My Times Are in Your Hands (Part 2 of 4)

The you have a confidence. Your times are in God's hand. If so, there's a reason for us to be thankful. We know that whatever we experience comes to us from a loving God, even the hard things today on Truth for Life. Alistair Begg takes us to Psalm 31 so we can anchor our minds on the truth of Scripture as we learn about God's providence in a phrase, says the status my time are in your hands. It is this which will bring equilibrium to us in this and other events which would inflate our ego or crush our souls that are nine things that I would like to tell you which in marriage. From this simple statement.

The first truth is this. Since my times are in your hands number one. I am not trapped in the grid of blamed forces.

I am not stymied.

If you like by fate. Secondly, I am not tossed about on the ocean of chance. This brings us to the other Kennington and egg 17. His name was Epicurus from which we get epicurean.

He lived between 341 and 270 BC he passed on a system of ethics which is come right down to the 20th century for Epicurus the good was what life was all about.

And the good could be determined by what brings most pleasure.

Therefore, you spend all of your life trying to achieve the good and the way you achieve the good with my gain as much pleasure as you possibly could not find his Epicurus and his followers never pushed it to his logical conclusion didn't have to because you want to come people after them who would do that for example what you have in Sartre's philosophy which all of you when you went to school to as part of the foundational courses of philosophy of you live that a certain era. Sartre says okay I'll take that out pushing to his logical conclusion and he writes his first novel called nausea and he puts in the lips of one of his key characters requirements and the expression on the ultimate futility which is the flipside of the statement of faith.

My times are in your requirements and is pictured walking in the city park and he is overcome by the nausea of the meaninglessness of life and as he looks around he concludes quote every existent is born without reason prolongs itself out of weakness and dies by chance, that is contemporary existentialism at the grassroots level. Where do you get it everywhere. For example Robin Williams dead point society gathers all the guys out in the corridor on the boarding school and shows them all the pictures of the fellows that went before the end where we have a display of their success in life and he shows these young boys, he says now look this fellow is here.

Look what he did and he achieve in here cheap and he says now here's the thing. Fellows carpe diem sees the day you must do your best in the moment that you have 91 says that is a very fine piece of advice because we need to make use of the time that we have, because the time that we have is the time that we have, but the underlying notion in it, is that there was no yesterday, and there will be no tomorrow when he is actually doing propounding the anti-philosophy of nature who declared there remains only boy man is falling. His dignity is gone. His values are lost, there is no difference between and down. It is become chilly and the dark Knight is closing in on you get that sense I get it in different places, I get it in springtime in Coventry.

I would say the Arabic coffee shop when it's 74° and Tana really interesting young folks are sitting on the wall.

Despite the springtime sun on their shoulders.

I know that they would be prepared to say it is become chilly in the dark night is closing in. Because you see their living without hope and without God in the world they cannot see my times are in your hands because they believe their destiny to be in their own control. So what is the Christian say if to say, my times are in your hands means that I'm not trapped by blind chance, fate that I am not tossed around on the sea of chance. What is it is this.

I am being trained in the school of God's providence.

I'm being trained in the school of God's Providence while men and women are smothered by the pessimism that we just described, and others embrace the kind of superficial optimism of hedonism characterized by the guy fellow the 30 story window and as he hurtled down past the 10th floor. Somebody had him shouting so far so good. And there are many people whose lives are just like that. They don't want to know that we don't hit the ground. They don't want to know there's only nine floors left. They don't want to hear anything about that. All they want to know is they are freefalling they haven't hit the ground yet and leave me alone. Sam says no, we can simply go to that the Christian affirms the truth that God has not abandoned the world that he created as deism, nor has he become absorbed by his creation as pantheism, but rather he is distinct from what he is made and he is working everything in relationship to his creation out according to his plan. Oh, you will be interested to know I got a global so you can relax. I know many of you were planning on buying we want to do you have it on order canceled the order, but I got the global actually I got three logs high God and air-filled global that I can kick around the office.

I got a beautiful paperweight globe that I can lay on my desk and I got the mother of all globes from my wife which I will show to people on rare occasions but I've had the privilege now for the first time I life of been able to spin the globe and have right there at my fingertips. The whole world is aware the fastness so that all is said the other evening and I spun this thing in my hands. I said men. This is actually what God does actually actually moves the same forms. That's why we don't live in the Ice Age. That's why we haven't been burned up because were in the exact spot, according to his divine plan and by the same power with which he created this universe in which we live by his same divine energy. He preserves all of his creatures he operates in all it comes to pass in the world and he directs everything to its appointed and did you get that the God who created the world by his same divine energy preserves all of his creatures is operative in everything that comes to pass in the world and he directs all of the events of life according to his appointed and and that appointed end, says Paul in writing to the Ephesians is to bring everything into conformity with the purpose of his will and in writing to the Romans he makes it clear that his purpose is to conform people to the image of his son the Lord Jesus Christ.

So that is bizarre as it seems the sovereign Creator of the ends of the air fashions. Everything that happens in time and in history to this eventuality that he will redeem for himself a people who are his very own, and he will use the good the bad and the ugly in our lives in order to conform us to the image of his son, and to enable us to say I'm not like a cork on the sea of life. I'm not trapped in a cage of fate, but rather my times are in your hands. That is an expression of belief and that is an expression of faith. Sam, 139 probably gives it to his is clear and does well as any Sahm to which we might turn on Lord you have searched me and you know me you know when I sit down and when I rise you perceive my thoughts from afar you discern my going out and my lying down. You see me when I drive my car you know me when I'm lying in my bed before a word is on my tongue. You know it completely.

You hand me and behind and before civil. This is also the generic stuff is it does it stretch to the specific.

You bet your life. It does look at verse 13, for you created my inmost being you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made about dignity. Julie is really dignified to be told that you are the product of some chance explosion in a slimy pond somewhere where DNA introduced itself to DNA and you enlarge that ever out of a little a little to become what you are today.

No wonder people are going around half half dead. This doesn't make any sense at all. In making any sense at all.

The fool has said in his heart there is no God behind a façade of wisdom people become fools who would worship creatures and creative things and's that you put on dressers rather than bow down and say you know what Mike times are in your hands. I can even breathe unless you allow me I cannot get enough of the juice in my eyes to keep them opening and closing as they need to proud and arrogant. Rascal is man as we stand in foam our noses at the creator who holds are very red in his hand.

You made me and my mother's womb. You determine my all positive blood you determine my DNA. You knew what I would have hair or no hair you knew what color would be union my eyes would be blue, you knew it all and, indeed, not only did you know it, but you plan this, I loved ones. This sounds so bizarre doesn't hundred years ago men and women by and large took it for granted. We have lived in 100 years of the diminishing of God and the elevation of man. So we find ourselves trapped in cages and floating in boats with no compass and no orders and no nothing and all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. That is not faint. That is my father who loves me with an everlasting love has determined the span of my life and I trusted.

I am not start with an impersonal force. Now you see loved ones. This is the basis of great comfort.

You might as well believe there is no God as believe what people believe they tell me you know what I believe there is a God, but I don't believe he sees. I don't believe he hears. I don't believe he cares and I don't believe he acts in human affairs, or even believe in a God for what what what does he do if he is on vacation for all of that. What is he do when he works well. I want you to know. I do believe that God sees and I do believe that God hears and I do believe that God knows and I do believe that God cares because he wrote this whole book to make that absolutely clear and furthermore he stepped down onto the glow from the glory of heaven, and he revealed himself in the person of the incarnate son, the Lord Jesus Christ, God with us and Jesus in affirming the same truth in the crowd that is gathered around him says to them with simplicity and with power on one occasion, let me ask you a question. He says are not two sparrows sold for a penny. They lost a loved one another.

Yes and says Jesus yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your father. Sparrows do not fall dead into the Metroparks extent for the unfolding of the will of the Creator of the ends of the earth who knows the end from the beginning and knows every detail of our lives. Then he applies and even he says the very hairs of your head are numbered, so don't be afraid you are worth more than many sparrows. I don't know what your resumes like mine is not that great but here's something you can write on it.

If you been stuck for stuff to put this on.

I went here. I went there I did this I did that and by the way, I am worth more than many sparrows and some may like to try that. I like to see what happen.

I try myself but I don't have a reason to give anyone a resume. I hope you can imagine the guy reading down you know you're in your ear I die Glaxo welcome or something because you want to get in involved in biochemistry.

These ghosts are your thing, Case Western Reserve – I am worth more than many sparrows like to tell me about that.

I love to tell you about what it means.

What it means I'm not trapped in a cage. Mark fate, it means I'm not adrift on a boat Mark chance. It means I'm being trained in the school of God's providence. It means, in short, that my times are in his hands. See this is how you can go to sleep at night. This is how you can get up in the morning. This is how we must live, presumably, in light of the fact that anyone of us may fall foul of anything at any moment in time.

In Scotland we used to sing the hymn, which I would use as a closing hymn if we knew how to sing it but we don't. But I'll come back to the other six points next time is what we used to say my times are in your hand my God I wish them. There my life, my friends, my soul. I leave entirely to your care. My times are in your hand, whatever they may be pleasing or painful, dark or bright as best may seem to the Mike times are in your hand. Why should I doubt or fear my father's hand will never cause his child and needless tear it all sounds so trendy. It all sounds so cool all the guy stuff is total abject hopelessness.

It's a train going nowhere. It's a boat with a hole in it. It's an airplane with no engines. It's a life without purpose that we want to live. Unbeliever you want to jam me in a corner and made me explain to you why I'm so stupid as to believe what I believe. I beg your pardon, I beg your pardon. The fool has said in his heart there is no God but as for me, my times are in your we find comfort and security in what the Bible teaches us about the providence of God. That's today's message on Truth for Life with Alastair Begg and Alastair will be back in just a minute to close with prayer so please keep list. We are not adrift the sea of chance are times are in God's hands. We trust this reality because we study our Bibles and for us it's a privilege to share these eternal truths each day on Truth for Life affect this program happens because others who have grown in their understanding of Scripture wanted you to benefit in the same way they've benefited Truth for Life is 100% listener funded when you give, you bring Alistair's teaching the listeners all across the United States and around the world every day without cost. Being a barrier so if you've been benefiting from the clear biblical teaching you hear on Truth for Life. Would you help us meet our remaining year-end obligations while the teaching of Truth for Life is free to access.

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Now here's Alastair to close with prayer, God, you know, our hearts, and you know our minds. You know, our words, some of us have come to worship this morning were here just because someone brought as a long week felt we got jammed yet caged in or that we bounced in by chance beginning to rethink that seems possible that were here by divine appointment thing the issues out to realign our coming and going to admit our need of to believe in your son to cry to you for mercy to set the compass of our life's. According to the truth of your word. Hear the cries of our hearts and our father. In light of our joys and sorrows.

Our hopes and our fears, we come afresh to you. May your grace be our portion today. May your love fill our hearts and flow from our lives.

May your peace God and keep our hearts and minds today and forevermore about Lapine join us again tomorrow as we learn about what it means to rest in God's sovereignty as we continue our series called my times are in your hand the Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life learning is prolific