Life's Three Greatest Questions
Life's Three Greatest Questions
Dr. J. Mike Minnix
Introduction
Proverbs 3:5-6:
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your path”
A boy questioned his father: “Why is the world round? Are there people on other planets? Who made God?” To each question the father replied, “I don’t know son, and neither does anyone else know.” The boy then asked, “Dad, am I bothering you with all these questions?” The father replied, "No, son, not at all. After all, if you don’t ask, how will you ever know anything?"
Asking questions is useless unless you know where to find some real, honest, and eternal answers. Today we are going to look at three questions that everyone asks, if not out loud at least in their hearts - and we find the answers in the best of all places, in the Bible - the Word of God.
I. The Origin of My Life - Where Did I Come From?
A late scientist wrote some years ago that the information within a single cell in your body is around 10 to the 12th power bits, which is comparable to about a hundred million pages in a scholarly journal. Think about that for a moment. Just one cell in your body contains millions of pages of information, and in your body there are approximately 50 trillion cells, give or take a few trillion. I said, “Trillion,” not billion or million. A trillion is a thousand-billion. If all the information contained in the cells of your body were written in books, it would fill a pretty could size university library. That’s just the cells in your body alone. You are more complex than you can possibly imagine.
Then, each cell in your body is made up of many operating machines. We now know that a simple yeast cell contains more than 250 operating machines inside it. Now, please understand what I'm telling you. One cell in yeast contains more than 250 machines doing work within it. Cells are so complex that scientists are still trying to study them all and grasp the incredible stuff going on inside each of them. Each cell in your body is as detailed as the floor of a factory producing something more complex than all the parts of an automobile. That’s the work going on in just one cell in your body at this very moment. So, just how did all this come to be?
A. The World's Answer
What does the world say about the complexity of your cells or the cells of any living creature or thing? The world says that you are a composite of the elements in your body - no more and no less. You are a complicated organism, the most complicated on earth, yet you are nothing more than the result of billions of years of evolution – that’s what the world says about you. You began, they claim, in an ancient ooze and very slowly developed to be a homosapien – a human being. In essence, they assert that you are no different from any other creature on the earth. Because you have awareness of existence and conscience, you are responsible to the human community, the animal community and the overall ecology of the planet. You answer to no god and you were not created by any wise or intelligent being - that is what the world says about you.
A humorous person wrote:
“Have you heard about the monkey that escaped from the zoo? They finally found him in the public library checking out two books. One was the Bible and the other on Darwin's theory of Evolution. When they asked him what he thought he was doing the monkey replied, ‘I'm trying to find out if I am my brother's keeper or my keeper's brother.’" (Pulpit Helps, Nov. 1980)
Considering the foolish idea that we came from monkeys, I love the following poem:
“Three monkeys sat in a coconut tree,
And talked of things that were said to be.
Said one to the others: ‘See here, you two!
There's a rumor afloat that can't be true,
That man descended from our lofty race,
To think of such a great disgrace.
No monkey ever beat his wife,
Or starved her child or spoiled her life.
And there is another thing a monkey won't do,
That is to go out at night, and get on a stew;
Then use a gun, a club, or a butcher knife,
To take another poor monkey's life.
Man may have descended ‑ the ornery cuss:
But brother ‑ he didn't descend from us!’”(Pulpit Helps, 1980)
Let’s turn from the worlds answer to get the true answer to our origin…
B. The Word's Answer
The Bible paints a very different picture of you than that which is supplied by the world. Psalm 139 tells us where you came from. Look at verses 13 through 16:
For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;[a]
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.
The bible clearly declares that you are a creation of God. You are a unique, one-of-a-kind individual. There has never been, nor will there ever be, another person just like you.
Furthermore, you are made in the image of God.
Look at Genesis 1:26:
6 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all[a] the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
What does this verse tell us? It states clearly that you were made in God's image and you have five attributes which belong to God. No other creature on earth has these five characteristics:
(1) You have a moral nature
You know right from wrong, and you experience a pang of conscience when you do that which your soul tells you is inappropriate. You may turn off that message in your brain, your heart and your soul, but it is there just the same. You may sear you conscience so that you don't have to deal with guilt, but somewhere in the middle of the night you will wake up and know for sure that you are a sinner.
(2) Free Will
You make choices regarding the things you say and do. You act with a will that belongs only to you. You may be prompted to do something by someone else, but in the end you make a personal decision for which you are responsible. You see, you and I are responsible to God, and often to man, for every decision we make.
Our moral sense of right and wrong comes from God. Animals do not possess a moral nature. A lion never sits in the jungle and wrestles with moral dilemma as to whether he should have killed and eaten that wilder beast the evening before. He just licks his paws and waits for his next victim. Actually, the lion doesn't decide to eat the wilder beast, ratther instinct drives him to do that. You, however, have a free will. Do you get the picture? You are different, because God created you.
(3) Self-consciousness
You know you are personal being, with unique characteristics. A dog may bark at his own reflection in a mirror, because he has no self-consciousness. He does not know that he is a dog. You, however, know that you are human.
(4) Creative/Artistic Propensity
You desire to create things, and that nature from God is in you from the very beginning. Small children want to do things for themselves, even when they are too young to do so. They will push away their mom's hand and try to tie their own shoes long before they are capable of doing so. Children love to paint pictures and shape objects with Silly Putty. As we grow older, most of us want ot marry and have children of our own. The desire to create and the joy that comes from it was given to us by the Creator God.
(5) Eternal Existence
You will live forever. You are not here for three-score and ten years - the prophesied estimate of years for a human being - you are going to live on even after your body is placed in the grave or burned in a crematorium. You soul will go on, and with it your sense of existence.
At a 1981 symposium, Sir Fred Hoyle said: "The chance that higher life forms might have emerged in this way (through evolutionary processes) is comparable with the chance that a tornado sweeping through a junkyard might assemble a Boeing 747 from the materials therein." Hoyle further said that "he was at a loss to understand" the compulsion of evolutionary biologists "to deny what seems to me to be obvious (i.e., that evolution is not tenable)." (His topic: What are They Teaching our Children?)
Scientist now know for sure that the Darwinian Evolution Theory is a non-started for the explanation of the complex nature of creatures on earth. We don’t have time today to discuss this in detail, but I assure that those still teaching Darwinian Evolution are either misled, or lying to please their co-horts, or they are simply ignorant of the facts.
Listen to me, you are no accident of physical science. You are no mere conglomeration of cells and elements. You are God's special creation and He loves you very much. The origin of your life began with God and you will never know full joy until your rest your soul in Him through His Son, Jesus Christ.
II. The Operation of My Life - What Am I Doing Here?
Let’s say that every one of us in this room agrees that we are created by God – that we are not an accident of nature. The next great question is, what are we doing here? Why has God placed us here?
A. The Senseless Life
For those who believe in the evolutionary, accidental origin of life on earth, life is senseless indeed. What use is your life, if you are nothing more than a freak of nature? Our existence is absolutely meaningless without a Creator.
B. The Self Life
You can also say, that life as an accident is a self-life. If you are an accident, and you answer to no one, then you have every reason to live only for yourself. In fact, most people do exactly that, though few admit that to themselves. To live for self is to curse yourself and those who follow you. This is, no doubt, one of our biggest problems today.
C. The Spiritual Life
You were created to have fellowship with God, and that fellowship is made possible by Jesus Christ. When a person turns from sin, believes upon Christ, and confesses Him as Lord and Savior, that person is redeemed and placed in fellowship with the Creator. The Holy Spirit comes to reside in the redeemed individual and the true purpose and meaning of life is found. I know this is true, for I have personally experienced it. The only life that is fulfilling is the spiritual life found in Jesus. All the follies and foolishness of this world will never provide even a moment of the peace that is known by those who come to the Lord Jesus Christ. You were created to enjoy Him forever, but sin has separated you from Him. Only Jesus can reconcile us to God, the Father and Creator of all things.
Our text today tells us to “trust” in the Lord, and to do so with “all of” the heart. When that is done, God directs our paths and leads our steps. He makes a way for us in this world – a way that brings meaning to an otherwise strange and awful world – a world filled with sin, hatred, murder, war, crime, disease and a thousand other troubles. All of these evils came into this world because all of us turned from God and sinned against Him (Romans 3:23). But God’s love overcomes and offers us forgiveness and victory (John 3:16).
If there is a person here today, for whom life makes little sense, Jesus is the answer. People, no doubt, have failed you and hurt you. Perhaps you have hurt people, too. You wonder what meaning your life has. You will find the peace you are seeking only in the spiritual life – found only in Christ!
III. The Outcome of My Life - Where Am I Going?
Let’s look at the third question. We have already begun to deal with it a bit, but let’s go further. Where am I going? What will be the outcome of my life? To answer this, let’s look at three possibilities…
A. A Hole
If I am a biological accident, there is nothing waiting for me but a gaping hole called the grave. You are going to live, then die, then either be burned or thrown into a six foot hole in the ground. Some say that is all there is to life. Really? You don’t honestly believe that. You know instinctively that there is more to life than a grave at the end. How do you know? God put the truth of this fact in your very nature. You are going to live somewhere when this life on earth is over.
B. A Hell
Actually, we must face the facts about what Jesus said in regard to eternity. Listen now, Jesus is the most loving personality that ever set foot on earth. Yet, Jesus said as much about a place called hell as He did about a placed called heaven. Why did he do that? He shared the truth with us because He loves us and warns us of what is ahead. No parent that loves his child will dare to allow that child to play in the street without a warning of the terrible tragedy of doing so. Is the parent being mean to warn the child not to play in the street? No, of course not! Love warns. Love protects.
Think of a doctor who has a patient with cancer. The doctor know that the moment he tells the patient of the presence of cancer, the patient is going to be in a state of fear and dread. So, imagine a doctor that does not tell the patient about the disease because he doesn’t want to alarm the poor soul. The doctor in that case cannot be considered to be professional or caring. Indeed, he or she might lose the medical license held for doing such a thing. One with cancer has a right to know and to choose a plan of action regarding the disease.
Just so, God loves us and He warns us of an eternal separation from Him if we fail to deal with our sin problem. Every one of us has a disease called sin, and there is only one cure. The cure is found in God’s Son, Jesus Christ, who lived a sinless life, died for us at Calvary on a cross and rose from the dead to justify those who call upon Him for salvation.
In Luke 16 we read from the lips of Jesus about a man who cried out toward heaven after his death because he was in torment. Look at Matthew 13:41-43 and see the truth of a place of separation from God from the words of the Savior. Again in Matthew 22:13 we hear from the Lord about the place of darkness.
No one understands everything there is to know about the existence of those who die separated from God, but I can assure you it is a place you do not want to go. If there is no punishment for sin, the death of Jesus on the cross was all for nothing. He died a horrible death so that you and I can live a meaningful life now and be with Him when this life is over.
So, let’s look at the truth about the blessing of the redeemed…
C. A Heaven (A Home)
Jesus promised a home in heaven to those who turn from sin and trust Him. Look at John 14:1-6. What a promise we see here. Heaven is not a place where angels float around on clouds all day, flapping silly wings. Jesus uses the word “home” to discribe heaven. He has a specific place just for you, once you trust Him. We can know the joy of living with God forevermore. Jesus is the one who makes the difference.
I have been asked numerous times, “Preacher, where is heaven?” There is a simple answer to that question: Heaven is where Jesus is! He said that He will come and get us and take us to be where He is. That is good enough for me.
Conclusion
Three great questions have been considered in this message, but there is a greater question today. Have you trusted Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Will you turn to Him today and know the purpose for your life, have meaning and peace in your life, and have the joy of knowing that you will live with the Savior forever? You can. Simply turn from your own life and your sin, and by faith come to trust Him right now.
A man once flew over the Statue of Liberty in a helicopter. Looking down he noticed something and took a photograph to show others. What he saw was the detail and intricate work the sculptor had done on the top of Lady Liberty’s head. Her hair, the crown she was wearing and other details had been meticulously completed. Why is this important? You see, when Lady Liberty was created, there were no airplanes and helicopters. There was a chance that no one would ever see the top of her head. The sculptor could have saved a lot of time and work by just leaving off the details unseen from the ground. No, he carried out every detail.
Thinking of this reminds me that there is someone looking down on me. You may not see everything I do or hear everything I say, but God does. He knows all about us. Each of us has our flaws and points of rebellion against God. Even so, God loves and sent His son to redeem us.
He is looking down today. Yes, and He is even right here with us now. We are going to sing a song together and I’m inviting you to come to the Lord just now. Perhaps you are a Christian already, but you need to renewed commitment to Him. Let us respond with the knowledge that He is calling, He is watching, and He is waiting.
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1 Accessed at https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/01/060123121832.htm
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