Truth For Life Daily Program - Leaving a Legacy (Part 1 of 2)

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Faith that goes the distance isn't dependent on surges of spiritual emotion.

As we'll hear today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg explains what is crucial for us to have

a sustained journey of faith, even when we go through difficult times, or face our own mortality.

Can I invite you to take your bibles and turn with me to Genesis and to chapter

50? We're just going to read again these concluding words of the chapter.

Genesis 50 in verse 22, Joseph stayed in Egypt, along with all his father's family. He lived

a hundred and ten years and saw the third generation of Ephraim's children. Also the children of

Macieres, son of Manasseh, were placed at birth on Joseph's knees. Then Joseph said to his brothers,

I'm about to die, but God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land,

to the land he promised on Earth, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And Joseph made the sons of Israel

swear an oath and said, God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry up my bones from

this place. So Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten, and after they had embalmed him,

he was placed in a coffin in Egypt. Amen. I've never been involved in any kind of drama. I

suppose if I'd like to be in anything, it would probably be some Shakespearean drama, maybe one of

the gravediggers in Hamlet, nothing very elaborate, certainly not Hamlet, certainly no great part,

but I wouldn't mind trying one of the gravediggers parts, or I wouldn't mind Polonia,

see there in Hamlet, I think I'm a verbose enough to be polonious. But I've often wondered what

it must be like to play a part like that, a night after night after night in a prolonged run.

And then finally, on the last evening, take off the costume and bid the part farewell and return

to the normal course of events. I'm sure there is a sense of attachment that goes beyond merely

the playing of the part. And if there is any approximation to that, in the teaching of scripture,

it probably comes most forcibly when one is engaged over a prolonged period of time,

in a character study, such as we've been with Joseph. And I hope that at least for a few of you,

you will share with me the sense of sadness that is part of this, and I don't mean it in any

sort of nostalgic way, but a genuine sense of sadness in having, is it worth, to close the book,

close the chapter on the life of Joseph. For he has been a companion to us, for a number of

months now, and actually, although he has died, yet he has still lived and spoken to us through

his life. And for many of us, our lives will never be the same again as a result of these studies

in the life of this ancient patriarch. And we have tried as best we've been enabled to make

application of the truth of God's word all the way along the line. And tonight, in drawing it

to a close, I want to make these three simple and straightforward further points of application.

Clearly, we are forced to acknowledge the frailty of our own lives on any occasion when we are

confronted with the biblical record of death. And that is the first straightforward point of

application, namely the frailty that we acknowledge. It's not my purpose to go back and rehearse

the points that we have made in consideration of the death of Jacob, but it is simply to be

reminded and to remind one another of the fact that each of us, as we have said before,

has a shelf life. And in the same way as we find pieces of produce in our grocery stores marked by

a date, which is the suggested date to be used by, so in the economy of God and in the

purpose of God, each of our lives are marked in that way. God has not chosen to give to us the

date of our demise, but the psalmist tells us that every day of our lives was written in his book

before one of them came to be. And he has given some indication of the longevity of life

by addressing the issue of what it would mean to live for 70 years. And some of us tonight,

by dint of a careful reading of the scripture, and also an ability simply to observe the passing of

time, realize that we are beyond our use by date. And others of us feel ourselves to be very far away

from the use by date. Of course, never knowing what a day will bring forth. In the course of the

afternoon, if some of you were watching the kind of informational material that was provided on

plain crashes, you will have seen, as I did, again, the tragedy of the Potomac River 737

Air Florida flight that went down there some years ago. Some 75 of them died, not as a result of

the impact or of the explosion or of the loss in the air, but died as a result of drowning and

died of hypothermia. And the whole world holds its breath and watches that. And the dust of death

settles on the minds of people, but only for a moment or two. And then it is shaken off again.

And the radios are re-tuned. And the stereos are re-reset. And the band begins to play and life

goes on. And folk live with the mythology that as flowers never bend with a rainfall.

So, as Paul Simon said, our lives will never end. Which, of course, we know is just not true.

Now, tonight, without being morbid in any way, the Bible here in the record of Joseph's death,

as with others recorded for us in the book of Genesis, is there so that we would think about death.

The Bible has a great deal to say about death and about dying. The prophet Isaiah in the most

glorious of passages in Isaiah chapter 40, as he speaks, of the wonder of the creation of God

and of the dramatic power of God, both in his calling the existence of creation into being.

Says in verse 6 of Isaiah 40, a voice says, cry out, and I said, what shall I cry?

All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers

and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass.

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.

When the writer of Ecclesiastus, be it Solomon or someone else, reaches the conclusion of the matter

as he puts it in the 12th chapter of Ecclesiastus, he has this comic, tragic picture of humanity

nearing the end of its days, somewhat sightless and somewhat toothless, and struggling along the road

with the stiffened gate of a grasshopper that was suffering from Ecclesiastus, and in the course of it all,

the writer of the word says, then man goes to his eternal home, and mourners go about the streets.

Remember him, that is God your Creator, before the silver cord is severed, or the golden ball is broken.

A picture there of death, another picture, before the picture is shattered at the spring,

our lives are as fragile as pottery, or the wheel broken at the well, the familiar turning of the

wheel at the well suddenly gives out one day, so says the writer, will our lives give out one day,

and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

And so as we stand as it were and gaze at the realistic way in which Joseph approaches death,

as we listen to the word of the prophet reminding us of the very ephemeral nature of each of our lives,

as we have this graphic picture in the poetic books of the ending of our days and of the reality

of it all, it is there in order that we would do what is not customary to do, acknowledge our human

frailty. We sing very little about those facts, and we sing very little about the fact of death

and dying, nobody is writing hymns about these things, it's not particularly appealing, and it is

a great lack, you see, in much of our himnady. When, for example, as just a very young man in his 20s,

Murray McShane thought about these things, he penned these amazing words sometime in the early 19th

century because his life was over by 1843, and he wrote like this, when this passing world is done,

when has sunk on radiant sun, when I stand with Christ on high looking or life's history,

then Lord shall I fully know, not till then how much I owe. When the praise of heaven I hear

loud as thunder to the ear, loud as many waters noise, sweet as harps melodious voice,

then Lord shall I fully know, not till then how much I owe. Chosen not for good in me,

wakened up from wrath to flee, hidden in the Savior's side by the Spirit sanctified,

teach me, Lord, on earth to show, by my love how much I owe. And one of the divine mechanisms

in all of Holy Scripture to call the people of God to a due estimate of who we are and to a humble

recognition of all that has been provided for us is the record in Scripture of the death of those who

die in the Lord. Blessed are those, says the Bible, who die in the Lord. All of us tonight will

one day die. That is not in question, unless of course Christ should come in our lifetime.

And the question is, will we die in the Lord or not? That's the first straightforward and simple

point, the frailty that we are caused to acknowledge. Secondly, the theology that we are called

to embrace, the theology that we are called to embrace. I hope at least in the course of these

studies, you have had reinforced for you as I have had for me the fact that biblical doctrine

is crucial, that an understanding of who God is and who we are in relationship to God,

that a view of the world that is framed by his divine character and purpose is absolutely essential,

not only for human sanity, but in order that we might prepare to live correctly and to die properly.

And the theology that we embrace now at the end of the 20th century is the theology which has been

emblazoned for us in the life of Joseph and has been aptly summarized here as we saw this morning

in this simple little phrase, God will surely come to your aid. You will remember that we said that

the story of Joseph is the story of God's providence. And when we introduced the whole issue of

providence, we said that the doctrine of providence was grounded in the first book of the Bible

and had its name essentially given to it in a phrase in Genesis chapter 22. And you may want to

turn there just for a moment to remind yourself of this so that when people say to you, well,

where do you get this doctrine of providence? You can take them to this instance in Genesis 22

as Abram takes the sun for whom he had waited all these years. As he takes in verse 6,

the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac and to see himself carry the fire

and the knife and as the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father,

Abraham, father, yes, my son Abraham replied, the fire and the wood are here, Isaac said,

but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? And Abraham answered, God himself will provide the lamb

for the burnt offering my son and the two of them went on together. The great truths of scripture

run all the way down through the corridors of the old and the New Testament intersecting that which we

see in the opening books of the Bible right through to the very end of Scripture because of the very

final verses of Scripture. You have this promise of the coming of God to us in the return of the

Lord Jesus Christ. And here in the words of Joseph, you have the promise given to these people

that God will surely come to their aid as we saw this morning. And when Paul writes in his great

theological treatise to the Roman Christians in Romans chapter 5, it is this essential truth

which undergirds so much of what he says in Romans chapter 5 he says in verse 6, you see at just

the right time when we were still powerless Christ died for the ungodly at just the right time

Christ died for the ungodly. And the story of Joseph, the theology which runs through the book of

Genesis as it is revealed in the life of Joseph is as we've said the great and classic expression

of Romans 828. And we then know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him

who have been called according to his purpose. Some of us started our studies in Joseph with a spring

in our step believing that God was in his heaven and all was right with the world. And we

end the studies in Joseph having come through hell en route. Being confronted with a question,

do I really and truly believe that? Some of us began and the thought of losing a loved one

was something that other people experienced but we had never known and tonight we sit in the

awareness of that. Some of us had only joy and anticipation filling our hearts in the early days

of the year when we opened the book of Genesis and turned to this 17-year-old boy and we knew

Romans 828 we had it on a little card we carried it in our purse and we used to say it to people

and we often said it glibly to people we said it in grocery stores and we said it at the drop of a

hat oh well all things work together for good to those who love God who are called according to

his purpose and all we were so smart but we're not so smart tonight because along the journey we

fed our hearts broken we fed our faith tested we fed our insights taken out and reexamined

in our homes and in our schools and in our marriages and in our parenting and in our teenage years

and in our businesses and God has been saying to us do you really believe this theology

do you believe this are you able to say with Paul later in his life I know who I have believed

and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have entrusted to him against that day

I know of a surety no matter what I've been through no matter how I have been distressed no matter

how my heart has been broken still I have learned through the journey with Joseph to affirm again

God is God and my trust and my hope is in him Samuel Rutherford in the writing of his memoirs

provided for a lady by the name of cousins who was the wife of one of Rutherford's ministerial

colleagues the opportunity to write a most glorious hymn along the lines of the theme of providence

I him again that we sing spiritually I should stop saying this it sounds like a judgment on

the hymns we're singing it's not it should be seen as an encouragement of the hymns we're about

to sing when we finally stop talking about it and start doing it but in the hymn the sands of

time are sinking you have this tremendous third verse with mercy and with judgment my web of time

he wove and I the dues of sorrow were lustered by his love I'll bless the hand that guided

and I'll bless the heart that planned when thrown where glory dwelleth in a manual's land

or in a more contemporary song it will be worth it all when we see Jesus

life's trials will seem so small when we see Christ one look at his dear face all sorrow will erase

so bravely run the race till you see Christ you see it is not a feeling in our tummies which

sustains us on the journey of faith it is a theology it is what we know of God that when the

difficult day comes when we find is it where the bone in the fish that we thought was so beautifully

prepared it is in that moment in the finding of the bone as it were in the experience of life

that we must then revert very clearly to what we know of God as Jeff and I flew in from Los Angeles on

Wednesday evening we were sitting in two separate rows I was sitting one space away from a lady from

Vietnam as it turns out this must be my Vietnamese period if you recall Friday evening around

our supper time five five thirty it was particularly cloudy in fact over the airport it was

downright foggy and although we had flown in tranquility for most of the journey as soon as we

began to make our descent into the Cleveland area life took on just that whole different kind of

field and the pilot told us that we would be on the ground in 10 minutes and 10 minutes came and

went and 15 minutes came and went and it went to 17 minutes and the little lady sitting beside

me just kept saying one thing I can't see ground I can't see ground which was not blessing me in

any way at all and eventually I said to her you are not to be concerned that you can't see the

ground we are only to be concerned that the pilot can see his instruments for our feelings in those

moments had to be brought under the jurisdiction of another and indeed our lives were humanly speaking

entrusted to his care and we did see the ground seconds before we landed on the ground

and she had then to go to Baltimore and I was done

so she had to live it all over again and I just had to make it safely home

the hymn writer says as I've told you before I thank you Lord that all my joys are touched with

pain that shadows fall on the brightest hours and thorns remain so that earth's bliss

may be my guide and not my chain and if I have learned one thing in the course of my studies in

Joseph it is this amazing truth that God who fashioned us in our mother's womb Sam 139

who intricately woeves according to his divine purpose has ordered all of our days and all of our

steps and our theology is Joseph's theology too

you're listening to Alistair Begg on truth for life with a message titled leaving a legacy

and we'll hear the conclusion tomorrow

now here at truth for life one of the things we're passionate about is telling you about who God is

and about the gift of salvation he offers and as we look ahead to Easter and celebrating the

saving power of the cross I want to encourage you to share the gospel story with friends or family

members by handing out copies of the gospel tract titled ever wonder why your world feels broken

this is a small three and a half by four inch tract written by Alistair that's designed

for you to give away as widely as you can throughout your day it's perfect for sharing

at the gym or the coffee shop it's great to hand out along with an invitation to your church's

Sunday worship service it invites those unfamiliar with the Bible and God's plan of redemption to

consider that the reason our world feels broken is because it is this little tract explains the

gospel in a simple personal way and closes with an invitation to read the gospel of John and to

listen to a message from Alistair again the title is ever wonder why your world feels broken

you can buy five for a dollar or get packs of 25 for just five dollars online at truthforlife.org

slash tract and if you add a donation at checkout be sure to request the three pack of the man on

the middle cross booklets these are our way of saying thank you for your generosity

we are glad you studied the Bible with us today so what kind of legacy will you leave

tomorrow we'll learn how to leave a lasting legacy that'll comfort and encourage loved ones in

our absence I hope you can join us the Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by truth for life

where the learning is for living