Some Things We Cannot Escape (#2)

Introduction

Sometimes I’m just overwhelmed by what an awesome privilege it is to be able to do this to be able to preach God’s message and to be with you, his people. I want to begin this morning in a text that is not very difficult to comprehend. They are simple thoughts, perhaps memorable ones. You may know this text already, but I don’t know of anything or any section of verses that could be more relevant to your life and to mine. Ephesians 5, verse 15 beginning. Therefore, be careful how you walk. Not as unwise men, but as wise. Making the most of your time, redeeming the time. King James Version says.

But understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation. But be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in songs and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord, always giving things. For all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father. And the sentence really continues into verse 21, a thematic statement for this section, and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. You know, so many folks are clueless to the meaning of life. If you understand Ephesians chapter 5 and its relevance to your circumstances, you have certainly taken one large step toward the real meaning of life. What is the meaning of life?

I announced somewhat cryptically that the sermon this morning is entitled, Some Things We Cannot Escape, Number Two. And you’re going, you know, I think I’ve been here several weeks in a row, and I don’t remember number one. How can you have a sequel if you haven’t heard lesson number one? Well, that’s part of my introduction. In some ways, you need to be glad that you did not hear number one, because it was the very first sermon that I ever preached. June 6th, 1982. There were no slides. PowerPoint had not been invented yet. But hey, we did have electricity and running water and color television. I got the sermon idea, as a lot of times you do when you’re preaching a sermon, I remember the fear and trepidation.

I had given an invitation before, but never a whole sermon. The first time. What am I going to say for 25 to 30 minutes? It’s amazing how quickly the time passes now. But I remember the fear and trepidation, and I got the sermon idea from my good friend Tommy Feeler. He said, Hey, well, how about preach this? Some things that we cannot escape. And there were elementary points, but important points.

Sean realized where I was going with that. Some things we cannot escape, responsibility to God’s law, influence, death, judgment, and eternal existence. Oh, the lesson was fine. Certainly helpful, I’m sure, to those who were sobered by such thoughts. But as many of the first sermons that I preach, from 1982 to about at least 1990, I don’t preach any of those sermons anymore. I look back at them and I just really appreciate the patience of the brethren. And wonder exactly what I was doing. I did not know what I was doing. I’ll probably look back at my 50s one day saying the same thing. But the points were valid and true. And the introduction of the lesson talked about the fact that people are looking for relief.

I think a lot of people in our time, we want relief, and that’s why we turn to the things that we turn to in life. I mean, we want relief from labor. Those 40-hour work weeks, those tests, examinations in school, trials, pain, pressures, responsibility, discouragement, depression, loneliness. There are all kinds of negative things in our lives that we’re looking to get away from and escape in some way. Like this little picture I found. Stress management. How are we going to deal with stress? Here’s about 10 suggestions. I sort of like the idea of being on that little island to deal with some of the stress of life, especially not in a hurricane, but beautiful sunshine like that. But there are moral and immoral approaches or options to dealing with the stress of life in an attempt to find relief.

1. You Cannot Escape the Reason You Live

We need to be careful how we want. That we do not turn to immoral things to find our relief. Some people turn to the dissolution of a marriage, divorce, immorality, lust, fornication, adultery, drinking, as the wise writer here in Ephesians 5 tells us, do not resort to that. Do not get drunk with wine. Even some go so far as to take their own lives in looking for an escape from the things that trouble them. Well, I want to go back to this original lesson, some things that we cannot escape. And I want to package it a little bit differently. Instead of five points, there are three. And I want to preach it in this fashion this morning. Number one, some things we cannot escape. You cannot escape in any way whatsoever the reason you live.

The reason you exist. Now you may want to invent and manufacture your own reason for living. As people answer the question, why am I here? And what is the meaning of life? You may want to put together your own recipe or diagram as to why you are here. But look, the real reason you are here. You cannot escape that. It is forever with you. And you may not like it, you should, but you may not like it. You may wish that it would go away, or that you can change or manipulate it in some way, but you cannot escape the reason for your existence. And here’s how people attempt to avoid reality here. Maybe I’m just the product of chance. We turn to evolutionary thought. Maybe God is not real.

He’s not really there. Listen, God is. And God is sovereign. I’m really excited about tonight’s lesson. You may not be as excited about it as I am, but I’m excited about it. God is sovereign. And we’ll talk more about that tonight. And we can’t make that make him go away. But some will go down that route. Maybe we’re the product of evolution because those theories certainly sound so plausible and so scholarly. But I want you to think about that for a second. There’s some problems with the view. If you go down that path that there’s no such thing as God. Some of the problems with that involve the utter futility of such a course in life. What is your life ultimately mean? The absence of any real moral guidelines.

I mean, if we’re going to throw out God, we’re going to throw out his book and any standard of holiness and goodness, well, that’s up for you to decide what is best for you. And what about the evidence that suggests otherwise? And the fact that you’re denying any possibility that the Bible is true, and I want to affirm to you that the Bible is true. Look at its historical accuracy. As we’ve been studying in our adult auditorium class in the last quarter. It’s inerrancy and harmony, the fulfillment of prophecy that validate its claims, and the extraordinary claims that it makes to be from God, validated with miracles and the aforementioned fulfilled prophecy, and the claims of Jesus Himself to be our creator, to say such things as I am the way, the truth, and the life.

Unbelievable. Who else can make such a claim but the Son of God? I am the light of the world. I am living water. I am the door. I love all of those I am statements in John. And look at the impact and the endurance of this message. Look at its impact upon thousands of lives. And the betterment of those lives. And its endurance down to this time, just as this book promises, heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away. Matthew chapter 24 and verse 35. The Bible is reliable.

Some will who reject the Bible. Well, let’s look for just strictly humanitarian goals. I’m going to be basically a good person, whatever that means. But remember, there’s no concrete promise of reward. This is merely an earthbound investment. There’s still no enduring answer. Yes, the gospel calls us to be humanitarian, to care about others, but only as they are the objects of God’s creation, and we are in service to God and one another. And that would take us to Ephesians 5 21 to some degree. Subject yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ. When people try to avoid their responsibility to God, they are running from the very thing that they need the most. Do you believe that?

I mention my favorite verse in the Bible all the time, Psalm 16 and verse 11. Thou wilt make known to me the path of life. That’s the meaning of life right there. That’s what God reveals. That’s what God chose. And again, we’ve got to learn to appreciate the wisdom of that, young people. I think that’s one of the challenges that our young people face is coming to the conclusion that the paths of life are revealed by God. And I need to trust what he has revealed as the path of life. And in his presence is fullness of joy. There are all kinds of places to search for that and look for that. But you’re only going to find it in God’s presence. That’s the only place that it is found.

Everything else will leave you lacking. Remember what we said about the person in Bible class this morning who perseveres through trial, he will be perfect, lacking in nothing. He will be complete. He will be totally sound as a person lacking in nothing. In his presence is fullness of joy, and in his right hand, well.

At his right hand are pleasures forever. When I was preaching in Fort Worth two weeks ago, I was talking about my favorite verse. I don’t know that I ever do a meeting that I don’t talk about Psalm 16 11. And I said, you know, I’ve looked through your directory, and nobody else had Psalm 16 11 as their favorite verse. I don’t get it. I don’t get it. But I said, you know, scriptures hit people in a different way. And that’s why we all have our favorite. I think one time at our house in a group meeting, we went around, everybody talked about their favorite verse, and nobody had to say it. But I’ll tell you, I love 1611 because that’s what people want. They want to know the meaning of life.

They want to know where fullness of joy and pleasures forever are to be found. And that verse tells us exactly where they are. The problem is a lot of people don’t like that answer. But they should, and they would if they were wise, like Ephesians chapter 5 talks about. Why do I have Job 37, 22? People want to know what heaven’s going to look like. I don’t have all the answers for that. I talked to you just last week about the new heavens and new earth. That’s what heaven is likened to, where righteousness dwells. I want to tell you, it’s going to be spectacular. But I know it’s going to be spectacular because that’s where God is. Out of the north, Elihu says, out of the north comes golden splendor.

And around God is awesome majesty. Two words, but boy, my mind just run wild there. Awesome majesty. That’s the presence of God. We have an inheritance which is incorruptible and undefiled. Everything around here gets corrupted and defiled. Everything. Every time I buy a new car, a few times in my life, I’ve been fortunate enough to do that. It doesn’t take three months. And somebody takes it upon themselves to swing their door open really hard. Ding. Oh, but don’t worry. Don’t worry. I have, I have a policy for that. I bought it from Kiev when we bought our car. All dents and dings for 100,000 miles, completely covered. So I call the guy up and he comes out and you go, No, I can’t fix that one.

It’s right above the wheel well. Big old dent in it. Oh, can’t fix that. And so it doesn’t matter what you have. Everything corrupts here. It’s defiled. Haven’t you seen that and witnessed that? But what we have in the future for us is an inheritance which is incorruptible. Only, I’ve tossed this out to you before. The only things that are incorruptible in Scripture, you need to pay attention to that. They’re spiritual realities. God is incorruptible. 1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 17. His word is incorruptible. It is by his word that we’re born again. It’s incorruptible. It stands the test of time. Our bodies ultimately will be incorruptible. Won’t that be nice in 1 Corinthians 15? An incorruptible body awaits us. And we have an incorruptible hope.

Anheritance that is incorruptible and undefiled, and that will not fade away like everything else does, including ourselves. But it is reserved in heaven for us. Well, Tom Landry, the great football coach of the glory days of the Dallas Cowboys. He once said, I have a job to do that is not very complicated, but it is often difficult to get a group of men to do what they don’t want to do so that they can achieve the one thing that they have wanted all their lives. I think that’s really well said. That’s why he was such a good coach. And really, you know, that’s what preaching is like a lot of times. It’s to get people to do things really sometimes that they don’t really want to do, so that they can achieve the ultimate thing.

But God has promised. In Acts 17, Paul preaches to that city full of idols in Athens. And the point that he makes in this to this idolatrous people as he talks about and works from the inscription that says, to an unknown God, they didn’t want to leave anybody out. Let me tell you about the God you don’t know. He’s the God in whom you live and move and have your very being. I can’t tell you how many times I go to Acts 17. I love that text. He does not dwell in temples made with hands. In him we live and move and have our very being. He appoints the boundaries of our habitation. God is sovereign, as we’ll see tonight. That’s your introduction. Two inescapable conclusions flow out of this text.

Number one, that he is sovereign. We live in a world created and controlled by an unrivaled and awesome God who has a purpose for us. And two, all men are accountable unto righteousness. He has six today, in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained, even Jesus Christ, whom he furnished proof by raising him from the dead. Let me tell you. You were made to serve God. And to honor him, to worship him. We were tailor-made for this. And that’s the point of that familiar text where Jesus invites and says, Come unto me, all you who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Come, take my yoke upon you. Now, this yoke is not meant to burden us unnecessarily.

Like a yoke might the oxen who then has to plow. He would much rather be in the barn eating food. But he has to work. But that’s not the nature of Jesus’ yoke because he says, My yoke is easy, and my burden is light. I don’t think the Christian life is that easy. It has challenges and difficulties, but look, you were made for this purpose. You were tailor-made. That’s the idea of his yoke is easy. You were tailor-made for this. God knows us better than we know ourselves. I sometimes have to keep telling myself that.

He knows me better than I know me. He is eternally experienced. He knows what we often discount and struggle to believe, namely that righteousness is in our best interest presently and eternally. As he said in the law of Moses in Deuteronomy 6 and verse 24, it is for our good always and for our survival. I like what William James said. The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it. I like that. You cannot escape the reason for your existence. You can get older, and you can hit your twenties, and you can spread your wings, and you can say, I don’t need that religious stuff that my parents were trying to instill within me. I’m going to go my own way, and I’m going to do my own thing, and I’m going to test this world and the pleasures that it can afford.

That’s what Solomon was doing in Ecclesiastes chapter 2. But you can fly down that path in every possible direction, as much as your time and circumstances and finances will allow. You can run that course until you weary yourself in it, and you cannot get away. From the reason of your existence.

2. You Cannot Escape the Effect of Your Existence

Other people are affected by those decisions. We see that all the time in the news, don’t we? The guy who goes out and gets drunk because he’s looking for his escape on the weekend. And he gets on the highway going the wrong direction and hits people head on and kills them. We see it in something like that, don’t we? But it’s more than just that kind of tragedy. There are people that you come in contact with that your behavior either positively or negatively affects them. Are you contributing to the spiritual betterment of others? Or are you just assisting them in their spiritual decline? You see, when we’re called upon as the children of God to be light in the world. That’s about having a positive impact on the lives of others.

It doesn’t mean that everybody’s going to come to the light as a result, but you stand out as a beacon of what light could be, of the spiritual realities that you believe that exist. And I want to tell you, young people, that’s what happens. When other young people notice that you don’t use the language that they do.

Because we live under the reign of Jesus Christ. The way we dress is different, the way we talk is different. And I’ll tell you what that does. People may not like it, but it sends a message. There is a spiritual realm, and I believe in it. Jesus is the King, and I believe that. Or else I’d be like everybody else. And it hurts to be shunned because you’re different. Nobody likes exclusion. Boy, I just love it when people isolate me. And don’t want me to be a part of things. Nobody loves that. But you’re sending a very powerful message. So it’s well, I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to be the oddball. I don’t want to be different. That peculiar person of 1 Peter 2 9, again, the King James Version.

A peculiar person, the people for God’s own possession. You end up being peculiar. Because there’s only a handful of people percentage wise that actually belong to God. But when you do that, if you decide, I’m not going to be that peculiar person. You’re just contributing to that person’s continued spiritual decline. Not helping them to rise above the muck and mire of sin that controls and dominates them. Or perhaps you’re contributing to a family member’s spiritual demise by your failure to live right. Nobody goes to hell by themselves. Nobody. Oh, I know each person is responsible for his or her own decisions. But everybody influences somebody. And you cannot escape the power of your influence. In that passage in 1 Peter chapter 2, he goes on to talk about you had once not obtained mercy, but now you have obtained mercy.

3. You Cannot Escape the Culmination of Your Existence

And thus he says, Abstain from fleshly lust, which weighs war against the soul and keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, that they may observe your good deeds and glorify God in the day of visitation. It’s the example of Joshua in Joshua 24 when he said, as for me and my house, we are going to serve the Lord. Joshua knew that by taking that stand he could influence others. You cannot escape the effect of your existence. Nor, as point number three suggests, you cannot escape the culmination of your existence. You simply cannot escape where all of this is headed. God is not locked. Whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap. If you sow to the flesh, you will reap corruption. He that sows the spirit, as we’re doing this morning, he that sows of the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting.

And oh, how we’re rapidly moving that way. As was indicated to me yesterday when I hit the right old age of 51.

But it hit me harder, I think, yesterday. I’m old. 51. I mean, I don’t look at myself as being halfway to a hundred or more, and I don’t look a day over 45.

But people were saying things like, hey, congratulations. I mean 61. I think Wilson Adams or somebody throw out. 63. 63? Where’d you get that number? I don’t look 63. But Brian Patrick, who I got to know when I was in Auburn, says, I remember you saying when you came that you were 43 years old. But wow. How quickly I’ve gone from being a young whippersnapper of 43 to this old man who only looks 45 who’s 51.

Conclusion

Listen. We grow old so rapidly. And as I’ve told you many times, we are closer to the end than we’ve ever been. And you can’t escape it. Our trouble is what I call the Martha. No, not Martha Banning. The Martha syndrome in Luke chapter 10. Look at this briefly. We’ll be done this morning. Luke chapter 10. These things we cannot escape. The reason for our existence, the effect of our existence, the culmination of our existence. The reason why they escape our notice is because of the Martha syndrome. Martha welcomed Jesus into her home, and she had a sister called Mary. And they were a lot closer to Jesus than many of these texts lead us to believe, it seems. And she had a sister called Mary, who, moreover, was listening to the Lord’s word, seated at his feet.

But Martha was distracted with all her preparations, and she came up to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? And I get it. I get it. Serving people, hospitality requires an expenditure of effort, and she was just trying to be hospitable, and here Mary’s not helping her a lick. She was getting a little irritated, I’m sure. Tell her to help me. I like that. You’re the one in authority here. She at least appreciated that. Tell her to help me. And I bet she never expected this reply. And whenever Jesus repeats your name twice, you really need to listen. Martha. How many times, Martha Banning, have you heard that? Martha. You are worried and bothered about so many things.

That is our problem. There are so many things that distract us and bother us, and we get so focused on all of those that we miss the big picture, as we talked about last week. But look at this. Only a few things are necessary. Really, only one. And Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her. Don’t forget really, everything else is secondary. It’s not that hospitality didn’t matter, not that serving didn’t matter. But Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus and learning from him. We should never forget the one thing that is necessary. Because I’ll tell you what’s going to be taken away from you. Your youthful good looks. It’s going. Your physical health and the wellness of your body.

It’s gone. But the one thing that can’t be taken away from you is a soul that is in a right relationship with its creator. Not death, not life, not any power anywhere shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. You can’t escape these things. The things you cannot escape deserve your serious attention, consideration, and action. Saul of Tarsus understood that his life needed to go on a different track. When Ananias said to him, why do you care? There’s only one thing necessary right now, Saul of Tarsus. Why do you tarry? Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins. Calling on the name of the Lord.

How simple is the plan of salvation? This penitent man who realized he’s been kicking against the goads, he’s been opposed to God’s will, now wants to submit to the will of God. He wants to repent and turn from his evil ways and to become this instrument of life that he would become. But where it all started was compliance with that simple instruction. Be baptized and wash away your sins. Calling on the name of the Lord. Have you done that? The really one thing that’s necessary if sin is on your account. And if you’ve done that in times past, you know what being a Christian really is all about is that last phrase again. Calling on the name of the Lord. That’s what we do the rest of our lives.

Calling on who he is, on the basis of who he is, trusting in him, serving him, appealing to him because he is the Lord. And living our lives for him. If you’ve become distracted and need to make some kind of public acknowledgement or plea for help, we’re here to assist you in that also today. We sing a song of encouragement. Jesus is the loving shepherd. Won’t you respond while we stand and sing?