WHAT IS OUR LIFE?
T. D. Beveridge
Philippians 1: 21–30; Titus 2: 11–15; Colossians 3: 1–4
I would like to speak about our lives. All of us here in this room are alive, we are living, we are breathing, we are all alive. I would like to speak about living things. One of the things I remember about Mr. Peter Grant of Dundee, he used to speak about a ‘living God and a living system’. Dear friends, we have to do with a living God and He is interested in our lives, how we are living our lives.
I suppose we are all interested in our own lives, how we are living them. We read of the beloved apostle Paul, and he says “For for me to live is Christ”. What a thing to be able to say! Why are you living, dear brother, dear sister? is it because of material things, maybe your house, your business, your family or other things? Is that the object in your life? I think God is speaking to us about these things to find out if Christ is our object.
There are certain persons in the Old Testament who are very interesting, one is Ruth, a young woman, and another is Ittai, a soldier, and one of the things that happened in the lives of these persons was that there was a change brought about in the circumstances in which they were living. In Ruth’s case a woman called Naomi, who was her mother-in-law, made a move from where she was. Her life had been in Moab, she had married and her husband Elimelech had died. On account of what she had heard, Naomi was going to move away, and Ruth and Orpah, her daughters-in-law (whose husbands had also died) initially said they would set off with Naomi to return to her own people; so that meant a big change in their lives. If you have lived in a place for a long time and decide to move away that is going to make a big change in your life. If you move house that is a big change in your life, and these two women decided to go with Naomi, but one, after Naomi’s appeal, turned back. But the other, Ruth, clave to Naomi. She made that decision. The three of them were together and it says, “And they lifted up their voice and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clave to her. And she said, Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone back to her people and to her gods—return after thy sister-in-law. And Ruth said, Do not intreat me to leave thee, to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge—thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God; where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried. Jehovah do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part me and thee! And when she saw that she was stedfastly minded to go with her, she left off speaking to her. And they two went until they came to Bethlehem”, Ruth 1: 14–19. What I want to bring out is that that was going to be a change in that young woman’s life. Has there been a change in your life, or do you still live the same way as you have always done?
Ittai was a servant of David’s, and David said to him, You do not need to stay with me, you can go away but he committed himself wholeheartedly to David (see 2 Samuel 15: 19–22). What I would like to say about these two persons is they were wholehearted and they were deliberate. Dear brethren, we have reached a time for being deliberate about where we are, if we are committed. If we are half-hearted God knows that, but He wants us to be deliberate in our lives and in our committals. So Paul says, “For for me to live is Christ, and to die gain”. But then he goes on to speak about being pressed for the desire for departure and being with Christ. That is a very real thing when persons come to that point in their lives. We spoke about our elder brethren. Maybe they have come to the point where they think about departure to be with Christ, a real thing in the life of a believer, to be looking for departure to be with Christ. In Luke 9: 28–31, when the disciples were on the mountain with the Lord Jesus, Moses and Elias spoke about His departure that He was about to accomplish in Jerusalem. But I am speaking about our lives, human lives, as the days pass by. One of the things the psalmist says about our lives as the time passes by is “teach us to number our days”, Psalm 90: 12. That is the days of our human life, this frail mortal condition in which we are, “that we may acquire a wise heart”. My friend, I speak to the younger brethren. Do you have a wise heart about what you are doing day by day? The blessed God takes account of our days. We spoke in the reading of “Precious in the sight of Jehovah is the death of his saints”, Psalm 116: 15. He takes account of every detail of your life and my life, even the hairs of our head being numbered. What a God He is and He is interested in our lives.
So Paul says that he would remain with them. “I am pressed by both, having the desire for departure and being with Christ, for it is very much better, but remaining in the flesh is more necessary for your sakes”. Being at burials of the beloved saints, there are natural ties that have been broken, they are real, natural ties are real. We are not born spiritual, we are born natural, “But that which is spiritual was not first, but that which is natural, then that which is spiritual”, 1 Corinthians 15: 46. During this human life we begin to realise how brief it is. Some of us as we get a bit older realise the brevity of it, and as in it the apostle is speaking here of departure. It speaks in Joshua of the priests’ feet coming to the edge of the Jordan, looking at the Jordan is a type of death. What a thing that is in your experience to realise, and it will apply to all of us if the Lord does not come, even if you are a young boy or a young girl. We are looking for the Lord Jesus to come, we are looking for the rapture and, who knows how soon that actual event will take place. We trust that it will be very soon, we are looking for that. The Father knows the time, and Christ is ready to come Himself. He will come with an assembling shout, but the apostle speaks here about departure and he says “it is very much better”. We like things in this life that are better; we like better things in the house, or better clothing, all the natural things that we like; perhaps we would like to get a bigger house, a bigger car, all these things appeal to us. All that I would like to say about that verse of scripture is that Paul is speaking about living, “For for me to live is Christ”.
I come to the section in Titus. It has been said that there is no place for long addresses. You want something brief and effective that will affect those who hear, so that the word is taken on. In this section in Titus, it says, “For the grace of God which carries with it salvation for all men has appeared”; what a thing the grace of God is, breaking down a man’s heart. The apostle Paul, remarkable man that he was, brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, a Pharisee and so on, getting letters to authorise putting those of the way to death, witnessing the death of Stephen, what things he must have seen. But then the Lord spoke to him and came into his life. God is ready to come into your life. We try to get away from God; have you ever tried to get away? You did not want to come to the meetings, you did not want to be amongst the brethren. You wanted to go out into the world and really enjoy yourself. It does not say there is no pleasure in sin, it says “the temporary pleasure of sin”, Hebrews 11: 25. The things I would seek to engage every heart with are the eternal matters; you have a soul and you have a God to do with, and you have to do with Him about eternal matters while you are in this frail human life. This is not the gospel, but there is an opportunity now for you, if you are disturbed about things, to put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and come to know something of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It says, “For the grace of God which carries with it salvation for all men has appeared, teaching us that, having denied impiety and worldly lusts, we should live soberly”. This is a time for living soberly and then he says “justly, and piously”. We spoke about moral features in the reading; these are lovely moral features, so that “we should live soberly, and justly, and piously in the present course of things”. What would you say about the “present course of things” in this world?—the turmoil in the Middle East, dangers and storms in the west, what turmoil and chaotic conditions there are now in this world. Thank God for the scripture, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and to the ages to come”, Hebrews 13: 8. What a Person the Lord Jesus is! The blessed God who is above all these disturbing conditions amongst men, which affect the lives of men and women and boys and girls, is here speaking of living in these conditions “soberly, and justly, and piously in the present course of things”. I trust all here have a link with the Lord Jesus, have known something about the grace of God in the preaching of the word of God, have come under the shelter of the precious blood of the Lord Jesus, and are awaiting the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ. I know first of all there will be the rapture, and that is what is really in the hearts of the saints, the coming of the Lord Jesus for His own. What a moment that will be, dear brethren! I have referred to the background in the world, not that that is exactly a guide to this, but we can see the heading up of things, and in the midst of that, as believers, we are waiting for the Lord Jesus to come to take His own to be with Himself, and then after that there will be His appearing gloriously to this sad sin-stricken world. The Lord Jesus will appear and His reign over a millennial period, how wonderful it will be!
Now we are “awaiting the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all lawlessness, and purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous for good works”. I suppose in some way, to the man in the street, the saints seem peculiar in the things that are their interests. We are not of this world. The things in this world are passing. Do you believe that, dear brother, dear sister? Do you believe that the things in this world are passing? Time is interesting, how much time a man will spend in his life without God. It says, “having no hope, and without God in the world”, Ephesians 2: 12. If you have only got hope in the things that you can see and the things that you are surrounding yourself with there is misery attached to that. “The things that are seen are for a time, but those that are not seen are eternal”, 2 Corinthians 4: 18. Have you seen by faith the unseen things? God would speak to you about them, they are to be seen in the Lord Jesus. Peter says of the Lord Jesus, “whom, having not seen, ye love”, 1 Peter 1: 8. I have never seen the Lord Jesus actually; I look forward to seeing Him. None of us here has seen Him, but He is coming again and He will be seen; we will look upon Him in all His beauty and His body of glory. What a matter that will be! He is in His body of glory now. I think it has been said, when He comes at the Supper He comes to us from glory. The blessed Lord Jesus; how wonderful that is, we are awaiting Him. And then he goes on here to say, “awaiting the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us”. What giving there has been on the divine side that we might be blessed in this brief span of human life, that we come to know the Lord Jesus Christ and to be here for Him as “a peculiar people, zealous for good works. These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority”.
We spoke about Timothy as Paul’s beloved child; this young man is referred to as his own child, “to Titus, my own child”, Titus 1: 4. What a job he had to do. He had to go to these Cretans who are described as liars, evil wild beasts, lazy gluttons; he had to go into these difficult circumstances and convey the grace of the Lord Jesus. What an appeal, even to the most undeserving people, God is conveying the thought of His wonderful grace, the grace of God carrying with it salvation. How great the salvation of God is affecting persons in their lives. I am concerned about this in our life span. I do not know what your main object in life is. You get older and you realise that you have to begin to change your thinking. At least I have. When you are young everything is lying ahead of you, all the things you can go in for and indulge in, filling your gaze. O friend, the brevity of human life! I am thinking of the young sister of eighteen who is very seriously ill. I remember a young man of about my own age being taken, and that was a loud voice. God can speak in the death of the saints. O my friend, do not trifle with your soul or with your life.
God would have to do with you. What an appeal there is in this world to draw you, to take your time. Satan is doing that at the present time. He is taking up men’s time; the power in technology that is available now is absorbing men’s time so much that they have not time to think about the reality of life. O have to do with God now about your soul, your never-dying soul, have to do with Him in your life, come by way of repentance and faith, and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, this One who has shown His grace in going to Calvary’s cross, His precious blood being shed in order that you can be saved, so that you can be found here in your lifetime faithful to Him. There will not be any opportunity after the Lord comes. Those who believe on Him will be with Him in conditions of glory and like Him. Are you ready for that, dear friend, for Him to come now, or are there things on the earth that would still hold on to you in your circumstances? How real they are, the pull of earth, the seductive power of the world. Satan, it says, was more crafty than any animal of the field, and he knows my weakness and he knows your weakness, dear friend, and if he sees something that attracts you he will push you to go that way. There may be something that is dominating your life and taking up your time, when maybe you could have been with the brethren.
Sometimes our weeknight meetings are not attended too well. Now I do not want to be legal in speaking about these things but the demands of business can override our committal to the Lord. Mr. James Taylor said at one time that he had the feeling that the businesses of the brethren were standing in the way and the testimony suffered (JT Vol. 25, p.49). It may be that business or studying or other things are hindrances to meeting with the brethren. What I would like to say is that time is valuable in your life. It says, “what is your life? It is even a vapour, appearing for a little while, and then disappearing”, James 4: 14. You have seen a kettle boiling, you see the steam, there it is and then it is away. Like the “threescore years and ten; and if, by reason of strength, they be fourscore years”, how brief it is and the psalmist says, “that we may acquire a wise heart”, Psalm 90: 10, 12. I feel burdened as to the matter of life, dear brethren, the brevity of it, and it also says, “For a thousand years, in thy sight, are as yesterday when it is past” (Psalm 90: 4). “For all our days pass away in thy wrath—we spend our years as a passing thought. The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if, by reason of strength, they be fourscore years, yet their pride is labour and vanity, for it is soon cut off, and we fly away” (Psalm 90: 9, 10). “So teach us to number our days, that we may acquire a wise heart”. If we are ten or twelve you think you have fifty, sixty, seventy years ahead of you but the psalmist says here, “teach us to number our days, that we may acquire a wise heart”. I think we need a wise heart in this life. Remember the man who had the barns and his business was really booming and he said, What shall I do? I will pull them down and I will build bigger ones to lay up many years ahead, but what was the word? “Fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee”, Luke 12: 20. What I want to illustrate from this is that Satan would occupy you with things here, whereas the things that we have to do with are eternal, and they are worth going in for in this short span of life that we have now.
Now we come to Colossians 3, “If therefore ye have been raised with the Christ, seek the things which are above, where the Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God—have your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth; for ye have died, and your life is hid with the Christ in God”. What do I know about that by way of experience? It says, “ye have died” and yet we are all sitting here alive. It refers to what is moral, having died to things that are on the earth. Do they still have some pull? They have a pull, things of the earth; I know that in my own heart, but then he goes on to say “When the Christ is manifested who is our life”—who is our life is not future, if a thing is it means that it exists. So it says “When the Christ is manifested who is our life”. It links on in my mind with the first scripture I read. Is Christ our life or are the things of the earth? I take this word to myself, is Christ my life? There are features of Christ to be seen in the saints and you can feed on that; but in the short span of a man’s life, decisions have to be made. There are things that are drawing us one way perhaps, and the need is at this time to make sure that you know something in your life, that you have died and your life is hid with the Christ in God. I would that I could speak more feelingly and powerfully of such an experience.
Think of Paul being caught up into paradise, that he kept for fourteen years, an experience that he had had of being caught up and had heard things that he was not able to utter in this condition that we are in, what things he knew (see 2 Corinthians 12: 1–4). O dear brethren, there are things that can be known by the Spirit; faith and the Spirit can give us to touch things that properly speaking are outside of this condition. I do not want to be fanciful in what I am saying, but there are things that can be known in the Christian company as gathered together, that we can know in the power of the Spirit, and enjoy things that properly speaking are outside of this weak frail mortal condition. Now I cannot say that I know much about it but I expect many here have had experiences of the presence of the Lord Jesus. One who is beyond death now, a glorious living Saviour, One we can have a touch from. How great these things are!
May they absorb our hearts, dear brethren, and may the word affect us in our lives here. Maybe there will be a change in me and my locality, and be more committed to Christ and more committed to the saints and in our practical walk. The saints know how I am, the saints know how you are, they know what your prime interests in life are, what my prime interests are, I trust they do, that it is Christ, one object. You remember the old story of the poor woman in an attic in London. Someone went to see her and wanted to help her with something and she said, ‘I have Christ, what want I more?’.
Dear brethren, Christ is sufficient. May it be so, for His name’s sake.
Address at Aberdeen, Scotland
27 August 2011