The Plan of the Mystery (Part 2 of 2)

Music playing... There are any number of popular theories attempting to explain our existence, why the world is the way it is. Today on Truth for Life we find out why it's impossible to make sense of our lives and everything that's going on in the world unless we start with a sovereign creator. Alistair Begg is teaching from the book of Ephesians chapter 3, and we're looking at verse 9. I think we've said on a number of occasions before that we can't really grapple with history without a Bible. It's pretty difficult to read the newspaper, to listen to the news, to watch the events of human history without your Bible. Because, you see, the Bible gives to us the great scheme of all of humanity. The Bible tells us that it is into a dark world that the Messiah came, that he is the true light who gives light to everyone in the world, and that the words of the prophet are being fulfilled, that the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. And it is into a dark world that the story of God's plan of redemption comes to shine.

Now, if you think about this, it is wonderfully helpful, isn't it? Because—and I was intrigued that—I mentioned it this morning in passing—I was intrigued that Dylan got the Nobel Peace Prize for literature. I'm fine with that.

Not that anybody cares whether I am or not. But that's all right. He wrote some bizarre stuff, but some really, really good stuff, you know? It's old now. The decades have passed. Where are we? The observations, the challenge, the songs of the sixties, the cries for peace, for reformation, for transformation. Last night I had the strangest dream I ever dreamed before. I dreamed the world had all agreed to put an end to war. I dreamed I saw a mighty room, and the room was filled with men, and the people who were signing said, We'll never fight again. And when the records all were filed, and a million copies made, we all joined hands and bowed our heads. And grateful prayers were prayed, and the people in the streets below were dancing round and round, and guns and swords and uniforms were scattered on the ground.

Last night I had the strangest dream I ever dreamed before. Well, just read a little history. Read a little history. Read of the anticipation at the end of the nineteenth century into the twentieth century. Read what the historians said.

Read what the politicians were writing. Some of them were phenomenally pessimistic. At the other end of that, you had a kind of superficial optimism, the kind of thing that you found in the writing of Tennyson, who dreamed of the great federation of the world, a kind of United Nations that really, really, really was going to work. Well, where are we? I'm not being strange in saying this.

I'm just observing. The arrival of the twentieth century was supposed to usher in the great denouement. After all, we had so much to put behind us. Certainly in Great Britain, we were going to get it all right. We had introduced socialized medicine, which was going to cure all ills. We had education for everybody that could ever need it.

And we were well on our way. Well, I wonder, have you been there lately? All the benefits of social improvement, technological advance, the increase in education and in social welfare, and two world wars within a matter of decades put the bullet in that whole notion and spoke once again of the darkness that is in our world? You see, our politicians are ultimately clueless.

You've heard it here. Without the wisdom of God, without the wisdom of God, man in his wisdom cannot know God. And if man cannot know God, man cannot ultimately know himself. And if man cannot know himself, then he can't diagnose his ills, and he cannot in turn execute a cure for undiagnosed ills.

So the responsibility of the church in the world in every generation is not, then, to try and take on those causes—whatever role individuals may play—but the responsibility of the church is to do what Paul is to do here, and that is to shine light into a dark world, the light that shines in the plan of the mystery hidden from all of time. I mean, let me ask you, is global warming really the ultimate issue for our world? It can't be.

It can't be. And yet, isn't it fascinating that irrespective of people's political allegiances throughout the world, this is about the only area in which you get agreement in humanity? It doesn't matter if the person's a Muslim or a Jew or a Hindu or a Jain or a Christian, provided they're agreed that it's a good thing not to put your towel on the floor when you're staying at the Holiday Inn Express, not to brush your teeth for more than a minute and a half, because this is the great issue of the world. Well, I'm not up on these things.

I got thrown out of every science class I ever took. I'm not making a comment on whether there's validity to this or not. All I'm saying is, it isn't the ultimate problem. It's not a bigger problem than the problems that we have in terms of morality and economic situations and many, many others.

It can't be. And even if you leave that out, the Bible says it's not the problem. And the Bible knows what the problem is, and the Bible knows how the problem gets fixed. And God has had a plan from all of eternity which he is making known in the person of his Son, in the community of his church, and the church is to be a light in the darkness. So that both corporately as we shine together and individually as we go about our days. Some of you, I hope, will go into journalism. We could sure use some journalism from a Christian worldview perspective. Many of you are already involved in science and in commerce, in art.

You live your life in the mainstream of culture. Unlike myself, I live in a strange little world. And in that world to which we all return tomorrow, God desires for us to be bold enough—to be bold enough—to be prepared to say or to ask, Have you ever considered the possibility that in Jesus there is a hope that stands the test of time? Have you ever considered the possibility that Jesus is actually the person that he claimed to be? Have you ever read the Bible? Would you like to read the Bible with me? Will you just read the Bible and see what it says? Because I think if you will read it with me, you will discover that God has a plan. And that plan has been hidden but now revealed. And my last point is, as you will notice in the text, that this plan of the mystery hidden for the ages is in God who created all things.

It's interesting that he says that. Why didn't I just say in God? Full stop. In God who created all things. What is he doing? Well, he's affirming the fact that God is in charge. It all belongs to him. He created everything.

Here's a staggering thought. This is God's world. This is God's world. He made the world. All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all.

Now, try that in your science class tomorrow morning. It's impossible to make sense of our world and of our own little worlds without beginning here. If you don't begin here, you can't make sense of anything. And that's why people can't make sense of anything. Because we're at the end of about three or four or five decades where, as a result of the influences in our Western culture, young people have been born into our world with no idea of how they come into existence at all. They regard themselves as being born without reason, prolonged by chance, and if they die, they die. Because there's nothing at the end, even as there was nothing at the beginning. So you've just got this hopelessness, this sense of abject poverty of spirit and of soul. And the gospel says, no, wait a minute.

God, the Creator, is in control. I find it tremendously encouraging that when Paul was invited to the intelligentsia in Athens and Luke records it for us in Acts 17. The opening part that Luke records for us, at least, is exactly this. How does he begin? Well, he begins by saying, You're a nice group of people.

I know you're very religious, and you've got a bunch of stuff here, and I was looking at it earlier in the day. He says, And I hear you've got one to a god you don't even know. Well, the god that you know nothing about, he says, I want to tell you about. And then what does he say? First line. The God who made the world and everything in it.

That's his opening line. The God who made the world and everything in it. There are direct repercussions, loved ones, from buying the myth of Darwinian evolutionary hypothesis.

There are direct repercussions—moral repercussions, intellectual repercussions. It devalues everything about yourself and about humanity. The God who made the world is in control. The world as we know it, the Bible says, is not as God made it. He made it, and it was good. He looked on it, and he said it was good.

He made it in absolute perfection. So people say, Well, why is our world so messed up? Why is our world so broken? If you've got this good God who made a good world, I don't see it.

I'm not making this up. My most recent conversation was with a Russian Jew a few weeks ago in Tel Aviv. And as we sat together in conversation—we started talking about Putin, and then we worked from there—and we finally got down to the big issues of life.

And he said to me, he says, I do not… I don't believe in God. There's too much. I've seen too much bad. There's so much bad.

And I said, Well, there is a lot of bad, isn't there? I said, Imagine I made… What's your favorite meal? So he told me, I can't remember what it was. I said, Well, imagine I made you your meal, and I did a really, really nice job of it. And I served it up to you and put it there, and you made a right mess of it. You spilled things in it, and you fiddled with it, and it just got out of control.

You've got cigarette ash in it from your cigarette. Whose fault would that be? He said, That would be my fault.

I said, Yeah. So how about the idea that God, the world that God has made, is a good world, that the world that we know today is not the world the way God made it, but it is the world as man has spoiled it? I said, That is what the Bible says. It says that the reason for all of the rape, all of the pillage, all of the hostility, all of the injustice, all of the inequality, all of the chaos, all of the heartache, all of the shame is tied directly to the fact that man is a rebel in a world that God has made. And the answer is in Jesus and only in Jesus.

I have this little framework that I use all the time, and you can pick it up from what I'm saying. Good, bad, new. Good, bad, new. A good world, bad by sin, made new in Jesus. That's what Paul is saying. He's saying Jesus is the answer for the world today. And that answer is in the gospel. It's not in the ethics of Jesus. A lot of people are prepared to go for that. Oh, well, yeah, I like the ethics of Jesus.

I like the Sermon on the Mount. Why don't we try that a little harder? Maybe we can fix the world that way.

No, you can't. Because that's from the outside in. The change in the gospel is from the inside out. So that the gospel is not about what we are to do, but it is about what God has done in Christ.

That we live in a world that is alienated. And he has dealt with our alienations by putting our sins upon his only beloved Son. He has punished them in him, and it is only on account of that that he's able to look on us and to forgive us and to adopt us into his family.

All the movements of our world throughout history point to the fact that man is scrambling constantly and in every generation to make sense of things. And what the Bible is claiming, and what we are affirming if we truly believe the Bible and we are honest Christians, is that through all of these movements, throughout all of world history, God has been executing his plan—the plan that he had put in place before the creation of the world, and that he had planned to create a community, as we know from Revelation, of every tribe and nation and language and people and tongue. And he continues to do that. And when he has completed it, the King will come. When he has completed it, Jesus will come. You see, Jesus, when he steps onto the stage of human history, does not launch into some new program.

He ties himself directly to everything that has gone before. His opening gambit in the Gospel of Mark is, the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the good news. In other words, the kingdom comes, first of all, in the person of Jesus, then it comes in the proclamation of the gospel in the world through the church, and then ultimately and finally it will come when Christ returns as King. You see, all of the injustices of our world, all of the evil stuff, all of the shysters that got by and think that they're in the clear, all of that will be dealt with. When the King comes, he will resolve it all. When the King comes, Satan and his forces will be cast into the lake of fire. When he comes, all who have refused his claims, have rebelled against him, have turned their backs on him and said, We'll do it our own way, thank you very much, will suffer his punishment. The universe will then be cleansed and purified, and there will be a new heaven and a new earth in which dwells righteousness. 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 13.

And here's the deal. Jesus Christ is both the center and the circumference of all of this. He is both the epicenter of it, and at the broadest territories of it you'll find Christ there. There is no hope for peace on earth. There is no hope for peace on earth except in he who is the Prince of Peace. Doesn't it make sense? That man tries to muscle it together throughout all of the centuries—do we stand against that? Not for a moment. Are we engaged in it? I hope we are. Do we long for it? Yes, we do. Do we labor to that end through the systems of government and the execution of justice?

Yes, we do. But when we put our heads on the pillow at night, we know this—that the best we've been able to do is an approximation, but one day the King will come, and when the King comes, then his plan will prevail. Now, we know that just from reading the Bible. Just read all the way through the Bible. As soon as he starts things off, the serpent comes and says, Hey, do you really believe this stuff? And the opposition begins.

Trace it all the way through. Remember our studies in Daniel. Who could forget? You fell asleep in many of them as we got into Daniel, and we saw the people of God there.

How can we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? We had to hang our harps on the willow trees. We couldn't do anything. Look at the mess we're in. Look at Nebuchadnezzar. Look at this guy, if you've seen this fellow. Look at what's happening here. And Daniel's going, Hang on, guys.

God the Creator has a plan from all of eternity. You're gonna be okay. You'll be all right. And guess what? They were all right. And Jesus came. The Messiah came. And within a split second, Herod decides he'll kill him. He'll kill all the boys under the age of two in order that he might wipe out the Messiah.

What is that? But it is the antagonism of hell against the truth and reality of the plan of God from all of eternity. But was he successful? No, he wasn't. So they said, Well, then we will abuse him, and we will finally kill him. And they crucified him. And he rose again.

And he is alive. That's what the Bible says. That's what is the plan hidden from all of eternity.

So if you're a believer tonight, and many of you are, then let me encourage you to make sure that as you view the world and our world that you do so in light of these truths. Bring your mind—I want to bring my mind under the glory and wonder of what Paul is declaring. Listen to Lloyd-Jones, and I'll stop with this.

This is Lloyd-Jones in an earlier era. He says, This plan by God will not be modified to suit the whims and fancies of any nation. Indeed, we must be prepared for some strange surprises with regard to his plan. I thought that was a good sentence.

And he's right. In early twentieth century Britain, we must be prepared for some strange surprises. We may think at times that everything is going wrong. The churches may be empty, and people will ask, Where is your God's plan? The answer is that the churches have been empty many times before. But in the fullness of his time, God sends a revival. And if it is his will, he will send one again. So let the fearful look around.

Let the pessimist look down. Let the Christian lift her eyes and look up. For Jesus shall reign. Where'er the sun doth his successive journeys run, his kingdom stretch from shore to shore, till moon shall wax and wane no more.

And what a mystery. Can it possibly be that from all of eternity he wrote your name in his book? Because in the unfolding drama of his plan and purpose, he has you right here in order that, like Paul, you may shine into the darkness of a world that is without God and without hope, and so that those who find themselves there may be drawn to the light of Christ. You're listening to Alistair Begg on Truth for Life with the message he's titled, The Plan of the Mystery.

Alistair, we'll be back in just a minute. If, like the Apostle Paul, we're going to tell other people about Jesus, it's important for us to understand what the Bible teaches, and we want to recommend to you today a book called Knowable Word, Helping Ordinary People Learn to Study the Bible. This is a book that lays out a specific approach for reading and learning from your Bible. The author has developed a three-step method that he's taught successfully to audiences of all ages, from middle school students to longtime believers who teach the Bible themselves.

When you read Knowable Word, you'll learn how to better observe what's being presented in the text, how to correctly interpret it. This book then provides tips to help you apply what you've learned, and whether you're new to reading the Bible on your own or you've been teaching God's Word for years, you'll find the book Knowable Word tremendously insightful. Ask for your copy of Knowable Word when you donate to support Truth for Life today. Keep in mind your financial support is what makes it possible for listeners in nations all around the world to hear sound biblical teaching every day. Every time you donate to Truth for Life, you're helping deliver God's Word to someone else.

You can give a one-time gift at truthforlife.org slash donate, or you can arrange to set up an automatic monthly donation when you visit truthforlife.org slash truthpartner. Now here's Alistair to close with prayer. God our Father, we bow before the instruction of your Word, and we thank you for it. We thank you that you raised up Paul.

What a strange choice he thought it was for a strange man to write so much of the New Testament, to give us all of this. And so we thank you that you are sovereign over these affairs, that you do have a plan, hidden it may have been, revealed now in Christ and in the church. And it is the plan of you, the Creator of the ends of the earth. And you don't grow weary, and your understanding is unsearchable.

And no one can say to you, Why did you make me this way? No one knows the mind of the Lord. So, Lord, humble us. Humble us before the cross of Christ. Grant that your mercy towards us may be a stimulus to our living unreservedly for your Son Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen. I'm Bob Lapeen. We're glad you've joined us today. Tomorrow we'll learn why, whether you're a follower of Jesus or not, he is the focal point of history. Find out why this should change your view of everything else. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.