Show Notes
Westminster Short Catechism #1.
Pastor Christopher Chelpka
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Born under the law.
[00:00:03] God did all of this work through his son to achieve something, to achieve a salvation for us that we might have the purpose that he made us for and that we might live in that. So tonight we'll consider what the Bible has to say about man's chief end, about life's purpose. You'll see a question, an answer, and some scriptures in your bulletin about that. But let's start by asking for God's blessing in prayer. Let's turn to him and seek him as we desire to understand his truth and his word to us.
[00:00:41] Our heavenly Father, we thank you for the salvation that we have in Christ. And we thank you for the great humiliation he endured for the sake of the elect. Lord, we ask that you would fill us with understanding and with the fruit of understanding by your holy spirit. Help us to know Jesus better, to understand him more and all that he achieved for us, so that there might be goodness and truth and righteousness in us, so that our lives might not be marked by vanity and meaninglessness, by repetitive, endless toil.
[00:01:23] But, lord, so that your will might be done in us, that you might be glorified and true good might come about.
[00:01:33] We ask for your understanding of these things. Help us to more clearly understand the truth of your word. And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:01:47] Well, sometimes I find myself in a situation where I end up saying, what am I doing?
[00:01:54] Or, what's going on here?
[00:01:59] Why am I doing this? Maybe you found yourself in a situation. From time to time, I find myself asking this question in a few different ongoing situations. One is when I'm distracted or overwhelmed in my work, and there's this thing, and there's this thing, and there's this thing and all these things moving around. What am I even doing? What am I focusing on? What am I trying to accomplish here? And it's a question that I ask of myself to sort of pause and refocus to make a decision, to make an intentional decision about what's the purpose and what should be prioritized.
[00:02:40] Another situation I find myself asking this question in is I'm in driving. I don't get lost a lot.
[00:02:48] Pretty rare, actually. But every now and then, usually if I'm distracted thinking about something or talking with someone, something like that, you make a wrong turn, and then you make a second wrong turn and you try to recon, what am I even doing? You kind of realize in yourself, I'm not paying attention.
[00:03:08] I am going all kinds of crazy ways. I'm not getting to my destination.
[00:03:16] Maybe ask yourself what situations you find yourself asking. A similar question in. What am I doing? Why am I doing this? Where am I going now? This question applies to work, driving all kinds of things in life.
[00:03:33] It's, of course, the big question, a question that people with very smart minds devote their life to in philosophy and theology.
[00:03:47] But it's a very practical question, too.
[00:03:50] Where am I going? What am I doing? What's the point of this?
[00:03:55] It's a question that we can think about in long and dedicated ways, poring over books and writing ideas. It's a question we can think about not just in libraries or places for thinking, but when washing dishes or mowing the lawn. We don't have lawns around here. What am I talking about?
[00:04:19] Pulling weeds?
[00:04:22] What am I doing? What's the point?
[00:04:28] We ask this question so much of ourselves, and we're right to ask this question, because God has a will in himself, a will that is meaningful, purposeful, and wise. And he makes us as images of himself.
[00:04:47] He puts us in a world that is marked by meaning, order, intentionality.
[00:04:55] There is a world we live in, a world not of randomness and chaos, although there is a certain amount of that that we see and experience.
[00:05:06] But there's also. We also recognize. We live in a world that is full of systems and relationships, a world with categories, things that are this and things that are that, and things that relate to each other in this way and not that way.
[00:05:20] We see it in the very beginning, when God made the world, right, Adam in his naming, right, naming this animal, naming that animal, understanding who these creatures were and what their relationships were to one another, what their relationships were to him. And as you may remember, from the beginning, realizing that he was a little bit alone, that there was something disordered, we might say something or something not quite right.
[00:05:53] And then we have the creation of woman. Adam and Eve are these separate beings and yet related in a particular way. Both made in the image of God, made to join together in sharing and bearing that image.
[00:06:08] Human relationships, relationships among the animals, relationships between man and animal plants, the sun and the moon, marking times and seasons, ordering days. All of these things just in the first couple chapters of Genesis.
[00:06:26] The sea divided from the land, the sky divided from the earth. All of it fitting together into this beautiful system which God creates for order and place. And he, the Lord, is sovereign over it all, majestic, ruling, guiding.
[00:06:53] And so it's natural for us to care about categories and meaning and purpose.
[00:07:00] Why does this go in this place and not in that place? Why should I drive to this house and not to that house. Why should I cook this meal or marry this person or take this job?
[00:07:14] All these questions about who we are and what we do, it's built into us, isn't it? It's as essential to our lives as things like craving food or shelter or community. It's a part of who we we are. It's a part of how God made us to be.
[00:07:34] The problem is that since man. Ever since man departed from God's order in the garden, disobeying his rules, disobeying his order, everything got kind of wacky. We could say discombobulated out of order. All of a sudden, instead of man and woman living at peace together with one another in the garden and walking with the Lord, they're hiding.
[00:08:02] Why are they hiding? What is there to hide about? And not only are they hiding, but they're blame shifting, right? They're pointing the finger at one another.
[00:08:15] They're moving outside of their right relationships with one another and with God.
[00:08:22] There's a frustration that's introduced and ultimately because of the curse that comes as a result of sin, a measure of vanity and confusion and chaos.
[00:08:35] You plant the seeds, you work the ground, and it doesn't come up like it's supposed to.
[00:08:42] You marry and you have children, and everything is supposed to be as it's supposed to be. And yet there's pain and suffering in that. There's problems between human relationships, problems in our relationship with God, problems in our relationships with animals and the world. And everything is just problematic.
[00:09:05] But the purpose did not change.
[00:09:09] It's frustrated and confusing our ability to know our purpose, to remember our purpose.
[00:09:16] These things were what became difficult, to find it and to follow it in sin. We chose to go off course.
[00:09:26] We chose to do what we knew was bad, what we knew was evil, what we knew was not right and disordered, and we did it anyway. And we're still doing it.
[00:09:39] And sometimes we continue to make these sort of sinful decisions in our lives.
[00:09:44] We read a book, like the Book of proverbs, which so clearly makes these connections for us, right? You are lazy. You will be hungry.
[00:09:54] You say, a little folding of the hands, a little sleep, a little slumber, and poverty will come upon you like a bandit, right? And we say, yeah, but I think I'm gonna fold my hands and sleep in slumber. And then we're surprised when poverty comes upon us like a bandit, right? We choose bad friends and bad relationships, and then we get backstabbed and they lie about us, and they hurt us. And we go, why did I do that? It said so clearly not to do that.
[00:10:25] There's all these ways in which we are given a proper order about life, and then we just choose to not obey it. We choose to not listen. We choose to not pay attention.
[00:10:35] The proverbs are constantly pointing us to this. The wise man, the wise son, pays attention to his father and his mother's instruction and finds that life goes better for him, usually.
[00:10:49] But he doesn't always listen.
[00:10:51] The fools and the ignorant do not always listen. And they get themselves in bad spots. We get ourselves in bad spots.
[00:11:01] It's not just foolishness, though, right? There's a certain measure of frustration that is in the world now, even if when we're doing our best and doing very well. Look at job.
[00:11:14] Job was living his life well before the Lord. He was honoring the Lord. He was taking care of his family. And then all of a sudden, everything falls apart.
[00:11:24] How do you make sense of that? What's going on, Lord?
[00:11:29] How do I interpret this? What's the meaning of this? What's the purpose of this?
[00:11:35] Well, in light of all of this confusion and these difficulties, all kinds of alternatives come into our lives. Alternatives in our minds and our hearts and the world pop up in place and say, here's where you can find purpose. Here's where you can find meaning, our original meaning, as we will see, or the original purpose of life. Our chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever, to be at peace with him, to direct all things toward him and to have happiness in it, joy about it.
[00:12:11] But in our sin, this gets replaced.
[00:12:15] All kinds of things. The list is endless. But let's think about a few.
[00:12:20] Some people think that man's chief end is to fulfill their desires. And then whatever that desire may be, you pick a goal, you decide what you want to do, and then that's the thing that you've got to have.
[00:12:34] For some people, it's peace and quiet.
[00:12:37] I just want peace and quiet. If I could only have peace and quiet, everything will be okay, right? And people do various things to have this in their lives. Sometimes they choose to not have children or to live off the grid, or to live by themselves, or to build a place where there's lots of space around. Surely a measure of this can be achieved through means like this, right? You can gain a measure of peace and quiet by doing these kinds of things. But you know what I'm going to say, right? You know, things happen. You go off the grid, you build your property, you fence it all in. And then somebody buys a house next door and, you know, and then the government builds a freeway, right?
[00:13:28] Or there's people that they seek what they want more than anything in life as a good spouse, right? This is the thing that they must have, and they work for it and they strive for it and they push for it. And then their spouse gets sick or they can't find this person, or it turns out their spouse is great, but they're a problem.
[00:13:49] All kinds of things like this happen. Or money, right? Jesus warns about this, storing up treasures on earth, making money our chief end. If I can have money, I can have safety, I can have security. And we store up treasures in our storehouses, and then the house burns down, or a thief comes and steals it in the middle of the night.
[00:14:10] These kind of vain or vanity kind of things happen.
[00:14:18] There are people who work their whole lives, right? They invest, they do all the things they ought to do, and then they find out that the things, the company they invested in, the church, that they invested in, if you remember a few years ago, scams.
[00:14:39] It all sort of just disappears overnight. Tragedy.
[00:14:44] Some people put their hope in self confidence or eloquence or social standing or political power or learning or all kinds of. All kinds of things, and we cling to these things and we say, if I can have this, then I will be happy.
[00:15:05] But it never works out this way.
[00:15:09] These purposes, in some ways they're good. They can be good. They can serve their place, some of the ones that I've mentioned. But they always must be secondary to this chief purpose that God gives. Our chief purpose, our chief end, to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Otherwise, it's, as they say, like putting lipstick on a pig. You're trying to make something into something. It just never can be.
[00:15:38] If you've maybe seen those little toy skateboards. Have you ever seen those, what are they called? Techno.
[00:15:45] What are they called?
[00:15:47] Tectics. Right? These fun little skateboards. They look just like the real thing. They've got a little, you know, that sort of gravelly coating on the top. I'm sorry, I can't remember what it's called. Little wheels. They're fun. You can play around with your fingers. Can you imagine taking something like that? I'm like, I'm going to use this to get to work every day.
[00:16:04] This thing about the size of your finger, and you try and stand on it and use it as your transportation. It's just not going to work. But this is what we do all the time with these kind of purposes in life, that we say, this will be my chief end marriage.
[00:16:19] This will be my chief wealth or the next election or whatever. And we, so we stand on this tiny little thing. We say, okay, well, guess how that's gonna go.
[00:16:30] It's gonna go very, very poorly.
[00:16:34] You all have, of course, experienced this, and you see this in the lives of others. Scriptures testify to this as well. Let me read to you some from the book that perhaps makes this point more than every other. The book of ecclesiastes, the book that describes what life is like under the sun.
[00:16:55] Under the sun. And in a world that has been cursed as a result of our sin.
[00:17:02] Let me read to you a little bit from ecclesiastes, chapter two.
[00:17:06] This is part of what we call the wisdom literature. This is the truths that we find here will resonate very deeply, not only with believers, but many, many people all over the world, because it's true.
[00:17:27] Listen what the preacher says in chapter two.
[00:17:30] I said in my heart, come now, I will test you with pleasure. Enjoy yourself.
[00:17:38] But behold, this also was vanity.
[00:17:41] I said, of laughter, it is mad. And of pleasure. Of what use is it? I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine, my heart still guiding me with wisdom. And how to lay hold on folly till I might see what is good for the children of man to do under heaven. During the few days of their life. I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks. I planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I also had great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me. In Jerusalem, I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man.
[00:18:40] So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also, my wisdom remained with me, and whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil. And this was my reward for all my toil.
[00:18:59] Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it. And behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind.
[00:19:12] And there was nothing to be gained under the sun.
[00:19:16] So here's a man who is essentially saying, I did it.
[00:19:22] I did it to the max. And he's not the only person who has said this in the course of history. There are other writings, even outside of the scriptures, of people who have amassed for themselves great wealth, great power, great amounts of pleasures, great amounts of learning, and they still find themselves lonely, afraid, sad, vulnerable.
[00:19:49] All these kinds of things.
[00:19:53] They simply do not achieve the chief end which we were desired, for they cannot be and will never be God.
[00:20:08] These are the.
[00:20:10] These are the things that are put up before our eyes and in our lives, things our heart itself generates that distract us from our true chief end, which is, as is summarized in our catechism, to glorify God and enjoy him forever.
[00:20:30] Perhaps this answer is so obvious, right? What could be higher than God? What chief purpose could be more important than him who made everything and gave purpose to everything? And yet we've, as we've meditated on, it is so easy for us to get off track and to find ourselves in places and situations where we say, what am I doing?
[00:20:55] Where am I going? What's happening?
[00:20:59] When we consider how often we get off track, it's worth taking a few moments to remember all the obvious, to remember why this is true, that our chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.
[00:21:14] If you look at the three verses that are in your bulletin, we'll find three things to reflect on, just briefly.
[00:21:21] The first.
[00:21:24] The first reason that this is true is because God commands it. In one corinthians 1031, whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. There it is, a command from the Lord. Simple enough, right?
[00:21:42] What we are to do, how we are to live.
[00:21:45] Romans 1136 corresponds with this. For of him and through him and to him are all things, to whom be glory forever and ever.
[00:21:56] The word says of our savior that in him all things hold together. In Colossians, in God, all things were created, they were made, and they are sustained.
[00:22:11] If we look at anything in all of the world, anything, I'm being completely comprehensive here, and you follow that thing to its root, you will find God.
[00:22:23] He is the beginning and the end. He is the alpha and the omega.
[00:22:29] For from him and through him and to him are all things.
[00:22:35] And so if you try to disconnect the root of all things, the sustainer of all things from all the things, you're going to be confused.
[00:22:48] You're going to find vanity. You're going to say, why doesn't this world fit together? Because it will never fit together until those things are connected in your heart and in your mind.
[00:23:01] That's why there is the command. Whatever you do, eat, drink, anything, do it all to the glory of God. That's our chief end, so we have a command to it. We also have reasoning for it, as we read in Romans 1136, also in psalm 73 24 26 thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.
[00:23:30] Whom have I in heaven but thee?
[00:23:34] There is none upon earth that I desire beside thee my flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
[00:23:48] The first part of these verses in this psalm is the expression of one who believes the latter part of the psalm.
[00:23:56] The latter part of the psalm describes this truth, that even when our flesh and our heart are inward and our outward selves are failing, God is the strength of us, of our heart, and our portion forever.
[00:24:14] Because of that truth. The psalmist then says this wonderful rhetorical question, whom have I in heaven but you, O Lord? There is none on earth I desire beside you.
[00:24:29] This is the voice, this is the heart of one who understands his chief purpose, his chief end.
[00:24:37] He knows that there is nothing to look to in heaven or on earth besides God. Why? Because God is the strength of our heart and our portion forever.
[00:24:48] And the fact is that our flesh and our hearts do fail.
[00:24:53] They do.
[00:24:55] Our bodies fall apart, they get sick, they die.
[00:25:00] Our internal selves as well, our hearts, our soul, our mind, our emotions, all of these things are weak, are they not?
[00:25:09] They struggle, they fall, they slip, they fall into sin. There's ignorance, it's a mess in there.
[00:25:16] They fail constantly and in all kinds of ways.
[00:25:21] But God is the strength of our heart when he is the strength of our heart, when he is what provides us life and sustenance and wisdom and everything else that we need.
[00:25:37] We are strong not in ourselves but in him. This is the reasoning for why God is and ought to be our chief end, why we ought to enjoy him forever.
[00:25:52] A third thing we can think about comes from John 1722 and 24. This passage is this chapter is sometimes called the high priestly prayer. The Lord is our Lord Jesus. He is praying to the Father before he goes to the cross.
[00:26:10] Intra trinitarian dialogue want to listen?
[00:26:17] Jesus prays and the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that this is a purpose statement.
[00:26:26] They may be one even as we are one.
[00:26:32] Now that's saying something that we believers would be one even as he and the Father are one.
[00:26:45] He continues, Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am.
[00:26:54] Another purpose statement, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world.
[00:27:05] Jesus did what he did so that we would behold his glory.
[00:27:13] That's why he did it.
[00:27:15] It's one of the ways in which we can talk about our salvation.
[00:27:20] It was so that we might come to know him in such a way that we would behold him, that our faith would be so strong in him, and that one day we would even see him in. In his glory.
[00:27:36] This is the purpose which we sang about earlier, the purpose for which Christ came, the purpose for which he died.
[00:27:44] And this is very helpful to think about, because if we think about man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. And then we think about our hearts and our flesh, which are constantly.
[00:28:00] You might begin to sense a little bit of a disconnect in terms of ability to fulfill this chief end.
[00:28:09] Right? Think about somebody who's dating and they look out at the scene and they see someone and they go, eh, she's a ten, I'm a two. I'm not even going to try.
[00:28:24] That's a discouraging thought, isn't it?
[00:28:28] Let's not take this and apply it to the God of the universe, who created all things and through whom all things are sustained, who is infinitely beautiful and glorious in all ways. Right? And what are we?
[00:28:47] Worms, wretches, people who have been treasonous and sinful against him.
[00:28:56] Not just low, but unworthy, not just doing poorly, but sinful and rightfully deserving of his wrath.
[00:29:10] How could we ever achieve this purpose? To glorify God.
[00:29:16] And on top of that, enjoy him forever when our hearts and our flesh are as messed up as they are, when they're failing as much as they are when we are under the wrath and curse of God for our sin?
[00:29:37] Well, the only way that this purpose can be achieved is if God does it for us.
[00:29:45] There's no way. There's no ladder that we can climb. There's no self improvement program that we can get on to get ourselves worthy enough where we can say, yes, here. I deserve to be on Mount Zion. I deserve to be and to dwell with the Lord forever and ever in all of his glory.
[00:30:05] I can glorify God and enjoy him forever. We cannot in and of ourselves. But what if God. What if God worked in us such a way, in such a way that he changed us and makes us capable of this?
[00:30:25] Well, that's what he does. That's what he did.
[00:30:29] That's why Jesus prays this prayer in John 17. That's why Jesus goes to the cross, and he achieves this glory through his obedience. He does this so that we would be saved, saved from our sin and saved unto our chief end, our purpose in life, the very thing for which we we were designed for but lost.
[00:30:56] The scriptures say that while we were still sinners, Christ died for the ungodly and that his death was effective.
[00:31:06] And of course it was. God is not going to fail to glorify himself. God is not going to fail to reach his own end, which is himself, because he is who he is. He is the great I am.
[00:31:22] There is no pulling him apart. There is no dividing him in any way, because God is, and because God is who he is. When he comes into the world and takes on flesh and dies on the cross and begins to work in us. Salvation, a salvation that begins with our justification, in which our sins are imputed to Christ and his righteousness is imputed to us. A salvation that begins with our adoption, being adopted into his family as children of God and rightful heirs to this promise and this purpose.
[00:32:03] A salvation that continues with our sanctification, his working in us, changing us, growing us, and ends in what glorification ends in glory, the glorifying of man, so that we would do what, glorify God and enjoy him forever. Our hearts are restless, Augustine says, until we find ourselves in him and we find ourselves in him when he comes to us and redeems us.
[00:32:47] I want to read one more scripture as we close from psalm 16.
[00:32:52] It's a passage that for a while now I've been just keep thinking about and thinking about and sort of camping out on.
[00:33:02] It begins with a prayer, a request. Preserve me, o God, for in you I take refuge. We'll sing this song in a moment.
[00:33:13] I say to the Lord, you are my lord and I have no good apart from you. Right? That's someone who understands their chief end.
[00:33:23] As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight. The sorrows of those who run after another. God shall multiply.
[00:33:35] Vanity of vanity is meaningless. Sorrows curse. He continues. Their drink, offerings of blood. I will not pour out or take their names on my lips.
[00:33:46] David knows who his chief end is.
[00:33:50] He says then in verse five, the Lord is my chosen portion and my cup you hold my lot. You hear that? He understands that the random things, random things that happen in this life, like throwing a dice, casting a lot, are in the hands of the Lord.
[00:34:08] The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places indeed. I have a beautiful inheritance. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel in the night. Also my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad. He's enjoying the Lord.
[00:34:32] His heart is glad because of who the Lord is, and my whole being rejoices. He says my flesh also dwells secure.
[00:34:41] Right, his flesh and his heart.
[00:34:44] Why? Verse ten. For you will not abandon my soul to sheol or let your holy one see corruption. You make known to me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
[00:35:03] Our problem isn't. We could say it this way. Understand what I'm saying, that our problem isn't that we seek pleasure.
[00:35:11] Pleasure is a great thing. God made us to enjoy things, to enjoy life, but not apart from him, but in him our pleasures forever.
[00:35:23] They don't run out, the well doesn't run dry. That living water just flows and flows and flows. To use an image from the beginning of the psalms, we are like a tree planted by streams of water. The leaf does not wither. It bears fruit in its season. It's just a happy, happy tree.
[00:35:43] And that's what we are when we are fed by the streams of the spirit, by the living water that flows through the throne of God, the throne on which our savior sits.
[00:35:56] So what should our response be to all of this?
[00:36:01] Well, one is to let the message of the gospel fill you with gratitude. When you hear what the Lord has done for you, when you hear the message of salvation, be grateful.
[00:36:12] Rejoice in that thanksgiving.
[00:36:15] I'd also encourage you to enjoy the Lord. Enjoy the fruits that he is bringing forth in your life. Enjoy the order and goodness that he places around you and in the difficulties and in the trials and in the struggles. Know that life under the sun may seem full of vanities, but in Christ, ultimately, it's not.
[00:36:39] In Christ, all things are made meaningful and are given purpose.
[00:36:45] And God is directing all things for our good, as Paul tells us in Romans chapter eight.
[00:36:54] Let's close in prayer.
[00:36:57] Our heavenly Father, we thank you for redeeming us and rescuing us out of all of our sin and misery, out of the feeling of purposelessness, out of the feeling of meaninglessness and the experience of frustration and vanity in all these aspects of our lives.
[00:37:15] We ask, Lord, that you would help us to grow in our knowledge of you and our faith in Jesus, that we might achieve this end, an achievement which is not a ticking of a box. But achievement that is a life lived eternally in the light of your glory, in the enjoyment of your presence.
[00:37:40] Lord, help us to long for heaven. Help us to remember that this world is not our home, that we're just passing through.
[00:37:49] And there is coming a day when every tear will be wiped from our eyes and all will be made clear.
[00:37:57] All justice will be satisfied, all righteousness will be proclaimed. All safety will be secured. All provision will be provided for wisdom will come, community will come.
[00:38:12] All of these good things and all of them flowing from you.
[00:38:17] Help us, Lord. Whether we're driving this week or washing the dishes or praying for our friends, reading the Bible, doing our schoolwork, whether we eat or drink or whatever we do help us to do it all for the glory of your name and to enjoy you in it now and forever because of Jesus in whose name we pray. Amen.
