward to the day when evil will be removed entirely from the world. Who doesn't look forward to that day, when all the suffering in the world will be done away with. Ultimately, He who is referred to in Isaiah as the Prince of Peace will reign, but in the meantime, strife continues. Jesus is going to go through a baptism of fire, His death on the cross, to take the place of sinners and bring about a reconciliation between God and man.

How can God forgive people and accept them into Heaven? Especially when they are sinners? Jesus became sin for man so that they could be assured of this very thing. It is as if Jesus says to man, "You are only going to hell over my dead body." Jesus is covered in shame, so that those of us who have shameful lives can be covered with His glory. There is no other story like this in any other world religion. This is a story of a physician who heals by taking the patients disease. This is the story of someone so committed to the reconciliation of God in His holiness and man in his sinfulness that He is willing to put His very life on the line to affect that reconciliation.

Is it enough to simply know these truths in your head? How do we move into the reality of this truth to the point of being baptized. We can't ignore the necessity of personal acceptance and trust. The lifeboat is no good unless the drowning man gets into it. And no one else can get in for him. He must do it himself. Surely he couldn't say that his hand that siezed the lifeboat was his salvation. He could only view it as the means by which he apprehended safety.

What Jesus means when he talks about division is directly tied to the work which He was about to accomplish in affecting reconciliation. When a man or woman comes to understand this story, when a man or woman comes to trust in Christ in this way, their newfound faith will prove, almost inevitably, to be a divisive factor. Jesus was dealing with a Jewish mindset who viewed the coming kingdom with visions of peace and tranquility. That is why Jesus says I didn't come to bring peace, but division. Not that His ultimate purpose was division, but the effect of His accomplishment of salvation would be division.

When a life is changed, it changes the dynamic of interpersonal relationships. In the case of someone coming to faith in Jesus Christ, division is inevitable. How does your unbelieving family react when you bring up Jesus? How do they react at the table when you talk about the Bible? How does your unbelieving spouse react when you invite them to church? How real is the division in your family since you became a believer?

Jesus demanded careful obedience, costly loyalty, and that is why not everyone is prepared to pay the price, nor to accept those who do pay the price. In Ephesians Chapter Two, Paul describes the person before coming to faith in Christ as dead, and like the rest, objects of God's wrath. But, when someone is brought into Christ, they are no longer 'like the rest' and it is that distinction that causes the division, which is the answer to the question before us tonight.

These are my notes from a seven part podcast from Alistair Begg www.truthforlife.org

7 Questions - Who Do You Say I Am?

You can ask anyone who Jesus is and they all have an answer. Everyone knows Jesus... Or do they?

Mark 8

27Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, "Who do people say I am?"

28They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets."

29"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
Peter answered, "You are the Christ."

30Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

When you read the Gospel of Mark, you'll notice that when people came in contact with Jesus of Nazareth, their reaction was seldom the reaction you get today, one of polite neutrality. Jesus inspired devotion in people, they were prepared to die for Him. He inspired fear in people, they were awestruck by His words and deeds. He also inspired hatred in people, especially towards the end of His time on Earth.

People were amazed when He forgave sins. "Who can forgive sins but God Himself?" they cried. Who was this that even winds and waves obey Him? Jesus loved to turn this question back on His followers. Who do people say I am? Who do you say I am?

Anyone familiar with the prophets in the Old Testament was looking forward to the coming of the Messiah, who would put things right. Jesus read these passages to his disciples and then sat down and told them, "Today, this scripture is fulfilled. I am He"

Even with the many answers given as to who the people on the street thought Jesus was, He makes it more personal and asks, "Who do you say I am?" Peter's answer says that, even though he didn't fully understand Jesus' divinity, he knew enough to know that Jesus was the one that all the prophets of the Old Testament pointed to.

This was not the party line for a young Jewish man... "Hear o Israel, the Lord, your God, is one." Peter's confession was a breakthrough of monumental preportions. Peter's experience with Jesus in the first chapters of the gospel brought him to this conclusion. God, the father, had revealed this truth. The Spirit of God, using the Word of God, Jesus Himself, opened Peter's heart. The Bible contains all the truth we need to have Jesus revealed to us as well. If you will examine it with an open heart, then God will reveal this to you as well.

The question of Jesus' identity is a personal one. The person next to you cannot answer for you. Jesus warns not to tell others about His identity, because it will not be their testimony that will convert them, but an encounter with Jesus Himself. Jesus had to be rejected, and crucifed, first, before He could fulfill His role as the Messiah.

If, in His love, He desires to be around sinners...If, in His justice, He cannot ignore our sins...How, then can He display His love and execute His justice? That is the great question. And, the answer is in the cross. At the cross, Jesus is an emblem of the Father's love, and Jesus is the one that bears the Father's wrath. If He simply excused sin, He would not be true Himself in the perfection of His holiness. He executes his justice on His Son, so that those who deserve His wrath can find forgiveness in that Son. Then, it becomes very wonderful. Who do you say I am? You are the Christ. You are the One that bears our sin and reconciles us to the Father.

In the mystery of God's purposes, God speaks by His Spirit, through his Word, and through my mouth. God makes his appeal to you right now through the lips of a mortal, preaching, talks like this. The idea that my typing would have a life changing effect on anyone is absurd. It is almost impossible. There is no possibility of me being able to put words together to convince you that Jesus is the Christ. God, by His Spirit, is the one that makes that change in you. God is able to overcome your skepticism. Here, in the cross is the answer.

My word to you, the very word of God Himself, is cast yourself upon Him. Come and bow your knee before His cross. Declare with a faltering tongue, but declare, none the less, that "You are the Christ." Remember, no one else can answer for you. He asks you, "Who do you say I am?"

These are my notes from a seven part podcast from Alistair Begg www.truthforlife.org

7 Questions - Why Do You Call Me Good?

Mark 10:17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

18 "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.'"

20 "Teacher," he declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy."

21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

22 At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!"

Here was a young man who is interested in eternal life. He was probably considered a good church going man by the standard of his day. In contrast to the many who approach Jesus sad and leave happy, here is about the only example of someone approaching Jesus happy and leaving sad.

This young man was active in his faith. And, as an active person, his focus on what he had to do to inherit eternal life. Not what God has done, but what he had to do. "Good teacher, what must I do..." Jesus immediately resets the agenda. He doesn't even answer the question, but responds to the very notion that there is someone who would be called good. This is a striking response that stands out even in the text. What is going on here?

There isn't a single example in the Talmud of a Rabbi being referred to by this title, good teacher. The reason is straight forward. To use good in this way, is to ascribe to a man, an attribute that only belongs to God. This could be seen as stylish flattery. Jesus is not denying His divinity at this point, but is making clear that He should only be called that if He were God. Since the young man does not realize whom he is speaking to, Jesus asks him to consider his words. At the heart of the matter, the identity of Jesus in the most important issue.

Jesus then asks him to consider what it would require to enter Heaven in the company of an all-good being. He brings up the commandments, the Law, and presents them as a mirror for the young man to compare himself to. The Bible teaches that anyone who keeps them perfectly, without one mistep, will live. The only problem is noone has, noone can, noone will keep them.

The young man proclaims his own goodness, and answers that he has kept the commandments. This is the same answer that people give today when you ask if they will go to Heaven when they die. The top answer to why people think they are going to Heaven is always, "I am a good person." People think they are essentially a good person and live basically by the rules.

Interesting to note is that even though this young man thinks he has kept the commandments, that has not provided him with rest for his soul. He is still worried about his eternal fate. Otherwise he wouldn't have run up to Jesus and asked what he needed to do. He has no sense of peace, no sense of forgiveness, no sense of assurity of eternal life.

This man hadn't considered that deeper than the act of adultery, God looks beyond the act to our hearts. To have hatred to our brothers is akin to murder. Jesus could have dug deeper with the man to show him this. But, he jumps right up to the top of the list. He points out that despite his affirmations to keeping the commandments, he had actually broken the first commandment. Clearly this young man had not put God first. He had not loved God with all his heart, all his mind and with all his strength. At this, the young man's face fell. He went away sad.

How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. In our affluence, we are tempted to rely on earthly things. If we have amassed enough things to get a comfortable lifestyle for ourselves, the idea where we have to put someone else on the throne is not very attractive to us. When the only way of salvation is to accept God's offer and bow down before the provision that Jesus makes, and to hold out empty hands, that is a dreadfully humbling thing.

The ultimate impediment in all of our lives, the Bible says, is that we are at odds with God. We are alienated from God. We are unable to put ourselves in the right with God. God, in recognition of that, has come in the person of Jesus Christ, and has died on the cross, not as a display of His affections, but the Son has died to bear the settled indignation of the Father against the rebellious hearts of men and women. He has died in the place of sinners. And, when we read the Law of God, we discover that we haven't loved Him with all of our heart. We discover that we haven't always told the truth. We discover that we have coveted things of our neighbors. We have been guilty of impure thoughts. We realize then that as a lawbreaker, we neither have the time, nor the ability to clean up the mess that we have contributed to.

There is no resolution down the path of religious observance. But, there is salvation down the path of Jesus Christ. The way of entry is not by exertion. The way is by childlike trust. The sad part of this story is that this man doesn't walk away from Christ because he is a bad man, but because he is a good man. It is his very goodness that keeps him from the kingdom. Don't let your self righteousness keep you from Jesus.

These are my notes from a seven part podcast from Alistair Begg www.truthforlife.org

7 Questions - What is This You Have Done?

2. What is this you have done?

When God finished creation, He was absolutely satisfied. He created beings that were morally good. But, in a leap to improve, man tried to become equal with God. This rebellion comes with a consequence.

The serpent comes with a question, casting doubt on what God had said about the forbidden tree. Once Eve starts to doubt what God had said, the serpent sows the seed of ambition. Inviting her husband to participate, both get involved in an act of rebellion. The promise will be that man will have the knowledge of good and evil. The truth was man found out that he was naked. Man believed the lie that God's way was not best.

Which assumption do we start from? God is the author of truth. Or man is the creator of his own truth. When we start from the latter, we put ourselves in a position of judging God. We are more likely to object to something, not because it is immoral, but because it is unhealthy. Smoking has become a worse evil than six of the ten commandments. The word sinful has been more closely associated with chocolate than adultery. Once you have removed a Creator that speaks a word that is authoritative and true, you have removed any basis for legislating in relation to morality.

Man has done three things.

• He had believed a lie.
  
• He was blatantly disobedient.
  
• He sought to deny any responsibility for his actions.

The Bible doesn't just speak about Adam and Eve doing this. We can turn the searchlight of the Bible on our own hearts and find that we are just as guilty. We have inherited a nature that is in rebellion to God. We are deeply flawed and we are inherently self centered. The Bible, in this question, confronts us with our own moral choices. Once we set aside the notion of a Creator to which we are accountable, we then set about to interpret the facts that confront us to fit our denial of Him.

We are tempted to live the life of our choosing by denying God and making up a morality for ourselves. We believe the lie that there is no God. We blatantly disobey the Law written on our hearts. And we justify our actions at every turn. When our view of the world starts with a lie, we will compound that lie to secure our viewpoint. By trying to be our own master, we put ourselves under the ultimate mastery of death. This is what God told Adam in the garden. Ultimately, our sin will lead to death.

Two Choices:

• Atheistic Humanism: Broad and crowded. Assumption is that there is no God. The Bible is not a revelation from God. It is merely a collection of religious ideas. Our study of it can be colored by our own interpretations.

• Christian Theism: Narrow and sparsely populated. Assumption is God made every fact in the Universe. He alone can interpret all things and all events. We are dependent upon God for any truth.

Because of our participation in the rebellion, as sinners, we suppress this truth and we reinterpret the Universe so that we and not God define truth. The very sinfullness of man makes it impossible to recognize the truth. Because of sin, we think wrongly. We are blind to the truth. The deadness of our hearts and our hatred of God may be overcome by His goodness.

This goodness reaches its apex in the death of Jesus Christ, which absorbs all of our denial, all of our disobedience and all of our denial. We don't have the capacity to accept this forgiveness apart from God's grace.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I 0nce was lost, but now am found,
Was blind but now I see.

These are my notes from a seven part podcast from Alistair Begg www.truthforlife.org

7 Questions - Where Are You?

I'm sure there are plenty of questions you would like to ask the Creator, but here is a list of questions that He asks of you.

1. Where are you?
The original "Hide and Seek" game is found in Genesis, Chapter 3. It talks about the origin of sin in the world. The immediate context is of disobedience, hiding, coverup and excuses. Adam, who has been made by God and for God, is actually running away from God.

9 But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"

Adam is not dissimilar to the rest of us. This road, while futile and foolish, never the less is crowded. It is not that people don't understand the Truth, it is that they suppress it. What may be known about God is plain to man because God has made it plain. (Romans 1:18-20) The moral problems we have today are directly tied to the response Adam had to God.

Three observations about this question:

1. This is an unusual question. This question turns on it's head the notion that "man is looking for God". The Bible tells us the total reverse. We are the one's avoiding God and God is the one asking "Where are you?" If God knows everything, why does He have to ask? When God asks us a question, He does it so we face up to the answer.
   
2. This is actually a kind question. Instead of acting purely out of justice, he asks this question to draw man out of hiding toward Himself. He could have rightly carried out the death sentence for sin at that very instant, but here is a clear example of God's grace. How kind is our God. God does not give to man what we justly deserve, but because of His kindness, He grants to us what we don't deserve. There is nothing great in man that draws God to him, but it is God's kindness. There is nothing we can do to earn God's grace, and there is nothing we can do lose it.
   
3. This is a personal question. Just as God had complete freedom and responsibility for his actions, so do we. No sensible person would think they could hide from God behind a tree, but his sin has clouded his intellect. We think we can hide from God as well because we are clouded by our sin. Our thinking is skewed. Why do so many thinking people eschew the Bible? We think that our ability to think things out is unaffected by the moral impact of sin, but that is not the case. We need to ask God to forgive our sins because the sinful mind is hostile to God.
   

This questions shows us that God is a God who chooses to reveal Himself. It reveals that God is very interested in establishing a relationship with those He has created even though they have turned their back on Him. He is a seeking God. He is a saving God. He is a relationship salvaging God. He is looking down on you with an unusual, kind, personal question... Where are you?

These are my notes from a seven part podcast from Alistair Begg www.truthforlife.org