Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - Paul Washer- Living In Light Of Eternity

Episode Date: April 2, 2024

Jonny Ardavanis is the Lead Pastor at Stonebridge Bible Church in Franklin, TN and the President of Dial In Ministries. He formerly served as the Dean of Campus Life at The Master’s University and as a Camp Director at Hume Lake Christian Camps. Jonny’s heart is to see people understand and love the Word of God and more so, to love the God of the Word. Jonny is married to Caity Jean and they have two precious daughters.Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis: Big Questions, Biblical Answers, is a series that seeks to provide biblical answers to some of the most prominent and fundamental questions regarding God, the Gospel, and the BibleIn this episode, Jonny Ardavanis sits down with Paul Washer, the founder of the HeartCry Missionary Society, and asks him, "How can we as believers live in light of eternity?"Watch VideosVisit the Website Pre-order Consider the LiliesFollow on InstagramFollow on Twitter

Hey folks, my name is Johnny Artavanis and this is Dial-In. I hope you all had a wonderful time celebrating the resurrection this last Easter weekend. Truly, we have a living hope because we have a living Savior. Not only do we have a risen Savior, though, we have, the Bible teaches, a returning Savior. In that regard, we anticipate the day where King Jesus will come and take us home with him. In that regard, the question I want to ask in this episode is how do we as Christians live in the present knowing that one day we will spend thousands upon thousands of years with our Savior in glory?

To answer that question, in this episode, I sit down with Paul Washer, and I ask him how we as believers can live in light of eternity. Let's dial in. Paul, I've often heard the phrase that we are to live in light of eternity, to live every single moment here on earth with eternity in mind. Jonathan Edwards used to pray, God, stamp eternity on my eyeballs. What does that mean, Paul?

And how can we do that? How can we live in light of eternity? Well, eternity is a great motivation when properly understood, although it's not the greatest. Here's what we need to realize Christianity is talking about extraordinary things We're talking about the meaning of life We're talking about the consequence of death We're talking about the judgment throne of God

We're talking about eternity in a bliss that we cannot describe or a terror that we cannot even comprehend. So Christianity is talking about extraordinary things. Now, we also know from Ecclesiastes and the full, you know, everything that's in the scripture since Genesis 3 is that we're going to die. We know that. And that my life is actually so brief. It's like a vapor. It's like a cloud. It's like grass, the flower, the field.

So it flourishes and the wind passes over it. It is no more. So if I have a view of these other things, judgment, eternal consequences, and then I compare eternity to a temporal existence that is like a blip on the screen. The thinking man is going to say, everything I do here must be in light of this extraordinary thing in eternity. Now the atheist, I believe, is very wrong, but he is at least consistent.

This is the only life we have, and there's no consequences to it at the end except what you might suffer here, and so let us eat, drink, for tomorrow we die. That is at least worthy of respect in the sense that it's consistent. But when the Christian or someone who professes Christianity says, I embrace these extraordinary things about my humanness, that I'm going to live forever, that there's a judgment, that there's an eternity,

and what I do here affects what happens there. What I do during this blip on the screen is going to determine what happens to me throughout endless eternity. A person who says that, but then lives in a manner that's contrary to it, there's no consistency there. There's no, it's an absurdity, it's irrational.

And so what do we need to do? We need to constantly be laying these things before men. And those theologians who have said, eternity stamped on my eyeballs, it wasn't just for them. It was eternity stamped so that other people saw eternity. One of the jobs of the preacher is to constantly set before the people, there are these extraordinary things headed your way. And that your best life now is not that important because if your best life is now, that means your eternity is hell, you see. And so that's one of the sad things is the tendency that is applauded today. And I would say the greater portion of evangelicalism is teach me how to live in this life where the reformers

the puritans the early evangelicals was yes we can learn to live blessed before god in this life but this is not the issue the issue is prepare to meet thy god yeah So that's where we are. So you mentioned to live in light of eternity is a great motivation. Yes. But you said, Paul, that it is not the greatest motivation. Right. What is then the greatest motivator for the follower of Christ? We have to be very careful about the statement live in light of eternity. Yeah.

Because what we're doing is we're talking about our own welfare. Obey God, which of course is believing the gospel. Obey God so that it goes well with you in eternity. Now there's nothing wrong with that. Yet at the same time, that is all about you.

The greater motivation is this, live for Christ. Live for the one who died for you. And in 2 Corinthians 5, we see this. We see what I always call the sun and the moon, the greater light and the lesser light. And in verse 10, we see the lesser light. Paul says, well, in verse nine, he says, "'Therefore we also have as our ambition, "'whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to him.'" Then he gives the reason,

"'For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ "'so that each one may be recompensed "'for his deeds in the body, "'according to what he has done, whether good or bad.'" So that was the motivation for Paul. But it wasn't the greatest motivation for Paul. Wasn't about Paul thinking about his self-preservation or his eternal reward.

His greatest motivation is found later in verse 14, "'For the love of Christ controls us.'" Not Paul's love for Christ, which all our love, and Paul was similar it can be fickle can be dynamic ever-changing he's not talking about Paul's love for Christ motivated him but Christ's love for Paul and so for us our motivation in this life of course course, is eternity and judgment. But our great motivation is for God so loved the world that he gave his only son.

God loves me. Christ loves me. And this is how it has been shown to me through Calvary. And this is the thing that constrains me. And so, you know, on the internet, sometimes it's like I lament the fact that it's only my controversial, you know, really hard rebuking sermons that become popular. I spend the greater part of my time trying to teach Christians the love of God in Christ because when they grasp that, remember what I said about the frail, frightened man in the jungle? Why was he there?

Because Christ loved him. And he was willing to do something that was far out of his comfort zone. So the great motivation for me is not eternity. It's Calvary. Eternity is a motivation, but it's what Christ has already done. I think it's safe to say, even though I wouldn't say that my spirituality

keeps me in this place, my spirituality is not worth talking about, but if there were no eternity and all we had was this life, what Christ did should still be a great motivation. I mean, this is the love of God that he gave his son. He gave his son. That is the thing that controlled Paul, that just bewildered Paul, that set Paul on fire. For God so loved the world, he gave his son. Paul, you know, what you said is that

the anthem of even just my time with you in the last few days has been the love of God. It's a redundant, consistent, intentional theme in your conversations and in your preaching. How would you respond to someone that goes, I theologically agree that God loves me. They look at you, Paul, I look at you and go, well, that love is precious. How can the love of God become,

if it's the motivator, if it's the compelling force, how can it be more real to me and how can it be more precious to me, that love of God? First of all, the well, the first place you want to run and stay is Calvary. I decided, you know, I'm not a great academic. I'm not a great, I wanted to, I asked myself when I was a young man, I don't have the mind that I can know everything. I don't understand a lot about eschatology.

There's so many things. With my limited academics and my limited IQ, if I had to set my sights on knowing one thing, what would it be? And it was the cross of Christ. And I have studied many times, hours and hours a day. I have written

probably three, four thousand pages of notes. Just the cross. Just this one person Jesus and things that probably never be published on a map but that's it the more you come to understand who this person was who died and then how he suffered and died. It's a controlling thing. It is a controlling, immensely controlling thing. And then, but what you need to also understand,

you know, we all have our times where we lament our lack of passion, our lack of drive. Remember always, and if I could say anything we lament our lack of passion, our lack of drive. Remember always, and if I could say anything to the young Christians, there's a person, young lady, that has over the last few years would come and talk to me and say, and all the evidence in the world points to the fact that she's such a genuine believer. But she so struggles at times.

And there's one thing I always am telling her. Remember, there's only one hero in this story. If I look at my love for Christ, it would it would only earn me an eternity separated from him. If I look at the times when I'm flaming in a pulpit, just passion, and then my heart just, there's a drought in the hotel room, or there's only one hero in this story, and it's not a man. It's not a super saint. There are no super saints. There's one hero. And when you realize that, that it's our elder brother who did everything, even when I look in the mirror and I see my failure, it increases my understanding of Christ's love for me, which then motivates me even more. My best deed, my best thought, if it could be called out

and that was the only thing for which I was judged, it would only earn me hell. It is the son. Everything was made for him. Redemption is for him. Everything is for him. And so, yes, I don't want young people to look at me in this interview and go, oh, I wish I had his kind of passion. You don't need my kind of passion. You need to go far beyond me. I'm a pygmy when it comes to spirituality. Don't look at somebody's passion. Look at their Christ. He's the only thing worth looking at. When people get to know me, they're oftentimes very disappointed. Not because of, I don't think, hypocrisy, but just because I'm normal. I'm average.

It's like when there's an accident and the police say, I'm average. It's like, you know, when there's an accident and the police say, you know, just keep going, nothing to see here, nothing to see here. There's nothing to see here. It's Christ. Everything is Christ. And oftentimes for the young people, they all think, you know,

if I can only reach this certain level like this other guy, then God will use me. God always chooses the runt of the litter. If I have been used at all in my years of serving him, it's only because God looks for a Gideon hiding in a wine vat. The least of the least so that he can say. Because he told Gideon when he amassed that army, no, it's too big. Because if you have victory, you'll attribute it to you. People will attribute it to you. We got to call the army.

If he to send out not a little David, but a big Saul to take on Goliath, it would have been Saul. So God always looks for the runt of the litter, and it's the only thing I ever qualified for. And Paul said, you know, I boast in my weakness. And that's what I want people to see. Yes, we need to strive to be godly. We need to strive to be devoted. We need to sometimes lament our lack of worship and all these things. But that's not the issue. Don't be self-absorbed.

What you need to do is just keep looking at Christ, this magnificent, infinitely magnificent person. Look at him. That's all you're required to do. The ends of the earth are not called to look in the mirror. The ends of the earth are called to look to him. And never stop looking. As many old men and Puritans have said, for every inward glance, give 10 long gazes upon Christ.

And even as you're saying the love of God is what is compelling us, it also produces, obviously even in your own life, a gratitude. And there's a thankfulness which is accompanied with a joy, a real joy that serving Him is best

and it's what He deserves. Yes. You know, it's like I shared this morning, my favorite, one of my favorite stories in the whole Bible is Peter in that boat. Not when he walks on the water, it's when Jesus does the miracle and he says, depart from me, I'm a wicked man. And what he's saying is that, Lord, I should not be here. I should not be allowed to see this. I should not be granted this privilege. Your kindness, it's almost wrong.

It just seems wrong. And as we grow in love, I have found myself at times in the night watch or something, you know, after preaching and going back to a hotel room or. And maybe God's done something and or you're just up at night and you see something in scripture you've never seen before about grace and you just when you think about all the kindnesses of god to you that here's a enemy of god paul washer enemy of god even till today uh often self-absorbed often so many wrong things about him and yet this this never changing loving kindness and you almost just want to go lord this is this doesn't even seem right and it only is right because of calvary

because he died for everything that i'm not every trespass every iniquity, every sense of being lackadaisical about God. There's only one hero in this story, and if the young people could only see him and then walk in that. One hero, Jesus. You shall call his name Jesus. He will save his people from their sin. And that's, you know,

you know, in heaven, it's not like you're going to walk around with, you know, he's got a shirt on says great preacher or great missionary or great this. I think if there were jerseys in heaven, it would just be saved. Saved. How did you get here? Him. You know, one day in heaven, I'm not gonna be walking down the street with you, let's say,

and I see a bunch of people and I say, hey, everybody, come here, come here. I wanna tell you about all the things Johnny did for Christ. I'm so excited. I want to tell you about all the things he did for Christ. That's not going to happen. What I want to do is go, hey, hey, I'll tell you everything Christ did for him. I'll tell you about everything Christ did for me.

We're only recipients. And even if you give your life as a martyr, you serve in the mission field, not I, but the grace of God did it. One boast, remember Romans 3, shut every mouth with regard to self-boasting, to open every mouth to boasting only in Christ. That's what it is. He's the hero. Always. And his love is real. Yes, it's real.

It is real. It is real. And that's why sometimes it is important, very important to see the doctrine of sin. But it's also important. I hate when I fail. I don't want to fail him. But I have found that even my failure serves a purpose. In that it is a constant reminder there's only one hero there's only grace and you know on sanctification people always attribute they think of sanctification as growing in holiness and that's what it is i don't want to take away from that for a second.

When I look at my progress in holiness over the last three decades, I would honestly tell you I thought I would be much further. I thought when I was younger I would be more holy. But there is one aspect of holiness, of sanctification, that has grown like a rocket. And that is my recognition of my absolute need of Calvary and grace. I am, I mean, it was just a kernel when I got saved and and now as the years progress and all the times that that I failed all the times that it was you know two steps forward and three steps back all the times it just now I realized look it's all him and I said that when I was saved and I believed it. But the fullness of it, that it's all Christ, one hero.

Enlarge more now than ever for you. And then as you understand your sin, God's love becomes more amazing, his grace more unthinkable, and then service to Him, the only rational response. So Paul, thank you so much, so helpful and challenging for me. I appreciate your earnestness. You're saying nothing to see here. Yeah. And I'm also mindful of Paul saying, follow me as I follow Christ. And as we watch just your earnestness, I want to imitate that.

I want to imitate Christ and I'm watching you strive after that. So thank you for your time.