The Purpose To Life (Part 2)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ. Based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the

Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Welcome back to the radio station, WVNE. You can go to wvne .net, the program guide there, or you can go to nocompromiseradio .com,

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If you don't like John MacArthur, you don't want to come to our church. If you don't like high view of God, you don't want to come to our church.

If you like mysticism, you don't want to come to our church. If you like ecumenism that says, you know, they don't even have to be

Christian, let's just get along because we've got social ills to cure, then you won't like our church.

If you like N .T. Wright, you won't like our church. I could just keep going on and on.

Who could I offend today? Who could I just kind of broad brush? Who could I just kind of backhandedly say something about?

Well, that's not what I'm trying to do. I'm just trying to give you an idea, speaking for the negative so you know what the positive is.

If you like Al Mohler, then you'll like our church. If you like lyrics, songs that are driven by lyrics that are

God -honoring versus bass guitar to make you feel the Holy Spirit, then you'll probably like our church.

But if you've got a church, I want you to stay at that church and support the ministry there locally.

But if you don't have a church, you need to get one. If you're one of these folks, I guess I should do a show on this sometime under the illusion that you can do some home church, that all these churches now are bad and it's a heresy to pay the pastors and you don't want to pay for the building and we just need to have our home church with a bunch of homeschoolers, with a bunch of homebodies and homes, home cooking, then you need to get to a church where you can have fellowship with the saints.

Saints that don't look like you, saints that maybe don't act like you or talk like you. Even with Votie Bachem and his view of family of families, church,

I don't think that's right either. So, there you go. Equal opportunity comments today.

Ecclesiastes. We talked in depth last time about the futility that life brings.

God has set it up such a way that life brings futility when lived the wrong way.

It's built into the system. It's like gravity. It's like taking your finger and putting on hot burning coals.

It's like going up to space and taking the space suit off.

There are just causes and effects in life. One of the causes to the social ills that we have today, the cause, which leads to despair and futility and isolation and boredom and suicide and a desire for medication, a desire for mental escape and retreat, certainly not anything wrong with rest and Sabbath and holidays and vacations, but people who have an extraordinarily high desire for escapism because they can't deal with life, it's because they've been living life the wrong way.

And so, the right way is with a focus upon Christ Jesus the

King and believing God and taking God at His word that Jesus is the

God -man. Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus existed before Abraham and all the truth claims of Scripture.

And then you see life that you have, not something that's deserved because you realize that you're a wretched, foul, vile sinner who's been graced by God.

And you see that life is a gift. And then you have a sweet life, a full life, even with trials, even with suffering, even with temptation, even with issues, even with old age, even with difficulty, even with sin, you'd have a rich life.

Wouldn't you want that? I mean, if I was selling something, I used to be in sales and I sold medical operating room lasers.

I wanted to believe in my product. I wanted to be able to say, even when I wasn't a Christian, I wanted to say, this is helping people and I really think this is a good product.

And I actually believed it and it was actually true. How about telling people? The reason why you're experiencing futility and frustration, boredom and loneliness and all the other ills that you have is because you're kicking against the goads of God.

This is how God has set it up. So when you feel this kind of pain and angst and turmoil and grind your teeth, night, you can't sleep because God's trying to get your attention so that you'll turn, repent, think differently, change your mind, and take

God at His word for what He says and about what He says regarding the incarnate

Son of God, the eternal Son of God who cloaked Himself with humanity and lived a real life in Jerusalem and around its environs 2 ,000 years ago.

So if you're one of these people today that you are frustrated in life, well then

I want to help you with the book of Ecclesiastes, a very wise book, something called Wisdom Literature.

And if you are living a life of riches and fullness, spiritual riches, you have an abundant life and you just think to yourself, you know,

God has blessed me in an abundant way, an extraordinary way, and I realize what I deserved and what

I have now and how He elected me before eternity passed and His Son died for me, and He's given me new life,

He's caused me to be born again, He's called me to Himself, He beckoned me and He gave me new life and I was able to follow and I believe that Jesus is the

God -man and I want to live a life that pleases Him. You're going to have a full life, a rich life, a purpose -filled life, what's the purpose in life?

And if the purpose is self, there's a lot of trouble and there is a lot of troubled people out there today who just won't get this and society doesn't help them because of their promotion of immorality, their promotion of evolution, their promotion of whatever it is.

When you have God dead in society, the death of God, it shows up, it's inevitable.

There is a vacuum that must be filled and so, first thing I want you to do is see life as a gift from God.

Even if you're an unbeliever today, you should say to yourself, God that made the sun and the moon and the stars made me,

I have taste buds, I have a wife and kids and I can see pretty sights in Niagara Falls and the mountains and the fall foliage in New England and I'm not very thankful for that,

I'm not thankful unto God. Oh yeah, I say thanks God once in a while but I don't honor the sun.

Well friends, it's time for you to repent and you need to see life as God's gracious, generous gift and look at things from that perspective.

The second thing that needs to happen is this, or I could ask it in the form of a question. Do you think that God is sovereign over everything, embracing

God's total sovereignty? If chapter 1 and 2 sees life as a gift from God, chapters 3, 4, and 5 says in Ecclesiastes through Solomon, inspired by the

Holy Spirit himself, God's sovereign over everything. This helps us because it doesn't seem like, if we just walked by sight and not by faith, it doesn't seem like God's sovereign over everything.

We've got cancer, there's rape, there's molestation, there's murder, there's nuclear bombs, there's war, there's striving, there's envy, there's all kinds of things out there.

How could God be sovereign over all that? What about the president's plan? What about Iran?

What about nuclear bombs? What about salmonella and the eggs? I mean, you could just have a thousand things, but you need to realize that God has a plan.

And even though it might not look like it, we aren't like other people who walk by sight and not by faith. We walk by faith and not by sight.

That is a biblical prescription. That goes back to Habakkuk. That goes back to Romans. Habakkuk 2.

Romans. The just shall live by what? Sight.

No, faith. And so God has a plan, and God's plan covers everything.

And God is no deist in winding things up and just letting them go. God has a plan, an overarching plan, and it takes care of everything.

There's a reality that God has, and that is He gives life's order of events.

He orders life. He has a decree. He has a fixed time for everything that happens in this world.

And no matter what happens, with man's scheming and nation's striving and summits and get -togethers and talks,

God's sovereign hand works itself out. Now, if you were going to try to say God's sovereign in the

New Testament, you might say, God causes all things to work together for good to those that love Him and are called according to His purpose.

Romans 8 .28. But if you were writing wisdom literature, and you're writing poetic wisdom literature, that doesn't sound so poetic.

It's true. I like it. I'm more of a didactic person myself anyway.

That's just how I'm wired. But good poetry is good. And here, poetically,

Solomon describes the sovereignty of God. And you could quickly think of a bird's song, if you will, as well.

But there's an appointed time for everything. Everything! There's a time for every event under heaven.

A time to give birth and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted. A time to kill, a time to heal.

A time to tear down, a time to build up. A time to weep, a time to laugh. A time to mourn, a time to dance.

All those things. And he goes on. There's a time, there's a time. I think I counted one time.

28 times the word time is used. Every little thing, God has decreed.

And he, in chapter 3, verse 11 says, of God, Solomon says,

He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their hearts, yet so that man will not find out the work which

God has done from the beginning even to the end. God has made everything appropriate, beautiful, in his time.

He makes all things beautiful in his time. In his time, in his time.

I wish I could sing better, because I'd probably use my radio show to sing. And I could be kind of like, you know, it'd be some kind of American idol.

It would be a Viennese idol, and I could just sing and do things. And Steve could be

Simon, and I could be the singer. But since I can't sing well, then that's life.

But I still sing. God gave me a voice, and I want to sing his praises. And so here, God is sovereign.

And it helps to remember that, because if you don't remember that, theologically, through God's revelation, through his special revelation, you're going to look at life and say, it's chaos, it's anarchy, it's all backwards, how can this fit in?

I don't believe it. And when you think that way, it gives you angst, and it gives you frustration. You need to say, in spite of what's going on,

God is sovereign. In spite of my own sight, God is sovereign. Peter sees

Jesus transfigured on the mountain of transfiguration. He says, there's something that I can trust more than that, in my own eyesight.

Jesus hears God the Father. This is my beloved Son, in whom I'm well pleased, on the mountain of transfiguration. And he says, there's something

I can trust more than my actual ear, what my ears heard, in decibels.

It's the Word of God. And so whether it's wickedness, whether it's death, God is sovereign over everything.

And you really need to make sure you understand that. You need to make sure that you just don't run into the house of God and ask him all these questions.

God, you owe me this answer. God, you owe me that answer. Ecclesiastes 5, guard your steps as you go to the house of God and draw near to listen, rather than to run your mouth.

Well, that's not what it says. Near to listen, rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools.

That is running your mouth. For they do not know they are doing evil. Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God.

For God is in the heaven. You are on the earth. Therefore, let your words be few.

So Solomon says, even though the world looks wrong, it looks wrong side up, looks backwards, spiraling out of control, there's all kinds of things that are really evil, really wicked.

We're not talking Christian science, Mary Baker, Eddie Glover, Patterson Fry. It's an illusion of sin, an illusion of wickedness, an illusion of death.

These things are really bad. Yet, God reigns. Yet, God's purposes are being out.

Yet, God can take sin, the sin, the sin of Christ Jesus being crucified, and ordain it and be sovereign over it and appoint it and men still be responsible.

And God takes their evil and turns it into good. God takes their sin, shows his glory in the middle of it.

And so that's what we've got to remember. In spite of what's going on, God is sovereign.

And I ought to just say, God, thank you for being sovereign, a lot more than how can you be sovereign, God? How can you do this?

How can you do that? How can you let this party be in the White House? How can you let that party be out of the White House? How can you let all these other things happen?

No, we'd better be careful when it comes to the sovereignty of God. Better realize that God is sovereign over these things, and we've got to think properly.

I know one thing for sure about me, and I think it's true about you. You can't understand all of God's plans.

Or let's make it more theologically correct. You can't understand all of God's plan. The purpose of God, the decree of God, the plan of God is singular.

No flowcharts involved, no ABCs, no if -then, what -ifs. What if this happens?

What about that circumstance? No, it's just one eternal decree.

And we just have to say, God, we know you're in control. We know we should fear you with reverence and trust

Christ Jesus. We entrusted our soul to him at salvation, and so we're going to trust everything else.

And we cannot understand everything that you're doing. Or you will do, but we trust your word.

We take you at your word. That's the heart of unbelief, isn't it? It says, you know,

I'm not going to take you at your word, God. I don't believe you. Show me more. Prove it.

That's not what we want to do. That's going to yield angst. That's going to be the exact opposite of Ecclesiastes.

The third question I have for you when it comes to life in general, Mike Abendroth of No Compromise Radio Ministry.

If you like the show, write us, info at nocompromiseradio .com.

If you hate the show, write us, info at nocompromiseradio .com.

If you've got a question, we answer a lot of questions, theological questions, write us, info at nocompromiseradio .com.

Josh has done a lot of the question answering over the last year, and now we have Tim. And Tim Bosland's going to be answering the questions, and so then he writes up the questions, the answers rather, and then he sends them to me, and if they're really good,

I put my name on it and erase his. No, he can say, Tim Bosland for No Compromise Radio Ministry, and he has my full stamp of authority.

So much so that I'm going to give him a percent of my salary that I earn here at No Compromise Radio.

I'll give him 25 % of what I take home on a monthly basis. 25 % of zero is, let me see, get that calculator out.

Zero. Tim, I'll give you a raise. Fuck that. Why am

I tired? I think I'm tired because it's 10 to 7. Oh, and it's pouring rain outside, and it's icky outside.

Well, it's not. It's probably 10 to 4. It's sunny right now when you're listening to this show, sometime in September, but right now when

I'm taping this show, it's in August, and it's not supposed to be this way. In August, cold and rainy and icky.

Is that a theological word, icky? What else should you do when you think of life, and you're frustrated and you're bored, or you don't want to be frustrated and bored, and you'd like to have some preventative maintenance, and you say,

God gives good gifts, and my life is a gift from him, and I'm going to please the

Lord, and God is sovereign, and I'm just going to trust those things, even when life hurts, as Jerry Bridges would say.

The third question I have for you, in between my yawning, is this.

Do you have an eternal perspective? Do you have an eternal perspective? Because you've got to employ that eternal perspective.

You've got to look farther out than just this world. Terminating in this world and not any farther, it's going to cause you frustrations, because in chapter 7 of Ecclesiastes, it's hard to know the mysteries of life.

It's hard to try to figure out the mysteries of life now, and it just gives you frustration and kind of robs you of joy.

Ecclesiastes 7 .10, do not say, why is it that the former days were better than these? It is not from wisdom that you ask about this.

Consider the work of God, for who is able to straighten out what he has bent? In the days of prosperity, be happy, but in the day of adversity, consider.

God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not discover anything that will be after him.

So what do you do? You say to yourself, if you're a Christian, I'm going to know the mysteries of God, many of them that are not revealed now, later.

I'm going to get to heaven, and I'm going to have the mind of Christ, and I'm going to say, I get it now. You'll still be learning about God in heaven, because you'll still be finite, and he'll be infinite, and that will be the great glory of heaven, along with many other things.

But just always learning, and always coming to the knowledge of the truth in heaven, not forgetting anything, not learning anything wrongly.

But when you're on earth, and you just see this earth alone, and then it stops, after you die, that's it.

These mysteries that show up in chapters 7, 8, and 9, fixation upon the future on earth without looking towards eternity, just zap you of enjoyment.

It zaps you when you think, you know, evil people prosper. Evil people are getting the best of the deal.

So you think, you know what, no, I think there'll be a leveling. I think there'll be D -Day one day,

Judgment Day one day, and when there's that taken care of, and God's justice reigns, then

I'll just leave that to God, and I don't have to worry about it. I don't have to worry about doing all those kind of things.

So then, Solomon says the conclusion, when all has been heard, is fear

God and keep his commandments, because this applies to every person. So, let's go through what we do know, not what we don't know.

What about you? What about you? Do you see that life is full of futility, vanity, it's purposeless, it's meaningless?

Well, you can have purpose in life. You can have real purpose in life, and you can start by saying, you know,

God, this life that you give me, it's meant to be enjoyed as I see you have given it to me, and I ought not to think too far into the future without thinking to myself, there's an eternal future, and there's going to be a time of ultimate enjoyment, ultimate rest, and I'm going to not rob you of glory now, but I want to glorify you on earth today, and look at you as God, Howard Baker said, because man's existence is perforated with puzzles, the pieces of which he can never assemble.

His only recourse is to attain a posture of faith towards his life under the sun, and to live it to the hilt, knowing that someday the puzzle will be assembled by the one who created it, and who will judge every deed.

That's good advice for No Compromise radio listeners. That is great advice as we look to the book of Ecclesiastes.

So, my homework for you is to read the book of Ecclesiastes, but find enough time in the day that you can read it all the way through.

If you have to split it up into two, okay, split it up into two, but no more than that, and read the whole thing, and you're going to be reading wonderful things in there, just snippets of verses that are so good about God, just as you in Ecclesiastes 5 do not know the path of the wind and how bones are formed in the womb of the pregnant woman, so you do not know the activity of God who makes all things.

I mean, isn't that cool? Yeah, that's a theological word I just used. Isn't that cool? Isn't it neat?

Isn't it snazzy? You can realize that God is a sovereign king who, with great condescending love, gave clemency to the people that rebelled against him, and the clemency was

Jesus Christ. He was the one that made clemency for us by living a perfect life, by fulfilling what

Adam could not fulfill, and that is keeping the law, by dying for us, bearing our judgment so that we could be forgiven, and having a full remission of sins, and then having

God raise him from the dead. So, if you have a life struggle, if you're meeting with somebody, or you have a college student, high school student who's caught in postmodernism and all the jingoism that goes along with it, or doesn't go along with it, this is a great book, the book of Ecclesiastes.

If I was a college pastor, I would be teaching the book of Ecclesiastes so I could let people know there is truth, there is a

God, there is meaning to life, there is a purpose to life, there is a reason why you feel bad and bored and down and depressed and frustrated because you're supposed to when your eyes are not looking towards Jesus Christ.

So fix your eyes on Christ Jesus, the hope of all those who look to Him. ...or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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