Clinging To Life

Introduction

Welcome to everyone. We have many visitors with us today. Thank you for coming. I don’t like death. Much of the drama on television and in the movies today is about death. People are being obliterated everywhere. Video games. Call of Duty 4 and Halo and all of those popular Xbox games. They’re about death and dying. Obliterate the enemy. Shoot them up. And look, zombies need to be obliterated. World War Z, Brad Pitt versus the zombies. That sort of worked for me, actually. But back to people. I don’t even like animal death that much. But that’s not the same as people death. People death. Death is everywhere. Death everywhere you turn. And we can debate the merits of the hunger games. But I don’t know. What struck me about that was children dying at the hands of children.

I still struggle to get my mind around that whole concept. We should never become desensitized to dying. And as I was preparing these thoughts, the news broke regarding the murder in Duncan, Oklahoma. And the real irony here today, folks, is we have people from Duncan here in the audience today. Who would have imagined that? Gabe’s responsible to his family. Gabe is from there. But what caught me on the CNN report was murder just for fun. Three teens, ages 15 through 17, for no other purpose than the fact that they were bored, just decide to randomly shoot this guy in the back on a Friday afternoon as he jogged in the park. It just so happens that this fellow was there on a baseball scholarship for East Central University, and he was from Australia, and they just shot him in the back.

Didn’t have anything better to do. Let’s go kill someone. Just an utter disregard for life. Regardless of who is dying and why, there is a permanence to that. Somebody’s family loses someone irrevocably. Whatever legacy in life one has garnered, it is concluded. It’s over.

Spiritual status before God is sealed. And how horrific. If sin is on one’s account when it happens.

1. A Very High Regard for Life

Like I said, every drama is about this, right? Someone has been shot. It looks like it’s going to be fatal. And someone is over this person saying, hold on, stay with me. Or you hear them say, I don’t want to die. And so I want to talk to you this morning about clinging to life. This is all we have ever known. And so people cling to it. They protect it fiercely. Sometimes because there is little knowledge to what lies beyond it, only minimal confidence about it. And some have confidence who shouldn’t. And perhaps zero preparation for it. Clinging to life. I want to share a few thoughts with you about this subject this morning. Number one. That is that we need to possess a very high regard for life.

Life is precious. And thus always to be regarded highly.

That is the very point Paul is making in Acts 17 as he is preaching in Athens, a city full of idols, regarding the inscription to the unknown God. He wants them to know the real God and important fundamental facts about him. And these are facts that I think we need to think about on a quite regular basis. Acts 17 and verse 24, the God who made the world and all things in it. I want to tell you folks, I believe that. And that doesn’t change. And that’s an anchor for my life here. God who made the world and all things in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth and does not dwell in temples made with hands, neither is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself to all life and breath and all things.

And he made from one every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, if perhaps they might grope for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

As even some of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring. And as I read that passage, much like the people in Athens, there are too many self-dependent people running around realizing that they live only because of him and that they are dependent upon him for life, whether they appreciate or recognize it or not. And where does that self-dependence get you? In the face of a crisis that is bigger than you, someone who is stronger than you, or someone who is trying to take your life away with a gun when you have none. When circumstances that are beyond your ability to control confront you need to realize just how dependent we really are. I appreciate oxygen more than I used to. We take it for granted, right?

You’ve heard of the condition sleep apnea. It’s becoming more and more common. You hear more about it. I have it. What sleep apnea is while you are sleeping, your air passageway gets obstructed or cut off. And you cannot get sufficient oxygen in your lungs. And you sort of need that to live. You cannot get sufficient oxygen in your lungs. And the body’s amazing, a testimony to our awesome Creator and his design. You know what your body does when it’s not getting sufficient oxygen? It twitches, it moves. Your mind is not asleep completely. It’s still working, trying to keep you alive while you’re trying to suffocate. And it moves you around. That’s why you don’t dream if you have severe sleep apnea, because you never get to rinse sleep.

Because your oxygen’s getting cut off, and you keep waking up and stirring, and you don’t get restful sleep, and you wake up the next day and you go, man, it’s like I didn’t even sleep. And then you’re introduced to this device that’s going to help you breathe. And it smashes air down your lungs into your lungs, and you breathe. And you sleep and you dream again. We take oxygen for granted. My lungs worked yesterday, and they worked the day before that. But realize how we are completely dependent on this ecosystem that God created where the carbon dioxide is taken in by the plants and they produce oxygen that we breathe. We take all that for granted. We don’t think about that. We live and breathe each day because of him.

And he sustains our lives. And if we believe what he says about the end of the world, ultimately he’s going to take all of this away and set it on fire, and that’s going to be the end of life here. And so what that says about the human body. I should not use this marvelous piece of machinery that God created, this wonderful organism. The dexterity of our bodies, our hands, our feet and our legs, our ability to communicate amazingly, to have thoughts and to communicate those thoughts by words to others and them actually understand the thought that we had.

Glorifying Him. Serving Him, praising Him. I think we would do well to spend some time thinking about this wonderful casing that God has given each one of us. I know we all have some design flaws we would like fixed. But this wonderful casing that God has given us, appreciate that. Thank God for that, and then emphasize more greatly what’s inside of it. And thus Paul says in 1 Timothy 4 verse 8, bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and the life that is to come. And our outer man, as much appreciation that we have for it and the care that we take of it, the outer man decays. The outer man is decaying, but the inner man, what’s inside this casing can be renewed day by day, as it is made in the likeness of God.

2. An Even Higher Regard for Spiritual Life

And God has eternal intentions for what’s inside of us, and he even has planned to give us an immortal body to encase it. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And so, as we should have a high regard for God given life, we should have an even higher regard for spiritual life. Physical life is God given, and it’s important. But we must not cling inordinately to life here. Life here is a proving ground for faith, an opportunity to render service to our Creator and mold ourselves after him. This life is preparatory for something greater. God never intended for our physical relationships and circumstances here to be the focus of our affections more than anything else. And yet that’s where most people are. It’s their physical life here, their physical body, their relationships here, their circumstances here.

It is the focus, it is what consumes them. But Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, we have as our ambition while at home in this body to be pleasing to the Lord. There’s an even higher regard, that’s the same context of our outer man decaying, but our inner man renewing day by day, 2 Corinthians 4 16. He says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, we have as our ambition, while in this body to be pleasing to the Lord, a higher regard for spiritual life. And so while physical life is God given and it’s important, listen to this.

In importance.

If only folks clung to spiritual life as much as they do physical life.

To which do you more greatly cling? And what is the evidence in your thoughts and affections? What about your values that suggest that you more greatly cling to spiritual life than physical life? It’s a hard thing to have to do what Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter 5.

When he said regarding a brother so-called, one who is not walking in the light, but rather practicing sin. And he says, regarding that person that needs to be disciplined, he says, to remove that person from among yourselves and have no company or association with him. Know not to eat with such a one. That’s a very difficult thing to do when this is a beloved person in the flesh. Why do you do that? Why would you make that hard decision to render fellowship, to curtail social involvement with a person that you care so very much about? Why would you do that? You will not unless you more greatly value spiritual life above physical life. That’s when you’ll do it. Because the Spirit, the goal of the action in 1 Corinthians 5, the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

That’s why you do it. Because you know that sin has to be fixed, and however much we would want to have association with this person, they are going to get old just like I am, and they’re going to die, and then what? Then what? This is also temporary. Spiritual life has eternal implications. And so I ask you this. Are you looking for a satisfying but short-lived physical feeling? Or for lasting and ultimate spiritual satisfaction. And that is the point of Ephesians 5, verse 18. I like referencing Ephesians after we’ve studied it with Jared to help bring your attention even more to some of these wonderful statements. Ephesians 5, 18. Do not be filled with wine, which is dissipation. But he says to be filled with the Spirit.

That’s the point that I’m making in this lesson. Are you living and longing for that which is short-lived, maybe satisfying for a moment, but then it’s gone, it’s done, it’s over. Or are you more greatly emphasizing in your life lasting and ultimate things? Don’t be filled with wine, which is dissipation or riot. Be filled with the Spirit.

Maybe it’s the numbness that comes with that. The way to deal with life’s anxieties, the numbness to life’s cares, the laughter associated with it, the partying that people are attracted to. A great comment was made about how the commercials for drinking alcohol don’t emphasize the results oftentimes, but they emphasize the fun. The cool people, this is what they do. Everybody parties. That’s what if you want to belong, that’s what you do. But it’s not without its cost. Sobriety forfeited, riot commences, others potentially hurt, the resulting hangover, physical consequences. It’s also very temporary. Dissipation, we don’t even know what that word means. But it’s not a good thing. Dissipation, it’s riot, it’s profligacy, if I can even say that word. It’s excess. It’s not a good thing.

And thus we are not to run with those to the same excess of riot. The same word is used in 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 4. It’s also found in Titus 1 and verse 6. The child of an elder should not be one accused of this kind of riotous behavior. And so it is oh so temporary. Not unlike the sexual fleeing and the gratification that comes from any type of immorality in that regard. It’s oh so temporary. Once the experience is done, we deal with the wake of the results, and the satisfaction dissipates. Always. Always, without exception. It may be repeated again and again, but it still dissipates. And often satisfies less and less as time goes on. And you may even find yourself an addict to its clutches, under its control, and destructive domination.

Instead, we are called upon to pursue that which really fills a person. Lasting benefits that come to our character and betters not only our lives, but also the lives of others. Be filled with the Spirit. That’s what he’s talking about. It spills over too beyond this physical life into eternity. When I read this passage in Ephesians 5, where it says, be filled with the Spirit, I’m mindful of a lot of other passages that talk about being filled. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, that they’ll be full. That they’ll be satisfied. You see, this approach to life where we disregard spiritual life and say, God, I don’t know that’s really for me. I sort of want to do my own thing. There are pleasures to be had out of here out here.

There are satisfactions that come from this partying atmosphere that the Bible seems to be against. I think a little bit of that okay is okay. It’s good for me. It doesn’t fill you. That’s what Ephesians 5.18 is saying. There’s no filling there. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled, or they shall be satisfied. We saw it in Ephesians, in Ephesians 3. When Paul in his prayer talked about knowing the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge, and to try to understand what is the length and the breadth and the height and the depth of the love of God. And then he says, that pursuit, you know what it does? It fills up a person. Fills up to the fullness of God.

I was telling Jared another theme he probably could run in the future in the book of Ephesians, the idea of being filled up. The fullness of God fills the person. That’s what spiritual pursuit does. Again, the tentacles of this reach into eternity. The best way I know to illustrate this is Thanksgiving. You eat that meal. The turkey.

But Sherry saved my life. And we eat all that, the bread, all the stuff that goes with Thanksgiving, and we sit down on the couch and we become blobs. And if you’re like Ed, who’s not here today, but I’ll pick on him anyway. You go into a sugar coma. You eat pecan pie until you’re silly, and then you take a blood test the next day, and they think you’re dying. But you know that feeling. You’re so full. It feels so good. Everybody takes a nap, watches football, it sort of goes together. And you know the next day, you’re going to eat again. Now, maybe you might not be as excited about eating as you were the day before, but you’re gonna eat again. If you don’t eat Friday, Saturday, you’re gonna be eaten.

Because it doesn’t last. You don’t get full forever. I long for the day that I will always be full. And that’s the promise to the Christian. As David said, and this is what he’s saying in Psalm 23 and verse 1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Only God can fill. In his presence is fullness of joy. And his right hand are pleasures forever. My God, Paul says, shall richly supply all your needs in Christ Jesus. Look, the point of this lesson. I love it when I can just give you one thing and say you’ve got to get this. The point of this is what? Value spiritual life even above physical life. As important as physical life is, and people don’t have a regard for it anymore, and we can obliterate babies in our culture.

3. Securing Your Future

And have the government sanctioned for doing it. And the Supreme Court sanction. As much as people do not appreciate God given God created life, even more than our appreciation of that, we need to appreciate spiritual life and cling to it more than physical life. Because it’s more important. And so I want to talk to you finally about securing your future.

About the same time I heard about the news story in Duncan, Oklahoma, there was a following story on CNN about Los Alamos. No, not that one in San Antonio. But the one in New Mexico. Los Alamos is Area 41. It is a place owned by our government that is involved in our security as a nation. And recently, because it’s been declassified, there was revealed this 230 foot tunnel that goes in Los Alamos into the canyon. And inside, after this 230-foot tunnel, there is this bank vault opening, and there are five chambers inside, each having a bank vault opening for nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons testing and all that was going on in the late 40s, 50s, and even up until now. And this was about the security of our nation.

Think about all the plans that are in place to secure the president of the United States in a time of war. And our government officials. Think about how we like to secure our heritage. We have time capsules. We put things in storage for future generations so that they’ll know something about the generations that preceded them. And we want to secure our place in history. Our security is so important to us, our national security, our personal security, our financial security. You got a 401k. Or some kind of retirement planning, social security. I trust in Social Security. Well, good luck with that. That might work. But we’re so concerned about our financial security and planning for the future. But listen, how secure is all of that really. I think we’ve all come to the realization that might not be very secure.

But what about a more important security? Have you given thought and attention to a secure eternity? Before I get to that point on the screen. Our salvation is ultimately going to be determined by the mercy of God. I think that’s an important point to make. The story of the Pharisee and the publican. The publican was unwilling to lift his eyes up into heaven and says, God be merciful to me, the sinner. And that’s the man who went to his house justified. We are saved not on the basis of deeds that we have done in righteousness, because we could never merit or earn salvation and place God in our debt, but according to his mercy. On the basis of his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.

Yes, we have things that we have to do in order to embrace God’s salvation, but the basis of us even receiving it is the mercy of God. It’s according to his great mercy that he has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. 2 Peter 1 and verse 3, and we can be partakers of the divine image. 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 4. And then Paul prays for the household of Onociferis that they might find mercy on that day. Despite his diligent and sacrificial service, he prays that he and his family might find mercy. So, how is it then that we are going to find mercy on the last day, and we’re going to step humbly before the throne of God and have the full expectation that God will extend his mercy to us?

That’s what it’s going to take. I’m not going to be able to stand before God and say, Hey, remember? Remember those 3,000 sermons I preached. Remember those people that I baptized, the Bible studies that I had? You’ve got to let me in, right? That’s not the way this works. I stand before the throne of God, and no matter how much I’ve done, no matter how much Bible I know. I will appeal to the mercy of God for my salvation.

And we can have a confident expectation as his people, that he’s going to give it to us. And this way, an eternal entrance into the kingdom of our Lord shall be abundantly supplied to you, Peter promised in 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 11. Who is that for? Who are the people that are going to receive his mercy? It is those who have been diligent to make certain about his calling and choosing you. The previous verse says, 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 10. And what that means is that I’m going to do all that I can to demonstrate that I’m the call of God, that I am one of his chosen, that I am loyal to him, that I am his servant. And that’s the person earlier in the context who’s adding certain qualities to his or her faith and doing so diligently.

Knowledge and self-control and brotherly kindness and love. All of those things, patience, all of those things that we read about virtue, moral excellence, all those things in 2 Peter chapter 1. I’m pursuing those things with diligence because I want to make certain of his calling and choosing me. I’m going to demonstrate, yes, I belong to him. I’m his servant. Now I know my efforts are going to fall short, and it’s by the mercy of God that I’m safe. But as I go all out in this pursuit, God says, I’m opening the doors of heaven for you by his mercy. I love 2 Peter 1, 10 and 11. Now, how do I make certain about that? Worship’s a big part of that. Corporate worship, personal worship, constant prayer is a part of that.

Striving against sin is a part of that. And we have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood, the Hebrew writer says in Hebrews 12 and verse 4. We have to strive against sin. We perfect holiness in the fear of God. 2 Corinthians 7 and verse 1. Holiness in our thinking and behavior is a part of that. My commitment to pursuing righteousness, what is right in every area of my life is a part of that. But what does that mean? We talk about pursuing righteousness. I don’t know if people get it. What does that mean practically in my life? It means some hard things. It means things like pursue the best for others. Even if they don’t reciprocate. It means I pray for them and serve them and bless them.

Even if they hate me. It means I thank God for blessings. Even when I’m in pain. It means I serve him even when I’m tired. And the flesh is saying, no, I don’t want to. That’s really Romans chapter 12. I’m not going to take the whole time to read that text this morning, but it’s giving us some very practical things about what it means to be risen up in Christ to be justified by faith. What does that look like in your life? Well, it’s about being a living sacrifice. That’s where he starts in Romans 12 and verse 1. It’s about not being conformed to the world but being transformed. It’s about being devoted to prayer, as I mentioned a moment ago. It’s about weeping with those who weep and rejoicing with those who rejoice.

It’s about not being disposed to taking personal vengeance, but overcoming evil with good. It’s about practicing hospitality and serving diligently and being fervent in spirit. That’s how the person who’s justified in faith, who realizes what the mercy of God has done in their life, that’s what you pursue with all of your being. And I’ll tell you, we need to digest this. We need to think long and hard about this. What does it mean in my life?

You know, you don’t just read Romans 12. Oh, I get it, I’m done. I understand what he’s saying. There is a far cry from understanding what is said there and doing it. And pursuing it. And making it a part of your character. Bible study is a wonderful thing. I would never diminish it.

But I wonder.

Is it becoming an end in and of itself? Bible study. Check. That’s what God wants. Bible step.

It will never serve as a substitute for right attitudes. Never. I can be in a million Bible studies. But if those Bible studies do not change the way I think and my attitudes toward God and toward others and my behavior toward them. They’re doing me very little good. And that’s why Peter summarizes in 1 Peter chapter 3. In 1 Peter chapter 3, verses 8 and 9 to sum up. Okay, what have I been trying to tell you about being holy as God is holy, about being his priests or servants, as he said in chapter 2. Let me sum up all of this. He says, let all be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kind hearted, humble in spirit. Not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead.

Those are the kinds of things I was talking about over here. But giving a blessing instead. For you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing. That, my friends, is how you truly secure your future. I don’t know what my retirement’s going to look like. I’ve got to tell you, it’s not looking real good. I think I’m going to try to preach somewhere until I just keel over. I don’t know about my financial security. But I’ll tell you what’s more important. And that’s my spiritual security. Pursuing a life that says to God, I’m trying to be your person. Because you’ve been merciful with me. And I want us receive your mercy on the last day. And that’s what this is all about today.

Conclusion

Are you making your calling and election sure? Are you making certain of God’s calling and choosing you? Have you even responded to the call? Look, your life, as important as it is, as wonderful as your physical casing is, that’s not what God made you to be about. He made you to be about godliness. It has profit of the life that now is in the life that is to come. Are you giving sufficient attention to the needs of your soul? Have you secured your future?

If there’s someone in this audience who needs to obey the gospel to the saving of your soul, we bid you respond to the invitation song. Let’s stand and sing.