Life's Inescapable Questions, Part 2

Thank you for downloading from Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. Support for this podcast comes from your generous gifts and donations. You can find out more about Ravi Zacharias and the team at www.rzim.org We are living in difficult and challenging times and we've all felt the impact of COVID-19 in one way or another, whether that be through the economic challenges and hardship it's brought through the physical separation from loved ones to those who are now wrestling with illness.

Our prayers are with you and would like to thank you also for praying for us. In the last few weeks I've been reflecting on a few famous words in Romans 8 where it says, What shall separate us from the love of God? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

What is amazing to me is the first few words in that sentence, the first two as a matter of fact, refer to the idea of living with constraint or being hemmed in to be in a narrow place. Two words that seems to sum up so much of the global challenge we see right now. And wherever you are, whether you're with family or whether you're going and facing this challenge alone, please know our prayers and thoughts are with you. I would also like to thank all of you who have been praying for us because during this time we have seen a fresh openness to the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We've recently launched a series called Take Five, five short minute thoughts of five minutes each once a day during the week to try to bring light into a situation of darkness. Some of the ASEAN live events which we have done have had audiences in the hundreds of thousands, both in Europe and across North America as well as across the world, as many tune in wondering where they can find solace, comfort, but also the promise of a new life. And we would like to thank for all of you who've been standing with us in prayer and in financial support to help us take that message to where it needs to go. We know that so many of us are hurting right now as we deal with the economic challenges, but for those of you who are able, regardless of how big or small your gift may be, please know that we are very grateful and feel very blessed to have been given the privilege and trust by you to take a message to those who most need to hear it. Thank you for standing with us. If you're in need of a savior, you need to have your hungers changed, your wants changed, your life transformed, you're trapped in a prison of your own desires that are contrary to God's. This message is for you. The revelation awaits on a point in time.

Tonight may be that time for you. Science is the exploration of evidence in a quest to understand the universe in which we live. Ultimately, it leads us back to our creator.

Hello and welcome to Let My People Think. From the inner workings of the atom to the farthest reaches of space, the more human beings deepen their understanding of the universe, the more we discover one inescapable fact. You are not here by chance, yet more and more people wish to deny that fact.

Today, Ravi Zacharias examines the cost of our denial in the conclusion of his message, Life's Inescapable Questions. You know, ladies and gentlemen, evil starts without understanding purpose. You don't understand the purpose of marriage, you will bring evil into it. You don't understand the purpose of being a citizen, you will bring evil into it. You don't understand the purpose of what this ministry is all about, it's very easy to bring evil into it. Always ask first for purpose, and the founders of this nation did an amazing thing when they said this, to this we put our names and sign it with our sacred honor.

Sacred, that qualifier basically means at its core, trust and life and nation building is born out of sanctity. You desacralize life, and as Chesterton says, the tragedy of disbelieving in God is not that a person ends up believing in nothing, alas it is much worse, he may end up believing in anything, evil, injustice, violence, and then God begins to answer him. You see, for example, in chapter 2 and verse 2 to 4, the first answer that God gives to him, he says to him, write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets, so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time, it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it lingers, wait for it, it will certainly come and shall not delay.

See, he is puffed up, his desires are not upright, but the righteous will live by his faith. The revelation awaits an appointed time, run in such a way that he who runs can read it. Propositional truth is God's strong way of reminding us what life is all about.

Truth is primarily the nature of propositions. His word is given to us and we are reminded again and again that his word abides forever. The heaven and earth, as it were, metaphorically can pass away, but his word will abide forever. Thy word became like a fire within my bones, says the prophetic writers. God's word is given to remind us of what is true.

So powerful is the word that it even ought to transcend some of the best experiences alone. And it was Peter who went to the Mount of Transfiguration and was given that breathtaking glimpse of what we call the Transfiguration of Jesus. See, it's Moses and Elijah, the two historic personages for whom God served as the undertaker.

And now they're setting their feet on this mountain. Peter is so overwhelmed, he says to Jesus, let's not leave this place, let's just build some tents here and continue to reside. And Jesus takes him back down into the areas where people were to proclaim to them, it is this Peter who says, and now we have the word of the prophets made more certain and we would do well to pay attention to it as to a light in a dark place. Let this word of God be your guide.

So what's the first thing he says? He says right from the beginning that the just shall live by faith, but he moves into that very importantly from the end of chapter two when he says this, of what value is an idol since a man has carved it or an image that teaches lies for he who makes a trust in his own creation. Let the Lord who is all in his holy temple, let all the earth be silent before him. He gives us two ideas here, and let me take them in reverse. Number one, God is.

The Lord is in his holy temple, the actuality of God and distinction to atheism. Now I'm not a scientist but on our team we have some great scientists, some of you may have heard john Lennox debating Dawkins and hitchens and so on. john Lennox is a triple doctorate he's a professor of pure mathematics at Green College in Oxford, but he's really on our staff at the Oxford Center for Christian apologetics john is like a teddy bear and comes from Ireland and he looks like Santa Claus in the hair.

Just a nice happy personality triple doctorate one in mathematics one in philosophy one in science. I don't know why he teaches pure mathematics because I never thought mathematics was pure always struck me as an impure subject because I never did I don't know why I'm telling it, but I listened to the scientists john poking on brilliant quantum physicist, a late comer to Christ. And what do I hear some of these bright minds, saying something so different to the naturalists will. I was born professor of quantum at that time the dean at Queens College, when you take the formation of the cell universe in the early picoseconds. Do you know what a picosecond is a picosecond is that amount of time that it'll take an object traveling at the speed of light to cross the breadth of a single strand of hair. So he said let's look at the early picoseconds of the universe. And he says the exactitude demanded in 32 different contingencies is so finely tuned so finely tuned and begin to delineate them let me give you just one. He said the expansion and the contraction forces in the early picoseconds of the universe had to be so exact, and the margin of error so small that it would be like taking aim at a one square inch object at the other end of the known universe 20 billion light years away and hitting it bullseye says one contingency expansion contraction forces.

He said resolve by another fraction of a mark. You and I would not be here. And in a typical English understatement he says gentlemen, there's no free lunch.

Somebody has to pay. You see, when you start to disbelieve in God, you can see the mental gymnastics going on. The great astronomer who was the director of the of NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Robert Jastrow said somehow I have this terrible feeling that for us scientists is going to end like a bad dream. We're going to climb up the mountains and scale the mountains of knowledge, and we're going to finally end up at the top and find we are greeted by a band of theologians have been sitting there for centuries to get to the top and find out we've been greeted by a band of theologians have been sitting there for centuries. God is the actuality of God. Number two, God acts. God acts. He says, the just shall live by his faith. And he talks about the appointed time in which God works.

I just want to give you one quick illustration move to my final thought I don't want to presume upon your patience here. I was invited to a Louisiana to visit a prison. It is called the Angola prison. There are over 5000 prisoners 5300 prisoners and Angola prison 85% of whom are on life without parole.

45 of them on death row. It used to be the bloodiest prison in the country, blood on the walls blood on the ceiling blood on the carpets, and this amply built man by the name of burl Kane with a girth of a southern sheriff. He comes over and says, I'll take this job as warden, if you let me do it my way. He puts Bible verses all over the prison. He has Bible studies every day. He's got a degree program going on there for theology 90 prisoners are now registered former gangsters. Now they're gangs of pastors. When you when you use when you use to check into Angola, they used to give you a knife to protect yourself.

No more. You know what they told me you can take the loveliest looking young woman and walk up past any one of the cells. You won't hear a profane word you won't hear a cat call you won't hear a whistle profanity is not allowed in this prison by either staff or inmate. It has become one of the safest prisons in the country. And as I walked past death row cell to cell shaking hands some of them had my book some of them had john piper some of them had RC sprawls and every one of them had a Bible in the cell and a six foot six African American and the Lord who is the chaplain of Virginia Tech's basketball team George, he put his big burly guy puts his arm on my shoulder and he says you know bro. So let me tell you something.

He says if you had more of these Bibles in our high schools we'd need less of them here in our prisons. I had an experience I've never had before walked into the execution chamber. Pretty daunting. Pretty daunting fact I told the chaplain there I said I'd like to bring my whole team here, because I think you stare death at death in a way you never stare at anywhere else. And I sat at the table where they have their last meal.

Are they taking to be executed. And as I sat on that chair I began to wonder what must go on through the emotions of a man and I looked at the wall. So painting. So painting of Daniel in the lion's den on his knees. I said who painted that he said one of the prisoners. He painted it to say God can still rescue you.

I said and what if he doesn't then. So look at the other wall. There's a picture of Elijah, rising to the heavens on chariots of fire. If he doesn't rescue you this way, you'll rescue you that way. What redemption does even to a violent criminal, the transformation no not one of them is seeking to get out one of them I looked at him in his late 20s I'm here for life, I'm here for life. And he led in the worship he said but you know, if this is what it took for me to come into a physical prison and ought to be free from the prison inside of me it's okay says okay. And when the life is transformed, the just shall live wise faith in God, you see, if this nation begins to believe that will have less of what happens on the streets of Boston or a new town or other places like that. Life is precious. God is when things go wrong God acts.

I don't know where you're at in your life tonight. But if you're in need of a Redeemer. If you're in need of a savior.

You need to have your hungers changed your once changed your life transformed. You're trapped in a prison of your own desires that are contrary to God's this message is for you. The revelation awaits an appointed time tonight maybe that time for you. God is God acts and lastly says, God changes, what's the ultimate change. The ultimate change he says this so clearly in that last chapter.

I read it for you. I heard in my heart pounded my lips quivered at the sound decay crept into my bones and my legs trembled yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us, though the fig tree does not but though there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails, and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful and God my Savior why the sovereign Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer. He enables me to go on to the heights, God giving you that transcendent perspective from the eternal into the temporal that lifts you beyond the calamity that surrounds you to see the ultimate purpose of something greater for which God has fashioned and made you.

That's why Paul says, I has not seen the air has not heard, neither has entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love. I close with two illustrations. My father in law passed away a few years ago at the age of 85. And I remember sitting across the table from him and he said I'm afraid to die so soon son because I didn't have the time to provide enough for my mind he was referring to his wife. I said, Dad, you have he said no I haven't I said you have he said how do you know I have.

I said I've talked to your accountant. This time I saw my father in law stymied. I said been we've been looking into all of that dad from diagnosis to death it took him four months.

He thought he had been moving some bookcases pain in the back turned out to be a tumor. Four months later he was gone I said Dad don't worry. I said I tell you what, even if you hadn't provided, we're there. Why are you worried about this.

He said he was a World War Two veteran you know Royal Canadian Air Force. He said son, it was my responsibility. I said, and if you feel you could not fulfill it. We will because of our love for you. Don't be fearful. He went into a period of silence for a few days I had gone to speak some ways three of us four daughters were around him. And I thought I would make it back but we don't in some ways that are goodbyes but I didn't want to be back.

I missed it by about an hour. And his three daughters standing around him and his wife and my wife said after these days of silence. He opened his eyes. He looked to the heavens. And he said, Amazing. That's amazing. And then he looked at his wife of 63 years and said, Jean, I love you. What a way to say goodbye to this world.

And Lord hates the day when the faith should be psyched in the clouds be rolled back as a scroll and the Trump show resound in the Lord show this and even so be well with my soul. Coach little coach to young football player who never made it to the first string is always a second stringer little liked him, but he was not the best. Invariably little would tell in his story in his book, he would see this young man walking through the college grounds with his father's arm and his showing the young lad was showing around the buildings, but he was always describing something. He said I felt I was intruding into that so I never went to talk to them. So one day the young lad came to me and said coach I'm not going to be here for tomorrow's game. I have to go for my father's funeral he passed away, the coach said, it's okay. We'll wait for you to come back. So we had to go for his father's funeral came back a few days later he said coach I've never asked you to do this.

Please let me play next week's game. He said I can't display somebody is playing better than you. He said I agree. Give me just a few minutes on that field and if I'm not that best player on there you bench me.

Okay. You put him out there. He played his heart out as one of the best players on that team. So that even the man he replaced said, you made the right decision coach you need to play him. And as they were walking away the coach put his arm around him and said what got into you was this because of your father's passing.

He said a little more than that. He said coach my dad was blind. Today is the first day he was going to see me play. God is God acts God changes. He'll set your feet like the feet of a deer and lift you up to the heights. Ultimately his answers are not just propositional his answers are relational and gives you the explanatory power of what God has said would happen and will happen and ultimately will return to bring the consummating screen down of history. I hope you and I will be ready when our turn comes to meet with him. Are you ready to meet with God.

That's an inescapable question that only you can answer. We hope you'll think on it deeply. We have to end today's program there but tune in next week for another episode of Let My People Think. If you'd like to purchase a complete copy of this message titled life's inescapable questions call us at 1-800-448-6766 or you can order online at rzim.org or rzim.ca for those listening in Canada. We see it everywhere from musicians and movie stars to neighbors and friends at work. People are interested in having a spiritual life but treat faith more like an a la carte menu at a restaurant choosing what they like and dismissing the rest. Oprah Winfrey and Deepak Chopra are the cheerleaders calling on Western culture to embrace a spirituality devoid of the biblical Christ. Cutting through the hype and seduction is the clear voice of author and apologist Robbie Zacharias. In his book Why Jesus rediscovering his truth in an age of mass marketed spirituality Robbie answers the attraction known as the new spirituality. It's so fascinating that people who are so successful look for spiritual answers and when they end up with a surely mystical without any doctrine and no person behind that truth but they themselves they end up actually disappointing their own pursuits. Billy Graham calls Why Jesus a powerful defense of how Jesus Christ brings meaning and hope to an individual life and Charles Swindell says I am not acquainted with a brighter mind or a more relevant and devoted defender of the faith than Robbie Zacharias. Why Jesus available online at rzim.org Hello everyone, it's Abdu Murray with Robbie Zacharias International Ministries. The more and more I visit university campuses or the halls of government or speak at secular settings or even Christian settings for that matter, the more convinced I am that apologetics is crucial for the church today especially as hostility towards the Christian message grows.

People are not asking questions to find out what the truth is. They oppose the Christian message. That's why I think it's important for Christians to not only be able to withstand the challenges to the Christian faith but also to find ways to stand with the challengers themselves. Apologetics done right actually helps us to do that. There's the hallmark verse of course 1 Peter 3.15 where we are to find a reason for the hope we have within us to anyone who asks but to do it with gentleness and with respect. Oftentimes apologetics is done in a way that just simply promotes knowledge but Peter is actually telling us to give a reason for the hope we have. Apologetics helps us to provide reasons for the hope so that we can live hopefully in hopeless times.

But there's more to it than that. There's not only withstanding the challenges but there's offering the hope to those around us by standing with our challengers. Apologetics done right does what the Apostle Paul tells us to do in Colossians chapter 4 where he says that we are to walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time, letting our speech be gracious, seasoned with salt so we may know how to answer each person. We're not to answer each question, we're not to answer each issue, each controversy. We are to answer each person because every question has a questioner behind it and every questioner has their own set of reasons they've asked those questions. Questions don't need answers but people do so apologetics done right is answering people not questions.

The culture is so easily offended where it's all a matter of personal opinion and personal preferences and we're all wrapped up in our own personal issues. Apologetics done right that answers with an uncompromised truth but to a person actually addresses personal needs while also holding up the objective truth. That's why apologetics is so important in our day. It's not just giving people facts and clever arguments, it's giving them hope.

It's giving them a reason for the hope we have within us and it's a way to shine an otherwise dark world. We're so grateful for your prayers, financial support and encouragement. If you'd like to learn more about RZIM or discover ways you can partner with us, be sure to call us or visit our website. This programme is listener supported and is furnished by RZIM in Atlanta, Georgia.