Before you say to yourself, oh
no, not another religious broadcast cluttering up the airwaves, and
then turn the dial on your radio, before you reach the conclusion
that everything said on this broadcast will eventually lead
to an appeal for your money, will you not listen long enough
for me to demonstrate to you that by this broadcast we are
not seeking anything from you? Rather, this program is prepared,
sponsored, and aired in order to give something to you, something
of inestimable value. And what is it that I am prepared
to offer you today? Well, it is nothing less than
God's answers to life's most important questions. Would you
not agree with me that life's most important questions are
not found in such concerns as, who will be our next president?
What will happen to the stock market in the next five years?
Where will I live when I retire? Or who will win the Super Bowl
next year? Rather, the most important questions
in life find expression in such words as these. Who am I as a
human being? What should I live for? What
standards should govern my life? And what will happen to me when
I die? These, I say, are life's most
important questions. And it is just such questions
which I propose to answer from the scriptures on today's broadcast. Were I to give you my opinion
concerning these questions, I would be assuming the role of a philosopher. However, my opinions on these
issues are less than worthless, as are the opinions of all other
men. However, Almighty God has addressed
these very issues in His written word, the Bible, and it is from
the scriptures of the Old and the New Testaments that I would
derive our answers to these questions that really count. If we are
to know the answers to the questions, Who am I? Why am I here? What should I live for? and other
such concerns, we must begin where the Bible begins. That
is, we must begin with the recognition that as human beings, we are
God's unique creation. The Bible begins with the words,
In the beginning, God created. And then, later on in that first
chapter of Genesis, man is described as that creature who, above all
other creatures, and in distinction from every other creature, was
created in God's image and in God's likeness. We read in that
chapter that God said, Let us make man in our image and after
our likeness. And in the image of God he created
he, him, male and female, created he them. Now what does it mean
when it says that man was created in the image of God? Well, certainly
it means at least this much. that man, unlike the beasts,
even those with the highest mental capacities, man alone was made
with the capacity to know God. Man alone was made with the ability
to hold conscious and delightful communion with God. Man alone
was able to receive verbal instructions from God concerning God's will
for him as his creature. Man alone was made with a moral
obligation to obey God, and man alone was made with a real accountability
to God. We might imagine one of the cows
or the other beast of the field that God made accidentally kicking
over a bucket of feed that Adam might have set before it, but
surely such an act would have no moral significance. But when
God said to Adam, of all of the trees of the garden you may freely
eat, but of the tree that is in the midst of the garden you
shall not eat of it, for in the day that you eat thereof you
shall surely die. For Adam to do what God had forbidden
was to put himself in the posture of true guilt before the living
God. And so you and I can never begin
to answer life's most important questions until we come to accept
the reality that we are made in the image of God, that we
are made with a capacity to know God, to commune with God, to
receive verbal instructions from God, with an obligation to God,
and with valid accountability to the God who made us. Now we
live in a day when for approximately a hundred years we have been
told that man is simply the highest expression of brute forces exerted
upon matter over eons of time in the so-called evolutionary
process. that we eventually will rise
to higher and higher heights from our origins in some primeval
pool of slime. We are told that we are basically
nothing but cosmic dust blown together by time plus space plus
chance, and that we are accountable to nothing but our instincts
and our urges. But my friend, Your own conscience
will not let you really believe the lie of evolution. For stamped
upon your own consciousness as a creature made by God is the
knowledge that you are accountable to God. How else can you explain
the faculty of conscience, that little moral monitor within your
breast, who has a very limited vocabulary, who, when you contemplate
an action, says either right or wrong, who, after you have
performed an act or spoken a word or thought a thought, says right
or wrong. With our predisposition to love
our sin, surely we would never have implanted this moral monitor
within our own breast. We seek to do all within our
power to remove him. but his very presence is a monument
to the fact that we are creatures made in the image of God. Furthermore,
according to Romans chapter 1, When you and I look into the
microcosm of God's creative handiwork, or out into the macrocosm of
the vast heavens that He has made, these things that God has
created speak to us in language that we cannot misunderstand,
that there is a God, that this God has created all things, including
us. And we can only deny that by
doing what the Apostle Paul describes as putting down the knowledge
of God. And if you and I would begin
to find a solid, a substantial, a satisfying answer to the questions
in life that really count, We must begin by accepting the reality
that we have been created in the image of God. We are not
cosmic dust. We are not simply the emerging
and presently the highest expression of life on some mechanistic evolutionary
scale of being and existence. And it is when we accept the
reality of our being created in the likeness and image of
God, with true moral accountability to God, then and only then do
we have a framework within which to grapple with life's most burning
questions. But furthermore, We must not
only come to grips with the biblical teaching as to our identity as
creatures made in the image of God, if we would answer life's
ultimate questions, but we must also know that we are creatures
who have fallen from our original integrity. We are creatures in
whom the image of God has been greatly marred and twisted. Now let me ask you a very simple
question this morning. What would you call a man who,
in the pursuit of knowledge, destroyed his faculty of thinking? Who, in pursuit of seeing beautiful
things, put his own eyes out? What would you call a man who,
in the desire to hear lovely sounds, pierced his own eardrums? What would you call a man who,
in the pursuit of finding a higher and more meaningful life, killed
himself? I think you would call such a
person a fool. And that is exactly what you
and I have become. In our first father, Adam, in
seeking to see what God had forbidden, to know what God had forbidden,
to enjoy and experience what God had forbidden, man, the fool
that he is, has put out his own eyes, pierced his own eardrums,
and has killed himself. And you and I can never begin
to answer life's ultimate questions if we are not prepared to accept
the biblical teaching that as creatures made in the image of
God, we have, through sin, become alienated from God. We have become
spiritually deaf and blind and dead. But then the same Bible
that approaches these burning ultimate questions of who am
I, why am I here, what is the purpose in life by setting before
us the truth of our creation, the truth of our fallenness in
Adam and the reality of our sin. It is this Bible which affirms
to us and proclaims to us God's intention to intervene into the
human predicament and to rescue man from his sin. There in Genesis
chapter 3, the very chapter which records man's original sin, there
is a marvelous ray of light that breaks forth amidst the darkness
of human depravity. It is God who comes seeking man,
the creature. Adam and Eve are found hiding
among the trees of the garden. But God takes the initiative
and comes to them, saying, Adam, where are you? And as God begins
to deal with man, the sinner, He pronounces a curse upon man
and upon the earth for man's sake, and He clearly indicates
that His threat was no idle threat. In the day that you eat, you
shall die. But wonder of wonders, against
that dark backdrop of human sin and divine judgment upon sin,
God takes the initiative to announce that He is committed to intervene
in that very tragic scene of human sinfulness. And God says,
speaking both to man and to the devil who worked through the
serpent, I will put enmity, warfare, between the seed of the woman
and between the serpent and his seed, And then God gives this
initial gospel promise, and the promise is that the seed of the
woman would crush the head of the serpent, though in the process
the heel of the seed of the woman would be bruised by the seed
of the serpent. And that promise in Genesis 3
and verse 15 is the first ray of gospel light, and it breaks
out of all of the darkness and the heaviness of the account
of man's sin. And then throughout the Old Testament,
with ever-increasing precision, through the prophets, through
the types and shadows of all of the institutions of the Old
Testament tabernacle and temple and the priesthood and the offering
and the sacrifices, God is saying to man that, I will bring a Redeemer. I will bring one in whom the
whole problem of human sin will find resolution. I will bring
one who will be my anointed prophet to teach perfectly the way of
God. I will bring one who will be
my anointed priest to offer an acceptable sacrifice and to intercede
on behalf of all who trust him. I will bring an anointed king
who will destroy all of his and his people's enemies. The Scriptures
tell us that in the fullness of the times, God sent forth
His Son, made of a woman made under the law, that He might
redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive adoption
as sons. And this is the glory of the
message of the Gospel, that because Jesus Christ came, and Jesus
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, was buried
and was raised again from the dead on the third day according
to the Scriptures, ascended to the right hand of God the Father
Almighty, sent forth the Holy Spirit, you and I now can find
a resolution and a satisfactory answer to these ultimate questions
in life. Why am I here on this world that
God has made? Well, I am here that I might
come to know God, to serve God. What is my purpose in life? My
purpose is to glorify the God who made me and to enjoy Him
forever. How can I be prepared to die? The answer to these questions
is found in the glorious gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. It is for this very reason that
one of the names that is given to Jesus Christ in the New Testament
is this. He is called Christ the Wisdom
of God. And the scriptures tell us that
He is made by God to all who believe in Him, wisdom from God,
as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. It is in Jesus
Christ the wisdom of God that we find the answer to all of
these ultimate questions. They are not to be found by looking
into ourselves. This is the wretched teaching
of the so-called New Age philosophy and New Age religion and Eastern
meditation. The fundamental premise is the
answers lie within yourself. Get in touch with your deepest
inner self. But the Scripture says, no, we
must go out of ourselves to Him who is the objective revelation
of God, even to Jesus Christ who is the wisdom of God. And in Christ we find, yes, we
are sinners, we deserve the wrath of God, but we are not cosmic
dust. We are not cosmic junk. We are not merely the highest
expression of animal life. We are creatures worthy of one
coming and taking our place, taking upon himself a true human
soul and a true human body. And in the mystery of that union,
in the one person, our Lord Jesus Christ, God is demonstrating
that man is a unique creature with unique worth. And it is
for man that Christ died. It is for man that Christ was
raised from the dead. It is for man, in all of his
wretchedness and bondage and ignorance, in all of his blundering,
in his own self-imposed torture chamber of self-will and rebellion,
it is for man that Christ has come as the wisdom of God And
so as we contemplate these ultimate questions, these questions that
pertain to our identity, our purpose, our destiny, we must
consider God's call to have dealings with Him in terms of the person
and work of His own beloved Son. And in closing this morning,
I would focus your attention upon a very pivotal text of scripture
found in the book of Acts. In Acts chapter 20 and verse
21, the Apostle Paul is summarizing the substance of his preaching
among the Ephesians for a period of over three years. And these
are the words by which he summarizes what he preached. He says that
he testified both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God
and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul says
that the two pivots on which the main thrust of his message
turned were these repentance towards God and faith toward
our Lord Jesus Christ. Consider these in that order
for a few moments with me at this time. What did he mean when
he testified repentance towards God? Well, he meant that creatures
made in the image of God, made to know God, made to obey God,
made to have fellowship with God, But creatures who've turned
away from God, who've turned to their own way, who do not
desire the knowledge of God, communion with God, or obedience
to God, they must have a change of mind and heart. They must
turn away from everything that has caused them to turn away
from God. And in turning away from our
sin, our pride, our independence, our rebellion, turning away from
everything that has drawn us from the God who made us, and
turning back to this God with a full purpose to obey Him, to
honor Him, to glorify Him, to serve Him, to find in Him the
object of all of our heart's desire. This is repentance toward
God. And my friend, you can never
know for certain the answer to these ultimate questions in life,
so long as you seek to find that answer with your back turned
to the God who made you. You were never made to function
as a man or a woman, apart from face-to-face, submissive, love-bound
communion to the God who made you. And so if you would find
an answer to those questions, you must experience repentance
towards God. But then the Apostle said there
was a second pivot around which his preaching centered, and he
describes it in these words, faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. That is, he called upon men to
throw the weight of their guilty souls not upon an institution
not upon a ritual not upon a set of rules but upon a person. They literally upon. Our Lord Jesus Christ. The little Greek preposition
literally means to rest upon. If I were to set something upon
the table, that would be the preposition I would use. And
Paul said, I preach faith upon our Lord Jesus Christ. the resting of the soul in all
of its guilt, in all of its defilement, in all of its bondage, in all
of its ignorance, resting the whole weight of the whole soul
upon the whole Christ. He said that he preached faith
toward our Lord Jesus Christ. You must rest the weight of your
soul upon one who is the Lord, who is a sovereign seated upon
a throne. You must be willing to get out
of the God business and to have Jesus Christ as your Lord and
your Master. But he is called the Lord Jesus
Christ. And Jesus is that name given
to Him at the incarnation, which literally means Jehovah saves
or Jehovah is our salvation. That means in resting your soul
upon Christ as Jesus, you're acknowledging that all the saving
virtue is in Him. There is none in yourself. You're
prepared to say with the hymn writer, nothing in my hands I
bring simply to thy cross. I cling. But then it is faith
towards our Lord Jesus Christ, and Christ simply means the Anointed
One, the long-promised Messiah, God's final prophet, priest,
and king. Oh, my listener today, if you
would know the answer to these ultimate questions, you can only
know them by accepting the reality of your identity as a creature
made in the image of God, a creature who has fallen into sin. But
a creature to whom God extends the offer of life and salvation
in the person and work of his beloved Son, I call upon you
this day. Repent towards God and believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ.