“My Times Are in Your Hand” (Biola) (Part 1 of 2) — 09/09/2021

foreign [Music] [Music] ever feel like you're trapped in the grip of blind forces like chance or fate or nature you're helpless to do anything except react to whatever comes your way today on truth for life aleister begg explains how god's word addresses these real feelings and helps us face the most difficult trials our message is titled my times are in your hand and we're in psalm 31 [Music] my times are in your hand rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors and our phrase for this morning is my times are in your hand my times are in your hand gauguin the post-impressionist painter painted lots of very graphic pictures particularly of women from the islands he led a dissolute life although brought up as roman catholic and catechized and he was not known for writing on his paintings apart from signing them but on one of his most famous paintings depicting the journey of man from birth to the grave he wrote on the top corner on the left-hand corner the right-hand corner as we would look at it in a gallery he wrote three questions du vennonu where do we come from what are we where are we going unfortunately he had no answer for those questions he died in his fifties as a result really of a life that was lived in excess without finding answers to those questions in contrast uh the catechism the heidelberg corrupted a little asks the question what is our only hope in life and death and provides the answer that we are not our own but belong body and soul both in life and death to god and to our savior jesus christ you see one of those distinguishing marks of the christian of a christian worldview is to be found in the way in which he or she views the passing of time and the ordering of the events of life to think christianly is to have a radical shift in the way in which we view all of these issues and to be able to affirm my times oh god are in your hands is a christian thing to do and so i want just to say three things on the strength of that this morning so this morning is about the what we're laying down the foundation it to say my times are in your hands means what it means number one that i am not trapped in the grip of blind forces i am not trapped in the grip of blind forces they put me in the philosophy house i don't know if you knew that you had a philosophy house but i am in the philosophy house it was quite wonderful i got in there and i said to myself i don't know what i think about this and then i said uh i think therefore i am and then and and then i woke up this morning and i said what a piece of work is man how noble in reason how infinite in faculty inform and moving how express and admirable you know no i didn't i didn't at all but um but paul was invited to the philosophy house in athens and when he got there you will remember that some of the thinkers were dominated by the thoughts of a man called zeno he lived in the 4th century and he taught that the events of the world are determined by a merciless cold and impersonal fate and he also taught that instead of trying to struggle with that and struggle with the circumstances to change them what you really need to do is simply accept things in a spirit of resignation kay whatever will be will be this blind impersonal force which the stoic actually believed to direct the affairs of life was in essence a personification of nature of nature and so although they didn't have the weather forecast the way we have the weather forecast at least i assume they don't they didn't have some particularly pretty little girls sitting out there trying to come up with what do you say in southern california about the weather you know it's a i think it must be the easiest job in the world but anyway that's by the way but but when when she sits there and she says let's see what mother nature has for us today that is in some sense an expression of the notion that somehow or another there are forces over which we have no control for those of you who love james taylor you'll be familiar with this song gaia and that whole philosophical basis where individual cells make up a single global organism that constitutes the earth and we somehow or another are all caught up inside of that david wells commenting on this kind of thing says contemporary spiritualities take many different forms hinduism new age kabbalah radical environmentalism all these self-made spiritualities have in common a view of reality that is pantheistic all of them assume in one way or another that nature encloses and contains the sacred see for example avatar the assumption is that the way we make contact with god is by finding him within ourselves but we say my times are in your hands i'm not held in the grip of dark deterministic forces nor secondly am i tossed about on an ocean of chance uh epicurus who followed uh later on is best known for his ethics namely good the good is what brings you the greatest pleasure he really should have lived in the sixties as i lived in the sixties so that he could have turned on and tuned in and dropped out because his underlying philosophy declared that everything happens by chance and since there's nothing before birth and there's nothing after death the best you can do is live the life of old king cole who was a merry old soul if you remember from your days in your nursery old king cole was a merry old soul and a merry old soul was he he called for his pipe in the middle of the night and he called for his fiddler's three and it goes on from there it's really not very um it's not very biblical as an approach but we'll just leave it there although epicurus and his followers did not actually follow their views to their logical and absurd conclusion others have done so so for example sartre in his novel nausea you will remember describes his character ra quentin walking in the city park and being overcome by what he referred to as the nausea of the meaninglessness of life and as he looks around he concludes that every existent is born without reason prolongs itself out of weakness and dies by chance he really should have put that on a t-shirt you know it would have been wonderful wouldn't it uh just on the back of the t-shirt as you get up in the morning to remind yourself as you pull it over your head i am born without reason i prolong myself out of weakness and i die by chance have a good day now you see the absurdity of that you can embrace that philosophy but you can't live with it for more than five minutes not without jumping off a bridge you'll end up moving from existentialism into nihilism you'll be with woody allen you know who's a poster boy for nihilism not only is god dead but you can't get a plumber when you need one that kind of thing that sense of absolute absurdity it's an old film now isn't it the dead poets society captured it fairly well robin williams taking those fellas out into the corridor showing them all the faces of the people who were the the students of an earlier era and suggesting to them that they seized the moment seize the day well that sounds kind of biblical jesus said sufficient until the day is the evil thereof isn't that what he's saying no he's saying that is williams is saying what nietzsche was saying namely that there is nothing yesterday there is no tomorrow there therefore you only have the now jesus is saying the now matters because of what happened yesterday and because of what i have for you tomorrow listen to nietzsche there remains only void man is falling his dignity is gone his values are lost there is no difference between up and down it has become chilly and the dark night is closing in and he goes on to say just move among the everyday citizens and you will discover one that people rarely read two that they seldom think and three that they snatch pleasures at random to relieve the monotony and the drudgery of their lives what a statement and yet try it out sit and watch as the world goes by look at all these lonely people where do they all come from many of them have have embraced these philosophies without understanding them they either believe that somehow or another they have no control over anything that is going on around them that they are predetermined they are hardwired in some way they are trapped they are enclosed they are encapsulated in under the rule of malevolent forces or that the whole thing is a sick joke that there is no reason for them showing up and there is no place for them to go and into that world the christian believer the biola student goes out to to serve in the realm of science goes out to serve in the realm of commerce goes out to move amongst these people in the arts and when we're asked to reason for the hope that we have we have an opportunity to say to them i got a novel take on this i actually believe something that was said a long long time ago by a fellow on one occasion when he was having a bad day and he wrote a little song most of it was a dirge but it had a nice little part in it and when he got to the nice part he said i trust you god my times are in your hands so i'm not held in the grip of dark forces i'm not tossed around in the sea of chance but i am being trained in the school of god's providence i am being trained in the school of god's providence second question in the catechism is what is god the answer is god is the creator and sustainer of everyone and everything he is eternal infinite and unchangeable in his power and perfection in his goodness and glory in his wisdom justice and truth nothing happens except through him and by his will nothing happens except through him and by his will so when men and women are smothered by existentialism some embrace the superficiality of hedonism you as a believer embrace the truth that god has not abandoned the world that he has made for that is deism nor is he confused with his nature now i mean with nature itself with creation not is he confused with creation for that would be pantheism but rather he is working within his creation to manage everything according to his plan so we teach our children and our grandchildren before there was time before there was anything there was god and that god is the creator and sustainer of everyone and everything so you may teach your grandchildren to sing you know but you probably shouldn't if i wear a butterfly i thank you lord for my nice wings this is an old song you only know it if you're as old as me and and if i were a robin in the tree i thank you lord that i could sing isn't this a strange thought that if you'd been here like 40 years ago the band would have been leading this kind of song you know and you would get a chance to do the actions and if i were a fuzzy wuzzy bear i'd thank you lord for my fuzzy wuzzy hair but i just thank you father for making me me because you gave me a heart and you gave me a smile and you gave me jesus and you made me your child and i just thank you father for making me me you have put my eyes on the on my visage exactly as you designed you have determined my dna you are sovereign over my grey matter capacity you are in charge of the bounds of my habitation you are sovereign just as we've been singing this morning no matter how bad the sadness is no matter how deep the overwhelming flood is i have to come back to the fact that my times are in your hands i'm being schooled in the school of your providence berkoff the systematic theologian defines providence as the continued exercise of the divine energy whereby the creator preserves all his creatures is operative and all that comes to pass in the world and directs all things to their appointed end packer says god is completely in charge of his world his hand may be hidden but his rule is absolute and what is he doing well he's working everything out in conformity with the purpose of his will what is the purpose of his will to put together a people that are his very own from every tribe language nation tongue so on and to unite them in their avowed commitment to the lordship and kingship of jesus no matter where they are in the entire universe and one day that company will be assembled and on that day they will declare salvation belongs to the lord who sits upon the throne to the lamb who sits upon the throne and in the process of moving his children to that ultimate end he has one single purpose in view and let me tell you what it is this is what god is seeking to do in your life in a phrase he is seeking working to make you like his son jesus that's what he's doing that's the significance of romans 8 28 and we know that in all these things god is working them together for the good of those who love him who've been called according to his purpose yeah but what about the fact that my mother just died and she's only in her 40s what about the fact that my sister had a stillborn child what about the fact that my spouse just got ms what about the overwhelming magnitude of a world that seems to be spinning out of control what are you doing god i'm gonna make you like jesus if you doubt this read your bible romans 8 it is god's eternal purpose those he predestined he did so so that they might be conformed to the image of his son second corinthians chapter three what is happening to us we are being changed into his likeness what is our ultimate prospect first john and when we see him we're going to be like him so it is his eternal purpose it is his existential purpose and it is his eschatological purpose so you're going to go back and do your term paper you're going to go back to whatever you've got to do the rest of the day you need to be saying to yourself routinely number one my times are in your hands they don't seem that good at the moment i'm overwhelmed i'm whatever it might be but i'm affirming this i i'm affirming with the psalmist this truth and i'm also reminded thanks that that funny scottish guy came now i'm also reminded that what you're doing in the midst of all this is you're going to make me like jesus and you've got a big job on your hands god because i'm not a lot like him just now but you're the only one that could accomplish that you see how freeing this is it means that all the issues of our lives are under his control the who the where the what the when of my existence so it's the foundation of great comfort we might as well believe there is no god as believe in a god who doesn't see who doesn't hear who doesn't care and who doesn't act right a god who doesn't know the future as augustine said wouldn't be god a god who couldn't see us and know us and care for us jesus constantly argues from the from the lesser to the greater doesn't he remember he says if you being evil or earthly know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your heavenly father give good things to them that ask you he looks around at the circumstances of his day and he uses these elements around him in order to make his point are not two sparrows sold for a penny yeah now one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your father are you kidding me jesus are you saying that the sovereignty of god almighty extends to the lifespan of sparrows i say it's a metaphor not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your father doesn't sound like a metaphor does it and even the very hairs of your head are numbered which is easier for some heads than others so don't be afraid you are worth more than many sparrows some of you are going to have to write resumes you may have begun writing resumes and you've bolstered all your facts and got your folks to extol your virtues and so on i i have a suggestion for you this just you can do this or not do it i haven't seen anyone do it i've suggested it a few times but just as you're finishing up your resume and the people saying what have you done where have you been and so on everything and tell me about yourself i just put right down at the bottom just say um i am worth more than many sparrows just put that down at the bottom and the person who's interviewing you for grad school they would go through the thing as fast as they possibly can because the grad school tell us that they only read that they don't read the things properly they spend an average of 1.7 seconds going through your application so um there you go and and someone says oh wait a minute we've got a weirdo here you're worth uh we i think i think we'll interview this one and and when and when they ask you what is the sparrow thing about it you can tell them i'm not held in the group of blind forces my life is not simply tossed around on the sea of chance i'm being schooled in the academy of god's providence because my times are in your hands [Music] that is aleister begg reminding us that all of us are being trained in the school of god's providence you're listening to truth for life if you're a student dealing with doubt or wrestling with objections to christianity from some of your fellow students or even from professors we want to recommend to you a book titled surviving religion 101 letters to a christian student on keeping the faith in college this is a book that will help you overcome any doubts you might have it'll also give you the confidence to explain why you believe the things you believe and it will help you do it with kindness and with compassion while you're at school your christian faith is going to be put to the test the book surviving religion 101 anticipates the kinds of questions you're going to be asked like why do you believe jesus is the only way to salvation why would a loving god allow suffering or a question like how can you be so sure the bible is true this book will give you clear helpful answers so you won't be caught off guard request your copy of the book surviving religion 101 when you donate it's easy click the image you see in the app or visit our website truthforlife.org slash donate and if you're away at school and you have not yet downloaded the truth for life mobile app you'll find it free in your app store the app provides daily bible teaching from alastair all of it free it gives you a complete online esv bible and it provides access to alastair's entire teaching archive the truth for life app is a great way for you to learn from the bible on your own schedule whenever you have a break from studying now here is alistair to close with prayer our god and our father we thank you this morning that you are a sovereign god and a compassionate father and that you are the friend of sinners and we discover that you are a god who has come sneaked in as it were under the radar of our rebellious hearts and open them up to the truth and reality of your gracious plan for us i pray particularly lord for some who are going through it here today perhaps even saying oh god just give me just give me something just a just a phrase don't don't don't load me down well then may psalm 31 15 be a help and an encouragement to such a one and uh we ask you to help us as the hours of the day unfold that we might be a help and not a hindrance to each other as we seek to live out the truths that we now affirm hear our prayers and let our cries come unto you for jesus sake amen i'm bob lepen does god's sovereignty excuse us from personal responsibility well no of course not but find out why when you join us tomorrow for part two of my times are in your hand the bible teaching of aleister begg is furnished by truth for life [Music] where the learning is for living [Music]

Channel: Alistair Begg

Views: 8,981

Rating: 4.9591837 out of 5

Keywords: Christian Thinking, Dependence on God, Faith, Sovereignty of God

Id: 5DjKL1b_JLI

Length: 25min 0sec (1500 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 09 2021