The Brevity of Life

Our culture portrays behavior like sexual promiscuity as part of the path to the good life. But scripture makes it clear when we live outside of God's plan, we do damage to our own souls.

And in the end, we'll give account for our choices. Today, I'm Truth for Life. Alistair Begg challenges us to live counter culturally, pursuing holiness in a world of darkness.

We'll turn in our Bibles to Ecclesiastes, chapter twelve.

And I want to focus our attention on these verses in the time that we have their well-known verses, they're well-known to you and they're well-known to me. And any time we turn to something that has familiarity to it, we need a special measure of God's grace to prevent us from immediately saying, oh, yes, I know that because the proof of our knowing it is our living it, not our being able to recite it or verbalize it.

In 1978, our first child was born. It was a momentous occasion. The reason I mention that is because it seemed like yesterday that I sat where you sit.

And people used to come and stand on platforms like this and tell you, tell me what? I'm not about to tell you.

Namely, that life goes past an awful lot quicker than we imagine.

And already you're saying, oh, yes. We've already heard that about 40 times and it doesn't seem to be going fast past quick enough for me. And I wish I could be beyond these next set of exams, etc., but it would appear that somehow there's a kind of exponential propulsion to time and suddenly we wake up and we're 40 years old in the 60s through which I lived.

They regarded the 60s as a decade of idealism. The 70s were a decade of disillusionment.

The 80s were referred to as a decade of terror and many of the people who are reflective of our generation. Display the fact that they have virtually no hope in the age of tomorrow. And many of them would be well served by reading through the book of Ecclesiastes and realizing that here is an individual who sets out on a quest to solve, as it were, the riddle of life. And he ransacks the world to do so. He sets himself within the parameters of under the sun, and he determines that everything from that vantage point is meaningless. Every so often he penetrates beyond it and brings eternity into the framework of time. But by and large, he's just going down dead end street after dead end street.

When he comes to Chapter 12, he comes to the conclusion of the matter and you'll see that in verse 13 of your Bible is open before you. And he says that the conclusion of the matter is that we should fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. The shorter Scottish catechism seizing on that answers the first question. What is the chief end of man? And replies, The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. When man sets out to do that, he begins to make sense of life in failing to do so. It makes no sense of life or nonsense of life.

In his final chapter, the writer then draws to a conclusion, his thinking, and I would like to remind you of four things this morning that stand out to us in this text as he comes to draw all the various threads together in this great conclusion. The first is the truth of the brevity of life. That's why you begin to remember your creator in the days of your youth. He says, before the days of trouble come and the years approach, when you say, I find no pleasure in them. Before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark and clouds return after rain is stressing here the fact that life is really very brief. And the scene, which is depicted as you trace a line through Chapter 12 of Ecclesiastes, is a reminder of the fact that his life goes on. Our physical powers fade, as do our mental powers. Old friends pass away familiar customs, which have been routine, disintegrate and long held ambitions. No longer will be actualized. And what the writer is going to affirm is the opportunity of youth, which actually is the point with which we will conclude. But let me underscore for you the significance of this poetic description here in versus three through five. If we're going to appreciate them, we need to realize that the body of an old man is presented to as under the figure of a house. And so he says there's going to come a time when the keepers of the house tremble, a referring now to the arms into the hands, which in youth are vigorous. They're strong, they're active, they're able, but often with increasing age, they are just not as strong as they once were. And indeed, they shake and they jiggle. Some of you will perhaps have grandparents for whom to sit opposite them in in a restaurant or at your dining room table is a major anxiety attack in the making because you as your grandmother lifts her cup of tea from the saucer. You don't know whether how much of it is actually going to make its way into her mouth. You'll love her. You're not laughing at her, but you're living every every movement whether why as it is because with the fading of physical abilities, the keepers of the house have begun to tremble. And the possibilities of getting the tea into its destination are as remote now as it once was when that grandmother was once a 17 month old infant with that same shaking, trembling in ability. The keepers of the house then, are the arms and the hands.

The strong men in verse three are the legs that are no longer upright. But they have begun to ask. They have begun to stoop when the grinders cease, namely the teeth, which can no longer chew because of inadequate occlusion. That is, there aren't enough on the top to reach the few on the bottom. And suddenly soup becomes a standard meal because it is impossible to grind up the food in the way we once did. The eyes are the windows through which we look have grown dim and suddenly we are not as alert as we once were in seeing. I drove with a lady like that out of a parking lot yesterday.

I avoided her with great dexterity. She could not see above the steering wheel. She obviously could not see through the steering wheel and it is questionable whether she could see at all. But she was propelling a red Chevrolet all over Cleveland and her eyes had grown somewhat dim.

There was a failure at the windows.

The sound of grinding fades because we are now growing death. They're going to give us one of those things for one of our ears, perhaps even for two of our ears. We could sleep at the drop of a hat, but now we rise up at the sound of birds. We are become insomniacs with old age. We don't need to sleep the way we once did. But even when we wake up at the sound of birds, all their songs grow faint. When we walk in the streets, we're afraid of being jostled by the crowd. Verse five, we are afraid of heights. And suddenly the almond tree has begun to blossom on top of our heads.

Simply a picture of beginning to grow gray. And we now begin to drag ourselves along like grasshoppers.

Now, some of us actually may find that this is a pretty accurate description of us and we're only 22 years old. In which case you've got a major problem. I want you to know, by the way, some of you drag yourselves to classes could be described as the grasshopper drags itself along. I mean, you may want to take that as your life versus the grasshopper drags himself along and desire is no longer stirred.

The desire of which is to which he refers. Here is the desire for the things that fill our lives as youth, the desire for marriage, the desire for the fulfillment of marriage, the desire for power, the desire for all these things suddenly begin to go away.

Now, I affirm that for you this morning as an old man speaking to young people. All right. You're sitting there saying what I said when I was your age. It'll never happen. Believe me, it happens.

It is a reminder to us of what Paul Simon of Simon and Garfunkel in the 60s roads when he said, old friends, old friends, they sit on their part bench like bookends and the newspapers blown through the grass fall on the round toes of the high shoes of the old friends, old friends, old friends.

Lost in their overcoats, waiting for the sunshine. Can you imagine those years from today? How terribly strange to be 70. Old friends. Now, young folks this morning have already gone screeching past the halfway mark, and it happened to me in a moment. If you're waiting till tomorrow to begin to live for Jesus Christ, tomorrow's too late.

If you're waiting for when you graduate, for when you get married, for when you settle down, for when you sort yourself out. The Bible never encourages us to live like that. The Bible always encourages us to live in the awareness of what James says that we will not see tomorrow. We'll go here or go there and get Gane and do this and all these things. But if the Lord wills, we will do this or that. And today, this moment is the only moment that you have to live for Jesus Christ.

Because life is very, very.

The brevity of life is matched by the reality of death. You'll notice in versus six and seven we have this vivid picture of the beauty and the frailty of life. Remember him?

Our creator before the silver cord is severed. Or the Golden Bowl is broken. Before the picture is shattered at the spring. Or the wheel broken the well and the dust returns to the ground it came from and the spirit returns to God, who gave it just poetic descriptions of what it means to die.

A beautifully fashioned golden lamp suspended by a silver chain will take only one snap in that chain and it's gone for a moment. And it is actually gone forever.

Death is a reality, the world has no explanation for it. The Bible explains it very clearly.

The hymn writer affirms that there's going to be a day when the silver cord will break and I know more is now will sing.

Why is that? Well, the Bible tells us Romans five 12. Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men because all have sinned.

Our friends in their secular mindset have no explanation for why life is as it is. At least no explanation that will work.

And we need to think these issues out because they impinge upon the culture in which we live. The places that we're going to be employed. The people with whom we're going to rub shoulders even today and tomorrow.

We need to be clear about the brevity of life, about the reality of death. Thirdly, about the certainty of judgment. There is going to be a pay day one day. That's what the Bible says.

That's what he is affirming here as he brings this to a conclusion for verse 14. God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or it is evil.

And this is something that we need to affirm in our generation also. In a world that has embraced a kind of no holds barred philosophy of life.

Where basketball stars can be heroes for proclaiming safe promiscuity.

We need to stand up and say there is no such thing as safe sin.

Sin, by definition, is never safe.

And the Bible says we live our lives brief as they are facing the certainty and reality of death. In the awareness of the truth that we will stand before the bar of God's judgment.

Solomon has already walked down a few dead end street, you would need to go back and reread Ecclesiastes in order to affirm this. But let me tell you, four in particular down, which he walked and they were dead ends and they're still dead ends. Number one, the way of wisdom. You can even go back to chapter one and you'll see this. He was frustrated. He said, if only I could become really bright. Then I would understand life. He became really bright and he was unable to transform his circumstances. Really bright people know that. Clones don't know that it's straight A's. Students that understand that in Durham University there is within its precincts, Durham Cathedral and Durham Cathedral has a high tower.

And the high tower of Durham Cathedral is closed in the time, running up to finals in the university calendar. The reason being because they have had a number of suicides from the high tower of Durham Cathedral. And who was it that launched themselves to their death? The flankers.

The people who were straight CS know the people who were straight A's.

Because they were bright enough to realize as they shot to the conclusion of the chess game of life, that wisdom in and of itself could not unscramble the puzzle that represented them. Again, Paul Simon is a kind of a disease through the corridors of sleep, past the shadows, dark and deep. My mind dances and leaps in confusion. I don't know what is real. I can't touch what I feel and I hide behind the shield of my illusion.

So I'll continue to continue to pretend that my life will never end and that flowers never bend with the rainfall.

A futility. And the wise youth understands it. And we are living in a generation where your peers have been brought up to believe that they were born without reason. They prolong themselves by chance that Hemingway was right. That life is a dirty trick, a short journey from nothingness to nothingness. Therefore, can we blame them when they say if this is all there is? I'm out of here. And to you and to me, as we embrace the truth of Christ, the reality of scripture is given the privilege and the responsibility of challenging that kind of mindset. If the way of wisdom was the key to life, then people would be taking their vacations on university campuses all across the western world. Dads would be coming home and saying, hey, guess what, kids? We're going to the University of Illinois for our vacation.

And the children would say. And why is that, Dad? And he would say, because it's such a tranquil place. It's such a lovely spot. All these students are so filled with peace and with joy because they're on the way of wisdom.

The very picture of stupidity.

The way of wisdom's a dead end street, the path of pleasure. Only opened doors to disillusionment. You can read it in Chapter two. Basically, he did the Hedonists Trip Wine, Women and song, lived it up, left it up, boozed it up, and it was a dead end.

The futility of folly. You read it also in chapter two, verse twelve, Black Humor. Monty Python's Flying Circus, again, the 60s and the 70s. You can laugh at everything. And when you can laugh at everything, nothing is worth laughing about. Therefore, nothing's funny anymore. Everything is only sick.

And the writer says, I went down that street and that had a dead end also. Fourthly, he went down the street, the tyranny of toil. And you can find described there in chapter four and verse eight, it says there was a man all alone who had neither father or mother or brother or sister. He is able to buy his children everything, and he has. But now he walks around their bedrooms in the silence and he looks in vain for those children.

He longs to hold their hands and he longs to hear their voices. But there is a man all alone. He's a real nowhere man.

Living in his nowhere land and making all his nowhere plans for nobody.

Ecclesiastes.

Now, the writer began to think that he could do all these things, walk all these paths with impunity, and he brings himself back to the realization that in actuality, what was true was what Paul affirmed when he spoke to the crowd in Athens, when he said to the crowd, God has said a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead. The judgment of God will be fair and the judgment of God will be final.

And we live our lives in the awareness of this. True. The brevity of life. The reality of death, the certainty of judgment. And finally and more optimistically, the opportunity of youth.

The facts that are presented here are not to drive us into despair. They're not dissenters out crawling on our hands and knees. But they're actually to stimulate us. Derek Kittner, in his commentary on Ecclesiastes, says death has not yet reached out to us. Let it rattle its genes at us and stir us into action.

I wonder if you've ever point to the fact that on average, your life will last about thirty six million, seven hundred and ninety two thousand minutes. Thirty six million, seven hundred and ninety two thousand minutes, you will sleep for approximately 12 million, three hundred thousand minutes. You will eat for another three million minutes and a vast quantity of food simultaneously. You will work for approximately 13 million minutes.

That leaves us about eight million. Once you deduct time for taking showers.

Which is something that the ladies stand to do more than the men, especially in a college context, I've observed. But anyway, you're down to about six and a half million minutes.

If you're 18 years old, you've already used a quarter of your allocation. So get this, you got five million minutes left unaccounted for.

So what are you going to do with them? Young people this morning. Jesus said. That we should lift up our eyes and look on the fields because they're white already for harvest. Your lives are here before you today. You're at the crossroads of opportunity. You can do what you like with what I've said about it being brief. But you can stop it coming at you at the rate of 60 seconds a minute. You know, if you know your Bible. That judgment is a certainty.

We only need to walk around with open eyes to realize that death is a reality.

But youth is a great opportunity.

As I have the opportunity to talk with you tonight, some of you, and then tomorrow morning, I want to follow on from here, having I hope in some measure stimulated your minds along this line of thinking. And as you walk around the campus today and as you go to bed tonight. Remind yourself of what has been written down, and we found it in books many times. There is only one life and it will soon be passed and only was done for Jesus will last.

Reminding us of the brevity of life. You're listening to Alistair Begg and this is Truth for Life.

No matter your age, we all struggle with the temptation to focus on the here and now rather than living with eternity in mind. The world constantly pulls for our attention and it takes intentional effort to focus our minds on Christ to make pleasing him our ultimate priority at Truth for Life. Our hope is that these daily studies, in God's word, are a help toward that goal as we renew our minds together through clear, relevant Bible teaching. And as you've been encouraged and strengthened by Alistair's teaching, we want to ask you to pass that gift along to another listener by donating today, your financial support helps ensure that these messages remain available without cost being a barrier so that everyone can listen and learn when you donate. We'd love to say thank you by sending you a biography of Eric Little. He's a man who lived with eternity in view. He had a stunning athletic career. He eventually became a missionary working in China. His life is an inspiring illustration of what it means to keep your eyes on the goal of pleasing God. Running the race of faith with perseverance. The biography is titled Running the Race. You can request your copy when you donate today. But the book is only available through the weekend, so be sure to get in touch with us soon. Visit Truth for Life dot org slash donate or call eight eight eight five eight eight seven eight eight four.

Now, with the weekend in view, I want to remind you you're invited to watch Allaster teaching from the pulpit at Parkside Church on Sundays when the service is being streamed live to see if Allaster is teaching this weekend. You can check the schedule at Truth for Life dot org slash live. I'm Bob Lipin for Alistair Begg and all of us. A Truth for Life. Hope you have a relaxing, refreshing weekend. And I hope you can join us Monday as we continue revisiting the most highly requested messages from the past 12 months. Part of Oncor 20-20. Today's program was furnished by Truth for Life. Where the Learning is for Living.