Why Were You Born? Part 1

Good morning, everyone. Good to see you and make you all ready for today. We're just got a pattern of papers to see all of you and we're going to have to do a good thing. Maybe we've got a special presentation. I find that there should be years and years of all of our hearts. I just can't imagine that every single person who's ever lived has a tough time to hear a loud, tough question. Why might he hear? Why would they ever want? What is the purpose of life? Can we just live our 70, 80, or 90 years and then just disappear? What does it mean that we do what we do when we work through this life? We believe, which I can't imagine, or you believe everyone in this final thing will please be a God or otherwise you wouldn't be here. But we believe that there's a God in heaven and He created the earth. That's what we do with mankind. We just create earth and we just put mankind on here and then just kind of abandon them or just let things happen in their lives. When we look around us, we see things that happen in the world, but we see governments that change. We see, as we look at the world around us today, where the whole world of workers beginning to change. We just see our meaning providing a new way of life. The thing that we haven't seen before in our lifetimes, here is proof that convinced us brutal acts that we haven't seen or heard of in our lifetimes. Or we see Russia beginning to put together again a whole conglomeration of nations that is where we need to be workers of things in the world. Something that we thought disappeared 23 years ago was back on the horizon again. Why did we hear? Why are we here? The sky's expected to live our lives, saying it was a mystery. We blew it, we have to just do something with these people as it lives through their lives. What does God do? You know, one of the times that we may really ask a question, and once in a year, the head of a feeling of love for people, in the United States, what are we seeing? European nations will be happy. Why am I here? When they need to like the face, become accustomed to no longer the joy that it has been compared to joy that has been and what will come on this world. We see the roots of it, we see what's going on around us now, and there's got to be a question where we might fall asleep today, and everything behind everything we continue just doesn't have a day. The Bible shows that there is time coming, and we see the time coming where the world could be a very typical place of living. And as people no longer have the comfort to be as they have, they may have the right to be able to like the purpose of this life, just as hard. So, we'll begin today to answer this question, why were you born? I've been spoken to a lot, a lot of information, and I'm going to drop things on you that are going to actually keep in your mind for near the end of the presentation where they'll all come together.

And for those of you who are new, but are listening on the web as well, there are many things that you may have heard before, you may have questions on one. You know, certainly that those questions did, but I'll answer them after the session is over, or I'm more than happy to answer them privately by now. But I'm going to start where we are today, and then why don't we go back and put together the pieces of the question. But, let's look at a photo here in Matthew 24.

And he had some harrowing words in Matthew 24 that I'll get prophecy. Among those that we're staring in the face today, when we look at the world around us, when we see the things happening, and we see how people treat each other and the glee they take in the way they treat each other, this verse has some meaning. It says, For there will be great tribulation, such as, And then since the beginning of the world until this time, No nor ever shall be. And Christ says, And unless those days were shortened, No flesh would be saved alive. Mankind left to his own way. Mankind left to his own devices would eliminate life from this planet. We have the power to do that today. Many nations have nuclear weapons. We know other nations that are working hard behind the scenes to get that nuclear weapon, and they are not going to do something with it when they have it.

There hasn't ever been a weapon that has been created that hasn't been used. And Christ says, Left to Hisself, left to His own ways, man would blow himself or eliminate life from this earth. But Christ will come, and if He didn't come, no flesh would be saved alive on the earth. But He says, But for the elect's sake, those days will be shortened.

The elect. The people who respond to God's call, the people who listen to Him, the people who dedicate their lives to Him and follow His way of life. So Christ says, There is a time coming. There is a time coming that the world would exist, or cease to exist, if He didn't come back, if He didn't come back and save us from ourselves. Over in Revelation, the prophecy for the end times, it says this, talking about the time when the seals and the trumpets are blowing and the hosts in heaven, who have been waiting for the return of Jesus Christ, who know that there is a plan for this earth, knows that there is a plan for mankind. They talk a lot of times before Jesus Christ is going to return, and there is joy in heaven as they say this, because they see that time about to come. It says in verse 18, The nations were angry, your wrath has come, and the time of the dead that they should be judged, all the people who have ever lived, and that you should reward your servants, the prophets, and the saints, and that you should reward those who fear your name, small and great.

And you, speaking of the coming of Christ, will destroy those who would destroy the earth.

Because the path that the world is on under the sway of the God of this world, that Paul in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4, says, is Satan. Under the leadership and following this God, the world would cease to exist. Mankind would cease to exist. But God created the world for a purpose. He created mankind for a purpose.

Over in Revelation, as well, it says that the heavens and the earth, which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

The physical earth we live on, the physical earth that we call home, the physical earth that really defines everything that we know and do, the Bible says there's a time coming that it's going to be, that it's reserved for fire. God created the physical earth for a purpose, and when that purpose is done, this earth as we know it will cease to exist. Because God had a purpose for creating earth. He had a purpose for creating man. And when Christ returns, there will be a completion of that plan. In 2 Peter 3, verse 7, he says, But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Its plan will have been completed. The earth, as we know it, will no longer exist. Its purpose will have been fulfilled. When God is done with the earth, then it will be burned up. Did he have a purpose in mind? Yes, he did. Are we living as part of that purpose now? Yes, we are. And those of us in this room today have the opportunity to see what God says. We might question what's going on in the world. We might question why we were born. We might question why is the earth even in existence?

There's a plan, and the plan will one day be complete.

Revelation 21, I saw a new heaven, and a new earth, where the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. It'll no longer exist when the plan of God is completed. There's a religion over in the east that believes the earth will always exist, that the earth is eternal, and they worship Mother Earth. The Bible says the earth will pass away when God's purpose for it is fulfilled.

And he said to me, Christ speaking, it's done. It's done. The plan that we had for mankind, the plan that we had for the physical earth, it's done. It's completed. And Christ says, I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.

Why were we born? Why is the earth here? Why would Christ say, it's done? It's done.

The whole first heaven and first earth are passed away, replaced by a new heaven and new earth.

Harrowing words, when you look at the prophecies of the Bible, and if you believe that the Bible is true in the Word of God, that time could be just ahead of us. If world events continue in the fashion that they are headed, which here look like the picture the Bible paints for the time of the end. The thing is that God has a plan. He has had a plan since the beginning before the world was ever created. God thus doesn't do things. And one day woke up and thought, let's create a planet, put people on it and see what happens. He had a plan. In Matthew 25 verse 34, Christ himself said, the King will say to those on his right hand, come you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world before earth was created for man to live in, before mankind was created. There was a plan in place. God had a mission for creating that the earth in Genesis 1.1. He had a mission for creating man and making him in a physical form. He had a purpose he was working out and it's a purpose that's the appendix when we actually see the words in the Bible and see what God has planned for all of mankind. So we see the end of what the plan is. The end of the plan is the physical earth and the works in it are burned up, replaced by a new heaven and earth where God will dwell with the people who follow his will and follow his way.

There's a quote that Winston Churchill made back in World War II that has made it through the time of history. He says, as he watched the events of what was going on there, there's a purpose being worked out here below. And you know what? There is a purpose that God is working out here below. Mankind might reject God. Mankind might want to forget that he exists. It may look to the human mind that God is not involved in world affairs. He knows every single thing that's going on.

He has a purpose and that purpose will be fulfilled. Well, we start at the end, but let's go back to the beginning to put together. Oh, you know, I want to do one thing on the way as we go back to Genesis and begin to look at the beginning of the plan of God and the creation of the earth and get some of the answers that will help us to lead to the final answer of why were you born. I wanted to do something as we just talked about the heaven and earth passing away, and we see that in the Bible. Heaven and earth will pass away, replaced by a new heaven and earth. Jesus Christ said this in His Sermon on the Mount. He said, Don't think. And I've got that underscored because of something. Don't think. And much of the world's religions do think, but Christ said, Don't think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. Don't think that I came to destroy the Old Testament. That's part of the Bible. That's part of the inspired word of God. All Scripture is given by inspiration from God, and it's profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and righteousness. He says, Don't think I came to destroy those Scriptures. I didn't come to destroy, but to fulfill. He was the fulfillment of the prophecies waiting for the Messiah to come. He says, For as surely I say to you, Till heaven and earth pass away. Now, we already saw in the Bible when heaven and earth pass away. They pass away when the plan is complete. Today, I'm still standing on earth. You're still sitting here on earth. Till heaven and earth pass away, one shot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law, till all is fulfilled or until all is completed, or as Christ said, until it is all done.

And so, for those who say we don't have to abide by the law of God anymore, we can do away with the Ten Commandments. We've outgrown some of those commandments. God doesn't care what day we worship on. God doesn't care what day we keep only of those annual festivals that spell out the plan of God. When we understand their meaning, Christ would say, you're wrong. One shot or one tittle will by no means pass until that time that we read about in Revelation.

Now, let's go back. Let's go back and look at the beginning of this earth. And if you want to, you can turn in your Bible. For this section, I've got many of the verses that we'll talk about right here on the screen. A verse and a chapter that everyone, I think everyone, whether they're a Christian or not, you know, wonders what, you know, when did the world be created? In the only source of truth in the entire world, God says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Mankind has tried to explain away the heavens and the earth in some other way.

The plain fact is, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He did it, and He did it, as we said, and as the Bible shows, for a reason. Now, today I'm going to introduce you, refresh your mind for many of you, to two Hebrew words that we find here on the Creation account. They're going to help us put together the pieces of the overall question, why were you born?

The first one of those Hebrew words is Eloim. Eloim is the plural form of the noun El, or E-L-O-W-E-H. It means deity or God. So, when you read in Genesis 1.1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And as you read down through Genesis 1, and you see God mentioned in that chapter, the Hebrew word is Eloim. It's speaking of more than one God being. It's the plural form. And remember, God is the one who inspired the Bible. He knew exactly what He's talking about. He wasn't like you or me who typed something wrong.

In the beginning, Eloim created the heavens and the earth. Two, at least God beings, to be plural. Two God beings in the heaven and the earth. Now, there's another place in the Bible that we read in the beginning, and that's in the New Testament. The apostle John wrote in John 1, verses 1 through 4, in the beginning.

In the beginning was the Word. Greek logos. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Clearly speaking of two God beings, one known as the Word or logos, and one as God. We may call Him God the Father, as the New Testament does. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. When the earth was created, Eloim was there.

All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. It's that God, the Word, who created the earth. With God the Father, or the one we call God the Father now, Y-H-W-H, some people would say in the Old Testament, but that often refers to the Word as well.

All things were made through Him. He did the creating. He did the creating in perfect concert and in perfect unity with God. There's perfect unity in the God family. In Him, speaking of Christ, who became Christ, was life, and the life was the light of men. So in Genesis we have Eloim created the earth. The God family, if you will, in perfect unison, in perfect agreement, as they had a purpose and a plan for earth and what they were going to create on it before we read of the separation of the waters and the sea and the light that came on the earth.

They were in perfect unity, perfect unison of what this plan is, and now they were looking at planet earth about to create it for a purpose that few men understand today. As you go down through the Genesis accounts, you find that God created the great lights. And there's a reason for those great lights that we could talk about in another time that marked the appointed times of God.

He created the animals, He created the fish of the sea, He created the birds of the year, He created the plant life, He created a perfect planet that would be self-sustaining, a physical planet that the crowning creation for earth, mankind, would be able to live and survive on. But He made it all physical.

It can be burned up. And when the plan is done, as we read, it will be. When the plan for physical earth is done, it will be burned up and replaced by the new heaven and new earth.

As God, Eloam, talks about creating man on the sixth day of that creation week. God said, let us, and notice that word, let us, Eloam, let us make man in our image according to our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle. Let them have dominion over all the earth and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

Everything else that was created on earth, man was going to have dominion over that. He was a separate being from the rest of the animal life that God had created. And He put him on earth, as we'll see, with some, I'm getting ahead of myself, with some commands that He expected man to obey.

But He created earth and He noticed that He created man in His image, in Eloam's image.

Doesn't say that He created us in spirit form. We look like Him. We look in a physical like God does. We have abilities that the animals don't have. You know, He didn't do that with the animals.

Ah, very. So God created man in His own image. In the image of God, He created him, male and female. He created them. There's a whole lot of reasons God created male and female. Just look at all the problems mankind has brought upon Himself. By the way that they deal with the male and female and marriage issue and everything that God created, which He said was very good. But He created mankind in His image. Animals weren't created in His image. Mankind was, because He had a purpose for mankind, a purpose for mankind that transcends this physical earth. You know, as David, King David, was a man after God's own heart, when He would sit and meditate about God's law and He would wonder about what God was doing. And as He looked up at the skies, He asked the question that we're asking today. He just put it in different words. He said, What is man? That you're mindful of Him.

You're up in heaven. We're down here on earth. Why do you even pay any attention to us? What is it that you have in mind? And David saw the sins that he committed in his life. He looked around at the mess that the world was at that time, at times in his life, and he wondered, Why do you put up with us? Why do you put up with us? And the Son of Man, that you take care of Him. And he repeats, You've made Him to have dominion over the works of your hands. You've put all things under His feet.

You created this beautiful planet, and you said to man, You have dominion over it. You work it. And man has done very well at working in the physical realm of this earth.

Let's look at the difference between man and animals for a minute, because it will show us another aspect of what we were born for. Man is distinct from animals, and as was looking at this this week, the world will talk about, or many of the scientists will talk about, we've been evolved from monkeys, chimps, whatever it is that we're supposed to be evolved from. But you read the Genesis account, and you see a God who created things in exactly His order. And He says, God said, or Aluim said, Let the earth bring forth a living creature according to its kind.

Let the cattle and creeping thing and beasts of the earth, each according to its kind, and it was so. So you can't mix cattle with horses and come up with an animal. You can't mix birds with turtles and come up with an animal. You can't mix man with animal and come up with an animal, with a creature. Man is distinct from animals. Distinct from animals physically, God created him that way. He was made in God's image. Animals weren't. God had a reason to create man. Made in God's image, but not made with God's composition. God is spirit. But God made man mortal. The Lord God, says in Genesis 2, I don't have a verse there, but verse 7, I think, The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground. He took the physical planet, He took the dust of the ground, and He breathed into His nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.

Not formed with spirit, like God is, made in God's image, but not made with the spirit that comprises God. And now Jesus Christ.

Brings us to the second Hebrew word that I want you to think about and go away remembering today. That's the Hebrew word, nafesh. What nafesh means in Hebrew is simply creature, being, a soul, or simply put, that which breathes.

You know, God doesn't breathe. God doesn't need the breath of air in order to survive. We do. The animals do. The birds do. The reptiles do. We need to breathe.

And when that breath stops, man's life stops.

Physical man. Mortal man. Man that has an end.

Now, as you look at the word nafesh, and if you were to go back in your Bible and look at all the places that nafesh is used, you'd find that even in Genesis, Genesis 1, nafesh is used not just for man, but it's used for the animals as well. So, for instance, in Genesis 1 and verse 21, well, I guess even in 20, 20 God said, Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures. Living creatures is the Hebrew word nafesh. Verse 21, God created great sea creatures and every living thing, living thing, is nafesh.

Let the earth, verse 24, bring forth a living creature according to its kind, cattle, creeping thing, beasts of the earth, each according to its kind.

Living creature, what it's talking about that is nafesh.

nafesh, nafesh, nafesh, man, nafesh. Animals die. Birds die. Reptiles die. Man dies.

Man was not created with an immortal soul. Nafesh does not indicate an immortal soul. God made man into his image, but he did not make him with an immortal soul. Looking at Ecclesiastes 3, verse 19 here, that's Solomon wrote, it says, What happens to the sons of men also happens to animals.

One thing befalls them. As one dies, so dies the other.

Man is distinct from animals. Man has a different purpose in God's eyes than animals, but God says they're all mortal. As one dies, so dies the other. Surely they all have one breath.

They're dependent. They're physical. They're mortal. They can die. God didn't endow man with eternal life at the time he created them. That's something that he gives later on.

Surely they all have one breath. Man has no advantage over animals. We can't look around and say, oh, those poor animals, they die. They cease to exist. It's the same thing that happens to us. We die. When we die and our time on this physical earth is done, the Bible says we sleep.

We sleep for a future event when God will bring us back to life again. Surely they all have one breath. Man has no advantage over animals for all his vanity or all his futile, he says. All go to one place. All are from the dust and all return to dust. Just like the animals, when man dies, he returns to dust. And there he stays until the time we'll talk about it a little bit when Jesus Christ returns and man will be brought back to life.

Several places in the Bible it talks about men dying, that we don't have eternal life. In Ezekiel 18, twice it says in Ezekiel 18, I guess God wanted it to be well known to people, it says, the soul that sins, it shall die. The soul that sins, it shall die. Romans 6, 23, the New Testament says the wages of sin is death, but the gift, the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Not something we're born with, something that God makes available to us, but not something we're born with. The wages of sin is death. And unless there's any confusion as to what sin is, John says in 1 John 3, 4, whoever commits sin transgresses the law. That's that same law that Jesus Christ was talking about in Matthew 5, 17 when he said, until heaven and earth pass away, until that time we read about in Revelation, until heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or not one tittle pass from the law. Whoever commits sin transgresses the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. So the Bible says in the Old and New Testament, the soul that sins, it will die. It's clear on what happens when we transgress, disobey, ignore or reject God's law that's written in His Word, not based on what men tell us, but what men or what the Bible says. Now, on the card you were given as you came in, I listed for you the scriptures that I'm using in the first session and the second session, so you'll have those available for you if you want to go home and look at them later.

And certainly as you do, if any of you have questions, I encourage you to call or email, and we'll do that. We talked about a time when mankind, who all dies, who all return to the dust, we might ask then, well, what is the purpose of life? If we just fade away, if we just live our 70, 80, or 90 years, and we just return to dust, what does God have in mind? Now, some of the religions of the world will say, well, when you die, you go to heaven, or if you live the bad life, you go to hell. I didn't put the verse in here, but the Bible says, no man, no man has ascended into heaven except Jesus Christ, who was a resurrected and who was given eternal life.

Every other man who has lived on this planet, from Adam and Eve down until today, and until Christ says the purpose for earth is done, every other man has died, every other man sleeps in the earth, every other man has returned to the dust of the ground, and they're waiting for something.

They may think, or they may not know, what the purpose that God has for them. But Jesus Christ knows. The one who was there at the beginning, who through him the earth was made, through him creation came about. The one who later came to earth and gave up being God so that he could be born a human, live like you and me, live like the people that he created in flesh and blood, with a mortal flesh and blood body, living by the same law he asks us to live by, suffering things worse than anything that we've suffered. He lived that life, and he died. Now, when he died, he didn't go to heaven. He laid in that grave for three days and three nights, for three days and three nights, and then God resurrected him and gave him eternal life again.

So, if anyone has the lingering idea of whether we go to heaven, why didn't Jesus Christ go to heaven the minute he died when he was the Son of God? But after he was resurrected, he had lived the perfect life, God gave him eternal life, and then he ascended into heaven.

You can go back and read the account clearly in Matthew. No man has ascended into heaven, but there is a time when all men will understand the reasons that they were on this earth and what the purpose for this earth is. You and I have a chance and the opportunity to know what that is today. And it's a tremendous truth that should, if we're thinking clearly and we're letting God open our minds, change our lives and what we think forever. Once you hear what God has planned, you can never be the same again. You can choose to ignore it, but it doesn't change the plan.

It's set in motion, and God's will will be done. In John 5, verse 28, Jesus Christ, who was on earth, said, Don't marvel at this. The hour is coming in which all who are in the graves, all those people from Adam and Eve and Eve all the way up to the time, you there, all those who are in the graves, just sleeping, not existing. They cease to exist. A time is coming when they will hear His voice and they will come forth. Those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation. Hmm. A resurrection, and at that time, based on what God lets us understand and know, some are given eternal life, some are not. Some are not. And that's part of God's plan. What He wants is that every single person would have eternal life, but He's just not going to give it indiscriminately because there's a purpose that He's working below. There's a purpose for you and me. There's a purpose for all of mankind. There's a purpose that we're sitting here today.

And all that truth is in the Bible. Some will be resurrected to life, others to eternal condemnation. Revelation 20, the time that we spoke of, after which we're talking about here, will be the time that the earth is burned up because this is part of the plan that God has. In Revelation 20, it says, "...the sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his work. Then death and Hades were cast in the lake of fire." It's appointed to the ever-man to die once, the Bible says. Some men, unfortunately, will die twice and be dead for eternity.

Then death and Hades were cast in the lake of fire. This is the second death for those who were resurrected who didn't have an opportunity in this lifetime to know the truth of God, who didn't have an opportunity to embrace God's way, his way of life. They will die, but when they're resurrected, God will open their minds. And they'll have the same choice you and I have. Those who choose to continue in their own way, God says, this is the second death, and anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Cast into the lake of fire, not to burn for eternity, like some religions teach, they'll just simply burn up, just like if you burned up in a house fire or in cremation bodies just burn up. At the end of the plan that God has in man for mankind, earth is burned up to be replaced with a new heaven and a new earth. Mankind, who chooses to follow his own way, who rejects God in his way, they'll be burned up to not exist anymore. The Bible says it'll be as if they didn't exist.

But those who follow God, those who respond to him, those who understand what he's working and understand what he wants for us, at that time, when Christ returns, will be given eternal life. Not now, not inherent in us, there's a purpose that God's working below. Okay, we've been going about 45 minutes, so we're going to take about a 10-minute break here, and then we'll come back and get into some more things that'll lead us to the answer of why were you born. I want you to think about the things that we've talked about before we break. Let me just review those things for you briefly. God has a plan for earth and mankind.

Even though the world is a mess today, God knew it was going to be this way. Mankind hasn't taken God by surprise. Maybe he's surprised at how evil man can be at times, but this is part of God's plan. He has a plan for earth, he has a plan for mankind. Earth will be dissolved when the plan is complete. The Bible tells us that. Christ said about His law, and we talk about the Ten Commandments, we talk about His law. What the Ten Commandments are is a way of life, a way that we adopt into the way we live. It is who we are, as the people in this congregation hear me say, the way of life that leads to all, that leads to love, joy, peace, abundance, the things that the world wants.

Not one jot or one tittle pass from that way of life, the law, until as long as physical earth exists. And the physical earth still exists today, so what God said was His law and the prescribed way of life is still there. There is a God family, God the Father and Jesus Christ, now sitting in His right hand, the Son of God. They both existed before the world began. They both had a plan in motion before the foundation of the world. Man was created with a mortal soul. No man has ascended into heaven except Jesus Christ. They are waiting the return of Jesus Christ when all men will be resurrected, and then their future will be determined by their actions. All will be resurrected. Every man who has ever lived will be resurrected. He doesn't go to heaven upon death. He doesn't go to hell on death. He sleeps. The Bible says, and that's a whole other subject, but all will be resurrected. Some to eternal life. Some to eternal death. There's a plan. So let's take about 10 minutes, 15 minutes. Think on those things. I think back in the back room we have some light refreshments if you want to get a drink or something back there. We do ask that no food come into this auditorium, but we'll take a break at this time, and then about let's just stay at noon. We'll come back for the second session.