Humanity knows one thing must happen inevitably to all. Death. God is the only one who can bring purpose to the human experience both now and for eternity. 

2016 Hartland Summer Campmeeting: Mission and Purpose of the Remnant Church

<p>Humanity knows one thing must happen inevitably to all. Death. God is the only one who can bring purpose to the human experience both now and for eternity. </p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Hartland Institute of Health and Education

Dennis Priebe

The Last Piece of the Puzzle

Do you know what life is really like for those who eliminate God from their worldview, and then stop to think a little bit about their future?

A British philosopher, I've been a member of Parliament, an author well-known by his own admission, life was great.

In the middle of it all, I was overwhelmed, almost literally so, by a sense of mortality.

The realization hit me like a Demolition crane that I was inevitably going to die death my death The literal destruction of me was totally inevitable and had been from the very instant of my conception Nothing that I could ever do now or at any other time could make any difference to that, nor could it ever have done so at any moment of my life.

In the eye of eternity, a human lifespan is barely a flicker.

Death will be upon us before we know where we are, and once we are dead it will be forever.

What can anything I do mean or matter to me when I have gone down into complete nothingness for the rest of eternity?

What can it matter to anyone else either, when they too are eternally nothing?

If the void is the permanent destination of all of us, all value and significance are merely pretended for the purpose of carrying on our little human game, like children dressing up.

He wrote very eloquently about his struggle with meaninglessness, the realization that no matter what he did, what success he had, whether he became famous, or whether his life was a total failure.

None of it would make the slightest difference to me or to anyone else when all of us were nothing as everyone was going to be including everyone not yet born.

That it could therefore make no difference when I died and would have made no difference if I had never been born, that there was no meaning in any of it, no point in any of it, and that in the end, everything was nothing.

It was called Confessions of a Philosopher.

And he wrote that after all these years of seeking, I am as baffled now by the larger metaphysical questions of my existence as I was when I was a child.

Indeed, more so because my understanding of the depths and difficulties of the questions themselves is now so much greater.

Well, you know, most people try to just ignore this reality by not thinking about it.

But without God, that's the only reality there is.

Unless you can solve the problem of death, you have no answer to the meaning of life, because death is the great neutralizer, the great destroyer.

Clifford Goldstein in the Adventist Review wrote, last year in front of students at a secular college in California, I spoke about the existence of God.

I said, you know, when I was about the age of most of you and not believing in God, when something convicted me every now and then that maybe God did exist, I always pushed the notion out of my mind.

Because something told me that if indeed God did exist and considering how I was living, I was in deep trouble.

Dozens of consciences in sync started grinding against themselves.

It was almost as if the temperature in the room rose from the friction behind all those suddenly uncomfortable faces.

Every now and then, conscience does come alive for a moment, and we are forced to think, if just for a moment, about the meaning of life.

I want atheism to be true, and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers.

It isn't just that I don't believe in God and naturally hope that I'm right in my belief.

I don't want the universe to be like that." What an amazingly honest admission.

You see, God automatically comes with moral implications.

If there truly is a God, a transcendent moral power before whom we will stand and give account of our lives, that's a pretty frightening prospect if we don't want him to be around.

And the real reason that evolution is so popular throughout the world is not because of the scientific evidence backing it up, but because it offers an escape from a nagging conscience.

For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened, professing themselves to be wise.

They became fools." How many in our world today fit that category?

So much profession of wisdom and so much foolishness.

Are you glad today that you don't have to speak the words that I just read to you?

Are you glad that we have a reasonable, a logical, a well-based explanation for the meaning of life?

Why we do not have to fear the empty void in the future with the horrible thought that life is meaningless like children dressing up?

And the only answer we have is in Romans chapter 8.

Romans chapter 8 and verse 1, There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit.

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free, free from the law of sin and death, free from hopelessness.

I am covered by the righteousness of Christ, the only righteousness that can ever cover my inadequacy and my guilt.

So today I want to spend a little time reflecting on the 1 who gives us hope when things sometimes seem very hopeless, who provides a way out from meaninglessness.

We can only marvel at what we know about our creator, the 1 who gave every 1 of us life, the 1 who is higher than the highest heaven and came down to be the lowest of the low and suffer the curse that I should have paid.

The 1 who is equal with God, the 1 who is God, who is the highest and most exalted in all creation became the curse of sin for us so that we wouldn't have to face that curse.

Philippians chapter 2 describes this 1 who was in the form of God, because he was God.

Philippians chapter 2, beginning with verse 6, who being in the form of God thought it not a robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.

And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." And that's what we want to talk about a little bit today.

Very few Christians understand what that is.

Ellen White wrote this in Desire of Ages, page 25.

In Christ, we become more closely united to God than if we had never fallen.

In taking our nature, the Savior has bound Himself to humanity by a tie that is never to be broken.

Through the eternal ages He is linked with us.

God has adopted human nature in the person of His Son and has carried the same into the highest heaven.

He is the Son of man who shares the throne of the universe." Now, not only did Jesus Christ take that humanity, He will keep that humanity for all eternity.

Numerous times while He was here in the flesh, he referred to himself as the Son of Man.

He liked that title, a sign of his becoming 1 of us.

But he had to become 1 of us if he was going to be our brother to save us and understand us and redeem us.

The scripture that we read this morning is 1 of the powerful texts of Scripture.

It says that he had to be fully human in order that he might become a faithful high priest for us so that he can help us who are tempted.

Just a simple verse, but 1 of the most significant on this subject all of Scripture.

1 Timothy 2, and verse 5, For there is 1 God and 1 mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." Why do we not need other saints and mediators?

Why do we not need priests and ministers to get us a step ahead to God, because we have that mediator, the man, Christ Jesus.

Although still divine, He still retains His humanity, and he will keep that humanity for all eternity.

These words of Ellen White become even more significant, writing about the very end of this world's history, the end of sin, she wrote in Great Controversy, page 674.

Our Redeemer will ever bear the marks of His crucifixion.

Upon His wounded head, upon His side, His hands and feet are the only traces of the cruel work that sin has wrought, and the tokens of His humiliation are His highest honor.

Through the eternal ages, the wounds of Calvary will show forth His praise and declare His power." Now let's look back.

Let's look back at the time of His incarnation.

We struggle with the pulls of our lower nature.

Jesus, does He really, really understand?

We're going to look at some texts that might be surprising.

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The Last Piece of the Puzzle

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