Some of you will find the material that we’re going to cover this morning much of it to be a review if you’ve been with us here for any length of time. These are very serious days and many men, many people are re-evaluating their relationship with God, and they are considering coming back to God. Now, there is a problem. I do not want to entrust myself to God unless God is in charge of things. But, if God is in charge of things, it looks like He’s not doing a very good job. This is a tremendous issue that people, whether they can articulate it or not, have when they consider having a relationship with God.
I don’t want to have a relationship with God if He’s not in charge, but if He is in charge, it doesn’t look like he’s doing a very good job. Now, let me briefly mention who I think this message is for. First of all, if you are a Christian, it is entirely possible that events of recent days have shaken your faith. Yes, you have entrusted yourself to Him, but now you have a question about whether or not He’s really in charge. And so for you, hopefully, this message will be an opportunity for you to tighten down the bolts on your faith a little.
Or, you might be an inquirer, someone who would be, perhaps, interested in faith, Christianity, but you have some honest doubts about Christianity, about God. You have sincere questions that you would like to have answered, and you are looking for some hope. Now the goal here this morning is fairly simple. I want to show you or, at least to begin to demonstrate to you, that it is not unreasonable to believe that Christianity is true, that you don’t have to trick yourself into becoming a Christian, that Christianity perfectly explains what we see going on in the world.
Here’s the challenge that we have. A lot of men have, in their view, feel like they have tried Christianity, found it wanting, and rejected it when in reality they’ve never properly understood it to begin with. C.S. Lewis, when he was the President of the Socratic Club at Oxford University, used to debate agnostics and atheists. He made the comment, he said, “It was interesting because we found that we had to first correct what seemed to be their ‘almost bottomless ignorance’ of the faith they supposed themselves to be rejecting.”
I live on a lake, and on this lake we have about six Ospreys that fish the lake. They are a beautiful and a majestic bird to watch as they circle around and dive into the water and catch their fish. From time to time, however, we have an American Bald Eagle that comes through and also does a little fishing on the lake. There is no comparison between an Osprey and an Eagle. Sorry, there is just no comparison between an Osprey and an Eagle. So, I’m always anticipating the arrival of the Eagle because we never know when he or she, whatever it is, is coming or going, and it’s only every now and then. Every time I look out the window and I see an Osprey circling around in the sky, I say, “Is that it? Is that the Eagle? Is that an Eagle?” Then I say, “Oh no, it’s not an Eagle.” But, you know something? When the Eagle is there you don’t say, “Is that an Eagle?” When it’s an Eagle, you know it’s an Eagle. You don’t have to ask twice. That’s the way it is with God. Once you have seen the real God, you don’t have to ask, “Is that the real God?”
Now, Frederick Taylor, in the early part of the 20th Century, the father of scientific management, said this, “Your system is perfectly designed to produce the results you are getting.” You’ve heard this before, right? “Your system is perfectly designed to produce the results you are getting.” Now, what Frederick Taylor meant was that if you’re manufacturing cars and every third car that rolls off the assembly line is missing a front right fender that your manufacturing process, your system, is perfectly designed to produce that result. But, it also is true that we each have a belief system, if you will, that is also perfectly designed to produce the result we’re getting.
Now, what I would like to do with you this morning is show you three Ospreys and one Eagle. When you read the literature on life and spirituality, you’ll basically come up with four systems. There are four different kinds of systems by which people live. Only one of them is the real thing. They all claim to explain or cope with the world the way we see it. In other words, if God’s not in charge, I don’t want to entrust my life to Him, but if He is in charge, it doesn’t look like He’s doing a very good job. There are four systems that try to explain the world the way we see it.
What I’d like you to do is just picture four circles, if you will, with four different systems. Let’s just call them out.
The first system is the worldly system. There are many different kinds of worldly systems. The chief value and I’m not going to spend a lot of time explaining these first three systems. If you want to know more about them, you can get the book, “Coming Back to God,” where I go into these in greater detail. But the chief value of worldly systems is something like pleasure or comfort or getting the most out of life. Basically, it’s a system that says you can’t explain the world, so let’s eat, drink and be merry. Those are worldly systems. But that doesn’t seem to last forever and, eventually, most men get tired of worldly systems. You spend five or ten years at this of your adult life and it start’s to get a little old.
A second kind of system is the moral system. The chief value of moral systems is something like, “I want to leave the world a better place, or I want to do the right thing,” something along that line. Eventually, those systems seem to break down, too, and then a man will often develop or become interested in a religious system.
Now, all religious systems basically have as their chief value that they either want to make God happy or at least avoid His wrath. All religious systems, other than the Christian system, are based upon work or performance. They are all performance based. You have to do something in order to make God happy, and if you don’t do that, you really tick Him off. What would be a good example today, in today’s world, of a religious system like this? Islam would be a good example. Look at the pictures coming out of Afghanistan.
Then the fourth system is Christianity, or the Christian system. That’s what I want us to focus on this morning. When a man is looking at the world the way it is, and he’s tried to explain it, and he’s trying to cope with it, and he’s trying to find his place in this world, and he tries these different systems, these first three, worldly, moral, religious, they’re like Osprey. At first you wonder, “Is that the real thing?” But, on further investigation, you realize, “No, it does not explain it, and it does not help me cope.”
What I am hoping to show you now in the next few moments is how the Christian system is a system that is perfectly designed to solve the problems that we see in the world. It is a system that perfectly explains what’s going on in the world. It satisfies the deepest longings that we have for purpose, meaning, peace, significance, happiness, even success. The problem with these other systems and the problems a lot of men have right today, and the reason a lot of us would want to come back to God, or need to come back to God, is because we bought into one of these systems. Often in the work we do here and elsewhere through Man in the Mirror, what we see is that men tend to give the best years of their lives to a system that really has no possibility of meeting these deep needs. Then they wake up one day disillusioned and discouraged and frustrated with the way their lives are going.
So now, this Christian system. Basically, here’s the gist of the Christian system. The Christian system promises you abundant life now although not without troubles, and in the world to come everlasting life. That’s the Christian system. Abundant life now, although not without troubles, and in the world to come everlasting life. Matthew: Chapter 6, Verse 33, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all of these things will be added to you.” Then it says, what? “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of it’s own.” See Christianity perfectly explains what we see. It expects that we’re going to have trouble. Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble, but take heart. I’ve overcome the world.” In our passage here today, Romans: Chapter 8, Verse 20, let’s take a look at it. You should be there. If you’re not, please turn to Romans: Chapter 8, Verse 20. It says this, “For the creation,” that’s you and that’s me and that’s the whole world, “For the creation was subjected to frustration…” Synonyms for frustration would be futility or meaninglessness or vanity or pointlessness. The whole creation has been subjected to frustration, watch this, not by it’s own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it. Who’s that? That’s God. Why did He do that? “In hope that the creation itself would be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children alike.” In other words, the Christian system says God is in charge. In fact, what you see is perfectly explained by Christianity because God is not only the solution for the futility that men feel. He is the cause of it. Why would God do that? What kind of a God is that? If God doesn’t care, then I don’t want to entrust myself to Him, but if He does care, it doesn’t seem like He’s doing a very job. He is doing a good job. He’s doing exactly what He wants to do, exactly what we need Him to do.
That’s the story of my life and it’s probably the story of your life, too. My story is very simple as a young man pursuing ambitious goals. You set the goal. You work real hard to meet the goal. Six months, twelve months go by. You meet the goal. There’s a sense of euphoria. Two weeks go by, what happens? The novelty wears off. Now you have to do what? Set a new goal. The new goal has to be what, bigger, brighter, better, higher, faster, shinier. Then you work real hard and you meet the goal, euphoria. Two weeks go by. The novelty wears off and you have to set a new goal. The new goal is what, bigger, brighter, faster. Work real hard, euphoria. Two weeks later, the novelty wears off and you set a new goal. What I found, and I think what most men find, is that this endless repetition tends to become very oppressive. It’s sort of like this unrelated string of hollow victories that become increasingly frustrating as we accomplish more and more. That’s what I found was going on in my life. So, I would come home from work where I’d worn my game face all day long, hating what I was doing, but knowing that I needed at least to be appear to be happy. The problem is not that we are unhappy. It’s that we have to pretend that we are. So I’d pretend I was happy all day long, and I’d come home and put the garage down, then I would get on the when the garage door was down with the clicker and I’d slam the door. Then I’d walk over to the wall, and I was just kick that wall. I was so frustrated. I would kick that wall. I had to paint the wall when I moved out of that house. It had black tire marks all over it from the soles of my shoes.
That didn’t work, so one day I’m ranting and raving around the house taking these frustrations out on Patsy. I am just thinking, if I could just find the words on the tip of my tongue to somehow expiate all this onyx inside of me, this amorphous feeling that is just sort of chewing up my guts. If I could just form the words to get it out then maybe I could be rid of it. So, I’m ranting and raving and, of course, I’m taking all of this out on her. I look over and there she sits, sort of taking it like a man. There were these big crocodile tears rolling down her cheeks. To be perfectly honest with you, men, at that point in our marriage, that was not that unusual. But there was something different this particular morning, and as I looked over at her, I was transfixed. I wanted to look away, but I could not look away. After she held my gaze for what seemed like a brief eternity, she asked me this question. She said, “Pat, is there anything about me that you like?” I remember feeling like I’d been hit by a cattle prod. I remember wandering off to the office and staring out the window for the rest of the morning just thinking to myself, “What happened to you, Morley? What’s wrong with this system that you’ve bought in to?” It’s perfectly designed to produce futility. God used those events, that futility. The whole creation has been subjected to frustration and futility by the will of God to liberate us. The liberator has come. That’s what the Christian system is all about. God is in charge, He is doing a very good job, and you can trust Him.
Now, here’s the system. Ready for the system? This is the Christian system. Adam failed, Jesus nailed, Grace prevailed. That, my friends, is the Christian system. This is the doctrine of man, the doctrine of Christ, and the doctrine of salvation. Adam failed. The Bible teaches that we are a product of both the creation and the fall. The creation has made us a little like a God, and the fall has made us a little like a devil.
Second, Jesus nailed. The Bible says, “For God so loved the world that He sent His one and only son into the world that whoever would believe in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life.” John: Chapter 4, Verses 9 and 10 says, “This is how God showed His love among us. He sent his one and only son into the world that through Him we might live. This is love. Not that we love God, but that He loves us and gave, sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sin.” Men, you don’t need a savior if you haven’t done anything wrong. The only men who need a savior are men to have done something wrong, men who have sinned, men who can identify with Adam and know that they have failed and that they need a savior. God, in His mercy, has reduced himself to human flesh in the person of Jesus Christ and came to solve this problem of Adam, or man’s failure, by being an atoning sacrifice for His sins. That means that Jesus Christ, who is the only righteous man who ever has, or will, live. That Jesus Christ, the perfect man, gave his life as a sacrifice to pay for your sins and my sins.
We’re in Romans. Turn back to Chapter 6, Verse 23. Adam failed, Jesus nailed, Grace prevailed. God is in charge. He’s doing a very good job. He has a system that is perfectly designed to produce abundant life now, although not without troubles, and in the world to come everlasting life. This system perfectly explains what we see, so when we look at the problem, if God’s not in charge, then I don’t want to entrust my life to Him, but if He is in charge, it doesn’t look like He’s doing a very good job. You have to look deeper to see that God is redeeming us through the futilities and the sufferings that we see. Adam failed, Jesus nailed, Grace prevailed.
Look at Chapter 6, Verse 23. “For the wages of sin is death,” that’s Adam failed, “but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.” In Christ Jesus, or Lord, through his atoning sacrifice, that’s Jesus nailed. The gift of God is eternal life. That’s Grace prevailing. That is Grace prevailing. The principle requirement for becoming part of the Christian system, for becoming a follower of Christ, is to acknowledge that you are not worthy to be one, that you are, in fact, a sinner, to say, you know, I’m not doing a very good job.
What Grace is, men, is that it is a reset button for your lives. Jesus Christ’s coming is a reset button.
On my computer, I have a library system that has hundreds of research books, and sometimes when I do a very complicated search, the computer freezes up. I think it’s like overloading an electrical outlet with too many extension cords, or something. It just gets all wired up and freezes up. The software developer anticipated this potential problem and built some grace into the system. There is a button that I can click on that says, “reset.” What is does is that it undoes everything that I’ve gotten messed up. Kind of like a cold plate of spaghetti. It undoes it, puts everything back to the beginning point, and I get a chance to start over. That’s what Grace is. It’s a reset button for your life.
How many of you this morning have through inattention, or even actively so, found yourselves or find yourselves right now embroiled in one of these Ospreys, one of these three imposters, one of these systems that is perfectly designed to produce the results you’re getting? It’s perfectly designed to end in futility. God has allowed that, that futility so that you might be liberated. He’s come to liberate you. He’s giving you grace. All you have to do is push the button. Do you want to push the button?
Let’s pray:
Lord, the problem is that if you’re not in charge then we don’t want to entrust our lives to you. But, if you are in charge on the surface of things, it looks like you haven’t done a very good job. Lord, I hope that this morning we have broken through that and seen how that is not the case, and that it is not unreasonable to believe that Christianity is true because Christianity perfectly explains the world as we see it. Lord, we would come to you this morning, and we would be very willing to admit that we need a savior, that we have failed, and to express our gratitude that Jesus was nailed as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Lord, we confess that we have let these other imposter systems work their way into our lives in various ways, and we repent of that and turn from those false systems. We turn to you, Lord Jesus, and if we have never done this before, we ask you to give us the gift of eternal life. If you have never asked Jesus before to give you the gift of eternal life based upon his death and resurrection, take a moment and do that right now, however you would say that in your own words. And if you need to push the reset button and you are already a Christian, simply tell Him what you want to do. Amen
/cjb
