 What matters? That is an interesting question I’ve asked myself (or maybe God has been asking me in my heart). For the last several days I’ve wondered what truly matters – as well as – how can I live for what matters each day I have left to live on this earth.
Here is the most important question to be answered each and every day. Is there a God? That is the ultimate question. If there is not a God, everything degenerates into either ultimate meaninglessness or into some kind of deification of the self. If there is no God – then we are here truly by accident. There is no reason we exist – and no reason for us to live or die. We are a cosmic accident that will come and go with no reason to be – no reason to live – and no reason to care about it. That is difficult to deal with. Actually, it is impossible to deal with as an ultimate truth. Ask any true nihilist and they will testify to that with either their own suicide or with their descent into insanity. Because that answer is so devastating, most of humanity has gone in another direction. They have decided to deify themselves. Basically, the most important thing in the world is my own happiness and fulfillment. Since no one will live this way – deifying me – then I will have to deify myself. I have my own truth. I have my own meaning. Dude, I have my own morality, gender, purpose – all of which can change in a moment’s notice if my god (which is me, by the way) decides he or she needs to for some reason – or no reason at all. When this is the case the world becomes a place filled with myopic, naval-gazing, self-oriented, and self-worshipping fools who think life is little more than living for the next happy moment or the next shiny thing that catches one’s attention. It is no wonder than that those who choose the deification of self eventually become unfulfilled, selfish brats who are angry because everyone and everything does not live to fulfill them in whatever they’ve decided will fulfill them in that particular moment. Madness. Is there a God? The answer to that question is a resounding, “Yes!” The existence of a creation begs the existence of a Creator who made it. Since the creation all around us is so vast in its size, and yet seemingly endlessly detailed in its microscopic parts, the One who made it is of a genius so far beyond our capability of understanding that we shrink in comparison infinitely to Who that One is. The fact that humankind in all their philosophic, scientific, and theological pursuit has barely scratched the surface of the information available in creation humbles us. The truly wise one will bow in adoration and worship of the infinite genius, infinite power, and infinite vastness of the God Who made the universe and all that is in it. For humankind to arrogantly say that there is no God – when we don’t understand even one trillionth of what is around us or in us - is the height of egotistical hubris. The fact though is that there is plenty of this arrogance anywhere you look. So we need more than just the fact of God’s existence. We need some sort of communication from Him. Something that we could know is from Him – and then something that would reveal Who He is, what He does, and whether He is currently actively working in our world. That is what we will deal with in next week’s article. Until then – take a few moments to look up – look around – look at the grand vastness of what God has made. Then – look smaller, at microscopic creation with its own version of tiny vastness. Consider the astounding complexity and yet unity of it all – both to the ends of the universe, as well as, to the inner ends of the micro-verse. Consider the infinite wisdom and intellect needed to create it all. Once you’ve done this, do something infinitely wise. Humble yourself, bow down on your knees, and worship God, the Creator of it all. By doing this, you will have answered and responded to the most important question there is to ask. Is there a God?
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 Part 3 of Meeting God
A Series of Articles on Job 38-42 God has a very powerful way of bringing Job to a place where he acknowledges that he may have a limited perspective on things. Job has experienced suffering at a level few humans can even grasp. In the midst of dealing with his suffering Job was visited by his “friends.” As their question and answer sessions proceeded, Job was eventually accused of wickedness and sin, which they believed brought on Job’s sufferings. In the back and forth that ensued, Job called upon God as his witness to defend and verity his innocence. Now God has “shown up” - literally. He will eventually vindicate Job, but before He does, He asks Job a few questions to help him with perspective in his situation. That often is our problem in the midst of suffering. We battle with wondering whether we have done something sinful that brought our situation to pass. We struggle with the thought that we are being punished and that God is angry with us. That is why we are suffering. For those who have not committed a sin that is being visited with discipline, things are even more difficult. And it is in navigating those difficulties that we can lose perspective and begin to wonder about God Himself. We can even toy with questions about His sovereignty and management of our providential circumstances. God does come to Job spectacularly - and He will come to us as well. The thing is that if we expect Him to explain Himself in the matter, we may be greatly disappointed. God comes, not to explain Himself to us, but to reveal Himself to us - and that is what He does with Job. God reveals Himself with a series of questions. His first is this: “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” Wow, now there is a doozy of a question right at the start. Where exactly were you when I started it all? When the foundation for all that you know, see, and experience was laid? I didn’t see you there. That is a question that honestly needs to be asked, not just of Job, but on a much larger scale - to all of humanity (especially of those who are scientists). God reveals Himself to us in ways we can grasp and here, God uses building terms to help Job grasp what He is saying. The Lord first speaks of laying a foundation. Yet, we know that there are no pillars or supports on which the earth rests - no massive Titan who carries the earth upon his shoulders. Job understood that because he said in 26:7 that God, “hangs the earth on nothing.” This is poetic language and as such we need to be careful not to understand it in a literal way. In fact, what we see here is God using building terms such as . . .
All these terms were used in building structures for mankind. Footings had to be dug, measurements made, lines stretched to establish plumb, a cornerstone put into place off of which the walls and foundation would be laid. These are all things the construction industry would do. But how exactly would this be done on a world scale? How would this be done for the entire universe? It is quite a task when a man would attempt to build a home. It could take months or years based on the size of the home or the structure. Solomon’s temple took seven years to construct. Multiply that times a trillion to just get things started when you think of the earth and the solar system. But that is what God is asking Job. This is a question impossible to answer with the understanding of Job’s day - but take a moment and consider that question in light of the Hubble space telescope. Consider the wisdom needed to intricately lay the paths of a trillion stars and planets. That isn’t even a trillionth of what is actually in the heavens. Were you there when God made all of this? Where were you? Exactly. You didn’t even exist except in the future understanding and plan of God - Who by the way, made it all. What is fascinating about the four chapters in Job we are considering is that God does not use them to answer the reason behind Job’s suffering and pain. He does not use them to explain the circumstances of Job’s trouble. In the end what God does is to ask Job whether He is as great, eternal, wise, powerful, good, and perfect as God Himself. That may seem like far less than Job should receive. But Job would vehemently disagree with you on that matter. He would rejoice in having been able to receive such a full and magnificent revelation of God. Job’s response would be to tell us it would have been better for him to have kept quiet and trust in God. My guess is that there are probably many who do not like that answer. To be left without a specific why - and even more pointedly - why me - is not enough to those in a sinful condition. They deserve more. They deserve answers. They deserve an explanation - even from God - to justify why He would allow such things. In all honesty - they would eventually find that a God who does not answer the questions by which they put Him on trial - is not a God they are wanting to accept - let alone know, love, or serve. OK - but their trial and eventual denial of Him will not remove Him from His place. You see, God is God and we are His creation. Just because we do not like that will not change it. (Please understand that God is not just ultimate power and authority, but also ultimate goodness, kindness, mercy, compassion, and love.) We often don’t get it because we are infinitesimally small and greatly lack perspective. That is why God asks the question, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” Our perspective is very limited. It is dominated by self-interest and a heart that is bound by sin and rebellion against God. If we truly want to understand things, we need a much bigger perspective. When we see God through the revelation of Himself to us, our perspective changes. When we see Him . . . nothing else matters any more. Seeing Him is enough. At least that is what Job would tell us. Last week I began a series of articles dealing with the core values that we hold here at Calvary Chapel. This week I want to address how we believe that we can know God. This is truly one of the very central of these core values, because it addresses not just that we believe we can know God, but addresses how we believe we can know Him.
At Calvary Chapel we believe that we can know God only because God has made Himself known to us, revealing Himself to us through His Word as well as through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. This core value has to do with the biblical doctrine of revelation. When I say this I am not referring to the book of Revelation, but more importantly of the whole idea and concept of revelation itself. Let me explain. If God did not choose to reveal himself to us – to make Himself known – there would be no way that we could know Him. There is such an infinite gulf between God and man that the only way it can be bridged is by God crossing it and mercifully making Himself known to us. This is true even without sin in the picture. God, being an eternal, infinite being is beyond what our minds can understand or grasp. It is only because God has graciously condescended to communicate with us that we can grasp Who He is. God put it this way to Isaiah, "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9, NASB) God is gracious enough to make Himself known to us. He has made Himself known through His creation. Romans 1:19-20 says this to us, “. . . because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:19-20, NASB) In nature we should see the invisible attributes of God’s eternal power and divine nature. Creation declares the glory of God to us – letting us know that the One Who made all this is infinitely greater than that which He has made. The vastness of the universe, and indeed the fact that in spite of all that we’ve come to know we still have vastly more to know, should shout to us of God’s majesty, glory, might, power, and infinitude. But our problem is that man has rejected this witness. Man does not even acknowledge God in nature choosing one of two horrific errors. Either, as Romans 1 says, man makes a god for himself out of birds, four-footed animals, and crawling creatures or, as man rejects God entirely. Rather than believe in God, man chooses to believe himself an utterly astounding accident without a cause – that exists for no purpose. Sin has led men to reject God – not even giving Him thanks or honoring Him. So, not only do we have a God too vast to be known without His gracious revelation of Himself, but our sin and rebellion have blinded us – darkened our understanding – hardened our hearts – and closed our eyes to His glory. We reject both God and His revelation of Himself, embracing instead ourselves as the only authorities in our lives. Truly we hold that we can be a better god than God – the result of which is the devastation of His image in us – darkness, destruction, and death. God, Who had every right to absolutely reject us for such infinitely rebellious foolishness, instead chose to reveal Himself further to those who rebel against Him. He did this through His Word – and eventually through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He moved upon men through His Holy Spirit to give us an accurate, authoritative revelation of Who He is. He did this first in the Old Testament as He chose a man, Abraham, and a nation, Israel. He promised a Savior, though, as His ultimate revelation of Himself and His great love for us. That Savior is Jesus Christ, Who was revealed in history, which is also recorded for us through God’s Word, the Scriptures. God provided salvation through the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He then gave us the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament, so that we could also know the way He perfectly revealed His love and purpose through His Son. Now, the fundamental way that we know God is through how He has revealed Himself in His Word. As we read and study His Word we come to know Who He is – His heart – His ways – His thoughts – His purposes, plans, and will. We are warned in the Scripture itself about those who do not speak according to and in agreement with His Word. We are told that such men and women do not even have the light of day. Paul even writes a curse upon those who do not preach the Gospel as it is revealed in the Bible. This leads us to some very important truths and principles by which we live at Calvary Chapel. We place greatest importance on what God’s Word says when it comes to all matters of doctrine and practice in our lives and in the church. That is why Bible teaching and Bible study are vitally important to us. We go by what the text of the Scripture says – not about how we feel about it. We go by a careful study of the whole of the Bible, not just pulling verses out of their context to create some teaching of our own making. We do not hold to revelation outside the Bible. There are some who want to make their own words that they speak equal with and at times more authoritative than Scripture. This is what theologicans call “extra-biblical” revelation. It says that some current day revelation from a prophet, preacher, or teacher is of equal authority (usually greater) than what has been given to us in the Old and New Testaments. We do not believe that a current revelation by a teacher or even someone who proposes to be a prophet has any authority in itself – and certainly does not constitute new Biblical revelation. God closed the canon or books of the Bible after the book of Revelation was given by the Holy Spirit to John. Therefore anything someone says that they have from or about God MUST conform to what we already have in Scripture. If it does not – we reject the teaching and the teacher of such things. What is our practice as a result of this second core value? The result is that we seek to know God on the basis of what He has revealed of Himself in the Scriptures. We study them diligently to grasp what they say. We seek to understand the context in which they were given, as well as comparing passage with passage, to guard against misinterpreting them or making them say what we want instead of what God intended. We do not want to add to the Scriptures or take away from them. As Paul says through the Holy Spirit in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17, NASB) We do not look to current day prophets – or anyone who has a special word that they assert is equal to the Biblical revelation. We do not look to church councils or any special group or individual to speak new Scripture – or to speak anything that is more authoritative than what we already have in the Old and New Testaments. We do not give special place to creeds or statements made outside the Bible. The primary importance – and the only authoritative word for us is the Word of God. The Word of God is how we believe God has revealed Himself to us. That is why we place primary importance on teaching it from cover to cover, book by book, chapter by chapter, and verse by verse. We believe it is only as we know God’s revelation of Himself in the Bible that we can know God.  Awe and wonder . . . two words that perfectly fit any view of God. But in a world that thinks too highly of itself, populated with fallen people who seriously think too highly of themselves, awe and wonder do not describe the average response to God, Who has revealed Himself to us in Scripture - and His creation. And if I were to be completely honest (which hurts as I admit to my own sin of pride and over-aggrandizement of myself personally - and humanity corporately) I do not respond to Him nearly enough with the kind of awe and wonder that He deserves. At times I sing songs about His greatness with little more than yawning excitement - and even more sinfully - with a sense of wanting to get on with it so I can move on to other things more exciting to me. In an age where we make much of man - and even more of ourselves - the whole concept of being lost in wonder and awe of God is dangerously waning. And please understand I speak not of the world at large - but of those of us in the church.
There are two words that should show up often in our vocabulary when seeking to give any kind of description of God. The first of these words is the word "awe." We speak of things that, when we see them or experience them leave us awe-struck. That means the shear magnitude and majsety of them render us speechless because we are not sure there are words adequate to describe what we are seeing or experiencing. God, being both infinite and eternal, should be One who leaves us utterly speechless because His majestry and limitless magnitude are beyond human words or concepts. That is where we reach back to get our second word, "wonder." When I looked up wonder at Dictionary.com, the following definition began to take shape in my mind. Wonder means to be filled with admiration, amazement, or awe. This sense of wonder often illicits surprise, astonishment, and in some cases worship or adoration of what has caused our wonder. The God Who has revealed Himself in the Old and New Testaments - and Who is also revealed in what He has created, is a God Who can fill our hearts and our minds with both awe and wonder. There is no way to adequately define or describe Who God is. One way that we can touch the fringe of His boundless, infinite magnitude is by looking at nature - most specifically - the heavens. Since the discovery of the telescope, we've enjoyed a view of the heavens that expands as quickly as we can upgrade the ability of our telescopes to see further and further into space. The information below was originally printed in John MacArthur's commentary on the book of Matthew. "The more man delves into the universe, the more amazing and awesome the wonder of creation becomes. Telescopes can take us some four billion light years—about twenty-five sextillion miles—into space, and yet we have not come near the edge of the universe. We have discovered certain gravitational principles that keep the stars and planets in their orbits, yet we are far from fully explaining those principles, much less duplicating them. The earth spins on its axis at a thousand miles an hour at the equator, travels in a five-hundred-eighty-million-mile orbit around the sun at about a thousand miles a minute, and, with the rest of its solar system, careens through space at an even faster speed in an orbit that would take billions of years to complete. The energy of the sun has been estimated to be equivalent to five-hundred-million-million-billion horsepower. There are at least one-hundred-thousand-million other suns in our galaxy, most of them larger than ours." (John MacArthur, Commentary on Mark) What is even more amazing to me after reading that again, is that MacArthur's statement is just a small paragraph, because there is enough to know about our universe to fill an entire library of books. That is after we've spent 100's of years looking into space. The truth is our knowledge of the universe is ridiculously limited at the present time. If we had instruments and ships that could take us far out into the universe (even into our own galaxy to be honest) our knowledge would grow exponentially! To give you a perspective on how much we should be in awe and wonder of the God who created our universe, allow me to focus on one star within it. Granted, at the moment (due to our lack of a telescope powerful enough to see it) it is the largest star we know. Nevertheless, let's talk about the star Sirius, or Canus Majoris. This largest of all stars known was most recently measured at around 1500 solar radii. If you were like me, you had no idea what a solar radii was. It is the measurement of how big our sun is. That measurement is approximately 432,450 miles (to go from the outer edge of the sun to its center). If you want to know how far it is around our sun - that would be approximately 2.72 million miles (quite a walk - and take sunblock over 50 because you might get a sunburn!) Just our sun is so huge that it blows the mind to comprehend its size. But we speak of Sirius (Canus Majoris) which is now approximately 1500 times the size of our sun. Now I know that you are tired from that recent walk around the sun (and a little burnt probably) but you need to suck it up - because now we're going to walk around Sirius - which would be 4.1 billion miles give or take a mile or two. Forgive me for using this comparison - but it will give you a little better grasp of how large this star is. Imagine our earth is a basketball. Compared to our sun earth is a little smaller than a popcorn seed. In order to get something as large as Canis Major you would have to have a ball that is over half the size of the Empire State Building. Let me put that into perspective for you. That height is larger than the full height of the Superdome. So we are talking about a ball bigger than the Superdome itself (try jumping high enough to dumk that sucker into a basketball rim that can fit it!). Another way of describing the size of Sirius is that if we put it into our solar system (starting at the center of our sun) its outer edge would reach beyond the orbit of Saturn (although some think it extends beyond that to about the orbit of Jupiter). That is HUGE! But . . . this is only 1 star, albeit the largest one on record to date. There are trillions times trillions more stars in our universe - all of which have been placed in orbital movements that conicide with each other with greater precision than that of a well choreographed ballet. It truly is incredulous to an infinite degree how men can think this is all a random cosmic accident! I've taken all this time - and verbiage - to hopefully get you to stand in awe and wonder of a single star - in a galaxy filled with billions and billions of starts - which is in the midst of millions of other galaxies - all moving in such synchronization that we set our clocks by its movement. God created all this by His infinite power and wisdom. He did it so that they would proclaim the glory of His great name! Thus this mere creation of the genius and limitless strength of our God is itself infinitely inferior to Him - the One who spoke it into existence. It required no over-exertion on His part and its creation was no drain on either His intelligence or His might. He is beyond its existence and could as easily consume it entirely with one additional word spoken to utter remove it to little more than an afterthought flying quickly through our minds. So please . . . the next time you consider the God of your salvation - the God of creation - the God of eternal, timeless existence and infinite, measureless magnitude . . . do so with awe and wonder . . . oh, and a little reverence might be in order too (just as an infinitely understated suggestion). And one other thing . . . this coming Sunday when you meet with the saints to sing of the God of your salvation - remember Sirius, Canus Majoris - or by its common name, "The Big Dog!" When you do - and you also meditate on the fact that God created this giant ex-nihilo (meaning out of nothing) as He spoke the world into existence (By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. Hebrews 11:3, NASB), we will be moved by His Spirit and the truth to sing and worship Him with both awe and wonder! Or, in a euphamism more familiar to our current age, "Let the 'big dawg' speak, and when you feel him - get crunk as you worship God off the hinges." (Yes, I know that just exposed me as a really old white guy trying to look cool - sorry, couldn't help it with the star being named, "the big dog.") A Theology of Aging, part 4
For the past several weeks we've looked at a Theology of Aging. Last week we looked at Ecclesiastes 12:1-8 and saw how God described in some creative detail how the aging process worked - and how all of us would be affected by it. We dealt with every verse except verse 1 of that section. That is what I plan to do this week. "Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, "I have no delight in them"; Ecclesiastes 12:1 (NASB) Last week's journey through Ecclesiastes 12 could have been a very depressing one unless you took time to look at this first verse. It is a depressing journey for those who have only this life as their focus. Those who only have life on earth to treasure will find, as we found last week, that their treasure is deteriorating and fading fast as they age. The very aging process is supposed to turn our eyes away from living for the things of this earth - and to live instead for the things of God. But these this view of life needs to be embraced in one's youth. The call here is to REMEMBER. The word used here is zakar, which means more than just to remember something briefly. It means to call it into your memory for the purpose of thinking about it, meditating on it, and hopefully learning from it as well. We are called to remember our Creator. This is interesting - because it immediately militates against naturalism which says that there is NO creator. Those who embrace naturalism ONLY have this life to live. Their view is that once we die - we just die. Our life actually has no meaning - we were a cosmic accident, coming together through random processes in some form of evolutionary development. Thus, when it is over - it truly is OVER! There is no hope - because we go into the ground and are destined to be little more than worm dirt for the plants to derive nutrients as we decay in the ground. For those who thought Ecclesiastes 12 was depressing - try on a naturalist worldview and see how depressing that is! What exactly are we supposed to "remember" as we think and consider our Creator? From what Solomon says in chapter 11:9-10. "Rejoice, young man, during your childhood, and let your heart be pleasant during the days of young manhood. And follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes. Yet know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things. So, remove grief and anger from your heart and put away pain from your body, because childhood and the prime of life are fleeting." Ecclesiastes 11:9-10 (NASB) We are to REMEMBER that God is not only our Creator, but also the One who will render judgment upon the choices we made in life. It is evident from what Solomon says here that living for the "impulses of our heart" as well as the "desires of our eyes" is not a wise choice. In the end these things will be judged by God as unworthy pursuits. Living for pleasure alone is a waste of a life given by God. Ever since the Fall of man into sin - sin has corrupted our desires and how we view things with our eyes. To follow them would be exceedingly foolish. So as we remember our Creator - part of that remembrace and meditation on Who He is involves us remembering our sinfulness and our propensity to be selfish and self-centered. Taking these revelations and applying them to our passage, we see that a selfishly lived life will not last. In fact we see from Ecclesiastes 12:1 that in the end - in our latter years - we will have no delight in life. We will find life miserable. Ever hear an older man express regret over his life? I've heard many who have lived for selfish ends - and they have great regret. It all seems so . . . so meaningless at the end. It is as if we were made for something so much more. That is exactly why Solomon wrote this book. God wanted to show us that no matter how rich you are - how much power you have - how many relationships you have - it all turns sour and empty when you see aging and death creep nearer. That is why YOUTH are encouraged to remember and meditate on their Creator. That way they can remember to live for God - for His purposes and plans. They are reminded to be careful about their own desires and the things that tantalize their eyes and lusts. These things can be deadly - and they are definitely deadly when lived for over an entire lifetime. That is why God had Solomon write such a depressing view of aging. God warns throughout His Word that we are going to age - and that ultimately - we are going to die. He has revealed these things - not to depress us. He has revealed them to us so that we will learn from them. We need to learn that life is limited. We need to learn that life is short. We need to learn that there is a purpose for us - a plan on how we should live and for Whom we should live as well. When we remember our Creator and remember these things, we will be blessed. Ignore them . . . and as our lives come to a close we will find ourselves saying exactly what God said - that we no longer find any delight in them. Remember your Creator God - remember His ways and delight in His will - for in delighting in Him you will find life itself a delight as well. And death, which so many dread and fear will be no longer a fearful, terrifying moment - but rather one where we graduate from the pains and suffering of this life - to awake in His presence, experiencing pleasures forever at His right hand! |
Biblical ArticlesMost of these articles are taken from the Calvary Courier, a weekly newsletter that is sent to the folks who attend Calvary Chapel Jonesboro. Due to the response to these articles, we've decided to print some of them which proved to be very helpful to God's people at the fellowship. 
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