NOTHING LASTS?

Isaiah 40:1-8; Acts 12:19-25

Dr. Wm. J. Maxwell

First Presbyterian Church, Newport, RI

September 17, 2006

“Nothing lasts forever” – at least that’s what we’re told. Some things do last longer than others, but it seems to be true - nothing lasts forever.

Just recently, for example, I took our two cars in for their inspection. One of them is ten years old with 70,000 miles on it. Fearing that I had costly maintenance ahead of us, I asked for advice from the service department technicians. The advice I got was surprising: one supervisor had 120,000 miles on his car of the same make, and another had closer to 200,000 miles on his! Needless to say, I was very pleased. Like most of us, I don’t like making car payments. But I know that eventually, their cars will stop running and so will mine. After all, nothing lasts forever!

Our text before us this morning has the very same message … but to a point. While so much before us and about us do not last forever, there is yet that which does.

I

THE MORTALITY OF HEROD

CERTAINLY REMINDS US THAT NONE OF US

LIVE ON THIS EARTH FOREVER.

Luke tells us of the end of a dispute between Herod Agrippa and the citizens of Tyre and Sidon in Phoenicia (Lebanon, today). From Luke and the Jewish historian Josephus, [i] we learn that Herod was soon after celebrating a festival held in honor of Emperor Claudius.

Early on the second day of this celebration, Herod entered the large arena, wearing a garment woven from silver thread. As the morning light shone upon him, his whole countenance was brilliantly illuminated. What happened then is reported by Josephus:

Presently his flatterers cried out, one from one place, and another from another (though not for his good), that he was a god; and they added, ‘Be thou merciful to us; for although we have hitherto reverenced thee only as a man, yet shall we henceforth own thee as superior to mortal nature.’ [ii]

Herod loved it, of course, but he was so very foolish to be so vain-glorious. You see, Herod was Jewish, and he was quite aware of the Scripture that forbids any worship but that of the LORD, and that the LORD will not share His glory with anyone. But he just didn’t care. He didn’t stop them … he enjoyed it. He loved and relished all the worship and all the praise.

For such behavior, and for the execution of James the apostle and the arrest and attempted murder of the apostle Peter, divine judgment fell swiftly. Josephus tells us that in only five days’ time, Herod died at the age of 54, in the seventh year of his reign.

Not unlike the 1^st century, human beings in the 21^st century can also be vain-glorious. Magazines like People Magazine and television shows like Entertainment Tonight only promote and perpetuate this kind of an attitude.

But the truth of the matter is that we are all but finite, mortal creatures. We are but “grass that withers” and “flowers that fall.” When pride and vain-glory get the best of us, the best antidote is to remember that we are the creature and not the Creator.

With this in mind, I remember a telling-incident in the last community where I served as a pastor. It was a small town at that time of about 6,000 people with its own high school. In that town, I was always amazed at the speed at which some of the high school students drove into the parking lot. By the way they were driving, they clearly thought they would live forever!

But in the span of two or three years, two students in the high school suddenly died. On both of those occasions, the pastors in the town were invited to counsel any student who was grieving and who wanted to talk.

It surprised me, quite frankly, that there was more grief than I at first expected. I discovered grief over the loss of a friend on the part of many of the students. But all of them were grieving over something more: they were grieving over a loss of their perceived immortality. They suddenly realized that death happens to us all, sooner or later.

Dear friends, it is only a fool who believes that he or she is a god. But when we come face to face with our own mortality, we can begin to look for the real meaning of life, the essence, the substance of life. We can begin to look for something or Someone beyond ourselves. Indeed, we can begin searching for what the Bible calls “abundant life,” and for the life that is beyond this life, the one that is called “eternal.”

II

ONE THING THAT DOES LAST FOREVER, HOWEVER,

IS THE WORD OF GOD.

Again turning to the prophecy of Isaiah, we read, “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.” The words of Herod, a now-dead king, were quickly forgotten. Nevertheless, Luke tells us that “the word of God continued to increase and spread.” Especially now that the season of persecution was over, the truth of the Gospel and of God’s Word prevailed and continued to make quite an impact.

Through many generations and in the context of many different cultures, the Word of God has proven its own durability. John Quincy Adams, for example, the 6^th President of the US, certainly thought so.

In 1841, following his successful defense of the Mendi people before the US Supreme Court in the Amistad Incident, Adams received from his grateful clients the gift of a Bible, as many of them had become Christians and had found great blessing from the truths of God’s Word. Adams was deeply grateful, not only because it came from the Mendi people, but because of the gift itself. You see, John Quincy Adams was a Christian, and he loved the Word of God.

In 1811, thirty years previous to this time, Adams wrote to one of his sons from St. Petersburg, Russia, where he was serving as an ambassador on behalf of our young nation. In part, he had this to say in his letter:

In your letter of the 18^th of January to your mother, you mentioned that you read to your aunt a chapter in the Bible or a section of Dodridge’s Annotations very evening. This information gave me real pleasure; for so great is my veneration for the Bible, and so strong my belief, that when duly read and meditated on, it is of all books in the world, that which contributes most to make men good, wise, and happy. I advise you, in whatever you read, and most of all in reading the Bible, to remember that it is for the purpose of making you wiser and more virtuous. I have myself, for many years, made it a practice to read through the Bible once every year.

… you must soon come to the age when you must govern yourself. You have already come to that age in many respects; you know the difference between right and wrong, and you know some of your duties, and the obligations you are under, to become acquainted with them all. It is in the Bible, you must learn them, and from the Bible how to practice them. Those duties are to God, to your fellow-creatures, and to yourself. [iii]

When we hear such testimony as this, of one generation commending the Bible to another, we are reminded and can readily affirm once again that though generations rise and pass away, God’s Word endures forever!

III

EVEN MORE PERMANENT

THAN THE WORD OF GOD, HOWEVER,

IS THE GOD OF THE WORD,

WHOSE GLORY HAS NO PARALLEL.

Whereas an earthly king wanted all the glory for himself, he soon discovered there is only One King of glory! David, yet another king in Israel, asked the question, “Who is the King of glory?” His answer was soon forthcoming, as found in Psalm 24:

Who is this King of glory?

The LORD strong and mighty,

the LORD mighty in battle.

Lift up your heads, O you gates;

lift them up, you ancient doors,

that the King of glory may come in.

Who is He, this King of glory?

The LORD Almighty – He is the King of glory.[iv]

There is only one King of glory, you see, and that King is the LORD of hosts, the Almighty. He shares His glory and honor with no one, because there is absolutely no one like Him! Elsewhere, in Psalm 29, David again sounds forth a call for worship:

Ascribe to the LORD, O mighty ones,

ascribe to the LORD glory & strength.

Ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name;

worship the LORD in the splendor of His holiness.[v]

Sometimes, as much as talk about the glory of God, we struggle with a definition of it, don’t way. It is easier to say it than it is to define it. But John Piper makes an attempt at this for us:

Glory is not easy to define. It is like beauty. How would you define beauty? Some things we have to point at rather than define. But let me try. God’s glory is the beauty of his manifold perfections. It can refer to the bright and awesome radiance that sometimes breaks forth in visible manifestations. Or it can refer to the infinite moral excellence of his character. In either case it signifies a reality of infinite greatness and worth.[vi]

Piper’s words are helpful, I think, in leading us in the right direction. When we understand God’s glory as His “manifold perfections,” we can understand why the praise of God’s glory is appropriate, even desirous, and even enjoyable.

On the way of his own spiritual journey, C.S. Lewis personally wrestled with the idea that God wants our praise and our worship. Reflecting on the Psalms, he was given new insights into the reason and essence for the praise of God. Thankfully, he chose to share these reflections with us:

The world rings with praise – lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising their countryside, players praising their favorite game – praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians or scholars.

I have noticed how the humblest, and at the same time most balanced and capacious, minds praised most, while the cranks, misfits and malcontents praised least …

I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: “Isn’t she lovely? Wasn’t it glorious? Don’t you think that magnificent?” The Psalmists in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about…

I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that loves keep telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed.[vii]

Do you hear what Lewis is saying here? We celebrate what we love and we then praise what we admire in life. In doing so, our joy becomes full and complete. For example, I love my wife and my family, and there is so much that I admire in all of them. But my joy is never full or complete until I am able to also express to them my love and admiration for them.

We worship and honor God because He is of infinite worth and supreme value. We celebrate our love for Him and we praise Him in absolute admiration, and in doing so, our joy truly becomes full and complete.

Yes, so much of life is temporal and transitory, and the length of our own years on this earth comparatively few. As a result, we may wonder if nothing lasts. But we are assuredly reminded here that some things do, such as the Word of God – truth itself, and the God of the Word, whose glory is without parallel!